Fei Chang Dao

On January 28, 2014, the state-sponsored Global Times published an article in English entitled “ Xu Zhiyong Trial Prompts Debate .” Some excerpts: "Despite knowing that organizing people to gather in public places for certain appeals and holding banners would draw onlookers, which could easily disrupt social order and cause participants to resist law enforcement, Xu kept doing so and did not take effective measures to prevent such consequences," the court stated when giving grounds for the conviction in the indictment. However, in a document posted online late Sunday evening, five law professors called for a review into the legal basis for Xu's charges. . . . . Peng Bing, a professor with Peking University and one of the five scholars, confirmed to the Global Times his views on the opinion piece. "It was a mere academic discussion on the legality of the verdict. We did not call for anything," Peng said. The opinion mentioned by the Global Times was penne

On January 27, 2014, the Wall Street Journal published a letter ( English | Chinese ) from Cui Zheng (崔筝) to her husband, Xu Zhiyong, who had been sentenced to four year’s imprisonment the previous day. Some excerpts: Finally, I’ve figured it out. Everyone has their own things they hold fast to – a bottom-line they won’t change to cater to or please others. I, too, have lines I won’t cross, no matter how much you beg me to.  Therefore, I don’t blame you at all for today’s result and I accept it calmly. But it is not because what you persist in doing is noble to me. It’s because fate has pushed you the point where you must chose to persist and give up on everything else. . . . . You should discuss the details of a second trial with Lawyer Zhang before the Spring Festival. I don’t have the energy to get involved any more. But still I hope you will walk the path of this process to the end. I don’t want you to give up, even if there is only a theoretical chance of success. 我最终想通了，每个

During his trial on January 22, 2014, Xu Zhiyong attempted to read a statement to the court entitled “For Freedom, Justice and Love — My Closing Statement to the Court.”(许志永法庭陈词：最后为了自由·公义·爱). On January 26, the First Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing announced that it had found Xu guilty of gathering groups to cause disorder in public venues, and had sentenced him to four years imprisonment. These screenshots show that Baidu began censoring searches for “Xu Zhiyong Final Statement” (许志永 最后陈述) at about the time the court announced its verdict. These screenshots were taken on January 26, and show that searches on Baidu for “'Xu Zhiyong  Court Closing Statement'” ("许志永法庭陈词") and “Xu Zhiyong ‘For Freedom, Justice, and Love’” (许志永 "为了自由公义爱") returned no results, just a censorship notice. Additional coverage of Xu Zhiyong's case: Sina Weibo Censors Call to Release Those Who Called for Disclosure of Officials' Assets : http://blog

Translator's Summary : The court found Xu guilty of gathering crowds to create a disturbance in a public venue on the grounds that he "exploited hot-button social issues of public concern" to repeatedly organize large gatherings in public venues. The "issues" included, inter alia , government policies that made it difficult for children of parents without a Beijing household registration to sit for entrance examinations for high school and college.   First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing Criminal Judgment (2013) 1st Intermediate Criminal First Instance No. 5268 The public prosecution agency was the People's Procuratorate of Beijing Branch No. 1. Defendant Xu Zhiyong, male, born [INTENTIONALLY DELETED], 1973. He was taken into criminal detention on July 16, 2013 on suspicion of committing the crime of gathering crowds to create a disturbance in a public venue, and he was arrested on August 22 of the same year. He is currently being held in de