Wang Dan Commentary- Delivered May 18, 1998
Hello, listeners, this is Wang Dan.
On Oct. 30, 1996, in the municipal court in Beijing, I was sentenced to eleven years in prison for the crime of "subverting the government," with two years for "seizing power." On April 18, 1998, I was permitted to go abroad for medical leave, and so I was released from prison and sent to Beijing airport to come to the United States.
Everyone knows that plotting to subvert the government is a serious crime --- the provisions for this crime are the most severe. How was it that the government could convict me of this crime? What, in the end, had I really done?
I think that there might be some listeners inside China who might not understand and would want to know. So I would like to introduce my case a bit, which I think speaks directly to the poor state of the Chinese legal system.
When I was being held in the Beijing investigative bureau, there were three important crimes among the many charges against me. The first said that I had written a series of more than 30 articles on the urgency of democratic reforms, on post-Deng China and the mainland's fate, on establishing freedom of speech and so forth, that had appeared in Taiwan's Lianhe bao, Hong Kong's Ming bao, and other newspapers.
Their attack on my fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech is like knocking down a paper horse -- one touch and it falls over. (They said I) "Slandered" by saying that with the conditions for people in China today, freedom of speech has become an empty phrase.
(They said I) "Libeled" the Chinese Communist Party and government (by saying that they are) a generation of leaders who are not only confusing us but are too confused to lead; that they can't give up one shred of their vested interests. In order to ensure their power isn't restricted, might they not sacrifice our country's future?
The charges I just detailed constituted the crimes of "agitating to overthrow national power and disturbing social order." I certainly recognize that these statements come from my articles.
But the government is always asserting charges but not specifying crimes. Why would they take these various statements from my articles and put them into charges against me? These articles appeared in Hong Kong and Taiwan newspapers. How could this be "agitating" inside China?
These articles are my own individual opinions. (They) express my own political viewpoints. The government can agree or disagree, (but) how is this "agitating?"
On the one hand, the government supports freedom of speech. So because I said that having no freedom of thought is not good, does this equal "overthrowing the government?" Is this any kind of freedom?
Freedom of speech and freedom of thought are different concepts. Their difference lies in the fact that freedom of speech requires the freedom to express one's own thoughts. It's the realization of freedom of thought. If you keep thinking and don't get to speak, this freedom of speech is a fraud. The government's taking a few sentences from articles that I published outside the country and turning them into charges proves my argument: Freedom of speech in China has become an empty phrase in the constitution.