Since 2008, more than 10,000 people have signed the charter within and beyond China. Among a list of rights demanded in the charter included freedom of expression, assembly and religion.
- Christian political dissident Liu Xianbin received a ten year prison sentence Friday after being tried for treason in The People’s Court of Suining in China’s south-central province of Sichuan.
Liu was also ordered not to accept interviews, publish writings and make speeches within a period of two years and four months.
His sentence comes a month after an unknown blogger called for a “Jasmine Revolution” in China’s major cities, an apparent call to replicate the popular uprisings that toppled Tunisia’s dictator.
This has led some human rights observers to question whether Liu’s sentence, which is harsh even by Chinese standards, resulted from the fallout over the aborted uprising in February.
“Like what happened in Egypt, Yemen and Libya, China’s totalitarian government recently has acted with increasingly blunt disregard for its own citizens’ basic rights,” said Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid Association . “This should further alarm the free world and vividly demonstrates how dire the consequences of appeasement and inaction are.”
Only a mere handful of people heeded the call for the uprising, however, and the protest only occurred at Beijing’s affluent Wafujing shopping district. Protesters were promptly arrested by hundreds of officers gathered there. Beijing does not tolerate mass political gatherings and has restricted information about the grievances that contributed to the recent unrest in the Middle East from reaching its citizens.
Liu was arrested almost a year ago on charges of “inciting subversion” against “state power” after he posted a series of internet articles demanding political reform.
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