13. Januar 2015 – Update 1 zu RAN 17/14

Xu Xiao. Quelle: PEN International

Der internationale PEN begrüßt die Freilassungen der in Peking ansässigen und bekannten Schriftstellerin, Redakteurin und Herausgeberin Xu Xiao und des Herausgebers Liu Jianshu. Dennoch ist der PEN weiterhin zutiefst besorgt um das Wohlergehen der vier Schriftsteller, Journalisten, Herausgeber und Bürgerrechtler – Xue Ye, He Zhengjun, Kuo Yanding und Zhang Miao – die aufgrund ihrer öffentlichen Unterstützung der prodemokratischen Proteste, die im September 2014 in Hongkong begannen, inhaftiert bleiben (cm/sf).

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Senden Sie Protestbriefe an die chinesische Botschaft:

• Begrüßen Sie die Freilassung von Xu Xiao und Liu Jianshu;
• Drücken Sie Ihre ernsthafte Sorge um das Wohlergehen von Xue Ye, He Zhengjun, Kuo Yanding und Zhang Miao aus;
• Rufen Sie zu ihrer bedingungslosen und sofortigen Freilassung auf, wenn sie – wie befürchtet – einzig für ihre legitimen, beruflichen AKtivitäten und die friedliche Ausübung ihres Rechts auf Meinungsfreiheit festgehalten werden;
• Drücken Sie außerdem Ihre Sorge bezüglich der erneuten Razzien bei Regierungskritikern in den letzten Monaten aus und erinnern Sie die chinesischen Behörden daran, dass Artikel 35 der Verfassung der Volksrepublik China die Redefreiheit gewährleistet und dass sie als Unterzeichner des UN-Zivilpakts, der die freie Meinungsäußerung sowie das Recht, nicht willkürlich inhaftiert zu werden, und das Recht auf einen fairen Prozess unterstützt, dazu verpflichtet, Aktionen, die die Ziele und Zwecke des Vertrags untergraben, zu unterlassen.

Schreiben Sie an:

S.E. den Botschafter der Volksrepublik China
Herrn Shi Mingde
Botschaft der Volksrepublik China
Märkisches Ufer 54
10179  Berlin

Hintergrund (bereitgestellt vom internationalen PEN)

The first four cases named in bold below were arrested on 26 November 2014. Xu Xiao and Liu Jianshu were released in late December 2014.

Xu Xiao is a prominent Beijing-based writer, editor, and publisher. In October, Xu Xiao, chief editor of “New Century” publications, was reported to have been included in a list of writers whose works were banned by China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).  She is also a volunteer lecturer with Liren College, a non-governmental educational institution which runs private schools and libraries and was developed from Liren China Rural Library, shut down by the authorities in 2012. The executive director of Liren College, Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) honorary member Chen Kun, was also reportedly arrested on 6 October on charges of creating disturbances for publically supporting the protests in Hong Kong. Liren College was established under the umbrella of the China Rural Library (CRL), which over the last few years has had several library branches shut down by Chinese authorities.

Xue Ye and Liu Jianshu are independent publishers and bookstore owners also affiliated with Liren College, held on suspicion of “illegal business practices”, possibly relating to alleged illegal publications or the selling of illegally published books. Xue Ye is executive director in charge of libraries for Liren College and the former president of CRL; Liu Jianshu, who returned to the country after studying at Harvard and Oxford in 2011, since then had been the former deputy general-director of CRL and managing Liren libraries. Liu Jianshu was released on bail on 24 December 2014.

He Zhengjun is the administrative director of the Transition Institute, a renowned civil society independent think tank which has now been shut down by the Beijing authorities. Writers Guo Yushan and Huang Kaiping, the Transition Institute’s founder and ex-director, respectively, were arrested in October on charges of creating disturbances for publically supporting the protests in Hong Kong. The charge of creating disorder is commonly used to silence dissent. The Transition Institute, founded in 2007, has carried out investigations in the fields of fiscal reform, local elections, legal reforms, business regulations, citizen participation and education rights. Both of Guo and Huang are ICPC honorary members.

In addition to the writers above, writer, poet, independent documentary film-maker and scriptwriter, NGO activist and ICPC honorary memberKuo Yanding has been held since 10 October 2014 on charges of creating disturbances for publically supporting the protests in Hong Kong. Also detained is Ms. ZHANG Miao, Beijing-based arts reporter for the German weekly Die Zeit. She was arrested on 2 October 2014 after reporting on the protests in Hong Kong for Die Zeit, and attending a poetry reading by artists in Songzhuang, eastern Beijing, to support the protests in Hong Kong. She was held incommunicado until 12 December 2014, when she was allowed to meet her lawyer, who confirmed that she is charged with ‘creating disturbances’. Her lawyer reported that she is in reasonable health, although she was reportedly assaulted by police during her arrest. She was initially sent to the Beijing No.1 Detention Center of Beijing, before being moved a few days later to a hotel, possibly due to concerns about her arrest raised by the international media and the German government. She was held there for over a month until she was formally arrested on 6 November 2014 by the Tongzhou Branch of Beijing Public Security Bureau. She is now being held in the Tongzhou Detention Center, Beijing.