tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71820920108414160852024-02-06T19:38:18.233-08:00The Petition to Free Zhu YufuCampaign established January 31, 2012The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-83994626732925794542012-05-11T04:40:00.002-07:002012-05-11T04:42:17.089-07:00Zhu Yufu's Appeal DeniedDissident Sent to Forced Labor Prison<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">On May 6, 2012, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network reported that Zhu Yufu’s appeal of his seven-year sentence was denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On May 10, the network reported that Zhu was transferred to Zhejiang Prison No. 4, in the Prefecture of Hangzhou Shi, Yuhang District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zhejiang Prison No. 4 is a forced labor camp (“laogai”) whose inmates produce hoists, hand trolleys and other items for the state-owned Hangzhou Wulin Machinery Company for pennies a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>China is sensitive about the camps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Melissa Chan, the English-language correspondent for Al Jazeera in China, was expelled from the country on May 7, 2012, at least in part for her reporting on prison conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em>The New York Times</em> said Chinese authorities were angered by Al Jazeera’s description of prison labor as a form of slavery for millions of inmates in a documentary broadcast in November, 2011.</span></div>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-27817643016716305872012-03-04T06:12:00.000-08:002012-03-10T07:42:30.632-08:00An Appeal to the Ambassadors and Consuls of the People's Republic of China in the United Kingdom and the United States<a href="http://freezhuyufu.blogspot.com/"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsL0TPgOzZljAnSFFIZ8QCZEDCNcYDWstGljlOV84O1O4Vm3-KP3XybvN3L8mdvy0z8z-N-PcHP63REuzyBcqBHchjqCaYNreWLNcS4da-aePJBGZDzzHpur9hAhp-oZqc1Fqf_3f6diK/s1600/eight-immortals-01.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="326" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsL0TPgOzZljAnSFFIZ8QCZEDCNcYDWstGljlOV84O1O4Vm3-KP3XybvN3L8mdvy0z8z-N-PcHP63REuzyBcqBHchjqCaYNreWLNcS4da-aePJBGZDzzHpur9hAhp-oZqc1Fqf_3f6diK/s400/eight-immortals-01.bmp" /></a></div></a><br />
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March 4, 2012<br />
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Dear Ambassadors and Consuls:<br />
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To date, Zhu Yufu has been detained by your Government for an entire year for his composition and distribution of the now famous poem, It’s Time. <br />
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This imprisonment violates Article 35 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<br />
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Every day that Zhu Yufu remains in prison increases the power of his words and the reach of his poetry. Your Government’s attempt to silence him only makes his voice louder.<br />
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The signers of The Petition to Free Zhu Yufu urgently request his immediate and unconditional release: it’s time to let him go.<br />
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We have a say in the matter. So do you. Free Zhu Yufu. The time is now.<br />
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Respectfully,<br />
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The Petition to Free Zhu YufuThe Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-91540848626178533842012-02-10T05:01:00.001-08:002012-07-02T16:22:18.562-07:00The Emperor is Afraid of Zhu Yufu<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">February 10, 2012--A Chinese court has sentenced dissident writer Zhu Yufu to seven years in prison, the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said this morning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Zhu, a long-time human rights activist and democracy advocate, was detained in March of 2011 and charged with subversion in Hangzhou in January 2012 for acts including the composition and distribution of a poem urging citizens to create a freely chosen future for China.<br /><br />The poem, titled “It’s Time” appears here and in translation by A. E. Clark:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候了,中国人!是时候了</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">广场是大家的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">脚是自己的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候用脚去广场作出选择</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候了,中国人!是时候了</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">歌曲是大家的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">喉是自己的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候用喉唱出心底的歌曲</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候了,中国人!是时候了</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">中国是大家的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">选择是自己的</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">是时候用自己选择未来的中国</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />It</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">’s time, people of China! It’</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">s time.<br />The Square belongs to everyone.<br />With your own two feet<br />It’s time to head to the Square and make your choice.<br /><br />It’s time, people of China! It’s time.<br />A song belongs to everyone.<br />From your own throat<br />It’s time to voice the song in your heart.<br /><br />It’s time, people of China! It’s time.<br />China belongs to everyone.<br />Of your own will<br />It’s time to choose what China shall be.<br /><br /><br />This site urges all of its readers to resist the repression of Chinese poets and to sign the petition to free Zhu Yufu: </span><a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-zhu-yufu/"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-zhu-yufu/</span></a></div>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-48674643755394640242012-02-10T04:14:00.001-08:002012-02-17T05:20:51.624-08:00The Emperor is Afraid of Zhu Yufu<div class="pane-content"><div class="node ntype-press-release" id="node-29655"><div id="story-images"><div id="story-expand-icon"></div></div><div class="content"><div class="pr-main"><div class="pr-content"><div class="pr-body"><div class="pr-date-posted" style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS HARSH SENTENCE FOR CHINESE POET ZHU YUFU</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Press Release 10 February 2012--Today’s sentencing of veteran activist Zhu Yufu to seven-years for writing a poem deemed to "incite subversion of state power” is further evidence of the Chinese government’s continuing repression of anyone it perceives as directly or indirectly criticizing it policies, Amnesty International said.</span></div><div class="pr-date-posted" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For many years the Chinese government has stamped on dissent and today’s decision should be seen in the context of a growing demand in the country for more freedom.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Amnesty International condemns this direct and unjustified assault on Zhu Yufu’s basic human right to freedom of expression</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"We believe this is a sign that the Chinese leadership is afraid. Why else would they sentence someone to seven years in prison for writing a poem? The Chinese government has seen the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. It has seen the people coming out in the tens of thousands to protest a repressive regime in Russia. And it has seen the Chinese people themselves grow stronger in their demands for more freedoms and a say over their country's future. And now the leaders at the very top have clearly given out orders that any hint of dissent must be crushed," said Sarah Schafer, Amnesty International's China Researcher.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-37919949698484847542012-02-09T14:12:00.004-08:002012-02-17T05:24:13.172-08:00The Emperor is Afraid of Zhu Yufu<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE CONDEMNS THE SENTENCE</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Statement 14 Feb 2012<strong>--</strong>The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International condemns the seven-year prison sentence handed down to the writer Zhu Yufu on 10 February 2012 for his allegedly ‘subversive’ poem ‘It’s Time’. The WiPC calls for his immediate and unconditional release, and that of all those currently detained in the People’s Republic of China for peacefully expressing their views.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Zhu Yufu, who is a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), spent seven years in prison for subversion after being convicted in 1999 for helping to found the banned opposition group, the China Democracy Party. In 2007, a year after his release, he was detained and sentenced to more than two years in prison after allegedly pushing a police officer while being arrested.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The poem at the heart of the indictment, “It’s Time” appears to have drawn the authorities’ attention for its timing around the Jasmine Revolution controversy.</span></span></div>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-14951484016483399902012-02-08T13:26:00.001-08:002012-02-20T13:29:43.928-08:00The Emperor is Afraid of Zhu Yufu<strong>ZHA JIANGUO DENOUNCES HEAVY PRISON TERM</strong><br />
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Beijing-based dissident Zha Jianguo denounced the heavy prison term given to Zhu Yufu. Zha cited a saying attributed to Alexander Dubček, the Czech reformist leader during Prague Spring: “They may crush the flowers, but they can’t stop the spring.”The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-29310912935103368582011-02-03T15:36:00.001-08:002012-02-16T05:21:27.831-08:00The Arrow of Faith<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">by Michael H. Brownstein</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Zhu Yufu, do not let go of the arrow</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">you hold within your words,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">keep it straight and keep it with you—</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the bow it comes from comes from good</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and its aim is true and its aim </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">will not miss. There is power in arrows,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">words and sound, and they worry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the powers and the want to be powers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and those who continue to corrupt power.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Your arrow made of many fine things</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">will find its mark in the Square of Hope,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Square of Poetry, the Square of Peace. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Know we are with you. We hold arrows too</span>.The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-61322643202307860072011-02-02T18:45:00.000-08:002012-02-13T04:11:32.251-08:00The Bamboo Forest<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Arrow of Faith and other poems in support of Zhu Yufu can be found in </span><a href="http://zhuyufu.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Bamboo Forest.</span></a>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182092010841416085.post-84408834045684439602010-12-31T12:31:00.006-08:002012-02-18T06:13:24.679-08:00It's Time. Andrew Barr, National Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10/this-is-the-poem-that-got-a-chinese-activist-seven-years-in-jail/"><img border="0" height="300" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF0Z8hX7EfBN519zZ2KeI62Zzi8FhqANuwmfK12dbUQvVZwMYSnLhbKerwN5HyTR2KHudpRVUmJs1naS3bWdzwiUu5ejkSoP7M6sNRDjvzkOpUDN4mCYTVTRS9y_w_-8VT0I30clRyvTo/s400/zhu+yufu+poster.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0