A Chinese court yesterday sentenced a veteran dissident to seven years in jail, his son said, in the latest blow to challengers of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule.
This came just a day after US Vice President Joe Biden called for China to address a “deterioration” of its human rights record as he met activists ahead of a key visit by his Chinese counterpart.
Biden — the host for next week’s visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), who is widely tipped to be China’s next president — met on Wednesday with four advocates for human rights.
In the meeting, Biden and the activists “discussed the deterioration of China’s human rights situation, prospects for reform and recommendations for US policy,” a White House statement said.
“The vice president underscored the administration’s belief in the universality of human rights and its commitment to human rights as a fundamental part of our foreign policy,” it said.
“He reiterated his view that greater openness and protection of universal rights is the best way to promote innovation, prosperity and stability in all countries, including China,” it said.
The White House said Biden met Li Xiaorong (李曉蓉), a founding member of the group Human Rights in China; Benjamin Liebman, a Columbia University expert on China’s legal system; Zha Jianying, an expert on Chinese media and pop culture, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
In China, Zhu Yufu (朱虞夫) was jailed for “inciting subversion of state power” by a court in Hangzhou, a city in eastern China, after a trial hearing on Jan. 31 when prosecutors cited a poem and messages he sent on the Internet, his son Zhu Ang (朱昂) said by telephone.
“The court verdict said this was a serious crime that deserved stern punishment,” said Zhu Ang, 31, who was allowed to attend the hearing with his mother.
“Now my mother is terribly upset, even if we saw this coming,” Zhu Ang said.
He said the verdict cited his father’s online calls for mobilization in the name of democracy.
“Basically, the only chance that my father had to say anything was when he was being taken out after the hearing, and he stopped and said: ‘I want to appeal.’”
Xi, who is nearly certain to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as CCP leader later this year and as state president early next year, leaves for Washington on Monday.
Xi is likely to face US criticism over China’s clampdown in restive Tibetan areas after a series of self-immolation protests.
At a briefing about Xi’s trip, Chinese Vice Deputy Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) indicated his government would not welcome being publicly criticized by the administration of US President Barack Obama over rights.
“The problem now is that internationally there are some people who always grab hold of the human-rights banner when they want to speak ill of China,” Cui said. “I think that this is abusing the notion of human rights.”
The sentencing of Zhu, who turns 59 this month, followed the jailing of two other Chinese dissidents in December on subversion charges.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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