Zhong Guo
A teacher has been gaoled for 10 years in China for criticising his government online.
The man was found guilty of ‘subversion of state power’ after
posting a number of essays on the Internet, including one entitled ‘The
Road to Democracy’, reports Reuters.
Ren Ziyuan, aged 27, was found guilty and sentenced by the Jining
Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern province of Shandong,
according to the news agency. His lawyer, Zhang Chengmao, said he had
pleaded not guilty and would appeal the sentence.
‘I do know that whatever Ren Ziyuan wrote was totally within the
scope of free expression,’ his lawyer Zhang Chengmao is quoted by
Reuters. ‘He was a teacher who had his own ideas, but he never acted on
those ideas.’
Thesentence is part of a continuing crackdown on
Web-based dissidents, and it will serve to keep the spotlight on human
rights in China. The pressure group Reporters Without Borders has
previously revealed other cases, such as the campaigner, Shi Tao, who
was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2005 for ‘providing state
secrets to foreign entities’ following Yahoo! handing over email records to the authorities.
Technology is pivotal to this issue: not only are numerous high-tech
companies rushing to exploit China’s rapidly expanding economy, but the
Internet and its surrounding technologies are increasingly providing a
means for freer expression within the country.
Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have been among those under fire
in Washington, for trading in their principles for the sake of trade
with China. But the People’s Republic has blasted back at Western
criticisms – China fights back over Net censorship accusations.
‘Recently, certain Western media and some US lawmakers have accused
China of controlling the Internet,’ said the CEO of China’s top Net
company, China.com. ‘I think the accusations are completely unfounded.
They know nothing about the development and management of China’s
Internet industry and relevant laws. In a word, they are ignorant of
China’s Internet development environment.’
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 
On the imprisonment of Ren ZhiYuan :
From http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16785
“According to the US-based Human Rights in China, Ren, a secondary school teacher in the eastern province of Shandong, was charged with posting several articles deemed subversive, including “The Path to Democracy” in which he asserted the right to resort to violence to overthrow tyranny.
These comments come under the heading of freedom of expression and we consider that you cannot condemn someone simply on the basis of their statements,” said Reporters Without Borders. ”
Actually, Reporters Without Borders is wrong. The imprisonment does not violate China’s freedom of speech laws. Human rights watch has stated that Ren attempted to overthrow the Chinese government by asserting “the right to resort to violence to overthrow tyranny”.
The US supreme Court had set a precedent for such cases in Gitlow vs New York in 1925. Freedom of speech is a right, but if it is used to the purposes of overthrowing the government, then whoever does it can be prosecuted. Gitlow was prosecuted.
See: http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/140/
http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/burns3/medialib/docs/gitlow.htm
Some notable quotes:
“For present purposes we may and do assume that freedom of speech and of the press which are protected by the 1st Amendment from abridgment by Congress_ are among the fundamental personal rights and “liberties” protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment from impairment by the states.”
“And, for yet more imperative reasons, a state may punish utterances endangering the foundations of organized government and threatening its overthrow by unlawful means. These imperil its own existence as a constitutional state. Freedom of speech and press, said Story (supra), does not protect disturbances of the public peace or the attempt to subvert the government. It does not protect publications or teachings which tend to subvert or imperil the government, or to impede or hinder it in the performance of its governmental duties. It does not protect publications prompting the overthrow of government by force; the punishment of those who publish articles which tend to destroy organized society being essential to the security of freedom and the stability of the state. And a state may penalize utterances which openly advocate the overthrow of the representative and constitutional form of government of the United States and the several states, by violence or other unlawful means.”
Gitlow vs New York 1925 is one of the most important cases involving free speech right
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Hardly stuff that he should have been imprisoned over. The Chinese State is just too paranoid.
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