This will go over like a lead balloon. The Guardian:

The letter accuses officials of ignoring China’s constitution, which guarantees the rights of free speech and a free press. “This false democracy of formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark on the history of world democracy,” it says.

Several of the signatories have been prevented from publishing books themselves.

The document began appearing on websites yesterday, days after the government denounced the decision to give the Nobel peace prize to the dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was jailed after co-writing a document calling for democratic reforms, and before a major political meeting which begins on Friday. It also follows repeated, highly unusual remarks by the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, about political reform, most recently in a CNN interview.

“Even the premier of our country does not have freedom of speech or of the press,” the authors complained, pointing out that Chinese media had omitted Wen’s advocacy of political reform from reports of his comments.