A prominent Chinese civil rights activist was jailed for five years yesterday after being found guilty of running an illegal business, his lawyer and his wife said.
Guo Feixiong (
Guo, who was arrested in September last year, was accused of participating in the illegal publication of a book that exposed widespread corruption among government officials in Shenyang in 2001, Hu said.
His wife, Zhang Qing (
"The punishment was very unfair and I'm extremely angry about it," she said in a telephone interview, adding that she would go on a one-day hunger strike to protest the verdict.
"It's obviously a case of political persecution," she said.
Her husband had appeared calm after the verdict was announced, she said.
"He told the judge: `You are using a roundabout way to promote China's democratic movement ... and I'm very proud to play a role in this,'" Zhang said of Guo.
She said authorities had seized on the fact that the book had been published without a licence as an excuse to punish Guo, who had tried to help villagers in numerous land confiscation cases in Guangdong Province.
He was particularly well known for helping residents in a land dispute in Guangdong's Taishi village that started in 2004.
Guo was also an associate of dissident lawyer Gao Zhisheng (
China also sentenced a human rights campaigner yesterday to 18 months of "reeducation through labor" after she organized a petition urging democratic reform, an overseas group said yesterday.
Liu Jie (
After battling authorities in Heilongjiang Province over her confiscated dairy business, 55-year-old Liu evolved into an unyielding grassroots campaigner among petitioners coming to Beijing with grievances over rights and alleged corruption.
Before the Chinese Communist Party's congress last month, she helped organize a petition demanding legal rights and democratic reforms. Liu was detained on Oct. 13.
ANNOUNCEMENT: People who do not comply with the ban after a spoken warning would be reported to the police, the airport company said on Friday Taoyuan International Airport Corp on Friday announced that riding on vehicles, including scooter-suitcases (also known as “scootcases”), bicycles, scooters and skateboards, is prohibited in the airport’s terminals. Those using such vehicles should manually pull them or place them on luggage trolleys, the company said in a Facebook post. The ban intends to maintain order and protect travelers’ safety, as the airport often sees large crowds of people, it said, adding that it has stepped up publicity for the regulation, and those who do not comply after a spoken warning would be reported to the police. The company yesterday said that
QUIET START: Nearly a week after applications opened, agencies did not announce or promote the program, nor did they explain how it differed from other visitor visas Taiwan has launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program for foreign nationals from its list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts. To apply, foreign nationals must either provide proof that they have obtained a digital nomad visa issued by another country or demonstrate earnings based on age brackets, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said. Applicants aged 20 to 29 must show they earned an annual salary of at least US$20,000 or its equivalent in one of the past two years, while those aged 30 or older must provide proof they earned US$40,000 in
UNITY MESSAGE: Rather than focusing on what Trump said on the campaign trail about Taiwan, Taipei should be willing to engage with the US, Pompeo said Taiwan plays a key role in Washington’s model of deterrence against China, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Taipei yesterday. During US president-elect Donald Trump’s first term, “we had developed what we believe was a pretty effective model of deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and values that the people of Taiwan and the people of the US hold dear,” Pompeo said at a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association. “Succeeding in continuing to build this model will not solely rest at the feet of president Trump and his team,
TECH CORRIDOR: Technology centers and science parks in the south would be linked, bolstering the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a “Southern Silicon Valley” project to promote the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industry in Chiayi County, Tainan, Pingtung County and Kaohsiung. The plan would build an integrated “S-shaped semiconductor industry corridor” that links technology centers and science parks in the south, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said yesterday after a Cabinet meeting. The project would bolster the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries, she said. The proposed tech corridor would be supported by government efforts to furnish computing power, workforce, supply chains and policy measures that encourage application and integration
RSS