Imprisonment on the Rise...

But human rights groups – and at least 3,000 Chinese who recently signed a petition for the release of Liu Di, who was imprisoned for posting messages critical of the government during an online chat room session, according to the Amnesty news release – are fearful that such control will only lead to more arrests. Though Liu was recently released, at least five of the signatories have since been detained, and at least four remain in prison, Amnesty said.

According to the Zittrain and Edelman study, China’s censorship focuses most heavily on eight areas: dissident and democracy sites, health sites, education sites, news sites, foreign government sites, Taiwanese and Tibetan sites, entertainment sites, and religion sites. The study found, for example, that over 60% of Tibet-related sites are blocked. Despite this, China denies it is quashing expressions of Tibetan culture online.

“Special funds have been allocated from both the central and local government budgets for…Internet websites in the Tibetan language,” according to a 2003 human rights report posted on the Chinese embassy website.

Similarly, the Zittrain/Edelman study found that almost 50% of all Taiwan-related sites were blocked, frustrating Taiwanese officials.

“It is not surprising for a totalitarian regime to block the free flow of information,” a spokesman for the US based Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), a group whose goal is to promote better understanding between Taiwan and the United States said. “For years, communist China has tried every effort to block Taiwan from the international community.”

“Even though I have long heard about China’s blockade of the internet, I am in shock to learn the situation [involving internet-related arrests] is so severe,” said John Chi of the TECO in New York City. “It is quite obvious that Communist China is afraid of the outcome of keeping free flow of information via the internet - a full-fledged democracy.”

Those imprisoned or otherwise detained for internet activism in China have been sentenced to between two and twelve years in prison for “subversion” or “endangering state security” and include businessmen, students, civil servants, police officers, engineers, teachers, writers, and lawyers according to the Amnesty news release.

“They have been accused of various ‘offences,’ including signing online petitions, calling for reform and an end to corruption, planning to set up a pro-democracy party, publishing ‘rumors about SARS,’ communicating with groups abroad, opposing the persecution of the Falun Gong and calling for a review of the 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy protests,” Amnesty said.

“We consider them all to be prisoners of conscience and reiterate our calls to the Chinese authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally,” Amnesty said.

“From our data, it appears that the set of sites blocked in China is by no means static,” the Zittrain/Edelman study reports. “Whoever maintains the lists is actively updating them, and certain general-interest high-profile sites whose content changes frequently appear to be blocked and unblocked as those changes are evaluated.”

© 2004 The NewStandard.

See also: Amnesty International UK: China: E-repression leads to dramatic rise in those imprisoned for expressing opinions online

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