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Alex Wong / Getty Images
Chinese dissident writer Yu Jie speaks to the media during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.on Wednesday.
BEIJING – Last week Chinese dissident author Yu Jie fled to the United States to avoid what he described as further “inhumane treatment” by the government.
Now Yu, 38, is speaking out about his experience in detention during a sensitive time in China’s recent human rights history: the 2010 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to his friend and fellow dissident, Liu Xiaobo.
Yu is a best-selling author who began producing literary works at age 13 and eventually rose to become vice president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2005-2007. A devout Christian, Yu visited President George W. Bush in 2006 and was acknowledged for his work on behalf of underground Christian and Roman Catholic house church practitioners in China who worship in private out of fear or imprisonment by the authorities.
Besides religious freedom, Yu has also often publicly criticized the Communist party on other issues and was one of 10 prominent Chinese social activists whom we profiled in 2010 ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize.
During his years of activism, Yu was frequently detained for his writing – most notably, his 2010 book “China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao,” which was published in Hong Kong and took a negative view of the mainland’s prime minister. The book quickly drew the ire of officials and led to his temporary home detention in Beijing.
In October 2010, Yu was placed under house arrest again five days after Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Prize win was announced. This time, his computer, phone and other communication devices were confiscated.
At a press conference Wednesday in Washington, Yu described the tight security around his house at the time as being “like a dragnet.” He explained: “Four plainclothes policemen watched the entrance to my home 24 hours a day, even pressing a table against the main door and installing six cameras and infrared detectors at the front and back of my house.”
In the weeks and days leading up to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, state security officers worked to quietly roundup social activists and dissidents who could potentially embarrass China. Yu was detained on Dec. 9, 2010, one day before the official Nobel ceremony in Oslo.
The final moments after Yu was hauled from his home to a waiting police car were brutal, he says. “Over a dozen plainclothes officers and several cars were waiting there,” Yu recalled at the press conference in D.C. “Immediately, two burly men charged at me, slapping the glasses from my face and covering my head with a black hood, and then forcing me into the back of a car.”
Yu was driven to an undisclosed location, where he says he was stripped naked and made to kneel while officers took turns delivering blows to his head and body and stomping him when he was on the ground.
“They forced me to kneel and slapped me over a hundred times in the face,” said Yu. “They even forced me to slap myself. They would be satisfied only when they heard the slapping sound, and laughed madly.”
All the while, police hurled verbal abuse at Yu and continually called him a traitor for writing articles attacking the Communist Party. Yu also recalled police officers taking photos of him naked and periodically threatening to post them on the Internet to humiliate him.
When Yu finally collapsed unconscious, police took him to a hospital and were said to have told hospital staff that he was epileptic. He was eventually released after he promised state security that he would not talk to foreign journalists about his detention.
Government officials have not publicly commented on Yu’s account of events.
An ‘exile at heart’
Yu and his wife and young son were allowed to leave China last week, bringing to an end his near decade-long ban from publishing.
In a telephone interview with Reuters after his arrival last Friday, Yu did not say whether he formally sought asylum in the United States for himself or his family. He had visited the U.S. many times before and said authorities had warned him to keep quiet ahead of this latest trip.
For their part, the U.S. State Department denied having an active role in bringing Yu here. In answer to a question about Yu’s arrival in country during a regular press briefing last week, the State Department responded: “We are aware of reports of Mr. Yu’s arrival to the United States. We have not had any contact with Chinese officials about his reported arrival.”
Still, if Yu had been warned by the Chinese about being outspoken on his arrival here, he seems to have ignored them. During his prepared remarks in Washington. Yu looked back on what he sees as a deteriorating environment of free speech in China:
“During the Jiang Zemin era [1989-2002], I had been able to publish some of my works in China – there was still a certain space for free speech in China. After Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took power in 2004, I was totally blocked. Since that time, no media in mainland China would print a single word by me, and articles by others which mentioned my name would be deleted. Though I was physically in China, I became an “exile at heart” and a “non-existent person” in the public space.”
The Chinese government’s refusal to publish anything about Yu Jie in state publications has manifested itself in the seeming indifference to his release by the general public. On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, there were posts about Yu, underscoring again the effectiveness of China’s propaganda and censoring mechanisms.
Censoring discussion of Yu Jie’s next work though may prove to be more problematic: Yu is soon planning to release a biography about Liu Xiaobo that has been authorized by Liu’s wife.
Leave a Comment:
I don't know why he couldn't just follow the rules over there, then he wouldn't have to flee. Some people.
I hope your comment is made in jest!
Freedom of speech and press are the most fundamental human rights. The right to think what you want and say what you think has been shared by only a small fraction of humanity throughout history. It is a rare and precious gift we possess in America. We must be ever vigilant to see that those in our own society who would restrict it are repulsed and marginalized.
What this man suffered as a result of simply wanting to express his views is an abomination.He knew where to go to live out his dream of possessing the God given right of all human beings.
If everybody is like you, we will be called a bunch of sh!t
Well, look a how 'The rules' are changing over here:
First the NDAA for FY2012, sections 1031-1032 which will allow the US military to detain anyone, American citizen or not, on home soil or off, indefinitely without charge or trial if they are even suspected of terrorism. Then you look at the list of those who Homeland Security is now considering 'domestic terrorists':
Animal rights activists
Alternate media
those who stockpile weapons and food (infringement on second amendment rights!!!!)
practitioners of Norse mysticism (seriously when was the last time someone blew up a building 'in the name of the Norse god Odin'?)
Anti-technology proponents (seriously, if they are antitechnology, then they are using sticks and spears. Just how terrifying is that? Does this mean the Amish are now terrorists?)
Direct action, which includes, by Homeland Security's own definition, 'lawful acts of civil disobedience'. think the Occupy protestors being arrested as terrorists. Think Rosa Parks being arrested as a terrorist. No charge, no trial, in jail indefinitely.(I have the whole list.)
Then you look at the list that was just leaked Jan 6 of websites that Homeland Security is monitoring for suspected terrorist activity. In addition to such websites as Jihad Watch, Homeland Security Watch, and Border Beat, plus alternate media websites like Huffington Post and Drudge, they are also watching Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and YouTube--and, in a surprise move, they are also watching Stormpulse, HurricaneTrack, and Hulu. (I have this whole list too.)
Then you add in the debate about SOPA, which will allow he government to shut down any website that's suspected of having pirated content without having to prove deliberate intent to pirate or profit from copyrighted material.
Now the Enemy Expatriation Act (HR3166 and S1698) that will allow the government to take your citizenship away without having to convict you of anything.
Anyone who can look at the above without feeling some alarm or any feeling of 'what is going on?' are definitely going to raise an eyebrow on this one. Homeland Security, while once an offshoot of the US Customs and Immigration, is now larger than USCIS. In fact, US Customs and Immigration Series answers now directly to Homeland Security. So does:
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
The US Coast Guard
US Secret Service
Office Of The Inspector General
Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Protective Service
National Communications System
Directorate for Science and Technology
Office of Health Affairs
Office of Intelligence And Analysis
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Office of Legislative affairs
Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement
Office of the Executive Secretariat
National Cyber Security Center
In 2009 their budget was $40.1 billion. 2010: $56.4 billion. No figures available for 2011 that I could find, and attempts to audit DHS have failed.
What is going on?!!!
Yu is well-deserving of political asylum in the United States. I hope that he continues to speak out on the outrageous treatment by the authoritarian Chinese government.
Chirs150,
Great post!!!I wish I had your wit. Beyond that the point was right on. Don´t be dismayed because others did not get it.
The bottom has just fallen out of the dissident industry in the USA. Only 1% of dissidents get the consultancy jobs. Get in the Queue ya Chink bastard.
MOT from down under, don't make racist remarks please.
You are suspended for a week for violating rule # 5 of the Code of Honor.
What this story reflects is a growing instability within China. That is not as good news as it may seem. The Chinese military sits anxiously on the sidelines. If things go too much toward instability, the military will step in and we could see a bloodbath and a North Korea (although temporary)style of government. What the dissidents are doing is the right thing. The kind of government response tells us a lot of what is at stake. A sudden collapse of the current Chinese government would wreak economic havoc everywhere. The recent election on Taiwan did as much for Chinese public thinking as have the dissidents.
You read these comments where folks are often suggesting what a horrible place the U.S. is, and you have to wonder why folks always seek asylum here?
Doubt if many Chinese dissidents tried to escape to N. Korea.
Media slant... If you don't pay attention and just swallow what the Mainstream Media (MSNBC) says, you'd think there's no torture in the US and that we have Free Speech here. If you're paying attention, you know those are lies.
Anonymous, I pay attention, and I think you are either totally cynical (my guess) or slightly off kilter.
You obviously have no idea what repression really means.
Anonymous Economist....the thing I don't understand is why so many bitch about MSNBC but spend their entire day trashing it on a regular basis. Are you paid to do this or just inexplicably dense?
You would only be on this article for one of two reasons...trolling for the right or truly interested and I suspect the former judging from your ludicrous comment.
Mike:
See post 1.4 above. Then tell me even you aren't raising an eyebrow over some of it.
I agree with lets and amanda...get yer heads out of the sand.
Just wanted to mention that when you say mainstream media - it means it caters to the majority - the mainstream. Which means its news and opinions are in line with what the majority thinks. Which means you are the odd idiot out.
Freedom and free expression should be rights available to everyone. That is why it is America's first right in the Bill of Rights, and why we are currently worked up about SOPA and PIPA.
We have a luxury that many around the world do not have. We can openly criticize our government, and even change it if we push hard enough.
Yu Jie is now in America. I am interested to hear what he has to say.
We can for now...vote conservative and see what happens. Remember when Bush spoke, it was invite only and protesters were kept in the next closest town...yet when Obama spoke, they same crowd fought for the right to carry guns to his speeches. Or when Dems were out pushing health reform, conservative stooges were screaming and yelling down the reps trying to explain the bill. It isn't that far off folks. This election is more than gay marriage and abortion. It is a battle for freedom or censorship by the fundamentals and evangelicals...the very rich and their minions against the middle class.
They can scream class warfare all the want about taxing the rich but it is about control of the masses for the few with the cash.
You're delusional if you think that the United States is in danger of censorship and suppression of free speech by Christians.
The actual drumbeats going though the air right now are coming from the left side of the street.
There is where your threat to liberty is. This demonization of Christians is just part and parcel of that smokescreen of lies.
The Christians did not give us NDAA and SOPA and EEA, the leftists did. Yes, I understand that CONGRESS passed or supported these laws. How many of your congressional reps were born in this country? Do you know? No, you don't . You don't know who ANY of those people are. The U.S. congress has been acting progressively more and more like an agency of a communist state since I was in high school many years ago. Get your heads out of your pop culture sewers, people. And stop listening to these leftist shills for the communist state who are trying to get you to believe that the danger facing us comes from the the exact opposite side of the street from the one on which the minions are even as we speak massing and working themselves into a murderous frenzy.
The Christians are NEVER going to take away your freedom of speech, people, however much those who are working feverishly to demonize the Christian want you to fear that. But look at these gaping mouths that are demonizing the Christain! Look there and see the threat to freedom of speech! Use your heads. No one is stopping them from demonizing us. But controlling what you or I can say about them is completely in character with their every move.
SNAKES! They are as they do. That is all that needs to be said.
Why not flee to Vietnam, India, or N. Korea? They probably wouldn't provide a free ride and free air access. When the going gets tough the "tough" always run.
I completely agree. This is the United States. When we did not like the way our country was being pushed in one direction or the other - we changed it. We did not run to another country and cry wolf. If you do not like your crappy country work to set it free (or your version of free). It takes ONE person taking that first step. For example - Mexico and the way it is being taken over by druggies. Thirteen million people can make a heck of a difference. And yes to all of you dissenters out there - it can be done. It will not happen over night. A long journey starts with taking that first step.
India is already sheltering the biggest thorn in the chinese side - Dalai Llama. It does not have the wherewhittal to mess up further with the Chinese. It is a scary country that China.
Send him back...our country is full
How about not? He's better than the uneducated low-life filth we have here.
Yea, unfortunately way too full of clowns like you mike.
Be carefull over here buddy, we torture too.
Yer right!
Just wait till he joins one of the Occupy XXXX marches, then he will find out the goons are here just as well. Governments are the same, here, there, anywhere. All very smiling and slick as long as you are babbling the party line, but if you talk against the big pigs, you will get cut down. What do you think homeland security is for - to protect YOU?
But here, anyone can run for office.
Heck, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bristol Palin run for the state legislature one of these days.
I have never trusted the motives of China and now we owe them our souls. Corporations who value money over morals couldn't wait to run over there and do business and put Americans out of work. And folks here didn't help by looking to by 'stuff' at the cheapest prices (I don't shop WalMart). Not saying that there were not and there are not issues with American labor costs and unions, but we could have tried to work things out inside our own borders first. You don't see China doing things that would endanger their jobs. The things people and corporations do for the love of money!
When Sam Walton was alive he ran Wal-Mart with buy American products only-now it's 99% China crap that is disposable products.Sam's kid are pure selfish assinine pricks-just how dam much money do you need-gees,I bet Sam is rolling in his grave due to what his spoiled kids have done.I hope karma comes to these selfish spoiled kids.
Yes the "inevitability" of globalization and equal trade status for China. The U.S. cheerleaders for that have been rah-rahing their brains out and brainwashing us for years about how great it would be for the U.S. Over a billion people to buy "our" (multi-national corporations') products!! Greed wins, autocratic China prospers, and the U.S. owes and owes and owes them some more. The 7 billion human being trade ship has left the dock, and there's no turning back. I hope more like this guy emerge to caution the world about wonderful China.
Any means to ending the "advantages" of the middle kingdom should be on the table, such as rice phages, cutting the Strait of Malacca, civil disturbances or whatever it takes. They do not value nor see the purpose of republicanism and that in and of it self is a grave threat. Hopefully their middle class will see and change that perception before it's too late.
Field, are you from the 50 yuan party?
The Chinese treat their people as bad as anyone-their slaves really.Why do we even trade or have anything to do with them,we want have nothing to do with Cuba and their people are treat as bad as China but want want have nothing to do with them.I say screw China-their building up their military so they will be the super power of the world,they hack our militartymgovernment and business computer-notice hoe their new stealth aircraft look like ours.We but their cheaply made product that you use and have to throw away because it want last long-disposable products-they take all the money we spend for the cheap ass made crap and use that money on their military-they have high tech miliatary stuff because they hack it from our computer.They send their young to go to school here and end up staying stealing all our high tech and send it back to China-they watch their people so closely and the poor who came to their cities to work in factorys-after work they have to go to a gated small city that gets lock at night,they don't play allot of them what they said they would payI read about that.We need to cut China import off untill they raise the value of their money or we could put a nice import tax on them so we can get America factorys running again.
The trouble is, bushay, is that the corporate oligarchs that actually run this country (through the politician front people that they own) don't want to upset the apple cart - their obscene profits are tied to China's currency manipulation.
This guy had it coming for him. He wrote books criticising top leaders and praising leaders' opponents. I don't know what would happen to me if I write book praising Osama and Al-Queda and denouncing democracy in the States. Even though I may not be in jail in the States for that if I find a good lawyer, but I am sure that Uncle Sam will watch me all the times, and I will be killed once I leave the country.
In short, freedom does not mean freedom to attack. The guy is awfully naive and a little grandiose.
He is praising freedom idiot, not Al-Queda.
What a a stupid comparison.
The longer we live, the more idiots we see .... .. .. .
Lulz. Unless we have a revolution, the headline in 5 years will be reversed "US dissident Flees to China And Tells Of Torture"
They're stripping rights left and right... and if HR3166 passes, Govcorp willbe torturing Americans within a year.
Economist: I'm with you, I don't like how current legislation is going!
Every time an American buys a Chinese made product that person is helping prop up the continuance of the Communist control of the nation. The Chinese making fortunes are those with close ties to Party officials, and who pay those officials bribery in many forms. All of this is happening while most Chinese are no better off than before, and under the very watchful eye of the Party and its cronies. No foreign invader could be harming the Chinese more than their own government does.
And our president, Barack Obama, has expressed envy over the Chinese system.
So if China is pushing for education it automatically becomes something evil and bad for you ?
Hey - guess what ...The chinese are breathing air. Can you please stop breathing and die ? Thank you !!!!
And what do you want Obama to do ? Needle Chinese on their human rights record when they hold our financial balls in their hands ?
Don't you righties think even for a few seconds before you let loose your anti-obama tirade ?
BOYCOTT CHINA
Every time we spend money on Chinese goods that used to be made here, we allow them to get stronger and the only thing stopping them from taking over all of Asia is our military, which they will eventually equal.
Quantity does not equate to quality. It just means we need that many more shells.
@waterslide
Buy Chinese products as these meets the budget expectation of average American. Anyone suggest boycott chinese product is out of touch with the reality.
China has no intention from taking over all of Asia as evidenced from her non-belligerent approach to sovereign nations in Asia. China wishes to negotiate on South China sea disputes and never threten to resolve the issue militaily despite her strong military posture. China threatens no one and stations no troops nor establish any military bases outside her own territory.
Your delusionn that China wishes to take over all of Asia makes you lose the last straw of creditability.
Chinese products meets the budget of average americans,WTF?? We are at this point because of corporations taking our jobs to china.This has led to declining wages,and lowered buying power for middle class america.So you're saying,welcome to your first step towards third world living.Sounds like a really great plan for the country's economy.
Corporation will take jobs to other nations with low labor cost if not China. US labor cost is so high to the point it is uneconomical to manufacture here.
Time to soul searching and cut the regulations and excessive benefits demanded by union to reduce our labor cost structure.
Yet we continue to do business with them. They have put chemicals in our pet food and killed our pets, they have put lead in paint that harms our children. Should be a no brainer
The deteriorating environment of free speech in China??? Since when did they ever have that at all?? A BETTER Question...What about the deteriorating environment of civil liberities and free speech in the United States of America???
Apparently US citizens can be detained indefinitely now...and we're gonna squawk about China's non-existent loss????
Gimme an Fffff'in break.
Plus we have the middle east with crazy rules on females. Not mentioning the crazy religious beliefs. Go back eighty years, we weren"t that great on some crazy laws. Just like us, afew bad apples causes us innocent one's facing laws that effect our freedom. As the world turns.
This is great news, but it's unfortunate that the Chinese government is still afraid of religion and religious practice of all forms. (not to mention all the rest of their social evils)
I've blogged about being propositioned for sex in the courtyard of the Cathedral in Beijing, and I wouldn't be surprised if the hookers were placed there by government-certified pimps. There are no morals within that government. And they have an ongoing war on women in general. http://justlooklikefrog.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/misogyny1/
I've brought Bibles into China before too, and I'm neither afraid nor ashamed to admit it. I've been told by a number of people that the only way they can legally get a Bible is by buying one, and that their ownership of it must be recorded, so each time I'd visit China on business I'd carry a few hotel Bibles with me from wherever I last stayed.
Welcome to your new free life, Mr. Yu, and best of luck to you and your family. This will be a very good year for you all; enjoy the celebration!
I'm sure his story is truthful and if wasn't bad he wouldn't come here. I knew a Chinese man who did business here and He went to China. He got beat up, robbed and threatened. He felt that he was being intimidated by either business competition or the government. These things do happen. Man domination man to his injury. I look forward to a government with real freedom. And not living in fear or violence. No government is perfect, but I am thankful to have religious freedom here in the U.S.
But the religious right want to take our religious freedom away.....
Nonsense. You're so terrified of being told that you're wrong about something that you interpret every criticism or rebuke as an "attack" on your "freedom" without ever seeing that your ilk is far more intolerant of ideas you don't agree with than anyone else is.
My preaching to you does not in any way threaten your "religious liberty."
I haven't tried to silence you forcefully. I've simply told you that you speak a lie.
But your side routinely tries to silence any contrary view using the force of law to do it.
It is altogether clear, provable, demonstrable on the plain face of the obvious that the secular left is far more inclined to censor others who disagree with it than any overtly religious group is, and more often resorts to violence and strong-arm tactics to force their views on others than any religious group does.
And this is without even needing to point to places like China or North Korea to show the ultimate brutally repressive goal of the secular leftist. Such strong-arm bullying by leftists against those who disagree with them is routine all over the world, has been for generations, and their deceitful bullying character is nowhere more obvious than it is right here in the United States where CHRISTIANS ARE STILL WILLING AND ABLE TO CALL THEM OUT ON IT AND IDENTIFY THE SPECIFIC INSTANCES OF SUCH BULLYING THAT CONTINUE ROUTINELY TO OCCUR.
Here, as elsewhere, their favorite tactic for bullying those who disagree with them is by doing so UNDER COLOR OF LAW.
I repeat: In short, you speak a lie.
Who are we Americans to criticize? Look what we have done to prisoners in Iraq and Gitmo. And that is only the torture that we know about...
Good,you feel guilty.Meanwhile I'll try to warn him how we're mostly christian heterosexuals who believe in marraige.What a mistake he made
And this is where all our jobs have gone to..................sweet
Thanks to the bias media, now America is in "Great Cultural Revolution".
Oh yea,the media thats our big problem,not people that don't take the time to educate themselves on the issues.Its the media's fault that most americans complain,but don't vote,unless its american idol.Get real pal,media bias only works on empty heads.
I think he is just making up the stories so that he can stay in the States. But for me he was sent here to SPY on the United States Financially, Economically and most important our Military System.