China: Hu Jia tried for subversion, verdict expected soon

Hu Jia stood trial Tuesday on charges of subversion.

His lawyers revealed that prosecutors focused on Hu Jia publishing six articles on boxun.com and talking to two overseas media outlets.

Hu Jia didn’t deny these charges during the trial, and his lawyers tried to defend him from the perspective of freedom of speech.

Lawyer Li Fangping said: “We don’t deny the facts listed in the charges, they are in fact what Hu Jia has written and said.”

“But first of all we think freedom of speech must be respected. Second, we think there is conflict between freedom of speech listed in the Chinese Constitution and the charges of incitement to subversion listed in the Chinese Criminal Code. There is a huge gap between us and the prosecutors on how we understand those two things.”

Newsdesk: Crackdown continues in Lhasa

“The Chinese police, backed by the People’s Armed Police are raiding Tibetan houses in the Lhasa area. They are looking for residential permits and if anyone doesn’t have resident permits, they are taken away without reason. Even those Tibetans who do not have residential permits but who are suspected for any reason, are taken away.

For example, around 10 pm on March 15th a group of 15 to 20 police backed by PAP with protective riot gear started raiding Tibetan houses. One family from Kham Tsawa Pasho whose father is Kalsang Gyaltsen was raided. He has two sons, Locho and Jhampa, and a daughter. The daughter had a residence permit and other family members had applied for permits but approval was still pending.

Newsdesk: Tibetan update from Ngaba, Sichuan

From RFA Mandarin service reporter Ding Xiao in Hong Kong:

According to RFA, several Tibetan herdsmen protested in Jiuzhi County, Qinghai province Monday, but some lamas at the local monastery dissuaded them from becoming more radical.

The authorities sent troops to Jiuzhi over night and declared a curfew. A Tibetan in Jiuzhi said: “At first there was a demonstration, then (the Tibetans) destroyed shops. Lamas came over to persuade them not to riot. All participants were Tibetan herdsmen, about two or three hundred.”

“Police rushed to the scene but the protesters destroyed police car. There is no demonstration today (Tuesday). All demonstrators dispersed last night around six or seven o’clock. The troops arrived at six o’clock this morning. The streets are now full of soldiers. From 6:30 in the morning, (the authorities) banned people from going outside. All stores have been closed and you cannot go shopping.”

Newsdesk: Uyghurs support Tibetan cause

Many remote areas of the Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai plateau are home to large Tibetan populations, many of whom are nomads. Tibet also has an internal border with China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, who also deeply resent Beijing’s rule. Here, their most prominent opponent of the Chinese regime, speaks out on Tibet for the first time:

The World Uyghur Congress condemns China’s use of military force against the peaceful Tibetan protesters in Lhasa and other provinces, and calls upon Chinese leaders to start constructive negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to seek a peaceful political solution to the problem.

Newsdesk: China bars media, foreigners from Tibetan areas

Monday, March 17, 2008

“There are about 2,000 students in the Tibetan studies department of the Central Minorities University in Beijing—about 40 of them staged a silent protest to mourn the people killed or injured in other parts of Tibet. The police came in, and they are being held now in their classrooms.”—Protest participant in Beijing

“The authorities in Madro Gonkar and Taktse, in Phenpo, have closed the schools in these areas—after the students protested over the last two days.”—Tibetan in Canada, who spoke with relatives in Tibet

Newsdesk: Tibetan protests spread into western China

Some of the most remote areas of the Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai plateau are home to extensive Tibetan populations, many of whom are nomadic tribes.

In Gansu

“Tibetan students in the Tibetan language department of North West National University of Lanzhou, in Gansu, staged a peaceful demonstration on the school grounds. More than 1,000 Tibetan students took part, and Tibetan students from other departments tried to join in but were blocked. They declared that their protest was peaceful, and they urged the Chinese authorities to stop their crackdown on Tibetans in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas.”

“They also expressed solidarity with those Tibetans who protested in Lhasa, Labrang, and others outside Tibet. They had a banner that read, ‘We stand together with Tibetans, for glorious democracy and life.”

Newsdesk: Police open fire on Tibetans in Lhasa

KATHMANDU—–Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters in Lhasa on Friday, killing at least two people, as Tibetans torched cars and shops and anti-Chinese demonstrators surged through the streets of the regional capital, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

Witnesses who spoke to RFA’’s Tibetan service reported seeing two bodies in the central Barkor area of Lhasa, while unconfirmed reports set the death toll higher.

“There was shooting and death,” another Tibetan source told RFA’’s Mandarin service, adding, “”It’s not convenient to speak on the phone”.”

“Now the local Tibetans are protesting in the Barkor area,” a third Tibetan source said, referring to a central area in Lhasa. “They ransacked Chinese shops and the police fired live ammunition into the crowd. No one is allowed to move around in Lhasa now.”

China: Population controls to stay in place

 

Translated by Chen Ping.

计生委会主任表示计划生育政策不会调整

RFA Washington – Han Qing reports on March 10:

China’s National Family Planning Committee Chairman Zhang Weiqing recently said the present family planning policy of China would not change. He said in the next decade, China’s birth rate will be surging, forming a small upwards curve in population increase projections. If China changes birth control policy now, there will be even more people around compared with the small surge currently predicted.

Newsdesk: Hu Jia’s trial is on Tuesday

Hu’s lawyer Li Fangping told RFA’s Cantonese service:

“They (the court) officially notified us tonight that Hu’s case will be tried next Tuesday [at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court]. The indictment is very simple, consisting only of two sentences. The charge is ‘incitement to subvert state power’.”

China: UPDATED-Hu Jia indicted for subversion

UPDATE: from RFA’s Mandarin service [独家报道：律师拿到对胡佳“涉嫌煽动颠覆国家政权罪”起诉书]

HONG KONG—Authorities in Beijing have formally charged AIDS activist Hu Jia with “incitement to subversion” after he wrote articles online critical of China’s hosting of the Olympics, his lawyers said.

Baby Under House Arrest: Hu Qianci at four months. Courtesy of Zeng Jinyan’s blog.