Activists and diplomats were pushed and shoved on the street by police who refused to allow them into the trial of a campaigner charged with incitement

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Scuffles erupted outside a Beijing courthouse on Monday as China’s most influential champion of free speech went on trial for sending sarcastic social media messages.

Activists say the likely imprisonment of Pu Zhiqiang, a 50-year-old human rights lawyer, represents the latest chapter in president Xi Jinping’s intensifying offensive against Communist party opponents.

Pu has been in detention since May 2014, when he was detained after attending a gathering to commemorate the 1989 massacre of protestors around Tiananmen Square.

On Monday morning, as a thick smog enveloped the Chinese capital, about 40 demonstrators gathered outside Beijing’s No 2 intermediate people’s court holding placards and chanting: “Pu Zhiqiang is not guilty! Pu Zhiqiang is not guilty! Freedom of speech! Freedom of speech!”



Among the crowd was Lin Yu, who has known Pu since they both took part in the Tiananmen protests more than 25 years ago.



“We hope the government will release him. He is innocent,” said Lin.



Lin said he believed the Communist party’s pursuit of Pu was an attempt to silence all opposition to its rule.

“They fear us,” he said. “They hope to keep [the] dictatorship in power for a long, long time. We hope for change. We must change. We must change.”

Another protester, a 65-year-old woman called Zhao Ming, said: “We are all friends of Pu Zhiqiang. Everyone here is Pu Zhiqiang’s friend.”

“There is no reason for this. They have found nothing against him,” she added.

There were chaotic scenes as scores of Chinese police officers and plainclothes security forces in face masks attempted to physically drive supporters, diplomats and journalists from the area around the court.



While attempting to read a statement condemning Pu’s treatment to journalists near the courthouse, Dan Biers, a senior US diplomat, was violently bundled away.



Police also attempted to prevent an EU diplomat from reading a similar statement raising concerns over Pu’s treatment.



Diplomats from countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United States were refused access to the trial having been told the courtroom was “full”.



Friends and relatives of Pu were also barred from the hearing although his wife – who has not seen him since his arrest nearly 19 months ago – is understood to have been allowed in.

“We want to see whether there will be any justice today [but] we can’t get inside the court,” complained Wang Wenqing, one supporter who was barred from the hearing. “Just look at how they are pushing people, blocking people. What kind of justice is this?”

As police threw a human barrier up around the contentious trial, Communist party censors battled to scrub all mention of Pu’s trial from the Chinese internet.

Some supporters launched an online protest against Pu’s treatment by replacing their profile pictures on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, with images of the jailed lawyer.



Criticism of Beijing rained in on Twitter, which is blocked in China, including one call for the United States to recall its ambassador to China in protest.

“This whole thing is beyond egregious and it is time for [the] US to do something beyond just spouting more empty words,” Bill Bishop, a respected China watcher, wrote on his Sinocism newsletter.

In a statement the US’ embassy in Beijing attacked the “vague charges” levelled against Pu and called on Beijing to end its “continuing repression” of human rights lawyers.



“We urge Chinese authorities to release Pu and call upon China to uphold fundamental civil rights and fair trail guarantees as enshrined in the PRC constitution and its international human rights commitments,” it said.

The EU embassy said Pu’s treatment “raised serious questions of consistency with China’s constitutional guarantees of assembly, opinion and expression”.

“The Chinese authorities should guarantee Pu Zhiqiang’s right to a fair trial and fully respect his defense rights,” the EU added.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China denounced “the harassment of and violence against overseas media and their local staff by Chinese authorities in an apparent effort to block reporting of the trial of lawyer Pu Zhiqiang in Beijing today.”

“This effort to deter news coverage is a gross violation of Chinese government rules governing foreign correspondents,” the FCCC said in a statement.

The British embassy in Beijing, which last week commemorated the UN’s human rights day by quoting Xi, made no immediate comment on the violence outside the trial.

Officially, Pu is being tried on two charges relating to online criticism of the government – “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “inciting ethnic hatred”. Those crimes could land him in jail for up to eight years.

Pu, who denies both charges, told the court: “I did not incite ethnic hatred and that was not my intention.”

“I believe in the law,” he added, according to his lawyer, Mo Shaoping.

In one of Pu’s supposedly illicit posts, written in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack by Muslim extremists, he attacked the Communist party’s policies in Xinjiang, a violence-stricken region of western China that is home to the Uighur ethnic minority.

In another Pu mocked Mao Zedong’s grandson, Mao Xinyu, and an elderly member of China’s rubber-stamp parliament who had admitted to never opposing Communist party policy during her 60-year career.

A third Weibo post, for which Pu has also been charged, saw him attack a government official following a 2011 high-speed rail disaster which claimed 40 lives and saw authorities accused of attempting a cover-up.

Perry Link, an American academic who knows Pu, said the accusations were merely a Communist party excuse to justify the lawyer’s politically motivated imprisonment.



“The real reason is that ever since ‘89 and Tiananmen he has been a symbol for free speaking,” Link said.

“He is tall, he is articulate, he is charismatic, he is smart, he is well-informed and he has gone around China and built a reputation of being heroic and speaking the truth – especially on the issue of freedom of expression,” Link added.

“He does threaten the regime with poking a hole in [its] web of lies.”

Speaking outside the court, where police were seen dragging away at least two protesters, demonstrator Zhao Ming called on authorities to release Pu.

“If I could speak to Pu Zhiqiang I would tell him to look after himself,” she said. “We all know he is a good person and we hope he can be released as soon as possible. We are all looking forward to him being released as soon as possible. If he is allowed out then hope will also appear among the people.”

Shang Baojun, one of Pu’s attorneys, said the hearing came to an end at just after noon without any verdict being reached.



Shang said his client had told the court he regretted making “rude and biting” comments on his Weibo account and “would be cautious with his remarks and behaviour in the future”.



“He said he believed the court would handle [his case] justly,” Shang added.

Additional reporting by Christy Yao



