China activist’s charge step back for rights

Chinese lawyers have formally charged a democracy activist and former university professor with "inciting subversion," a year after he co-wrote a call for sweeping political change in China.After the country controversially hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, human rights in China are supposed to be improving. But thee case of human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, 53, who has spent most of the past 20 years in prison or under arrest, speaks volumes about what is going on beneath the glossy surface of the new China.Mr Lui’s lawyer received the prosecution papers Friday, and said Liu had been formally charged the day before. The lawyer expects a trial anytime after December 20. After a trial likely to last only half a day, Liu could get up to 15 years jail time, with a five- to 15-year sentence, which is "very likely," because China's courts are under the total control of the ruling Communist party.

Lui’s "Charter 08" is a blueprint for political reform in China and calls for an end to the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly on power, multiparty elections, rule of law and authoratitive powers. As soon as it was released on the internet a year ago, Liu was taken into custody. He has been held in prison since then — without charge, until Thursday. In the past, China has released jailed activists under international pressure. Rights groups were hoping Beijing might do the same for Liu Xiaobo before or after US President Barack Obama visited the country last month.It was thought the Olympics would make things better, prosperity would make things better, and leaving China to move at its own pace would make things better. But human rights and legal reforms are moving backwards, not forward, a BBC correspondent said.“China is a country ruled by law, the government likes to claim. Except, it is not,” he said speaking on Radio 4. “Wang Shengjun is the chief justice, but he has never been to law school. However, he does have excellent contacts within the Communist Party. And he has been very loyal, halting years of legal reform.”

Under the Communist Party's rule people in China have grown richer. But many ordinary people have also grown hungry for legal rights. The country did make some headway in setting up a legal system that is independent of the party. Although that has now stopped.Painting a picture of what it is like to live in a country without law, the correspondent said: “It means that the parents of the schoolchildren who died in the Sichuan earthquake will never get their day in court. It means that people poisoned by China's filthy factories have never been able to sue. That farmers robbed of their land by corrupted officials are left destitute. And it means living in fear, which drives people to desperation.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children