Zhao Changqing sacks his lawyers to delay proceedings, and Hou Xin reads statement in court maintaining his innocence
The Guardian, Thursday 23 January 2014 09.52 EST
Zhao Changqing trial
Police outside the court where Zhao Changqing’s trial was adjourned. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
China tried two anti-corruption activists on Thursday as part of a series of political prosecutions against members of the loose-knit activist organisation New Citizens Movement.
The veteran pro-democracy activist Zhao Changqing, who was a student protester in the 1989 Tiananmen rallies, and another activist, Hou Xin, were tried separately in Beijing on charges of “gathering a crowd to disturb public order”, which carries a maximum five-year jail term.
Zhao is accused of organising dinner parties to discuss anti-corruption activism; Hou is accused of unfurling a banner. Both maintain their innocence.
Zhao’s hearing ended shortly after it began when he sacked his lawyers to delay proceedings, the lawyer, Zhang Xuezhong, said in a phone interview. “The court barred most of our evidence, especially our video evidence,” Zhang said. “This is completely against the law.”
Hou’s trial took place on Thursday afternoon; she pleaded not guilty.
Chinese authorities will try at least eight anti-corruption activists this week and on Monday, in a culmination of a protracted crackdown against the group, which began last summer after Xu Zhiyong, founder of the New Citizens Movement, organised small protests demanding that government officials declared their assets. Nearly 20 members have been detained.
While the group’s aims of promoting transparency and equality seemingly dovetail with official priorities – Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has sought to portray himself as a hard anti-corruption campaigner – the crackdown belies his administration’s unyielding line on dissent.
China’s Communist party controls the nation’s courts, and despite oft-repeated promises of judicial independence the outcome of politically sensitive cases is almost always predetermined.
Xu and Zhao claimed the authorities had barred them from presenting evidence and obstructed most of their witnesses from testifying.
Zhao was allowed 15 days to find a new defence team, Zhang said. The trial is likely to reopen mid February, after China’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
Zhang welcomed the delay, saying a later trial may draw more domestic and international attention as it would not be eclipsed by the flurry of other hearings.
The US and other western countries have expressed concern at the ongoing prosecution of nonviolent protesters. A group of western diplomats was barred from attending the trials of both Zhao and Xu.
“The US government calls on Chinese authorities to release Xu and other political prisoners immediately,” said Gary Locke, the American ambassador to China.
Zhao was formerly a history teacher, working in the north-west province of Shaanxi. He has already received two prison sentences for his activism since the late 1980s, both for circulating pro-democracy petitions.
On Wednesday 78 prominent Chinese intellectuals released an open letter to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, demanding that the government adhered to its own constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and assembly.
“Systematically safeguarding citizens’ rights to assemble, proceed and demonstrate can avoid violent, sudden disruption, of social order,” it said. “A society without a safety valve like this is a dangerous society where conflict builds up, resentment seeps deeper, and revolt grow stronger.”
One of the movement’s most high-profile supporters, Wang Gongquan, a 52-year-old venture capitalist, was freed on bail on Wednesday after spending four months in detention.
The Beijing No 1 intermediate people’s court said he had repented for helping to “organise and incite criminal activities”.
Xu maintained a defiant stance during his closing argument at his trial on Wednesday morning, his lawyer Zhang Qingfang said in a phone interview. He refused to answer the prosecution’s questions but read a prepared statement.
“He originally planned to speak for about 50 minutes, but he was about 10 minutes in when the judge cut him off,” Zhang said. “After that, the hearing was over.”
Xu maintained his innocence in the statement, which circulated online on Thursday.
“While on the face of it, this [trial] appears to be an issue of the boundary between a citizen’s right to free speech and public order, what this is, in fact, is the issue of whether or not you recognise a citizen’s constitutional rights,” he said, according to an English translation on the website China Change. “On a still deeper level, this is actually an issue of fears you all carry within: fear of a public trial, fear of a citizen’s freedom to observe a trial, fear of my name appearing online, and fear of the free society nearly upon us.”
