Latest Editions

Chinese dissident sentenced

Audio: Play | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing on today’s sentencing of a leading Chinese dissident. Liu Xiaobo will spend 11 years in prison for what the government calls subversion, after he drafted a manifesto calling for political change in China.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is the World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston.  The international community is condemning today’s sentencing of a leading Chinese dissident.  Liu Xiaobo was given 11 years for what the government calls subversion.  What Liu actually did was to help draft Charter 08.  That’s a manifesto that calls for political change in China.  The global reaction to Liu’s sentencing was immediate and critical.  The United States, the European Union, and the United Nations all denounced the move.  The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing is covering the story.  Mary Kay, what happened in court today?  This was No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: In court today, the judges basically read out the sentence, but what was particularly interesting was what happened in court on Wednesday, which is something that Liu’s lawyer was not allowed to talk about until today.  He said that in fact, Liu was able to give a couple of statements lasting more than 20 minutes while he was in court, where he basically said he wasn’t guilty that what he had done was completely within the parameters of the Chinese constitution, which does guarantee freedom of speech.  Liu’s lawyer also made about a 20-minute presentation, both of them were cut off before they could finish, but neither the lawyer nor Liu could examine the evidence of the other side.  Liu’s lawyer was not allowed to call witnesses, although he asked to.  There were no live witnesses called by the prosecution.  They just read out statements that came from police interviews with various people, who were considered to be connected to the case.

WERMAN: Now, today though I understand Liu was allowed to meet his wife, and this was the first time in nine months.  What kind of scene was that?

MAGISTAD: That’s right.  Well, from what his wife told me afterward, we spoke by phone after the sentencing, they met for about ten minutes.  She was quite teary when she was talking about it.  She said he looks like he’s in good spirits that they didn’t talk a lot about the sentence itself, but they did speak about it enough that Liu changed his mind.  He had earlier said that he was not going to appeal, and now he’s decided that he will.  But in the appeal, I also talked to his lawyer, and he said, “Look, in the appeal, the only chance we really have is we write the most convincing essay that we can to give to the court.  We’re not allowed to refute the case that was put forward by the prosecution, so it’s really a matter of whether we can appeal to the emotions of the judges.

WERMAN: Well, the United States has given its reaction to the sentence.  Here is Gregory May; he’s a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

GREGORY MAY: Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights.

WERMAN: Mary Kay, has China ever consistently followed though international norms of human rights?  Why start now?

MAGISTAD: The Chinese government has allowed a broader range of rights, I would say, to Chinese citizens in recent years, but it’s quite firm when it cracks down on people, who it feels are threatening its continued right to rule.

WERMAN: In the broader context, Mary Kay, it’s a little perplexing.  I mean, China is a global economic powerhouse.  They certainly threw their weight around in Copenhagen.  Why does it need to crack down so hard on an individual in this manner?

MAGISTAD: Well, it’s a really good question, and in fact, it’s kind of ironic that the sentencing comes on a day when this morning the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics gave a press conference saying, you know, look, we’ve looked at our economy a little more closely, and we realize that we actually even grew faster in 2008 than we thought.  So there would be reason for the Chinese government to be feeling kind of confident.  A lot of people within the Chinese population support the central government.  There are some who think that the government could be doing better, but there’s not revolution fomenting out there, so it is an interesting and very basic question.  Why would the Chinese government feel threatened even if there were multi-party democracy, why wouldn’t it feel that it would do pretty well?

WERMAN: The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing on the sentencing today of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.  Thank you, Mary Kay.

MAGISTAD: Thank you, Marco.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.