Cai Lujun, Imprisoned for Posting Internet Articles, Released at End of Sentence

Chinese authorities released Cai Lujun from the Shijiazhuang No. 1 Prison in Hebei province, on March 2, 2006, following the conclusion of his three-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power, according to a March 3 Radio Free Asia article (in Chinese). The Shijiazhuang state security bureau placed Cai under residential surveillance on February 22, 2003, detained him on March 3, and arrested him on April 8. The Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court tried Cai in August 2003 and sentenced him to three years in prison in September 2003.

According to the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court's judgment, Cai's crime was that he distributed to, and discussed with, people on the Internet "articles and speech aimed at attacking the socialist system and harming national security." The court said he authored and distributed articles on the Internet that were "aimed at viciously slandering and starting rumors regarding the leadership of the Communist Party, inciting subversion of state power, and overthrowing the socialist system." The court rejected Cai's defense that his speech was protected under the Chinese Constitution because it was "qualitatively different with that of going through ordinary channels to provide government organs with reasonable suggestions or reform measures."

The court said that Cai also organized other individuals, including Yuan Langsheng and Luo Changfu, into an online group. Chinese authorities detained Yuan and Luo in March 2003. Authorities imprisoned Luo Changfu for three years and, according to a May 16, 2003 Digital Freedom Network article, held Yuan for almost two weeks before releasing him without charges. The government subsequently sentenced another Internet essayist, Du Daobin, who wrote articles calling for the release of Cai, Yuan, and Luo, to three years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights, "with a reprieve of four years," according to a June 12, 2004 Xinhua article via the People's Daily). For an example of one of Du's articles, see Please Take Note of Developments in the Three Cases of Yuan Langsheng, Cai Lujun, and Luo Changfu published on the Epoch Times Web site on March 28, 2003.

After his release Cai told the Epoch Times in an interview dated March 8:

With respect to the people of China, I am afraid there are very few who dare to stand up straight and speak and write, because the political environment of mainland China is extremely poor, and even if they were willing to do this, other people would be worried. I did what I was interested in, and published my own opinions on matters that I understood. This is an innate right, which no one may strip away. If every Chinese person were able to do this, then how can this kind of autocratic regime or autocratic state continue to be maintained? But the number of people who stand up is too small.