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The crackdown on China’s ‘moderate’ rights voices: how tweets are now landing people in prison
- A number of activists are facing years-long jail sentences for online posts and organising private gatherings
- In the past, such activities would have usually attracted a reprimand, observers say
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Activist Wang Aizhong was taken into custody and charged by authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in May last year.
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Nearly a year later, he is still behind bars without having gone to trial: his hearing scheduled for mid-April was cancelled abruptly the week before, with no reason or new date given.
“I’m worried that they keep delaying it,” Wang Henan, his wife, said.
China has long held a strict line against large-scale protest organisers and prominent activists, with past high-profile cases garnering international attention.
One of the most well-known, late dissident Liu Xiaobo, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while serving an 11-year jail term for “inciting subversion of state power” by co-authoring a pro-democracy manifesto.
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The 2011 detention of the artist Ai Weiwei, known for his provocative artworks which are openly critical of the Communist Party, also sparked an outcry both at home and abroad.
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