Freedom of Expression
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
www.cecc.gov
CECC Contact: 202–226–3766
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – CECC Chairman Senator Sherrod Brown and Cochairman Representative Christopher Smith today urged the Chinese government to end the unlawful home confinement of Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and to respect her internationally-recognized right to freedom of movement.
On February 20, 2014, the Urumqi Municipal Public Security Bureau formally arrested Minzu University professor Ilham Tohti on charges of separatism.[1] The arrest notice indicated authorities were detaining Tohti in a detention center in Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).[2] Authorities reportedly only informed Tohti’s wife about her husband’s arrest on February 25.[3] Prosecutors formally approved Tohti’s arrest just short of the 37-day limit mandated by Article 69 of the PRC Criminal Procedure Law.
Update: Anticorruption and Transparency Advocates Already Sentenced
In 2013, authorities commenced a crackdown on anticorruption and transparency advocates, many linked to the “New Citizens’ Movement,” which is a broad network of individuals promoting legal and political reforms, human rights, and social justice. In late 2013 and early 2014, authorities began trials for several of these advocates and courts have already handed down sentences in some cases: