Human Rights
It could have been me
Published 07 August 2008
The Olympic Games are upon us, but one Beijing activist has found there's nowhere to run if you dare question the human rights record of the Chinese government
Campaigners who highlight China's appalling human rights record are sometimes accused of trying to force "western values" on to an unwilling Chinese public. Such criticism implies that only those born in a particular hemisphere should be entitled to liberty or free speech, and also ignores China's many brave human rights activists.
The stereotype of the Chinese people as a mute and obedient mass is way off the mark. While the media are tightly controlled, the internet and mobile phones have allowed people to debate and mobilise: there were 87,000 known protests in China in 2005 alone. The regime's response, even more so in the lead-up to the Olympic Games, has been to persecute those individuals, lawyers and journalists who fight for human rights. That was the reason why I held up a placard demanding "Free Tibet. Free Hu Jia" when I ambushed the Olympic torch in London in April.
Blood, sweat and tears
Hu Jia, a Beijing resident, was tried in March this year on charges of "inciting subversion" and in April was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment and one year's deprivation of his political rights. His lawyers were given just three working days to prepare his defence; Hu's wife and father, and many fellow activists, were prevented from attending the trial. Hu's crime was to be an activist exposing injustice.
He first became known as an HIV/Aids campaigner, founding the organisation Loving Source and repeatedly criticising the Chinese government for its shameful failure to deliver an effective Aids prevention and care programme. He also helped expose the official cover-up over use of HIV-contaminated blood.
Hu Jia campaigned on many other issues: the plight of the rural poor; religious freedom; the persecution of other activists; police abuses in Beijing. He also championed the case of the blind imprisoned lawyer Chen Guancheng. His status as one of his country's best-known human rights campaigners led many people to believe that he might enjoy a degree of protection from persecution by the authorities. Sadly, they were wrong.
In November 2007, Hu Jia participated via webcam in an EU parliamentary hearing in Brussels, stating that China had failed to fulfil its promises to improve human rights in the run-up to the Olympics. Soon after his webcam speech, the police swooped, breaking into his home and arresting him. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, and their infant daughter have been under house arrest ever since; chillingly, the police have warned her to think long and hard about the impact on her baby if she were to be jailed for speaking to foreign media.
Last month, Hu Jia spent his 35th birthday in prison. His family is deeply worried because he is suffering from a serious liver disease and may not be receiving proper medical treatment. Relatives who have managed to visit him say that the guards have appointed four other prisoners to "monitor" Hu, and that he is being forced to sing "reform songs".
This column is called "It could have been me", but my work as an activist has never required the sacrifices that Hu Jia has made. Yes, I've been beaten up and arrested many times, and in 1973 I was interrogated by the Stasi after staging the first gay rights protest in a communist country. But my liberty has never been in peril and my family never seriously affected, let alone threatened, by what I do.
Heroes give hope
Sometimes as an activist, you wonder whether you are making a difference. Hu Jia need have no such doubts: his imprisonment by the Chinese regime shows that the authorities see him as a threat to be silenced. Jailing such a high-profile figure sends a deliberately intimidating message to other activists - you could be next.
China made promises about improving its human rights record when it was bidding to host the Olympics. Instead, it has intensified the repression of dissidents. Heroes like Hu Jia are the best hope for human rights in China, but, for the duration of the Olympics - and for a further three years - he will be behind bars.
In association with Amnesty International
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