A Chinese activist who sought to document shoddy construction that contributed to deaths in China's devastating 2008 earthquake has been sentenced to five years in prison for subversion, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Tan Zuoren was formally accused of inciting subversion of state power in emailed comments about the bloody crackdown on June 4, 1989, on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square. But Tan's supporters and Amnesty International say he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people died. <...> China's official statistics show that 5,335 children died in the quake, which killed about 80,000 people and left 5 million homeless. In many towns, schools collapsed, burying the children inside, while surrounding residential buildings stayed standing. ...
A Chinese activist who sought to document shoddy construction that contributed to deaths in China's devastating 2008 earthquake has been sentenced to five years in prison for subversion, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Tan Zuoren was formally accused of inciting subversion of state power in emailed comments about the bloody crackdown on June 4, 1989, on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.
But Tan's supporters and Amnesty International say he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people died.
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China's official statistics show that 5,335 children died in the quake, which killed about 80,000 people and left 5 million homeless. In many towns, schools collapsed, burying the children inside, while surrounding residential buildings stayed standing. ...
Mr. Tan's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, and Ai Weiwei, a prominent artist and friend of Mr. Tan, said in interviews that the government wanted to silence Mr. Tan because of his earthquake work. The central government has tried to stifle any discussion of shoddy school construction, which could expose connections between corrupt government officials and business executives."You can see the tendency of this government -- on the one hand, it wants to be accepted by international laws and values," said Mr. Ai, who tried to document online the death toll from the collapsed schools and has done art projects to memorialize the dead children. "But on the other hand, it's a very primitive dictatorship and really violating all the possible parts of human rights."He added, "It doesn't allow the individuals to speak out and doesn't allow any truths to be revealed."
Mr. Tan's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, and Ai Weiwei, a prominent artist and friend of Mr. Tan, said in interviews that the government wanted to silence Mr. Tan because of his earthquake work. The central government has tried to stifle any discussion of shoddy school construction, which could expose connections between corrupt government officials and business executives.
"You can see the tendency of this government -- on the one hand, it wants to be accepted by international laws and values," said Mr. Ai, who tried to document online the death toll from the collapsed schools and has done art projects to memorialize the dead children. "But on the other hand, it's a very primitive dictatorship and really violating all the possible parts of human rights."
He added, "It doesn't allow the individuals to speak out and doesn't allow any truths to be revealed."
