Banned Books Week
CHINA
Yang Tongyan
Writer in prison
NEW! Petition (PDF)
Yang Tongyan (pen-name: Yang Tianshui), a freelance writer and a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power”. He previously had served a 10-year prison sentence for criticizing the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement and allegedly trying to form an opposition political party.
Yang Tongyan was detained on 24 December 2004. He was allowed to leave a detention center on bail on 24 January 2005, but was arrested again on 20 January 2006. He was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment on 16 May 2006 by Zhenjiang Intermediate People’s Court after a closed trial. The conviction was based on his writings in support of political and democratic change in China. He also was accused of receiving money from abroad for distribution to imprisoned dissidents and their families, and of planning to form a local branch of the banned China Democracy Party.
According to the court verdict, “Freedom of speech and association are political rights bestowed upon citizens in China’s constitution, but the constitution clearly stipulates that in the exercise of these political rights, citizens shall not endanger the interests or security of the state. Defendant Yang Tongyan posted numerous articles on websites hosted overseas, attacking the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system … There is sufficient evidence that he conspired to subvert China’s state power.”
Amnesty International considers Yang Tongyan to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
Please call for the immediate and unconditional release of Yang Tongyan and other prisoners of conscience in China.
President of the People's Republic of China
HU Jintao Guojia Zhuxi
The State Council General Office
Yongneixijie
Beijingshi 100017
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Your Excellency
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Salutation: Your Excellency
Airmail postage abroad: 94¢
