Foreign Minister "Freedom of Speech" Comments At Odds With Arrests, Detentions

March 17, 2008

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that it is "impossible" for someone in China to be arrested for saying "human rights are more important than the Olympics," a statement that conflicts with the recent arrest, detention, and questioning of a number of Chinese citizens who have publicly criticized China's human rights record in relation to the Olympics. According to a February 28 Reuters article, Yang told reporters that Chinese citizens enjoy "extensive freedom of speech."

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that it is "impossible" for someone in China to be arrested for saying "human rights are more important than the Olympics," a statement that conflicts with the recent arrest, detention, and questioning of a number of Chinese citizens who have publicly criticized China's human rights record in relation to the Olympics. According to a February 28 Reuters article, Yang told reporters that Chinese citizens enjoy "extensive freedom of speech." His comments followed a meeting that day in Beijing with Britain's foreign minister. "No one will get arrested because he said that human rights are more important than the Olympics. This is impossible. Ask 10 people from the street to face public security officers and ask them to say 'human rights are more important than the Olympics' 10 times or even 100 times, and I will see which security officer would put him in jail," Yang reportedly said.

Yang's statements appear inconsistent with the recent arrests of HIV/AIDS and environmental activist Hu Jia and land rights activist Yang Chunlin (no relation to Yang Jiechi). Officials accused both of "inciting subversion of state power," after each made public statements tying their criticism of China's human rights record to the Olympics. In Hu's case, Beijing public security officials detained him just one month after he criticized China's hosting of the Olympics and its human rights record before a European Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee hearing in November. Hu is set to go on trial on March 18, according to a March 14 Reuters article (via The Guardian). In Yang Chunlin's case, the main piece of evidence against him appears to be a petition he helped organize titled "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics," which the procuratorate claimed tarnished China's international image, according to Yang's lawyer as reported in a February 19 Reuters article (via The Guardian). Yang was arrested in August 2007. His trial took place on February 19 but the court has not yet issued its verdict.

Short of formally arresting citizens, Chinese officials have also detained citizens or held them for questioning in an apparent effort to prevent them from publicly criticizing the Chinese government and the Olympics. Earlier this month, law professor Teng Biao went missing for two days after plainclothes police officers seized Teng outside his home in Beijing, placed a sack over his head, and drove him away to be questioned, according to a March 14 Wall Street Journal article. Authorities warned him to stop writing articles criticizing China's human rights record and the Olympics or risk losing his university post and going to jail. In September, Teng and Hu co-wrote a letter titled "The Real China Before the Olympics" (Chinese, English), which criticized Beijing for failing to live up to its promise to improve human rights for the Olympics. Internet essayist Wang Dejia was recently detained after he used the Internet to air his criticisms of the government and gave an interview to a foreign newspaper in which he said China was focusing too much on hosting the Olympics and not enough on caring for its own citizens. Before releasing him on bail on January 12, officials reportedly required Wang to agree to stop posting online essays critical of the government and told him not to speak to foreign journalists.

For more information on freedom of expression in China, see Section II - Freedom of Expression, in the CECC's 2007 Annual Report.