Chinese Rights Activist Is Jailed

By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
April 04, 2008

A Chinese court sentenced an outspoken human rights advocate on Thursday to three and a half years in prison after ruling that his critical essays and comments about Communist Party rule amounted to inciting subversion, his lawyer said.

The conviction of the advocate, Hu Jia, 34, one of the most prominent human rights proponents in China, has quickly drawn outside criticism of China at a time when the government is already facing international concern over its handling of the Tibetan crisis.

Mr. Hu's case has been followed closely, especially in Europe, and critics say his conviction is part of a government crackdown to silence dissidents before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games in August.

In Bucharest, Romania, where President Bush was attending NATO meetings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the sentence and said that the United States would continue to raise the issue of human rights with Chinese leaders in the months leading up to the Olympics.

"This is a long process," she said. "We do it respectfully with China, but there is no doubt that this is a decision that is deeply disturbing to us, and we're communicating that to the Chinese authorities."

Mr. Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, herself a well-known blogger and rights advocate, was distraught in a telephone interview on Thursday.

"I feel hopeless and helpless," said Ms. Zeng, who is under house arrest with the couple's infant daughter in their suburban Beijing apartment, though she was allowed to visit her husband on Thursday.

Asked why Mr. Hu was arrested and convicted, she said: "The fundamental reason is to silence him. He had been speaking up and all he said was plain truth. It makes them unhappy. But they can do this to him because they're unhappy?"

Earlier this year, Ms. Rice raised Mr. Hu's case during a meeting with China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi. The European Union presidency has also criticized the subversion charge and called for Mr. Hu's release.

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