06/24/2011

After Ai Weiwei's release: German-Chinese intergovernmental dialog on Monday in Berlin (27.6. June)

German chancellor should press for the release of other dissidents as well

Following the release of Ai Weiwei, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a stand for the release of other Chinese dissidents from prison during meetings today with representatives of the Chinese government. "In addition to this well-known artist, at least 48 other dissidents have been arrested in China since mid-February 2011, but their fate goes largely unnoticed in Europe," lamented Ulrich Delius of the STP's Asia section on Friday in Göttingen. "Weiwei's case is only the tip of the iceberg. Chinese authorities also use brutal violence against dissident Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians and arrest members of Protestant house churches." 

Since 10 April 2011 more than 180 members of the Shouwang House Church in Peking have been arrested. Others have been threatened by the authorities, placed under house arrest, or have lost their jobs or apartments because of their faith. Following repeated raids by police, the Shouwang House Church decided to protest state repression by holding public masses in spite of the ban.

"There are dozens of Chinese dissidents who do not have the good fortune to have influential advocates abroad as does Weiwei," Delius pointed out. Ms. Zhang Julan for example, from the Jiangxi province in mid-May 2011 was set on by police and forcibly sterilized after she had dared to object to the expropriation of her property. Later the police tried to force this villager to sign a statement saying she had agreed to the expropriation, and to the sterilization as well.

A land ownership conflict is also behind the disappearance of Mr. Chen Zhixin without a trace from the Xinjiang region. He was beaten by police and carried off when he tried to submit a petition to authorities, together with representatives of almost 400 families, on 10 June 2011 in Beijing. The police attacked him, beat him unconscious, blindfolded him and took him away.

In Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, Chinese authorities have engendered an environment of intimidation and fear. At demonstrations of local populations, security forces react with more arrests, closing the region to tourists, and further restrictions on use of the Internet. Only in Cuba, Burma and Iraq is the right of access to the Internet more heavily trampled underfoot. "Eleven years after the beginning of German-Chinese dialog on a government level, China is further than ever from the rule of law," asserted Delius.