Scant Cheer for China's Dissidents at Lunar New Year

By RADIO FREE ASIA
February 17, 2007

HONG KONG—While millions across China have braved packed trains, planes, and buses to welcome the lunar Year of the Pig with extended family, relatives of those who fell foul of the ruling Communist Party will have little to celebrate.

Many of China’s political prisoners are serving jail terms because they criticized the government, shared sensitive information with others, or stood up for the victims of official abuse. Their families are rewarded with suffering at China’s most festive time of year.

The wife of Guangdong civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, still being investigated for “illegal business activities” after he handled high-profile civil rights cases involving allegations of official corruption in the sale of farmland, said she had been unable to find a job since losing the family’s main breadwinner.

“Last year I lost my job when my husband was detained. I have been looking, but I haven’t succeeded in getting another job yet,” Guo’s wife Zhang Qing said.

“When people find out the reason why I’m looking for a job, the problems my husband is having, and they see three police officers on my tail, they don’t dare to hire me,” she told RFA’s Mandarin service.

Families struggle

“I am usually a very open-minded person, but this is a very hard time for me. But I maintain an optimistic attitude, because that’s the only way to keep the bad feelings at bay,” Zhang said.

The family of family planning activist Chen Guangcheng, currently serving a four-year jail term for exposing abuses of the family planning system in the eastern province of Shandong, said they could ill afford the absence of Chen, whose mother fell and broke a bone after his imprisonment in October, and was bed-bound for more than a month.

Chen's mother, who is in her seventies, said she was unable to feel happy during the festivities because she worried about her son constantly, to the point of not being able to sleep at night.

“I am very sad...I worry about him all day and all night. I can’t sleep at night,” she said, adding that the additional burden of looking after her had fallen to her daughter-in-law, Yuan Weijing, who already has two children.

“My husband should really qualify to serve his sentence under house arrest, because he is blind, and is unable to live without assistance. We have already submitted an application to the authorities but so far we’ve heard nothing,” Yuan said.

“This Spring Festival we will silently wish him well, hoping that he will find some small cheer, and perhaps get something a bit nicer to eat in prison,” she said.

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