Hiding in Words

Yang Jia Executed WITHOUT FAIR TRIAL

Attorney Liu Xiaoyuan posted on his blog that Yang Jia’s mother had been notified by two Shanghai judges that the Supreme Court reviewed and approved Yang Jia be executed. According to China’s Criminal Procedure Law, the execution shall be committed within 7 days after Supreme Court [*] approval.

Yang Jia killed 6 police officers at Zhabei District police station in Shanghai on July 1, 2008. Then his trial was postponed in order not to damage the image of Beijing Olympics. He was sentenced to death in August through an close-door procedure, the police and the court both wanted to stay low-profile on this matter. Then his death sentence was confirmed in appeal in October and submitted to Supreme Court for review & approval.

Yang Jia was not given a fair trial. It was not thoroughly investigated whether Yang Jia was maltreated by the police previously (could be the cause of Yang’s revenge). The lawyer that Yang Jia’s father (Yang’s parents divorced) hired were denied, and the government appointed another lawyer that, according to the court, agreed by Yang Jia himself. Besides, Yang Jia’s mother had been held in a mental institution for 132 days by Beijing police.

In any case, it is almost certain that Yang Jia would definitely be sentenced to death, as daring to stabbing so many people is a felony, let alone Yang’s killing could be interpret as a symbol of challenging the government establishment through violence. That is why the court is so eager to execute Yang Jia without a fair trial.

* On the front page of Chinese Supreme Court’s website, the yellow characters read: “party cause first, interest of the people first, constitution and laws first”. So, constitution & laws don’t really come first, but the third.

PS: Amnesty International is calling to stop Yang Jia’s execution.

Updated on Nov 26: Yang Jia was executed this morning in Shanghai. China’s Supreme Court issued death penalty review on 21st, and was delayed & delivered yesterday evening. During this delay, the court hypocritically arranged that Yang’s mother meet with Yang Jia, when the news of death penalty approval was completely kept secret. How coward is the government! via Lao Hu Miao [中文] Such cowardice of government and execution without legal ground or due process will only turn more desperate people into murderers.

Lian Yue: Pessimism is Immoral (a hasty trans)

Lian Yue is a Chinese blogger, columnist, writer, especially a liberal opinion leader. On the evening of Nov. 16, some of the participants in Cnbloggercon met in Tophour (凸凹酒吧, owned by another widely read columnist Beifeng北风). Beifeng invited Lian Yue to give a surprise, and Lian Yue did gave a good short speech.

I found the video clip of Lian Yue talking on YouTube. And I made a haste (and somewhat inaccurate) translation by taking down quick notes (think of this as a quick interpretation). It was only after I have finished this translation when I found a Chinese transcript on Tophour’s blog (you can also read this on Cnbloggercon blog). Please read my not-that-complete-or-accurate translation:

I attended a forum held by Southern Urban News (南方都市报), in which I discussed a lot with other two professors for 3 hours.

I feel the themes of this forum is quite similar with this Blogger Conference, as both focuses on the formation of civil society. And what blogging does is to foster civil society.

There are pessimistic sentiments that everything is just insignificant and meaningless. Yet, as this senior chief said to me this afternoon, in the current stage of China, pessimism is something immoral. Why don’t we hide our possible pessimism in our heart instead of talking sadly about it?

In the very early stage of social change, when the Internet first came into being, when you first began blogging, people might very easily get frustrated and believe those efforts are just meaningless, stupid and vain. If you press hard on those efforts and say there’s no point, such negative attitude might kill civil society in its infancy.

That is why I believe pessimism is immoral at this time in China.

Why all of us blog and attend this Chinese Blogger Conference where we can have a better communication? That is because we believe the power that we have and we can change the society. So please believe in yourself.

In the beginning you really don’t have power and influence, you would wonder how much power the several dozens of us have and how we can change this society. Frankly speaking nothing, for the time being.

And what is the value in it? Think you are a neutron, keep going and one year later, you would have influenced dozens of people, and one more year later, you would have influenced thousands of people.

There are some common negative attitudes that we might have. One is to say to your self, no one would listen to what I say or act like I propose anyway, and think there is in fact no point in going on.

Please remember social transformation is by no means a quick task.

In a democracy like America, very person has one and only one vote. B. Obama has one vote, G. W. Bush one; and a rich man one vote, a poor guy also one vote. If you have a blog and keep writing on it, express your opinion, that is your social responsibility and civic duty being done. Even if there are only 2 readers, your are making quite a move. A civil society would come into being by such gradual influence. Please be optimistic.

I used to say no one can save China, and whatever effort you make, that is meaningless. But after 2007, I would never say that again. We need to encourage the people who act. We shall not give them pressure. If you think a blog cannot influence very many readers or make real change, and even if you sometimes would think it is just some effort in vain, please do not say, just conceal it in your heart. If you are a pessimist by nature, and I believe quiet of few among us are, please conceal pessimism in the heart. Don’t say it.

We shall not fall victim to the delusion of persecution either. I guess quite a few among us might be somewhat persecuted. We need to learn how to keep a normal happy life.

Last year I panicked from time to time if someone is wiretapping on me. Later I began to think, it won’t be possible for the public power not to deny what it has done and listen on one’s phone who criticize the government. OK, we allow the public power such bad behavior. Don’t let it mess up your temper and ruin your day. Move on with your life.

Even if you feel oppressed or persecuted, move on with your life, be happy and keep blogging. Try your best not to be affected by oppression or fall victim of the delusion of being oppressed.

Thank you!

Here comes the video: more »

Web 2.0 & Cop 2.0

Chinese Blogger Conference 2008 was held on Nov. 15-16 in Guangzhou. Cnbloggercon (@cnbloggercon) marks the latest trend and development of Web 2.0 in China, in the sense that blogging/bloggers is a symbol of Web 2.0 and the way it is held (non-centralized self-organization) is also a real-world parallel of Web 2.0 way of socializing.

And this year, there is something new: the Public Security Bureaus and National Security Bureaus of this most populous country are trying to transform from totalitarian top-down control to a more Web 2.0 way.

Cnbloggercon is almost the largest grassroots gathering in the country. And blogging does help transforming this country to be freer and less under central control. This is why the authority had always sought to restrain Cnbloggercon (as I recall, the organization faced certain restrictions in 2006 in Hangzhou).

This year the police have certainly paid more attention on this rather liberal event. The police called one of the organizers (Shizhao was also present) to “have a tea” (it seems they really had a tea, and quite peacefully) on 15th. It turned out that the day before Cnbloggercon 2008 began, the Internet Surveillance Sector of Guangzhou Police notified district station on this event. This may be because some “sensitive” people were present on the conference (Lian Yue, Zola), which made National Security people uneasy. The organizers denied any possibility that this event might have anything to do with any political or reactionary (gosh, what a word) purpose. And were finally let go after a detailed report.

Attorney Liu Xiaoyuan (recently blogged a lot on Yang Jia’s trial and death penalty review. His blog will most possibly be awarded the best Chinese blog in the BOBs contest) also noted on his blog that an “uninvited guest” came in police car claiming such a event shall be reported to police station in advance. To avoid hassle, the organizers cooperated with the cop. And on 16th, another “uninvited guest” came to the conference quietly and weirdly – he didn’t want to exchange business cards and avoided casual talks & camera.

On 16th, when Yang Hengjun was giving a speech on the importance of Internet and blog for the society, there was an “uninvited” cop 2.0 listening, and clapping. (participating in like a grassroot?)

PS: view photos on Flickr/tag:cnbloggercon

How do you like Obama being elected?

I asked my roommate this question, and she answered in a tone of total suspecion “I don’t believe it is true”. And she went on and explained, “America only elected a black person only to show ‘equality’. I don’t think this guy will ever have any real power.”

A blogger Hecaitou, whose blog has a very wide readership among Chinese people, also wrote on his blog that:

If every race create an image of God in their color, this year it happens that a black God is on duty.

A reader also commented on one of my previous Chinese blog post on campaigning that “Maybe the next president has already been decided, and the whole campaign and election thing is only a planned show.”

Maybe some of these were just kidding, but I really wondered why so many people have suspicion whether an election that has changed the world (indeed) is true. In this country, so many people refuse to talk about politics (event to think about it at all), subconciously doubt anything that looks slightly idealistic (for example an idealistic & passionate candidate being elected because people are moved by him rather than only because of his African-descent). And many people just think some natural things are too good to be true.

I really wondered why and didn’t came across an answer to this until I read what Barack Obama wrote in his book “the Audacity of Hope”:

It signaled a cynicism not simply with politics but with the very notion of a public life, a cynicism that … had been nourished by a generation of broken promises.

This is an answer how he won the election as well as why are there so many politically cynical people here in China: how could you believe all campaigning, running, debating is nothing but a well-planned show, how could you believe that a president of such a big country as USA is really elected by ordinary people like the next door grandpa or downstairs grocer when your kid die because of chemical-tainted milk-powder and you can’t even resort to any court for justice?