China gives Web writer suspended sentence
HONG KONG -- Du Daobin, a high-profile Chinese Internet essayist who was convicted of "subverting state power," received a suspended sentence from a Chinese court yesterday and was allowed to return home for the first time since he was arrested eight months ago.
"I'm so excited to see him again," Du's wife, Xia Chunrong, said in a telephone interview. "He has lost some weight but is in quite good spirits. Our son was so happy to see his father."
The court sentenced Du, 41, to three years in prison for his activism, but suspended the penalty.
Although Du's family couldn't be happier with the relatively light sentence, human rights and free-speech activists said the government's use of state-security charges and restrictions on Du's future activities left little to celebrate.
"This will send a chilling message to all those who use the Internet as a forum for expression," said Nicholas Becquelin, the Hong Kong-based research director of Human Rights in China. "It tears down the myth that freedom of the Internet is pushing forward in China."
Du will be allowed to remain at home, assuming he does not appeal. If Du accepts the court's decision, he must report to the public security bureau weekly for the next four years and refrain from giving interviews, traveling, or writing on the Internet -- the only medium not fully under government control -- without prior approval.
Du was convicted, according to the official New China News Agency, of "overtly instigating and subverting the state power and slander" for filing 26 essays online between 2002 and October 2003.
The news service added that the court was lenient with Du because he "was quite cooperative during interrogation."
Du's lawyer Mo Shaoping objected to the sentence and the suggestion that his client was guilty.
"He's only using his constitution-endowed right of freedom of speech," Mo said. "He's written over 300 articles of over 1.5 million words on the Internet, yet the government picks out 26 articles and accuses him on that basis."
Analysts attributed Du's relatively lenient sentence to pressure applied to Beijing by foreign governments and international civic groups. Du attracted widespread attention for challenging the government's authority to control expression.
