Chen Wei () (born 21 February 1969) is a Chinese dissident and human rights activist. In December 2011, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.

Biography

Chen was born 21 February 1969 in

Suining Suining (; Sichuanese Pinyin: Xu4nin2; Sichuanese pronunciation: ; ) is a prefecture-level city of eastern Sichuan province in Southwest China. In 2002, Suining had a population of 658,798. Geography and climate Suining is located in the cen ...

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 ...

. Chen was one of the student leaders of the

1989 Tiananmen Square Protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, when he was a mechanical engineering student at the

Beijing Institute of Technology Beijing Institute of Technology (abbreviated BIT; Simplified Chinese characters, Simplified Chinese: 北京理工大学; Traditional Chinese characters, Traditional Chinese: 北京理工大學; pinyin: Běijīng Lǐgōng Dàxué), is a National u ...

. He was imprisoned in Qincheng prison and released in January 1991. In May 1992, Chen was arrested again for commemorating the Tiananmen Square Protests and organizing a political party, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Chen was a signatory of

Charter 08 Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by 303 Chinese dissident intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting its name and style from ...

, a manifesto demanding the right of free association and the end to one-party rule.Hennock, Mary
"China jails dissident Chen Xi for 10 years"
''The Guardian'', 26 December 2011 04.23 EST. Retrieved 2011-12-26.

2011 arrest

On the morning of 20 February 2011 Chen followed a police invitation for tea but did not return. The Suining City

Public Security Bureau A Public Security Bureau (PSB) () of a city or county, or Public Security Department (PSD) () of a province or autonomous region, in the People's Republic of China refers to a government office essentially acting as a police station or a local ...

released a document on the evening of 21 February, stating that he had been criminally detained for "inciting subversion of state power." Officers and security guards later searched his home, confiscating a computer, two hard drives and a USB drive, and then held him at the Suining City Detention Center. Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported on 17 December 2011 that Chen's case had been transferred to the Suining Municipal Intermediate People's Court at the end of November 2011. Authorities reportedly attempted to prevent Chen's wife from hiring lawyer Liang Xiaojun. Liang was ultimately only permitted to see Chen once, while his other lawyer, Zheng Jianwei, saw him only twice before the trial. Chen told his lawyer that he had not broken the law and that he had merely been exercising the right guaranteed to all Chinese citizens under the Chinese Constitution to express their views. Chen's lawyer was told that the trial would be held within one week. On 23 December 2011, the Suining Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced Chen to nine years in prison after he was convicted of "incitement to subversion" over four essays he wrote and published online. The essays were said to contravene article 105 of China's criminal code.Congressional-Executive Commission on China
'Authorities Sentence Chen Wei to 9 Years for Posting Pro-Democracy Essays '
23 December 2011. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

ambassador to Beijing, Markus Ederer, said the EU was "deeply concerned" about Chen's sentence and "we encourage political debate rather than the use of criminal law as a means to resolve diverging political opinions". Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called for his immediate release.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

condemned the arrest as part of China's most severe crackdown on activists in a decade, and called for an immediate response from the international community.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Wei 1969 births Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters Chinese dissidents Living people Chinese prisoners and detainees Beijing Institute of Technology alumni Charter 08 signatories

Biography

2011 arrest

See also

References