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Chinese anti-corruption activist Xu Zhiyong goes on trial Chinese anti-corruption activist Xu Zhiyong goes on trial
(about 3 hours later)
The founder of a grassroots movement to boost accountability for China's officials has gone on trial on charges of disrupting public order, but stayed silent during the closed-door proceedings in protest, his lawyer said. The leading activist Xu Zhiyong was tried at a Beijing court on Wednesday morning in China's most high-profile dissident trial in years.
The trial of the New Citizens founder, Xu Zhiyong, reflects determination by President Xi Jinping's administration to quash the activists before they can challenge Communist party rule, even though their goals largely overlap with the party's stated intention to root out public corruption. Inside the closed hearing, the legal scholar reportedly refused to speak as a last-ditch protest against perceived judicial unfairness; outside, police harassed foreign journalists and broke up a small gathering of Xu's supporters, bundling at least three of them into vans.
"If it is a crime to demand a clean government, to ask officials to declare assets and to demand equity in education, then how can this country have equality and justice?" said Du Guowang, an activist for education equity with no link to the movement. "This government has no confidence, but is fearful." Xu was the leader of the New Citizens Movement, a loose-knit grassroots organisation that aimed to promote government transparency and rule of law. He was arrested in July 2013 after organising small demonstrations urging government officials to disclose their assets. Although China's top leader, Xi Jinping, has promised transparency as a hallmark of his early tenure, authorities retaliated by arresting 17 group members, betraying a zero-tolerance line on dissent.
Xu has participated in small public rallies that have, among other issues, called for officials to declare their assets as a way of curbing graft – something party leaders have expressed willingness to consider, but have resisted. Xu stands accused of "assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place", which could carry a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Since April 2013, authorities have detained about 17 people linked to the New Citizens movement, putting three of them on trial in the south-eastern province of Jiangxi in late 2013. No verdict has been issued for the Jiangxi trials. Xu's lawyer Zhang Qingfan said Xu refused to speak in court, a protest against judicial authorities' refusal to allow the majority of his hand-picked witnesses to testify. "This court is not just so I will maintain my silence," Xu said to the judge, Zhang told Reuters.
Wednesday's trial against Xu opened the second round of prosecution. At least six other activists will appear in court on Thursday and Friday in Beijing. Political and legal observers believe all will be found guilty and jailed for several years. Chinese courts will try seven more New Citizens Movement activists over the next two days. Three stood trial in China's south-east in December, but have not yet been sentenced.
The US embassy in Beijing on Wednesday called for the immediate release of Xu, saying the prosecution was "retribution for his public campaign to expose official corruption and for the peaceful expression of his views". On Wednesday morning, scattered crowds of plainclothes and uniformed police blocked the roads surrounding the Beijing No 1 intermediate people's court in the city's far west, where Xu was being tried.
More than a dozen diplomats from the US, EU, Britain, Canada and Australia turned up to attend the trial but were told the courtroom was too small to accommodate them, and that foreign nationals have no place in a case against a Chinese national, according to the diplomats. Two blocks away, about two dozen supporters gathered near an outdoor shopping plaza and held banners demanding Xu's release. "Xu Zhiyong is innocent!" shouted Tian Lan, a 61-year-old demonstrator from Hebei province. "Right now, government officials are taking all of their wealth and transferring it abroad. All Xu Zhiyong did was demand that they declare their assets. He did nothing wrong."
Raphael Droszewski, a first secretary of the European Union diplomatic delegation to China, said a group of 17 diplomats had attempted to gain access to the court, but were rebuffed. "They said that Xu Zhiyong is not a foreigner, so there was no reason for us to be there," he said. "The EU is deeply concerned about these cases – the Xu Zhiyong case, and the ones that will happen later this week."
At about 10.30am, police grabbed at least three demonstrators and forced them into vans. Plainclothes police also physically harassed a number of foreign television journalists; at least one was briefly detained.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, defended the trial at a regular press briefing on Wednesday afternoon. "Xu Zhiyong is suspected of a crime, and the relevant departments of China are already trying him in accordance with the law. This is a reflection of China's judicial independence," he said.
"From what I know, these journalists were ignoring the multiple warnings of local managing personnel, and so they were taken away," Qin added. "We understand their need to have interviews, but I also hope they can respect China's laws and regulations, or else there will be disorder and chaos."
Xu, a legal scholar and former university professor, is well-known in China for fighting against China's gravest systemic injustices on a case-by-case basis, rather than confronting them head-on. He has campaigned for death row inmates, rural children deprived of the same educational opportunities as their urban counterparts, and families affected by a tainted milk scandal that gripped the nation in 2008. He is a former law lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications.
Wednesday's hearing was China's highest-profile dissident trial since Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel peace prize, was tried for subversion in 2009.
Hu Jia, a prominent dissident and friend of Xu, said police had warned him not to attend the hearing, though they did not explain why. He said authorities were growing increasingly savvy in playing down sensitive political cases, adding that a few years ago, Xu would have probably been tried for subversion.
"Previous subversion charges for dissidents such as Gao Zhisheng, Liu Xiaobo and me all led to us being nominated for the Nobel peace prize," he said. "A subversion charge in this case would only bring it more international attention."