Foreign scholars protest China policies
BEIJING --More than 50 leading scholars and rights campaigners from the United States, Europe, and Australia have issued a rare public protest of Chinese policies, sending an open letter to President Hu Jintao asking him to stop the harassment of human rights activists.
The Sept. 29 open letter posted on the Web site of the New York-based Human Rights Watch organization chiefly bore the signatures of some 40 well-known China scholars, including the Council on Foreign Relations' Jerome Cohen, Harvard's Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Yahuda of the London School of Economics.
"We note with concern the sharp increase in official retaliation against such advocates and their families through persistent harassment, banishment, detention, arrest and imprisonment," the letter said. "We ... write to urge your commitment to ensuring the civil rights of advocates for social justice."
A call to the offices of the State Council -- China's Cabinet -- went unanswered on the third day of a weeklong official holiday marking the annual National Day festivities.
The Foreign Ministry said it was studying the contents of the letter.
Foreign China scholars have rarely spoken out about human rights abuses in China, partly out of concern for their access to the country.
In their appeal, the scholars said Chinese actions toward human rights activists called into question "China's oft-stated commitment to a rule of law."
They said cases involving activists Gao Zhisheng, Chen Guangcheng, Zhao Yan and Hu Jia were particularly troubling because China appeared to be using "state secrets laws to prevent defendants in politically sensitive cases from exercising their rights to fair and impartial hearings."
Gao, a human rights lawyer, was seized by security officers in Shandong province on Aug. 15 on suspicion of involvement in what the official Xinhua News Agency called "criminal activities." He remains under arrest.
Chen, a blind legal activist, was sentenced on Aug. 24 to four years and three months in prison for allegedly organizing a mob to disturb traffic and for willfully damaging public property.
Zhao, a researcher for the
Hu, an activist specializing in environmental and HIV/AIDS issues, has been under house arrest since mid-July for alleged "criminal activities."
The scholars alleged he was being persecuted for his "ongoing attempts to investigate and publicize the disappearances and detentions of other rights activists."
The signers represented a cross-section of China specialists, coming from different disciplines and of both liberal and conservative views.
Some have clashed previously with Chinese authorities over critical or controversial work. Columbia University's Andrew Nathan and Princeton's Perry Link, for example, edited The Tiananmen Papers, an alleged inside account of the Chinese leadership's response to and ultimate quelling of the 1989 democracy protests.
Other signers outside of academia included Robert Bernstein, the retired chairman of publishing giant Random House long involved in human rights activism, and Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who served as chief prosecutor for the U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
