Ex-officials urge China to allow freedom of speech

Oct 13, 2010, 9:54 GMT

Beijing - A group of mostly retired Communist Party officials, academics and state-media editors has urged China's leaders to allow full freedom of speech in accordance with the nation's constitution, according to an open letter seen on Wednesday.

The government should implement Article 35 of the national constitution approved in 1982, which allows Chinese citizens 'freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration,' said the letter, under which 23 names were listed.

'For 28 years this article has stood unrealized, having been negated by detailed rules and regulations for 'implementation',' it said.

'This false democracy of formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark on the history of world democracy.'

The letter was posted on several Chinese and English websites and carried the names of Li Rui, a former secretary to Mao Zedong, and Hu Jiwei, the retired editor-in-chief of the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily.

Another signatory, Jiang Ping, the retired head of the China University of Political Science and Law, confirmed to the German Press Agency dpa by telephone that he had signed the letter.

Jiang declined to answer questions about the letter, which was dated Monday but apparently prepared before Friday's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.

The retired officials' letter cited several recent examples of censorship suggesting that no one in China has freedom of expression.

'Even the premier of our country does not have freedom of speech or of the press!' they said.

The government's Xinhua news agency apparently failed to report comments on political reform by Premier Wen Jiabao during an important speech in August in the southern city of Shenzhen, the letter said.

It recommended several measures to improve media freedom and said there should be 'no more taboos concerning our party's history.'

'Chinese citizens have a right to know the errors of the ruling party,' the letter said.

Liu Xiaobo, a prominent writer and one of China's leading dissidents, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December for his part in writing the Charter '08 for democratic reform, which demands freedom of speech and free elections.

China reacted angrily to Liu's Nobel award and state media have reported little more than the Foreign Ministry's criticism of the award as 'serious disrespect.'

Police have kept many other dissidents and rights activists under house arrest or other forms of detention since Friday to prevent them from publicly celebrating the award.

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