HUMAN RIGHTS | Defending human dignity
03 April 2008
U.S. Condemns Prison Sentence for Chinese Human Rights Activist
State Department calls charges against Hu Jia “specious”
Washington -- The State Department is condemning the prison term imposed on a well-known Chinese human rights activist, calling the charges “specious.”
In a statement released April 3, Tom Casey, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, said the United States “is dismayed by the sentence of three and a half years in prison announced today in the case of prominent Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia under the specious charge of ‘inciting subversion of state power.’”
Hu is probably the best-known dissident in China today. As an advocate for AIDS victims, he served as the executive director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and was one of the founders of the nongovernmental organization Loving Source.
Hu has campaigned for the release of political prisoners and has vigorously called for the defense of the rights of Chinese citizens.
Casey said that Hu has “consistently worked within China’s legal system to protect the rights of his fellow citizens. These types of activities support China’s efforts to institute the rule of law and should be applauded, not suppressed or punished.”
During her February visit to China, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for Hu’s immediate release. Hu was arrested in December 2007 and has suffered several “house arrests” before that.
“In this Olympic year,” Casey said, “we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom.”
GROWING OUTRAGE IN U.S. CONGRESS
Disturbed by China’s shabby human rights record and its reaction to recent protests in Tibet, some members of the U.S. Congress are calling upon President Bush to boycott the August 8 opening ceremonies for the Olympics in Beijing.
Leading this call is Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California), a long-time vocal critic of China’s human rights abuses. She has opposed boycotting the games themselves, saying it would hurt the athletes.
A group of 15 House members led by Maxine Waters (Democrat of California) and Dana Rohrabacher (Republican of California) issued a letter to Bush saying his presence at the Beijing Olympics would be “inappropriate” given the “increasingly repressive nature of that country’s government.”
BUSH PLANS TO ATTEND OLYMPICS
Rice has defended Bush’s decision to go to the Beijing Olympics. Traveling with the president to the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania, Rice said during an April 3 press conference that President Bush views the Olympics primarily as a sporting event.
“We take seriously our obligation to talk to the Chinese about human rights,” Rice said. She noted the Olympics will be an important event not just for the Chinese leadership but for ordinary Chinese citizens as well.
“And whatever one thinks of the behavior of the regime,” Rice said, “the Chinese people need to know that the United States and the American people support their emergence on the world stage.”
A statement issued by the State Department April 3 on Hu's sentence is available on America.gov.
