Writers Rally for Jailed Chinese Dissident
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/12/writers-rally-for-jailed-chinese-dissident/
“He wrote the documents and used the Internet to publish them in order to slander and urge other people to overthrow our country’s democratic dictatorship and our socialist system,” the verdict said. “…The published documents have been spread through links and republishing. People read them and they have a bad effect. This is the crime of a major criminal and should be severely punished according to the law.”
Comments
This kind of thing should be posted more often.
The Chinese government should be denied the ability to oppress its writers and readers, and simultaneously claim to support a truly literate society.
Arguments that other industrialized nations also practice censorship are silly. China is the worst offender by an order of magnitude.
We will never have visionary literature while we are spying on, bullying, imprisoning and killing our talent. We all have a responsibility (all of us, you translators included) to oppose the government's abuse of writers and readers.
Panguo, January 2, 2010, 5:52a.m.
Liu Xiaobo's arrest, detention and trial have certainly not gone unnoticed by our community of China-based writers and translators. His 11-year prison sentence is but the latest in a series of disturbing events that point to even more official censorship in 2010. It's been a chill and melancholy autumn, and winter looms even colder.
The above link, by the way, is blocked on the mainland. For readers behind the ornamental firewall, here is a link to the PEN page with author bio, case history, articles and other very useful links.
Cindy Carter, January 2, 2010, 2:21p.m.