Radio Free Asia
August 8, 2013
Detained civil rights activist Xu Zhiyong, who is being held at a Beijing detention center on public order charges after calling on China’s leaders to reveal their assets, has called on ordinary Chinese to take a stand to protect the rights of citizens.
In a video message filmed secretly from behind bars at the Beijing No. 3 Detention Center, Xu said he is willing to take the consequences of his activism, and called on others to do the same.
“I call on everyone to be an … outspoken citizen who exercises their rights which are guaranteed under the Constitution,” Xu said.
He said the charges of “disturbing public order” were linked to his activism on behalf of educational rights for the children of migrant workers, as well as his calls for transparency surrounding the wealth of ruling Communist Party officials.
“There must always be people who pay the price of social progress. I am willing to pay that price in the cause of freedom, social justice, love, and faith,” Xu said.
He said China needs “brave citizens” who will stand up for the rights of ordinary people as enshrined in Chinese law.
“As long as we are united, and work together to take [these rights] seriously and together promote democracy, equality, justice, and the rule of law … we will be able to build a beautiful, free China,” Xu said in the video message.
Supporter also detained
The message comes days after veteran journalist Chen Min was whisked from Beijing by China’s state security police after campaigning for Xu’s release.
Chen, best known by his pen name Xiao Shu, was detained by Beijing’s state security police on Friday and taken back to his hometown of Guangzhou at the weekend.
Chen told RFA’s Cantonese Service on Thursday that Xu’s friends and fellow activists are concerned for his safety while in detention, and said that many of them had themselves been called in for questioning by China’s state security police.
“We are still hanging in there and persevering, and we will continue to [act] peacefully,” Chen said. “Such are the traits of a citizen, and I think that what Xu said in his video exemplified the spirit of citizenship.”
“Of course, it’s very worrying that he hasn’t got out yet, that he hasn’t regained his freedom.”
Meanwhile, Xu’s friend Wang Gongquan said in a tweet on Monday that he had received a visit from police in his home district of Haidian, in the west of Beijing.
However, calls to Wang’s phone rang unanswered on Thursday.
Open letter
Shandong rights lawyer Liu Weiguo said that he had received a number of text messages from the authorities since he signed an open letter calling for Xu’s release, and that he knew of five people who had been questioned by police after signing it.
Xu was detained by Beijing police in July on charges of disrupting public order, in a widening crackdown on activists who have called on government leaders to declare their assets, activists and lawyers said at the time.
The authorities have detained Xu and 15 other activists who have called on China’s leaders to reveal details of their assets since March, rights activists estimate.
A teacher at the Beijing Postal University who has served as a delegate to the Haidian district-level People’s Congress, Xu has also been active in fighting for the rights of the children of migrant workers to be educated and to sit exams in the capital.
His pro-democracy group, the Open Constitution Initiative, was banned after Xu was targeted by the authorities for “tax evasion” in 2009. He has been repeatedly called in for questioning and held under house arrest since then.
