China yesterday sentenced an activist known by the online pseudonym “Super Vulgar Butcher” to eight years in prison, one of the harshest punishments meted out to the group of lawyers and activists swept up in a major crackdown on civil society two years ago.
The punishment handed to Wu Gan (吳淦), who refused to plead guilty to charges of “subverting state power,” was intended as an unmistakable signal to anyone who would dare to challenge the state’s authority, his lawyer said.
Wu was taken into custody in May 2015 just weeks before authorities unleashed a ruthless campaign later dubbed the “709” crackdown, rounding up more than 200 people involved in activities considered sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party.
Photo: AP
The outspoken social media figure had attracted authorities’ attention with performance art and caustic commentary on Chinese society and politics that he published online.
A court in Tianjin said Wu was “dissatisfied with the current system of governance, and that gradually produced thoughts of subverting state power.”
By “hyping up hot incidents ... [Wu] attacked the national system that is the basis for state authority and the constitution,” it said.
Wu also “spread fake information” and “insulted others online,” the statement said.
The prominent activist became the subject of the state’s ire for using his larger-than-life online persona to draw public attention to human rights cases.
He called himself “butcher” because he saw himself as taking the fight to the authorities, promising to “slaughter the pigs.”
He later added “super vulgar” to his handle in response to complaints about his use of crude language to make his case.
His bold approach to seeking justice for those he saw as wronged by the government attracted praise from rights defenders, but was unpopular with the authorities, who saw him as a thorn in their side.
He was “a representative figure in leading actions to support other human rights defenders and significant human rights cases outside court,” said Patrick Poon (潘嘉偉), a China researcher at Amnesty International.
Wu’s lawyer, Yan Xin (燕薪), said the sentence was aimed at setting “an example so other activists will say they are guilty when accused of crimes against the state.”
“It’s clear [Wu] was sentenced so harshly because he refused to plead guilty,” he said.
The government’s message to dissidents was highlighted by a very different sentence passed down on the same day for another figure who was also caught up in the “709” crackdown.
A court in Changsha exempted former human rights lawyer Xie Yang (謝陽) from serving a sentence after he pleaded guilty to “inciting subversion of state power.”
He had worked on numerous politically sensitive cases, such as defending mainland supporters of Hong Kong democracy activists.
Xie was released on bail in May after what critics described as a show trial.
Xie had previously claimed that police used “sleep deprivation, long interrogations, beatings, death threats, humiliations” on him, allegations that became the focus of a rare letter by a number of Western embassies in Beijing directly criticizing the government’s handling of the case.
However, he yesterday denied he had been tortured, according to a video on the court’s official social media account.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS