Freedom of Expression

The Gannan Intermediate People's Court in Gansu province sentenced Choekyi Drolma, a Buddhist nun, to three years' imprisonment in December 2005 for "inciting splittism," according to official Chinese information that has recently become available. She was among five Tibetan monks and nuns detained in 2005 in Xiahe (Sangchu), in Gannan (Kanlho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Gansu. Public security officials detained Choekyi Drolma, along with nuns Tamdrin Tsomo and Yonten Drolma of Gedun Tengyeling Nunnery, and monks Dargyal Gyatso and Jamyang Samdrub of Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery, on May 22, 2005, on suspicion that they circulated and displayed letter-sized posters in Xiahe and other locations that were critical of the Chinese government, according to NGO and news media reports.

Liu Binjie, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication and Deputy Chief of the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force, said that political publications are the highest priority target for the Task Force, according to a February 23 Guangming Daily report (in Chinese).

• Communist Party Central Propaganda Department
• General Office of the State Council
• Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
• Central Organization Committee
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Public Security
• Ministry of of Railroads
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Information Industry
• Ministry of Culture
• Customs Office
• State Administration for Industry and Commerce
• General Administration of Civil Aviation of China
• State Administration for Radio, Film, and Television
• General Administration of Press and Publication
• Beijing Municipal Government
• Liberation Army General Propaganda Department

According to its Web site, the Task Force is charged with, among other things:

Chinese authorities formally arrested writer Zhang Jianhong (whose pen name is Li Hong) and Internet essayist and China Democracy Party (CDP) member Chen Shuqing, and charged each with "inciting subversion of state power," according to notices delivered on October 12 and October 17, respectively. The arrests came after both posted articles on the Internet expressing support for Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Li Jianqiang, a lawyer and a member of the Independent Chinese Pen Center (ICPC) who has represented other writers and activists, including Yang Tianshui and Guo Qizhen, is serving as defense lawyer for both men.

Hebei provincial officials released from detention Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiguo, the unregistered bishop of Zhengding diocese, on September 25 but continued to keep him under surveillance, according to a September 26 report of the Union of Catholic Asian News (via the Indian Catholic). Bishop Jia was detained on June 25, when officials removed him from the hospital where he was recovering from surgery and took him to an unknown location, according to a July 6 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. The CKF report said that the religious affairs bureau told some Catholics that Bishop Jia was being sent away for "education." Bishop Jia has been detained frequently in the past.

Chinese authorities released journalist Yu Dongyue on February 22, on completion of his 17 year and 3 month sentence for throwing paint during the Tiananmen democracy protests in 1989. Yu's release complies with Article 44 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which provides that a prisoner's fixed term of imprisonment is calculated from the date of detention, if the prisoner was held in detention before the court judgment. Yu will continued to be deprived of his political rights for another five years following his release, pursuant to his original sentence.

Public security officials in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province, have arrested freelance writer Yang Tongyan (also known as Yang Tianshui) on suspicion of "subversion of state power," a crime under Article 105(1) of the Criminal Law, according to a January 30 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) press release citing unnamed sources. Public security officials in Nanjing city, Jiangsu province, detained Yang on December 23. On January 28 the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) reported that Yang's family received a notice of the arrest on January 27.

According to PEN Canada, Yu, then a deputy editor of the Liuyang Daily, traveled from Changsha city, Hunan province, to Beijing on May 19, 1989. He was a representative of the Hunan Delegation in Support of the Beijing Students, which traveled to join the Tiananmen democracy protests. On May 23, Yu and two others - Yu Zhijian and Lu Decheng - threw paint at the portrait of Mao Zedong that faces Tiananmen Square from the Forbidden City. Police immediately arrested the three. Yu was tried on July 11, 1989, and on August 11, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Yu to 20 years in prison and 5 years deprivation of political rights for "counterrevolutionary propaganda" and "counterrevolutionary sabotage and incitement," crimes under Articles 100 and 102 of China's 1979 Criminal Law. In 1997, authorities transferred Yu to Yuanjiang Prison in Hunan.