Qin Yongmin
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Qin Yongmin () (born 11 August 1953) is a Chinese author, political commentator, human rights activist and co-founder of the Democratic Party of China. Qin was a worker of Wuhan Steel Corporation. At the end of the 1970s, he edited and published "The Bell", a journal in Wuhan promoting democracy. In 1980, he participated in establishing "The preparatory group of the
Democracy Party of China The China Democracy Party (CDP; ), also known as the Democracy Party of China (DPC), is a political party that started in the People's Republic of China, and was banned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The history of the DPC and its foundatio ...
". He was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to eight years in prison for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement sin". He was released from prison in 1989. Qin participated in the launch of the "Peace Charter" movement in Beijing on 14 January 1993. He was the drafter of "Peace Charter", the first program for a democracy movement in China after 1949. The charter demanded redress for the suppression of the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...
and release of
political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...
. Qin was then convicted of the crime of "disturbing social order" and sentenced to two years'
re-education through labor Re-education through labor (RTL; zh, s=劳动教养, t=勞動教養, p=láodòng jiàoyǎng), abbreviated ''laojiao'' ( zh, s=劳教, t=勞教, p=láojiào, links=no) was a system of administrative detention in the People's Republic of China ...
. In 1997, Qin published an open letter to
Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Mil ...
, demanding the
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
carry out political reform in China in order to achieve constitutional democracy. He founded "The Communication of PRC Human Rights Watch" in Wuhan in 1998, and published hundreds of reports on
human rights in China Human rights in the People's Republic of China are poor, as per reviews by international bodies, such as human rights treaty bodies and the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), th ...
. In the same year, Qin publicly established the Hubei Province Committee of The Democracy Party of China. He was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison for "subversion of state power". Mackerras, Colin (2001). ''The New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China''. In 1999, while incarcerated, Qin was elected as one of four co-chairmen of the Democracy Party of China. The same year, Qin and DPC members Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai were rumored to be nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
, although the claims were denied by the
Nobel Committee A Nobel Committee is a working body responsible for most of the work involved in selecting Nobel Prize laureates. There are six awarding committees from four institutions, one for each Nobel Prize. Five of these committees are working bodies ...
. Qin Yongmin was released from prison in November 2010. Qin continued his promotion of democracy and human rights in China. He was detained without trial numerous times. Due to his views that China should allow freedom of speech, publication, association, and the exercise of all basic human rights, including organizing political parties, for decades Qin has been subjected to imprisonment, arrest, criminal and administrative detention, re-education through labor and residential surveillance. In the 43 years from 1970 to 2012, he was arrested or detained 39 times, sentenced to imprisonment for a total of 22 years, and become one of the longest-serving political prisoners in the People's Republic of China. He has stated that he will not leave China until constitutional democracy has been realized. At the end of another three years in detention, Qin was sentenced, in July 2018, to 13 years in prison for "subversion of state power". While conceding that Qin had not engaged in any act of violence, the court listed his crimes: he had written articles and published a book in Hong Kong advocating a peaceful transition to democracy for China and had issued statements, organized pro-democracy groups and organized shared meals and meetings.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qin, Yongmin 1953 births Living people Chinese activists Chinese dissidents Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China