The People’s Court of Suining in China’s south-central province of Sichuan have sentenced Christian political dissident Liu Xianbin to a ten year jail term, a punishment considered harsh even by Chinese standards.
Liu will also be barred from writing, making speeches or accepting interviews for a period of two years and four months.
Liu’s sentence comes only a few weeks after an anonmyous blogger urged China’s major cities towards a “Jasmine Revolution,” in an apparent attempt to emulate the popular uprisings that overturned dictatorship rule in Tunisia.
Human rights groups have challenged the sentence, saying that its harshness is a reaction to the aborted February uprisings.
“Like what happened in Egypt, Yemen and Libya, China’s totalitarian government recently has acted with increasingly blunt disregard for its own citizens’ basic rights,” said the president of ChinaAid Association, Mr. Bob Fu. “This should further alarm the free world and vividly demonstrates how dire the consequences of appeasement and inaction are.”
The “Jasmine Revolution” failed to garner any widespread support. The only action occurred at Beijing's affluent Wafujing shopping district from a few protestors who were promptly arrested by hundreds of police officers who had been stationed there.
The Chinese government does not permit mass political gatherings and has restricted all news regarding the recent Middle East civil unrest.
Liu was arrested last year on charges of “inciting subversion” against “state power” after he had written and posted a series of internet articles urging political reform.
Liu is a Christian who for decades has challenged China’s communist government. His protest work began as a university student when he was part of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. This sentence will be the third prison term that Liu has served in his fight for freedom of political expression and religion.