Tan Zuoren
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Tan Zuoren (born May 15, 1954) is a Chinese environmentalist, writer and former editor of ''Literati'' magazine (文化人).Chinadigitaltimes.com.
Chinadigitaltimes.com
" ''Cui Weiping (崔卫平): Self-initiated and Idealistic Thinking and Action.'' Retrieved on August 12, 2009.
On February 9, 2010, Zuoren was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "
inciting subversion of state power In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but ma ...
."
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
Asia-Pacific Deputy Director said: "His arrest, unfair trial and now the guilty verdict are further disturbing examples of how the Chinese authorities use vague and over broad laws to silence and punish dissenting voices." Due to the nature of the charges and circumstances of the trial, he has been described as a political prisoner.


2009 court case

After the
2008 Sichuan earthquake An earthquake occurred in the province of Sichuan, China at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 (7.9–8.3 ), the earthquake's epicenter was located boxing the compass, west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial ...
Tan came up with a proposal called the "5.12 Student Archive" (5·12学生档案) asking people who lost their children in the quake to set up a victim
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
. But for his trouble, Chengdu police searched his home and confiscated his DVDs, manuscripts and documents. Tan coined the expression「豆腐渣」( tofu dreg project) to describe the shoddy construction quality of Sichuan schools. On March 28, 2009, he was detained on allegations for
subversion Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to sabotage the established social order and its structures of Power (philosophy), power, authority, tradition, h ...
of state power. Tan Zuoren was formally accused of defaming 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 ...
in email comments about the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre 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 ...
. According to the indictment, On August 12, 2009, his trial in
Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...
,
Sichuan province Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...
was held.Reuters.com.
Reuters.com
" ''Witnesses held as China quake activist trial starts.'' Retrieved on August 12, 2009.
Tan's lawyer
Pu Zhiqiang Pu Zhiqiang (born 17 January 1965) is a Chinese civil rights lawyer who specialises in press freedom, defamation, and product safety, and other issues. Based in Beijing, he is an executive partner of the Huayi Law Firm. Pu is known for being a ...
said that "The authorities getting their hands on your witness list and then harassing the witnesses and locking them away, that's a disgrace for the courts in China. But it is the status quo of our judicial system, I think they are doing that because they are afraid." Tan Zuoren's defense lawyers Xia Lin and Pu Zhiqiang in their defense summation told the court that: Contemporary artist
Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been ...
, who travelled to Chengdu to testify, said he and 10 other volunteers were woken up by police entering their hotel rooms at 3 am dawn on August 12. He was beaten up and prevented from leaving until after the trial adjourned. Amnesty International said he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake. Ai alleged, "they were like gangs in a movie, they could do whatever they wanted. It was very scary." Tan's trial began a week after another earthquake activist,
Huang Qi Huang Qi ( zh, c=黃琦, p=Huáng Qí, born 7 April 1963) is a Chinese webmaster and human rights activist from Sichuan. He is the co-founder of Tianwang Center for Missing Persons (later renamed the ''Tianwang Human Rights Center''), along w ...
, was tried on state secrets charges in Chengdu; he was convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment on November 23, 2009. Tan's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang said the report on the earthquake all show his investigation is objective and scientific. Hong Kong's
now TV Now (formerly Now TV and often stylised as NOW) is a subscription over-the-top streaming television service launched in the United Kingdom in 2012. It is operated by Sky Group in Europe, and Xfinity in the US; both owned by the American media ...
aired footage of Chengdu police searching the luggage and hotel rooms of two of its journalists, who were prevented from leaving the hotel for seven hours, while police said they looked for drugs. Footage of security forces manhandling reporters was also shown widely on television news.


2010 appeal

On June 9, 2010, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court rejected his appeal. The sentence of 5 years in jail and 3 years deprived of political rights was upheld.


2014 release

Zuoren was released on March 27, 2014 "under a kind of probation - he doesn't have the right to speak up", according to Ai.Tan Zuoren verdict, Chengdu City Intermediate Court
''China News Digest''


See also

* Hu Jia *
Weiquan movement The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movemen ...
*
Corruption in China Corruption in China can refer to corruption in Imperial China, Republic of China or in the People's Republic of China. Corruption is a significant problem in the People's Republic of China, impacting all aspects of administration, law enforceme ...


References


External links


Tan's blog

川震公民調查拒絕遺忘
,張潔平,亚洲周刊二十三卷十五期,2009年4月
彭州石化危害成都城市安全
,譚作人,2008年11月30日,亚洲周刊
譚作人被禁制的最後陳述
亞洲週刊二十三卷四十七期 (2009-11-29)

* ttp://news.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/6/1/1/1424195/1.html 豆腐渣工程罪魁逍遙法外 譚作人追查反被以言入罪 2010-02-10
四川維權人士譚作人被判刑五年
國際特赦組織:...中國當局運用「模糊和過於廣義的法律壓制和懲罰不同意見的手法」 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Zuoren Chinese activists Chinese dissidents Chinese environmentalists Living people 1954 births Writers from Chengdu Weiquan movement Prisoners and detainees of China 21st-century Chinese journalists