On June 18, 2008, PEN issued the following open letter to members of the 110th United States Congress.

June 18, 2008


Open letter to Congress on the State of Freedom of Expression in China


Dear Senators and Representatives,

With 50 days remaining until the 2008 Summer Olympics open in Beijing, we are writing to express our extreme concern over the Chinese government’s failure to abide by pledges it made to the international community to expand press freedom and improve the climate for human rights and freedom of expression in China in this Olympic year. What we have witnessed instead has been a grinding and relentless campaign to jail or silence prominent dissident voices, including many of our colleagues from the Independent Chinese PEN Center, and new, especially brazen efforts to restrict or control domestic and international press coverage.

We ask you to carefully review the information that follows, which summarizes the results of PEN’s recent efforts to win the release of our jailed Chinese colleagues and monitor the situation for writers and freedom of expression in China. In any year, these findings would be bleak. Against the backdrop of the explicit commitments that China made to the world to win the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games, they are especially discouraging.

In bidding for the Olympic Games and in offering the requisite assurances of its intentions to protect and expand basic human rights, China has invited just this kind of scrutiny. In turn the international community, in agreeing to participate in the Beijing Games, should be seeking ways to hold the Chinese government accountable for these assurances.  We therefore entreat you in the remaining days before the Olympics to use any and all contacts your office has with representatives of the People’s Republic of China to press for the release of 44 writers and journalists currently being held in Chinese prisons and to insist on complete, nationwide, unrestricted freedom of the press.

No Progress

On December 10, 2007, PEN American Center joined with our colleagues at PEN Canada and the Independent Chinese PEN Center to launch “We Are Ready for Freedom of Expression,” a campaign that asks that the Chinese government fulfill its commitments to the rule of law and the international community and to release all writers and journalists currently imprisoned and stop detaining, harassing, and censoring writers and journalists in China; abide by its pledge that “there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games;” and end Internet censorship and reform laws used to imprison writers and journalists and suppress freedom of expression.

Six months later, we are unable to report significant improvements in any of these areas.

Detaining, harassing, and censoring writers and journalists in China

On December 10, 2007, PEN was following the cases of 40 writers and journalists imprisoned in China. Though three of these have since been released, nine more have been detained:

1. Wang Dejia: Internet writer and dissident, detained December 13, 2007 and released on January 12, 2008 on condition that he not write anything “attacking the leadership of the Party and State,” “inciting subversion of state power,” or any “political commentary.”
2. Hu Jia: Freelance reporter and blogger, civil rights, environmental and AIDS activist, arrested December 27, 2007 and convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” on April 3, 2008. Hu is now serving a 3 ½-year sentence.
3. Jamyang Kyi: Prominent Tibetan writer, reporter, activist and singer detained April 1, 2008.
4. Zhou Yuanzhi: Freelance writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, detained on May 3, 2008 and released on May 15, 2008. Zhou is forbidden from traveling beyond his home city without police authorization, prohibited from communicating with strangers, and banned from publishing.
5. Chen Daojun: Freelance writer and journalist, detained May 9, 2008 and charged with “inciting splittism.”
6. Guo Quan: Writer and former professor of literature at Nanjing Normal University, detained May 17, 2008 and released May 28, 2008.
7. Feng Zhenghu: Rights defender, online writer and freelance journalist, detained on June 5, 2008 on suspicion of “intentionally disturbing public order.
8. Zheng Hongling: Writer and retired worker, detained June 9, 2008 after publishing articles on her experiences from the May 12, 2008 earthquake.
9. Huang Qi: Cyber-dissident, writer, director and co-founder of the Tianwang Human Rights Center, detained on June 10, 2008.

Today, six months after PEN launched its campaign, we are now following the cases of 44 writers and journalists who are in Chinese prisons in violation of their right to freedom of expression. A complete list of all the writers PEN has been tracking since December 10, 2007, can be found at the end of this letter. Biographical information can be found at www.pen.org/china.

In addition to this disturbing increase in the number of imprisoned writers and journalists, the Chinese government has intensified the ongoing harassment of dissident voices and writers. We are particularly distressed that many of our colleagues at the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), our remarkable affiliate composed of 200 leading Chinese writers inside and outside of China, have been targeted in this crackdown. This past December, authorities halted ICPC’s annual awards dinner by paying visits to members and posting guards outside the doors of many to prevent them from traveling to Beijing. Two honorees, Liao Yiwu and Li Jianhong, were briefly held under house arrest. On June 4, famed writer, dissident, and former ICPC president Dr. Liu Xiaobo was manhandled by police from the National Security Unit of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, and is now reportedly under surveillance at his home in Beijing.

Restricting media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games

When bidding for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government made a specific promise to open up the country to free media reporting, stating “there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games.” The unrest in Tibet and the May 12th earthquake, however, have revealed just the opposite: a government intent on controlling media access to important stories and on restricting the access its own people have to domestic and international media coverage.

During the crackdown on protests in Tibetan areas that began in March, government-instigated interruptions in telephone and Internet service in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and other Tibetan areas significantly hindered the flow of first-hand reports and other information as violence spread and the number of deaths rose. In a report issued this week, Human Rights Watch confirms that authorities are now confiscating mobile phones, cameras, fax machines and computers, monitoring calls, censoring and blocking emails and Internet content, and harassing Tibetans to prevent them from relaying information inside and outside of Tibet.

Since March, small numbers of journalists have been allowed into Tibetan areas on three government-orchestrated visits, always chaperoned and closely monitored by Chinese officials. Many foreign journalists who attempted on their own to enter the Tibetan Autonomous Region and neighboring Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan and Gansu Provinces were detained and turned away. Meanwhile, satellite broadcasts focusing on events in Tibet have been jammed in Beijing and other Chinese cities, and entire news sites such as the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian have been shut down, leaving China’s citizens without access to the full story about monumental political and human rights issues in their own country.

We are now beginning to see similar controls exerted on reporting from areas affected by the May 12 earthquake. While the government at first and of necessity allowed an unusual level of live coverage of rescue efforts, now that attention is beginning to turn to questions that are potentially embarrassing for Chinese officials, there is a concerted effort to rein in—and even black out—press coverage. In just one example, on June 12, Agence France-Presse reported that at least six foreign media representatives were manhandled and detained when they tried to report from collapsed schools in Dujiangyan. They were reportedly told by a police officer that “You cannot report anywhere in Dujiangyan. You must leave.” The six were then ordered out of the city, despite the fact that they held passes explicitly stating that reporting was allowed in the area.

The world knows of many of these heavy-handed efforts to restrict press freedom because they have been directed at the international media. Meanwhile, China’s domestic media remains under the thumb of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese government and must follow its directives. Chinese reporters are not even included in the pre-Olympic rules that are supposedly meant to allow foreign journalists to travel and report freely. Those who wander beyond the official boundaries have been punished. On May 5, for instance, Chang Ping was dismissed from his post as deputy editor of the daily Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily) after he published several editorials about Tibet that did not toe the party line.

Internet censorship and other troublesome laws

Of the 44 writers currently imprisoned in China, 30 are being held for writings they posted on the Internet or disseminated electronically, including Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, who were both convicted after U.S. Internet provider Yahoo! provided the Chinese government with their user information. All nine of the writers detained since December 10 (Wang Dejia, Hu Jia, Jamyang Kyi, Zhou Yuanzhi, Chen Daojun, Guo Quan, Feng Zhenghu, Zeng Hongling, and Huang Qi) have been targeted for their online writings.

There have been reports that many web sites have been shut down in the past six months, including a site for the Tiananmen Mothers—an organization of family members of those killed or imprisoned during the 1989 crackdown—and Uighur Online, a site aimed at promoting understanding between Han Chinese and ethnic Uighurs.

Three laws are routinely misused to detain and imprison writers in China: 1) subversion; 2) revealing state secrets; and 3) splittism or separatism. Hu Jia, a freelance reporter and blogger, is serving a 3 ½-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” for six articles he published and two press interviews. Huang Qi, who was detained on June 10, is being held on suspicion of “illegally holding state secrets” for writings published on his organization’s web site. The splittism charge, used most often against Tibetans and Uighurs, has recently crossed ethnic lines to include Han Chinese who publicly defend Tibetan and Uighur rights. Chen Daojun, a freelance writer and journalist detained May 9, 2008, has been formally charged with “inciting splittism” for an article he published declaring respect for the Tibetan people, defending their basic rights, and condemning the government’s violent crackdown on protesters.

Conclusion

PEN is seriously concerned that rather than improving, the climate for freedom of expression has deteriorated measurably in full view of the international community. This fundamental right is being stifled even as the world prepares to send its best athletes and its highest officials as its representatives to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

As our leaders and our representatives, you have an opportunity and an obligation to evaluate the pledges the Chinese government made to secure the Olympic Games and hold China accountable to these pledges. One way that you can do so is to use the remaining 50 days before the Games open to press for the release of all writers and journalist detained in China in violation of their right to freedom of expression and to insist on full and free media access not only to Beijing but throughout China. We believe your intervention right now could prove decisive for our Chinese colleagues.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Francine Prose
President

Larry Siems
Director, Freedom to Write and International Programs