His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council, Beijing 100032
People’s Republic of China
His Excellency Zhang Fusen
Minister of Justice
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyang-qu
Beijing-shi 100020
People’s Republic of China
Vienna, 9 May 2005
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, strongly condemns the ban imposed on Chinese freelance journalist and poet Liu Hongbin.
Liu, who has been living in the United Kingdom (UK) since 1989 and is the London correspondent for the Chinese service of Radio France International, informed IPI that a ban on his return to China was renewed on 15 March 2005.
Liu Hongbin left China in 1989, eight weeks after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Several of his poems were posted around the Square during the pro-democracy uprising. Since then, he has been a frequent critic of China’s appalling human rights record.
On 20 March 1997, the Chinese authorities expelled Liu from China, where he had travelled to visit his ill mother. Liu had entered the country on 13 February 1997 with a UK passport.
Shortly after arrival, he was warned that, because of “counter-revolutionary remarks” he had made abroad, he was not welcome in China and that he should not make contact with any “politically sensitive people” or “incite political activities.” During his stay in China in 1997, Liu was regularly harassed by officers from the Public Security Bureau (PSB), who confiscated his UK passport.
Liu was arrested without a warrant on 18 March 1997, accused of engaging in “activities incompatible with his status as a tourist” and expelled from China. Following his expulsion, Liu was banned from ever returning to China.
When he travelled to China again on 6 October 2004 to visit his mother and collect a poetry prize in Taiwan, Liu and his 3-year-old daughter were detained for 24 hours after their arrival in Beijing. According to reports, Liu and his daughter were held in an unhygienic detention centre for three hours before being transferred to a hotel, where they were held incommunicado overnight.
The authorities cancelled Liu’s double entry visa, preventing him from travelling to Taiwan; throughout his stay, Liu was harassed by security agents.
IPI considers such restrictions, which are clearly a consequence of Liu’s writings, a serious violation of Liu’s basic rights. We therefore urge Your Excellency to lift the ban on Liu Hongbin and make sure that his basic human rights are respected.
We thank you for your attention
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
