Pékin2008

Chinese human rights activists whose own rights have been violated

Hu Jia, 34, a political and human rights activist since the early 1990s, was charged with inciting subversion of state authorities on 18 March 2008. The court has not yet issued its verdict but it seems he will get a prison sentence, possibly as much as five years. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, is also an activist and was included on Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 must influential people in 2005.

After becoming involved in environmental causes and then in HIV/AIDS, both preventing it by means of public information and helping those who have it, Hu quickly expanded the scope of his activism. In 2004, he was arbitrarily detained for calling for an investigation into the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen student demonstrations and for reparations for the victims and their families. He also formed a support network for human rights lawyers.

Zeng also became very involved in the cause of lawyers and people with AIDS. She founded her own organisation, Aiyuan, which builds bridges between university students and AIDS orphans in rural areas. Their creative methods of action and campaigning have had a considerable impact on a changing society.

In March 2006, the police arrested Hu, mistreated him, put a hood over his head and took him to a hotel on the outskirts of Beijing where they held him incommunicado in a room for 41 days. He was then placed under house arrest for nearly eight months in 2006 and most of 2007. In the course of her campaigning for his release, Zeng joined a group of women whose husbands or loved-ones have been imprisoned because of their commitment to human rights. While her husband is being held, Zeng is constantly followed and her movements are restricted.

Despite all these forms of harassment, Hu and Zeng have continued to be active and to circulate their thoughts and ideas from home, by means of the Internet.

The 2008 Olympic Games collective calls on the Chinese authorities to release Hu and to put a stop to their harassment of Zeng.