Another Chinese dissident silently jailed
It never seems to end in China. Just a few days ago the government arrested another blogger who stood for human rights.
As Jake Hooker reported in the NYTimes:
A human rights activist who was an advocate for parents whose children were killed in collapsed schools, Huang Qi, was formally arrested on charges of illegally possessing state secrets, his lawyer said. Mr. Huang previously spent five years in prison for posting articles on politically delicate subjects on his Web site, 64tianwang.com. After the May 12 earthquake hit, Mr. Huang met with mourning parents and, on his site, posted articles about structural problems with the schools that had collapsed. Police officers detained him in Chengdu on June 10.
Our government, and most of the commercial world, consistently ignores the human rights atrocities of the Chinese. In their promotions, discussed in “Western Olympic Ads cheer for China,” in today’s NYTimes, Coca Cola, Adidas, Volkswagen, Gatorade and Budweiser are all promoting Chinese athletes in an attempt to sell their products. All concerns for human rights have been pushed out of sight by the potential for profits.
Huang Qi is likely to follow the dismal path of Hu Jai, another Chinese dissident, essayist, and blogger who was recently sentenced to three and a half years in a Chinese prison for exercising his right of free speech.
One of his major concerns was for the right of freedom of religion and human rights. Hu Jai’s story was not given major coverage either in the United States nor in the major newspapers in Germany (FAZ.com), France, (Le Monde), or Italy. Only in England with the Guardian, the Times online, and the International Herald Tribune was it really emphasized.
Are these arrests and imprisonments an important story for Americans? Isn’t freedom of speech the only real way for a society to develop individual freedoms?
“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Address to Congress, January 6, 1941.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly of the United Nations, resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948. Provides, inter alia, that:
PREAMBLE
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, …”Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
America has been a bastion of freedom of religion and speech and expression for quite a long time. Prior to his recent sentencing, Hu Jai had been in a Chinese prison since December, 2007. The same thing happened right here in New York.
In 1734, John Peter Zenger, a New York Publisher was sued by the Governor of the Colony of New York, William Cosby
“… for printing and publishing several seditious libels dispersed throughout his journals or newspapers, entitled The New York Weekly Journal; as having in them many things tending to raise factions and tumults among the people of this Province, inflaming their minds with contempt of His Majesty’s government, and greatly disturbing the peace thereof” (Bench Warrant for Arrest of John Peter Zenger, November 2, 1734).”
Zenger had published materials critical of the Governor for replacing the Chief Justice of New York, Lewis Morris, because he decided a case against the Governor (Sounds like Musharaff of Pakistan doesn’t it). There was no defense to the charges because truth was not a defense to Libel under English Law at the time. Zenger was defended by Andrew Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer who concluded his summation with words that could well apply to the current Chinese Government:
Men who injure and oppress the People under their Administration provoke them to cry out and complain; and then make that very Complaint the Foundation for new Oppressions and Prosecutions. I wish I could say there were no Instances of this Kind. But to conclude; the Question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the Jury, is not of small nor private Concern, it is not the Cause of a poor Printer, nor of New-York alone, which you are now trying: No! It may in it’s Consequence, affect every Freeman that lives under a British Government on the Main of America. It is the best Cause. It is the Cause of Liberty; and I make no Doubt but your upright Conduct, this Day, will not only entitle you to the Love and Esteem of your Fellow-Citizens, but every Man, who prefers Freedom to a Life of Slavery, will bless and honour You, as Men who have baffled the Attempt of Tyranny; and by an impartial and uncorrupt Verdict, have laid a noble Foundation for securing to ourselves, our Posterity, and our Neighbours, That, to which Nature and the Laws of our Country have given us a Right,—the Liberty—both of exposing and opposing arbitrary Power (in these Parts of the World, at least) by speaking and writing Truth.
The jury that day, August 4, 1735 found the defendant John Peter Zenger Not Guilty and set out the precedent of Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech in America. In China today the courts do otherwise and chill the rights of all Chinese people. (Note that Zenger had spent 9 months in jail waiting for his trial.)
It is our duty as Americans to protest these decisions with all the vigor we possess. I know that almost everything in our stores comes from China, and they have been supporting the deficit spending of this administration but we must speak out for freedom.
In every country where there are elections but no freedom and liberty it is because there is no right of the citizens to dissent from the unjust acts of their government. This is true in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iran, and countless other countries. Where the people are free to dissent there is true liberty. That liberty must be preserved if the World is to be free. Every time a government quashes the right of freedom of expression it chills the rights of everyone in that country and by extension everyone in the World. We must not just be “Dismayed” by these verdicts. We must speak out for the rights of others, whether they be Chinese dissidents, Russian Dissidents, or American dissidents. Everyone must have the right to speak freely, even (especially) where it goes against our political or economic interests.
Every day that Huang Qi or Hu Jai spends in jail is a day that we all spend without our freedoms.
