CHINA’S MOST outspoken dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was brought up on subversion charges at a Beijing court yesterday in a trial that human rights groups say highlights Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on dissent.
Mr Liu stands accused of inciting subversion of state power by publishing online essays criticising one-party rule by the Communist Party, and of being a founding member of the Charter 08 petition, which calls for democratic reform of China’s political system. More than 300 people, including some of China’s top intellectuals, signed it before it was released.
One of the reforms sought in Charter 08 is the abolition of the law on inciting to subvert state power, the very law under which Mr Liu is being charged.
China’s economy is booming and the country is becoming more open and international, but the Communist Party refuses to relax its iron fist on dissent. Inciting subversion is a blanket charge used against people who criticise the party and its policies, and it has been used to jail a number of dissidents in recent years.
A verdict is expected tomorrow. Some rights groups have accused China of rushing the trial through at a time when many in the west would be on holiday. Christmas is not marked in China.
Mr Liu, a soft-spoken literature professor, has pleaded not guilty, but such subversion trials are inevitably a done deal in the prosecution’s favour and he is almost certain to be found guilty.
His wife Liu Xia, who along with a number of foreign diplomats asked to attend as observers, was not allowed attend the trial, and said she will not appeal a guilty verdict as it would be pointless. She has not seen or spoken to her husband since March, when police arranged a short, supervised meeting in a Beijing hotel room.
A number of protesters and human rights activists gathered outside Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court to condemn the trial. The building was heavily guarded by police.
Mr Liu previously spent nearly two years in jail for joining the 1989 student-led protests in Tiananmen Square. He also prevented more bloodshed by successfully negotiating with the army the evacuation of the last remaining students on the square in the early morning of June 4th.
Both the EU and US have appealed to Beijing to free Mr Liu, but the Chinese government has rejected the calls and accused both of trying to meddle in China’s legal system.