Li Zhi () is a Chinese dissident. He worked as a civil servant in
Dazhou
Dazhou () is a prefecture-level city in the northeast corner of Sichuan province, China, bordering Shaanxi to the north and Chongqing to the east and south. As of 2020 census, Dazhou was home to 5,385,422 inhabitants whom 1,850,869 lived in the ...
. He was arrested in 2003 for his postings of information on local corruption on the Internet.
Arrest
At a time when the internet began to gain popularity with Chinese dissidents to exchange their views, while police had begun monitoring chatrooms,
Li posted essays online that detailed local corruption.
He was detained in
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
province in August 2003, formally charged with "conspiracy to subvert state power" in September,
and sentenced for "inciting subversion" to eight years imprisonment in December that year.
He was convicted also for his association with the
Democracy Party of China, which is a banned organization in communist China.
The
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) is an independent agency of the U.S. government which monitors human rights and rule of law developments in the People's Republic of China. It was created in October 2001 under Title III of ...
describes him as a political prisoner. It is alleged that part of the evidence against him, namely his e-mail account and username, was provided by the
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
subsidiary of the Internet company
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
to the Chinese authorities.
Local sources said that the cooperation of Yahoo! with authorities had been mentioned in the verdict.
Other cases
Other cases involving political prisoners in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
where information had been provided by
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
are
Shi Tao,
Jiang Lijun, and
Wang Xiaoning.
See also
*
Human rights in the People's Republic of China
Human rights in mainland China are periodically reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), on which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and various foreign governments and h ...
*
List of Chinese dissidents
This list consists of activists who are known as Chinese dissidents. The label is primarily applied to intellectuals who "push the boundaries" of society or criticize the policies of the government. Examples of the former include Wei Hui and Jia ...
External links
Dissident jailed 'after Yahoo handed evidence to police'Times online article about Li Zhi
Sydney Morning Herald article about Li Zhi
References
1970s births
Living people
Chinese dissidents
Free speech activists
Yahoo!
Place of birth missing (living people)
Prisoners and detainees of China
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