Statement on Xu Zhiyong Sentence |
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Real China |
Citizen Power for China |
We strongly condemn China’s ruling regime for sentencing, on January 26th, 2014, internationally respected scholar and rights activist Xu Zhiyong to four years of imprisonment. The conviction for “gathering a crowd to disturb public order” represents a shameful escalation of the Communist leadership’s suppression of the citizen movement demanding the public disclosure of government officials’ assets, a universally accepted practice for preventing government corruption in all civilized countries worldwide. Regime's lofty promisesThe Communist leadership regrettably excludes Xu Zhiyong and those like him from their vision of the “Chinese Dream”. In viewing citizen movements as a disturbance and threat to their authoritarian ambitions, the ruling elites have overwhelmingly suppressed citizen actions and thereby inviting the public’s outraged reactions. The reality of the regime’s relentless suppression is a cautionary tale to those who remember newly installed Xi Jinping’s lofty anti-corruption promises. A country can never bloom under those lacking integrity and trustworthiness. Under Communist rule, corrupt officials have accumulated to the hundreds of thousands, citizen rights are mercilessly abused, economic rights and public interests are shamelessly exploited, and the state apparatus has made its own people “enemies” to maintain the ruling elite’s hold on power. Dissidents, independent intellectuals, defense lawyers, peasants, and victims of forced land seizure and demolitions, victims of forced abortions, veterans, Tibetans, Ugyhurs, Inner Mongolians, Christians, Falungong practioners, and many more have all become the opposition forces to the Chinese regime and its political system. Citizen Power for China (aka Initiatives for China) |