US urges China to restore writer's liberties

Thursday, August 11, 2011

AFP

Chinese dissident blogger Ran Yunfei was detained on charges of "inciting subversion" (AFP/File)

BEIJING — The United States urged China on Thursday to restore a dissident writer's freedoms a day after he was allowed to leave a detention centre on condition he limit his movements and contacts.

Blogger Ran Yunfei, 43, was sent home for six months of "residential surveillance" after his release from a detention centre in his home city of Chengdu in southwest China.

"We urge the Chinese government to completely restore Ran Yunfei?s personal liberties and treat him in accordance with China?s commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," a spokesman for the US embassy in Beijing told AFP.

The US plea comes days before US Vice President Joseph Biden visits Chengdu on August 20-21, one stop on an official visit coinciding with the arrival of incoming US Ambassador to China Gary Locke.

Ran was detained on February 20 on charges of "inciting subversion" linked to alleged involvement in online calls for Chinese citizens to join anti-government protests echoing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ran was one of dozens of writers and activists swept up in a widespread crackdown on what hardline factions in Beijing perceived as an organised threat to the lone supremacy of the ruling Communist Party.

"Since [Ran's] detention in February we have raised our due process and human rights concerns about his case directly with the Chinese government," the US embassy spokesman said in an email to AFP.

On Tuesday, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, a prominent critic of China's Communist leaders who is widely followed in US diplomatic circles, used Twitter to plead for support for Ran and human rights activist Wang Linhong.

Wang, a 56-year-old woman, is set to go on trial in Beijing on Friday for "creating a disturbance" in March when she protested outside the trial of three fellow activists in the southern city of Fuzhou.