Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010interrogated, briefly detained and made to take off their shirts. A number of otheractivists were interrogated and detained for making and wearing t-shirts to raiseawareness about Charter 08 and the 20 th anniversary of the Tiananmen SquareMassacre. 694. The danger of accessing and disseminating human rights informationRegardless of the form of expression, exposing human rights abuses always carriesserious risks to activists, and many suffered the consequences in 2009. Sichuan activistand environmentalist Tan Zuoren ( was sentenced to five years of imprisonmentfor investigating student deaths in the 2008 Sichuanearthquake, while another Sichuan activist, Huang Qi ( 黄 谭Tan Zuorenwas sentenced to three years’ imprisonment forreporting and giving interviews to foreign journalists aboutprotests staged by families of schoolchildren killed in thequake. The deaths of schoolchildren during the 2008Sichuan earthquake continued to be a very sensitive topicin 2009, as the government sought to ensure that theirofficial version—that the deaths were largely the result ofthe magnitude of the earthquake and had nothing to dowith corruption—remained the only narrative told of the作national tragedy. The government seemed intent onpunishing anyone who might challenge this account.琦 ),人 )CHRD was also struck by the particularly harsh treatment meted out to individuals whoattempted to call attention to the 20 th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.The following relatively low-profile writers and activists were all sent to Re-educationthrough Labor (RTL) for activities relating to the commemoration of the anniversary,possibly indicating that there had been some order from higher authorities on how tohandle such cases.• Ning Wenzhong ( , aka “Woodcutter” [ ]), an internet writer fromZhengzhou City, Henan Province, was sent to one year of RTL for posting anonline appeal calling for netizens to lay flowers on Tiananmen Square tocommemorate the Massacre; 70• Chen Yang ( ), a 23-year-old activist from Chongqing Municipality, wasgiven a one year RTL term for “inciting subversion of state power” for an onlinepost asking if fellow netizens would join him in commemorating theanniversary; 71• Sun Fuquan ( ), a忠journalist砍and樵activist from Shenyang City, LiaoningProvince, was sent to 21 months of RTL for “inciting subversion of state power”and “splitting the country” for posting information online about the Massacre; 72文 宁 人陈 杨全 福 孙• Zhang Huaiyang ( a cyber-activist also from Shenyang City, was sent to18 months of RTL for enquiring online if others were planning to gather onTiananmen Square to mark the anniversary. The RTL Committee in Shenyang张19), 阳 怀