Reporters Without Borders Protest Hu Jia's Arrest in China

The Procuratorate of Beijing Municipality announced the official arrest of famous Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia for the crime of “inciting subversion of state power”. Hu's relatives received notice of his official arrest on the 30th of January 2008.

Hu Jia with his wife Zeng Jinyan

The headquarters of Reporters without Borders, based in Paris, made a strong protest against the arrest of Hu Jia by the Chinese Communist Authority regardless of the appeals of the international community. Reporters without Borders expressed in a news bulletin issued on the 31st of January, “It is an insult to the diplomatic efforts made by the numerous countries calling for the release of Hu Jia.”

On the occasion of the holding of Beijing Olympic Games, the situation of the Hu Jia family was regarded by the outside world as the symbol of whether or not the Chinese Communist Authority would fulfill its promise made during its application for holding the Olympic Games to improve the Chinese human rights. After Hu Jia was arrested, the Parliament of the European Union and many international organisations has appealed to the Chinese Communist Authority on many occasions for the immediate release of Hu Jia.

Reporters without Borders has expressed that it does not at all understand the act of the Chinese Communist Authority. The Reporters without Borders raised the question in its New Bulletin, “Is the Beijing Authority really deaf so that they can not hear the voice of the Chinese people and the international community for the release of Hu Jia?”

Under the situation of being supervised in his home for a long time, Hu Jia was forcibly taken away by the police who sneaked into his house on the 27th of December last year and his whereabouts is still unknown up to date. Over the past month, the public security department refused twice the request of Hu Jia’s lawyer to see him.

Hu Jia’s lawyer applied for allowing Hu Jia to obtain a guarantor and await trial out of custody because he had been seriously ill with cirrhosis. On the 25th of January, the public security department refused Hu Jia’s application with the excuse that this might harm the society.

His wife Zeng Jinyan is now under close supervision and is threatened to be arrested any time. The daughter of Hu Jia and Zeng Jin Yan is just two months old and so has become the world’s youngest political offender.