Update: On Thursday morning, Hu Jia was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
Hu Jia goes back on ‘trial’ in a few hours where it is expected he will be handed down a sentence of up to five years in prison based on two interviews given and six unspecified blog posts most of which written during the more than one year he spent under house arrest.
Charging Hu with state subversion is proving as difficult for the legal process as it is for Chinese premier Wen Jiabao; when asked directly last month, during one of the most public appearances Wen gives each year, about Hu Jia's situation, the response Wen gave sounded to many like a denial that any ‘dissidents’ had even been arrested.
Playing Captain Kangaroo may work in Zhongnanhai, but the reality that Hu and Zeng and their supporters have chosen to live in goes more like a Kanye West song. When Hu was first kidnapped around this time two years ago, Zeng Jinyan started a blog on which she documented the bureaucratic games she saw being played as she ran around Beijing trying unsuccessfully to find out what had happened to her husband, who was dropped off miles from home and with no notice over a month later.
When Zeng herself soon became subject to constant surveillance, she slammed on the brakes and started getting in their face.
Placing Hu under ongoing house arrest in 2006 effectively put an end to the environmental protection and AIDS awareness work for which he had already become quite well-known, and so trapped at home with little more than an internet connection, he not only created a whole new approach to activism, which some are calling Tiananmen 2.0, he switched gears to become a social worker of sorts, enabled by technology to keep constant track of a whole range of cases, and where possible, enabling others [zh] to do the same.
In 2007, Zeng Jinyan was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.
This will no doubt go down as a landmark moment in Chinese history, but to this day anyone looking to China's largest search engine for more information needs to be prepared for disappointment. In the China of today, though, someone like Hu Jia just doesn't quietly disappear, and when state agents abducted him again last December, near-blind family friend Zheng Mingfang went straight to the streets and did what she could, walking up to strangers and explaining Hu's situation, collecting signatures for a petition calling for his release. Early last month, however, Zheng too was arrested.
On Facebook, there are Hu Jia support groups. There's a cause.
Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan spent months filming their would-be captors for a documentary, Prisoners in Freedom City. After Hu was abducted a second time in December last year and not quickly released, someone got hold of a copy and put it online, and not just in one place, but several.
Following Hu Jia's arrest late last December, when it came to appear that his and Zeng Jinyan's newborn baby's health was at risk, enough momentum grew out of scattered online chatter that a group of netizens tried to force their way up to Zeng's door to deliver milk powder. When that proved unsuccessful, someone thought it through, and got it right. And still others went on to try.
Hu Jia kept it simple; in preparing posts for his blog, he did interviews over Skype, then sometimes sent them out over e-mail as .mp3 attachments. Clearly there were things he could have done better, but shortly after his arrest we saw the formation of a Netizen Party, with clearly stated intention to stick to using the highly encrypted services offered by Gmail and Skype.
One of the first things the authorities did in December last year when Hu was taken away and Zeng placed under house arrest, where she remains today, was to cut off her internet connection and confiscate her phones. Despite this, Zeng's blog kept on getting updated. And supporters kept translating it.
The second she got her cellphone back, Zeng started sending out photos. When Hu had his first day in court, we saw drive-by vlogging. Zeng's even managed to release a podcast.
Wen Jiabao almost seems justified in denying that any activists or netizens have or are being detained, given all the networks of bloggers out there so equally resolved not to accept it. If the bogus charges against Hu do somehow end up being dropped today, we only have more of ingenuity in blogging to look forward to. If they don't, and Zeng and her daughter remain captive to their squadron of nosepickers, didn't China finally launch 3G networks this week? It won't be long before we'll see a House Arrested Beijing channel on Qik.com.
Speaking of which, a post this week on Zeng Jinyan's blog says that Hu's trial at 9:30 a.m. on April 3 in courtroom 23 at Beijing #1 People's Intermediate Court will be open proceedings, and Zeng intends to be there.
Here's a poem from Hu-Zeng friend Teng Biao, written in prison after he himself was kidnapped for two days early last month and translated now by Under the Jacaranda Tree blogger C.A. Yeung, ‘To my wife, from jail‘:
Presently as I confront prison walls,
Now I write this poem for you, my Love, my Lady, my Wife.
Even tonight, the stars glitter in the cold sky of apparent isolation.
Glowworms yet appear and disappear among the shrubs.Please explain to our child why I did not have a chance
to bid her farewell. I was compelled to embark on a long journey away from home.
And so, everyday before our daughter goes to bed,
And when she awakes in the morning,
I will entrust to you, my Lady, my Love, my Wife:
I entrust to you, my warm kisses on our daughter’s cheeks.Please let our child touch the herbs beneath the stockade.
In the morning on a beautiful sunlit day,
If she notices the dew on the leaves,
She will experience my deep love for her.Please play the Fisherman’s Song every time you water the cloves.
I should be able to hear the song, my love.
Please take good care of our silent but happy goldfish.
Hidden in their silence are memories of my glamourous and turbulent youth.I tread a rugged road,
But let me reassure you: I have never stopped singing, my Love.
The leaves of the roadside willow tree have gradually changed colour.
Some noises of melting snow approach from afar.Noises are engulfed in silence. This is just a very simple night.
When you think of me, please do not sigh, my Love.
The torrents of my agonies have merged with the torrents of my happiness.
Both rivers now run through my mortal corpse.Before the drizzle halts,
I would have returned to your side, my Lady.
I cannot dry your tears while I am drenched in rain;
I can do so only with a redeemed soul after these times of testing.
89 comments
S4T: Let the people of China follow in the foot steps of Gandhi. He gave the people a new term for his movement called, Satyagraha, to describe his non-violent movement. The greatest power on the planet during his day was GB. His movement defeated this great power and set the stage for modern day India. I particularly like this quote from him in 1948:
“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.”
This is the ALTERNATIVE.
Frank wrote :”What right does the PRC have in telling you where to work, or what career you will have? It is the human spirit that needs to be free. If you find me at fault for wanting the Chinese people to be free, then I plead guilty. I suppose then, you would put me in jail too.”
I see that you are still brainwashed with the cold war propaganda bs. Ask your Shanghai student when he/she goes back will he/she be able to choose where she lives or where to work or what to be. To be honest I find your views unintentionally funny. You speak as if people in every nation would choose political freedom over stability. If every human spirit needs to be free then how is that in countries like Singapore where the citizens have plenty of wealth to leave, most are rather content at being ruled by an authoritarian government? I would like to see you types actually go to China or other 3rd world nations and preach the stuff you say now. I am pretty much sure most of the citizens will laugh you off once they hear that you can’t offer anything material to them.
I like these thought provoking discussions. Him and MLK are very good examples of the non-violent grassroot activism that brought about far reaching social changes that are still on-going and relevant today. Although their personal fate are not very comforting if people like Hu Jia would like to follow their footsteps.
I’d just like to mention that anyone interested in following Hu Jia’s situation is encouraged to follow this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/freehujia
If you do, please consider sending a message (@freehujia) for people to see, and to let your friends know. Hu Jia has a week left in which to make an appeal, so let’s make every minute of it count.
To Frank Calamia,
“Hmmmmm I suppose censoring the internet, the press, and your free speech is a figment of my imagination.” …”And, finally, do you really think people in the world will believe that in America we do not have free speech?”
I don’t doubt USA has free speech but freedom of speech in most countries is only a matter of degree (as in China). In USA, the government also censors speech through expensive legal suits and many victims are bankrupted as a result. Threats of libel suits are now routinely used to muzzle the press and media. In additon,the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controls the broadcasting media and can revoke their licenses if they are found to breach its broadcasting restrictions. So don’t hoodwink us to believe that USA does not have restrictions on speech.
My dear Chinese friend: Your true colors come true with your words:
“You speak as if people in every nation would choose political freedom over stability.” There you have it, you opt for stability over freedom. How pathetic it is that you would sacrifice freedom for authoritarian forms of government just so you can pursue your own selfish ambitions. And, just to set the record straight, the cold war ended a decade ago. I am well read and I have traveled the world. I can compare and contrast different cultures and governments. You sir, are the one who lacks depth. Again, if your government is so good, tell me one thing that it has done for the betterment of mankind. What have the Chinese people invented to positively impact mankind? The people of China’s spirit is locked in a box. I hope someone finds the key so China’s potential will be fully achieved.
One more point:
Regular Army soldiers in America do not murder their countryman. We do not have to call out the Army to squash people demonstrations. We do not send in the Army to arrest and murder people just because they opted to worship God. And, we do not send the Regular Army to garrison any town, province, or city in America. But, for you, stability is far more convenient than political freedom, or the power of the people to elect their own government.
john kennedy,
I remember I’ve posted two posts here, one to frank and one to you a few hours ago and only one appeared. I am not sure if I am being modded on this particular topic or if this thread’s comments section is closed, but if you are going to leave your comment bashing me for not providing any evidence of hu receiving foreign funds, then at least have the basic integrity leave my last post about hu with the link from amnestyusa as well. It was you who was asking for it after all and I don’t think you are the type who would practice in censorship yourself. Either way I won’t be posting on this thread anymore.
You’re right, ur chinese friend, no censorship here. Your two comments and one from Frank (#33) went into the spam pile. Sorry about that.
@Frank Calamia
“Regular Army soldiers in America do not murder their countryman. We do not have to call out the Army to squash people demonstrations.”
Not quite true. Remember Kent State?