China Arrests Dissident Over Online Petition
By Lauren Keane
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 11, 2008; A18
BEIJING, Dec. 10 -- One of China's most prominent human rights activists has been arrested after publication of an open letter to the government from hundreds of prominent Chinese intellectuals, according to his wife and a colleague. The document, published Tuesday on the Internet, proposes extensive political reform, including an end to one-party rule.
The unusually bold appeal, released a day before International Human Rights Day, has struck a discordant note here amid the Chinese government's attempts to paint a picture of progress as the country prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its policy of reform and opening up.
Police arrested veteran dissident Liu Xiaobo, suspected of organizing the petition, late Monday at his Beijing home. His wife told reporters that several policemen had arrived with an arrest warrant about 11 p.m.; some took him away, she said, and the others stayed through the night to search the house and confiscate computers, books and other belongings.
Another prominent signer of the document, political theorist and activist Zhang Zuhua, was arrested and detained at the same time but was released the next morning after a lengthy interrogation, he said. His house was also searched and belongings confiscated. Zhang said Liu is being detained on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power."
More than 300 Chinese citizens signed the petition, called Charter '08, which began circulating on the Internet on Tuesday morning. They represent a broad swath of Chinese society, including government officials, lawyers, journalists, dissidents, artists and rural leaders, and they come from every corner of the country.
The charter's authors pegged its release to Wednesday's 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it takes aim at faults in China's authoritarian political system. It calls for change in 19 areas, including a new constitution, an independent judiciary, freedom of assembly, election of public officials and stronger guarantees for personal freedoms. The name Charter '08 borrows from the Charter 77 movement in Czechoslovakia in 1977, in which several hundred intellectuals published a daring challenge to Soviet rule.
"We stand today as the only country among the major nations that remains mired in authoritarian politics," the document reads. "Our political system continues to produce human rights disasters and social crises, thereby constricting China's own development but also limiting the progress of all of human civilization. This must change, truly it must. The democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer."
Liu, 53, has been jailed before. The former philosophy professor at Renmin University in Beijing and current director of the Independent Chinese PEN Center spent 20 months in jail for his support of the 1989 student protests at Tiananmen Square. In 1996, he was sent to a labor camp for three years for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. Most recently, he was one of a number of Chinese citizens detained for several days in early July as part of a crackdown on political dissidents before the Beijing Olympics.
Zhang, reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, would not confirm his role as an organizer on a phone line that he indicated he thought was tapped. But he said Charter '08 had begun as a group effort in September, with many signers reading early drafts and insisting on revisions before they signed it.
Zhang said his police interrogators had told him that they were under great pressure from above to crack down on dissent as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre approaches in June. "The way things are in China today, if we expect to make any progress on human rights, the pioneers are often going to have to lose their own human rights first," he said.
"I have my own opinion on one-party dictatorship, but that doesn't mean I want to subvert state power," he said. "It actually shows how patriotic I am."
News of the arrests nearly coincided with the publication of an interview in the state-run media with the director of China's State Council Information Office, Wang Chen, who said the country had made "historic progress" in the field of human rights. He also acknowledged that there were "still many problems and difficulties" but cautioned other countries not to intervene in China's internal affairs.
One of the charter signers, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, said Wednesday that the attitude was shortsighted. "Of course, China's human rights conditions have improved," he said. "That's clear just from the fact that I'm telling [a reporter] what I think about all this. But this incident only proves how far China still has to go."
Police also broke up a rally of about 30 people outside the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday morning. The demonstrators said they were marking International Human Rights Day by calling for more open government and more attention to corruption problems.
Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.
- posted on 12/12/2008
华夏快递 : 《零八宪章》吁政改轰动海内外
张洁平
呼唤中国宪政、民主的《零八宪章》十二月十日公布后,六百多人签名,中国自由派知识分子基本都表支持。参与起草的张祖桦及刘晓波遭当局传唤,张祖桦被讯问约十二小时后回家,但刘晓波至今没有消息。
二零零八年十二月十日世界人权日,暨联合国通过《世界人权宣言》六十周年,中国大陆知识界自发起草、并由首批三百零三名各界学者、律师、专业人士、普通民众以及维权者共同签署的《零八宪章》正式对外公布。
这份全文约四千字的宪章,追溯中华百年现代历程,重申自由、人权、平等、共和、民主、宪政的基本理念,要求中国推动政治民主化变革,并本着勇于践行的公民精神,提出包括修改宪法、分权制衡、公器公用、人权保障、联邦共和、转型正义等在内十九项具体主张,以期早日建成自由、民主、宪政的国家。
首批参与签署的三百零三名人士,包括徐友渔、贺卫方、张鸣、艾晓明、沙叶新、余世存、傅国涌、冉云飞、查建英、李大同、鲍彤、丁子霖、曾金燕、郑恩宠等众多著名人士,有知识精英、也有专家学者、维权律师、维权人士、工人、农民、学生。他们中最年长的是九十二岁的李普,最年轻的二十二岁。许多参与签署者认为,宪章本身是相当温和的表述。即便如此,这份通过互联网签署与传播的「宪章」,仍引起当局的恐慌。
十二月八日夜晚十一点,在《零八宪章》尚未正式发布之时,著名宪政学者、《零八宪章》参与起草人之一张祖桦及另一参与者、著名独立作家刘晓波同时遭到当局传唤,约十二小时之后张祖桦安全回家,刘晓波却至今没有消息。
曾任中共中央机关团委书记、共青团中央委员的张祖桦对亚洲周刊表示,八日二十三时,约有二十多名警察带着北京市公安局签署的传唤令和搜查证进入他家中,其中一部分是北京国保总队的人员。张祖桦被带至北京市万寿路派出所进行询问,同时,家中四台计算机、书籍和全部私人信件,以及部分银行卡、存折等私人对象被抄走。
「他们主要询问的,就是零八宪章的具体参与情况,我们具体怎么做。我则不断反问他们,胡温说公民有表达权,宪法说公民有言论自由,公民向政府公开提出建议,有什么违法之处?他们避而不答。私底下,国保人员也说我们的宣言写得好。询问气氛很和平,一共十二个小时,九日上午十一点左右,我回到家。」张祖桦因在八九年六四事件中支持学生游行被撤职,此后长年从事宪政研究。
「刘晓波几乎和我同时被警察带走」,张祖桦说,「向我出示的是传唤证,向刘晓波出示的,据他妻子刘霞模模糊糊看到是四个字的『刑事拘留』证。」两人的罪名都是「涉嫌煽动颠覆国家政权」。
刘晓波和妻子刘霞的计算机三台、全部私人信件和大批书籍亦被抄走。刘霞至今没有得到刘晓波的正式消息。依照中华人民共和国《刑事诉讼法》第六十四条规定,刑事拘留的机关,应在二十四小时内通知被拘留人的家属或者他的所在单位。而截止发稿,刘晓波仍未有消息。十二月十日,另有温克坚等多位参与签署零八宪章的人士被各地警方约谈。
宪章被迫提前公布
张祖桦、刘晓波被拘捕之后,网络上提前帖出了将在十日正式发布的《零八宪章》全文。十二月十日,中国大陆网站开始广泛删除相关帖子。
《零八宪章》包括前言、基本理念、基本主张和结语四部分。宪章内容指出:「在经历了长期的人权灾难和艰难曲折的抗争历程之后,觉醒的中国公民日渐清楚地认识到,自由、平等、人权是人类共同的普世价值;民主、共和、宪政是现代政治的基本制度架构。抽离了这些普世价值和基本政制架构的『现代化』,是剥夺人的权利、腐蚀人性、摧毁人的尊严的灾难过程。」二十一世纪的中国是继续威权统治下的「现代化」,还是「认同普世价值、融入主流文明、建立民主政体」,我们面临「不容回避的抉择」。
为什么选择在二零零八年宣示,作为参与起草人之一,张祖桦向亚洲周刊阐述初衷:「二零零八年是中国立宪百年、『民主墙』诞生三十周年,也是改革开放三十周年。本身有一个历史契机在这里。一方面正在反思三十年改革开放,但作为民间社会,不能任由官方垄断、解读;另一方面,关于未来中国的走向、改革,民间社会不能一直犬儒主义,也不能一味批判,我们应该建立起自己清晰的表述、建议,所以酝酿这样的宣言性文本表明立场。这是所有参与签名的公民共同的立场。」
张祖桦坦承宪章的酝酿已经很久,九月奥运会结束之后已开始草拟,十一月便在圈子内广泛收集意见。「从历史文献来看,有捷克的《七七宪章》,英国宪章运动以及美国大宪章,这些推动世界自由民主的文献都是我们的借鉴。」
历史文献给了《零八宪章》以理论借鉴,然而在态度上,众多签署人都认为它是温和、理性与务实的。记者、维权人士昝爱宗是第一批签署者之一,他说:「我认同宪章提到的民主、自由、人权、宪政、新闻自由、信仰自由、军队国家化、普世价值等,特别是现在城乡户籍二元化导致的差别,提到城乡公民权利平等,都是我们经常宣扬的,所以愿意签名。」
四川学者冉云飞十一月收到邮件形式的《零八宪章》征求意见稿时,毫不犹豫签了名。「每一条我都赞同,为什么不签名?这份文本写得非常理性,对中国社会尽心竭力的情怀、非暴力的温和态度、对他人权力的谦和尊重,都体现出知识分子本身的进步。」
亦签署了宪章的中国人民大学政治学教授张鸣觉得,宪章文本只是传达了最基本的价值理念:「落实了宪法的条款,说白了就是这样,没什么特别。」而对刘晓波因此被捕,他表示非常惊讶和意外。
六四「四君子」之一、著名学者周舵是宪章参与签署人之一,他认为,这一份表述出现的正是时候,而当局因为宪章拘捕刘晓波的做法则非常愚蠢。「中国的政治体制改革迟迟不能前进,走了一两步就退回来,是体制内有恶势力在膨胀」,「我觉得二零零八年,已到了把矛头对准体制内的恶势力、保守势力,狠狠打下去的时候,否则关于改革的承诺很多,能落实的太少。改良与革命也是在赛跑的,改良太快会翻车,太慢会被革命拖上无法控制的轨道,一样会翻车,我们觉得现在是时候促成了。」他说:「明年也是六四二十周年,应该有个说法了。」
宪章流传出第二天,海外华人学者以及各界人士都给予了积极响应。余英时与哈金等人以署名公开信的方式支持《零八宪章》。公开信称,《零八宪章》是「近年来罕见的民间政见之集合性表达」,让人看到「中国民间的权利意识之觉醒、勇气之提升和力量之壮大」,希望「中国当局能倾听社会之呼声,正视民意,从善如流,启动『宪章』所倡言的制度改革」。
参与签名的海外名单有美国的余英时、哈金、胡平、陈志武、傅希秋、龚小夏、何清涟、王丹、香港立法会议员刘慧卿、前香港记者协会主席麦燕庭等人。截止发稿,《零八宪章》的海内外累积签署名单已超过六百人。
□ 《亚洲周刊》二〇〇八年第五十期
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