Human rights in China? Get jailed.

[Thanas]

USA Today

BEIJING — An outspoken Chinese human rights lawyer went on trial Monday for comments he posted on social media that criticized the ruling Communist government.

The trial of Pu Zhiqiang, who faces up to eight years in prison, is sure to have a chilling effect on other human rights activists who openly criticize the government, which has been cracking down on dissent.

Pu, 50, has been in custody for 19 months on charges of “picking quarrels,” “provoking trouble” and “inciting ethnic hatred” in a series of posts he made on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter. The government is particularly sensitive to critical social media posts that could go viral.

Pu denied the charges at Monday's three-hour, closed-door hearing at Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, according to his defense attorney. It was not clear when a verdict and sentence would be issued.

Mo Shaoping, Pu’s lawyer, said in an interview after the trial that his client doesn’t deny writing the posts, but that the court had to prove intent or damage. "This is really a case of freedom of expression, in which no harm to anyone has been proven,” Mo said.

As the trial was proceeding, police and security officials scuffled with his supporters, journalists and Western diplomats assembled outside the courthouse.

“Lawyers and civil society leaders such as Mr. Pu should not be subject to continuing repression, but should be allowed to contribute to the building of a prosperous and stable China,” Dan Biers, a deputy political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said before a group of unidentified men pushed him and a crowd of journalists away from the courthouse.

The allegations against Pu relate to seven posts he made on Sina Weibo between 2011 and early 2014.

In one, he questions whether China's Communist government amounted to more than “secrecy, cheating, passing the buck (and) delay.” In another, he said Beijing was acting as a “conqueror or a plunderer” in China's mainly Muslim far western region of Xinjiang.

Since coming to power in late 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has spearheaded a crackdown on freedom of expression, civil activists and human rights lawyers.

Lawyers, legal associates and family members have been detained, new laws require online political discussions to be more "positive," and just last month, party members were banned from criticizing party policy.

This past summer, Chinese state media ran several editorials denouncing human rights lawyers as venal and self-aggrandizing troublemakers out to destabilize China.

An editorial in the Global Times newspaper, a Communist Party organ, warned Monday that any attempt by Western nations to "interfere" in Pu’s case would be seen as an “attack on China’s rule of law.”

The newspaper described Pu as a “destructive force” who is part of the “anti-establishment.”

Pu previously represented Ai Weiwei, a dissident artist who now lives in Berlin, in a tax-evasion case that was widely viewed as politically motivated.

Of course, this just happened after the Gao Yu case as well....

[Gandalf]

NY Times have the incriminating posts.

This one is my favourite:

Why wouldn’t China work without the Communist Party? How would I know why it wouldn’t work? Other than fraud, evasion, axes and sickles, what’s this party’s secret for staying in power?

[K. A. Pital]

Criticising a dictatorial government usually ends that way. Or worse. Well, that - or exile, self-imposed or otherwise.

[Elheru Aran]

This is why I have to roll my eyes when someone starts spouting off on Facebook about how Obama is a dictator. Just... no. Americans (most of them anyway) simply don't understand what it's like to actually live in a dictatorship. Sani Abacha was no picnic, but as a Westerner I was fairly insulated from his antics. Didn't stop his secret police from interrogating my dad for hours one night, though.

[Borgholio]

This is why I have to roll my eyes when someone starts spouting off on Facebook about how Obama is a dictator

Yeah I laugh when I read about them crowing about how they're going to march on the White House and arrest him for treason. I would SO sit on the sidelines with popcorn and watch them actually try that. But they're usually just cowards hiding behind the computer screen so alas...that's the limit of the entertainment we get.

[Adam Reynolds]

It is tragically ironic for a human rights lawyer, of all people, to go to jail.