Zhu was arrested in April 2011 as China began a wide-ranging clampdown on dissent in order to nip in the bud any attempt by Chinese pro-democracy activists to show support for the Arab spring.
Zhu Yufu is a veteran activist who was involved in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement. He has been jailed twice before for his activism, in 1999 for seven years and in 2007 for two years.
The incriminating poem is titled It’s Time. A verse reads, "It's time, Chinese people!/ The square belongs to everyone/ The feet are yours/ It's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice.”
Zhu's lawyer Li said that the dissident is not involved in any online campaign to bring the Arab uprising to China. Nevertheless, fear of contagion has led Chinese authorities to round up dissidents and silence free voices before next March session of the National People’s Congress.
The government’s obsession with social stability and the various human rights violations that follow have drawn international criticism.
US Ambassador to China Gary Locke warned that the situation was getting worse, a claim rejected by Beijing. China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, said, “attaches great importance to promoting and protecting the fundamental rights and interests of people of all ethnic groups, including the freedom of expression and of religion."
In addition to dozens of pro-democracy dissidents who are in and out of prisons and courts, the Chinese government continues to hold three Catholic bishops and six Catholic priests in secret prisons for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
In order to obtain their release, AsiaNews has launched a campaign on their behalf. Click here to find out.
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