We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2016

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2016!

祝大家圣诞节愉快，新年好！

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Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A908-W589

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A908-W589

Release Date: December 23, 2015

发布日：2015年12月23日

Topic: Voice of America's "Issues and Opinions" Program: Wei Jingsheng Summarizes Chinese Politics and Human Rights in the Year of 2015, and Also Comments on the Case of Pu Zhiqiang

标题：美国之音“时事大家谈”：魏京生直观2015中国政治与人权兼点评浦志强案

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Voice of America's "Issues and Opinions" Program: Wei Jingsheng Summarizes Chinese Politics and Human Rights in the Year of 2015, and Also Comments on the Case of Pu Zhiqiang

-- by Liya of VOA

Last updated 2015.12.23 22:08

Washington -

On Tuesday, a court in Beijing sentenced Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang by charging him for "inciting ethnic hatred" and " disturbing public order." Using Pu Zhiqiang's "pleading guilty to repentance" as a reason, the court gave Pu a lighter three-year sentence, suspended for three years.

Wei Jingsheng, the chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, thinks that the sentence of Pu Zhiqiang was lenient illustrates a very important point, that intervention from the international community still can play a significant role. He said Pu Zhiqiang's sentence was lighter than expected, even by the expectation of his lawyer. Wei Jingsheng noted that during Pu Zhiqiang's trial, the diplomats of the United States and European countries in China had expressed concerns about his case right outside the court, which caused a lot of pressure on the Chinese authorities. He speculated the ruling of Pu Zhiqiang's three-year sentence with three-years suspension might be determined right in the court. He thinks that it might be a feature of Xi Jinping, who cares more about the views of the international community, somewhat reminiscent of the Jiang Zemin era. In comparison, the Hu Jintao era was more rigid and would have carried out a decision that was fixed in advance.

Mo Shaoping, one of Pu Zhiqiang's defense lawyers, proposed 4 possible results including suspension of Pu's sentence during his interview with VOA before the court ruling.

Although the defense team made the argument of innocence for him, Pu Zhiqiang has expressed a will not to appeal the ruling. Wei Jingsheng thinks that could be a compromise between Pu Zhiqiang and the authorities, because being sentenced to three years but suspended for three years means that he does not really have to be in a jail. Wei Jingsheng, who was jailed for 19 years, said that for people in prison it is very important to keep from going to jail, so in choosing not to appeal Pu Zhiqiang has his reasons.

Wei Jingsheng, this veteran of the pro-democracy movement, analyzed that the lenient sentence Pu Zhiqiang received and the previous commuted sentence of Gao Yu might be related to their attitude. In comparison, Guo Feixiong, the pro-democracy activist in Guangzhou who just received a heavy sentence, might have suffered from his stubborn attitude of not admitting guilt. That is because this type of political case is decided by the administrative authorities, rather than by the courts. In addition, he believes that there was less intervention from the international community regarding Guo Feixiong's case.

Wei Jingsheng's Direct Views of Chinese Politics and Human Rights in 2015

The Year of 2015 is about to end. In the past year, every section of China's society was heavily controlled by the Communist regime, including the Internet, media, the creation of arts, and religion; civil rights such as the right to free speech were further restricted. Why is Xi Jinping grabbing the totem of totalitarianism harder and harder? How much is this highly suppressive rule going to help the Chinese Communist Parties' one-party dictatorship? Today we specially invited Mr. Wei Jingsheng, the Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, to this program's studio to share his views regarding these issues.

Wei Jingsheng thinks that 2015 is the worst year of China's human rights condition since 1989. It is even worse than the year he was put on trial in court. He said, when he was tried in court back then there were at least some sort of legal restraints. However, now the rule of law is completely ignored in China, with torture in prisons, the trials being very casual like showcases, even the defense attorneys being arrested because the government was not happy with them. Wei Jingsheng, who was jailed for a long period of time for participating the Democracy Wall movement, said that back then when he was a political prisoner, the living conditions were worse than now, and worse than those of inmates jailed for criminal offenses. But he was not tortured or beaten up with electric batons.

In 2015, the Chinese authorities unleashed the most intense crackdown on human rights attorneys to date. Large number of human rights attorneys, employees of law firms and human right activists were detained, arrested, questioned and restricted in personal freedom. Why does the Chinese authorities target attorneys?

Wei Jingsheng thinks that this is because human rights lawyers are becoming more and more important, that they are not only involved in civil cases, but also involved in the power struggles inside the Chinese Communist Party. In his view, the arrests and convictions of human rights lawyers are forms of intimidation from the Chinese government, in order to maintain the "the Party is the boss" situation.

Some U. S. scholars on Chinese legal issues think the crackdown of human rights lawyers is a clear signal by the Chinese authorities that the government will no longer tolerate these lawyers using high profile cases and media pressure to improve China's judicial system and protect the vulnerable groups within the system. This is because Chinese Communist Party took their action as a challenge to the Communist Party's bottom line.

Wei Jingsheng thinks that the scale of the cases that these human rights lawyers took in the recent two years are not greater than in Hu Jintao's era, but Xi Jinping is still not satisfied with such situations and hopes to go back to the 1970s where the lawyers actually defended for the government. What bothers Xi Jinping the most is that the intervention of the lawyers prevents him from cracking down on the dissidents against him.

Regarding why Xi Jinping has intensified the persecution against dissidents in the past three years since he took power, Wei Jingsheng thinks that it reflects the intensified social conflict in China. He said that in the past, the average Chinese were just jealous of rich people with "red eyes", but now the average Chinese hate the rich and powerful. With the intensified social conflict and internal power struggles of the communist party, Xi Jinping feels that he cannot control the situation anymore. Wei Jingsheng thinks that Xi Jiping's crackdown on human rights lawyers is a measure for him to gain more control.

Regarding the contradiction between such a crackdown and the rule of law, Wei Jingsheng thinks that Xi Jinping's "rule of law" is to obey his order. It is a tool for Xi Jinping to maintain his rule, instead of a shield for average Chinese to defend themselves. Wei thinks that Xi Jinping is used to the Mao Zedong era, even though his family was also persecuted by Mao. Wei said that a lot of victims of persecution would suffer the Stockholm syndrome and then would use the same measures to treat others and use strong power to suppress dissidents. Wei thinks this is the reason that Xi is somehow different from his predecessors after he took the power. Wei Jingsheng thinks that in one aspect, it shows Xi's ideology; meanwhile it also shows that Xi is in a very dangerous situation -- just as when a cat or a dog gets cornered, he might put all his eggs in one single basket.

Wei Jingsheng thinks that Xi Jinping's initiation of an anti-corruption movement and hosting the "World Congress on Marxism" and "World Internet Conference", etc., are copied from Mao Zedong, in an attempt to control the ideology of thought of the Chinese, in order to rule the nation with ease. However, Wei thinks that at least Mao had some ability to trick 800 million Chinese then; but Xi does not have such skill now. In addition, back then, the Communist Party just took the power and the average people had a limited understanding of its motives; they believed in the Communist regime and were willing to followed the Party. But now the average Chinese do not trust the Communist Party at all. Therefore, even though Xi's regime is using much more modern measures, it still cannot accomplish the goal of controlling peoples' minds; the result will only cause a bigger chaos for China.

Wei Jingsheng also analyzed why some Western scholars' theory that economical freedom would eventually lead to political freedom would not work in China and why in recent years the international community pays less attention on Chinese human rights condition.

Although the investment conditions became worse for Western businesses in China after Xi took power, Wei Jingsheng still thinks that due to the importance of foreign business to China, Xi Jinping has attempted to repair the relationship between the Chinese government and the Western capitalists with a good amount of contracts signed during his recent visits to the USA and Great Britain. Xi is still carrying out Deng Xiaoping's strategy, that is to buy off Western capitalists and let them speak on behalf of the Chinese government to prevent the international society from paying attention to China's human rights. Wei thinks that although this measure may pay off to a certain effect, the current global trend is so different than twenty years ago so it will not be very successful.

As the Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, Wei Jingsheng also talked about the work done by overseas pro-democracy groups that have promoted democracy and human rights in China, which includes gaining the international community's attention towards China's democracy and human rights, and also stimulating the Chinese peoples' thought by introducing viewpoints to China through all kinds of media. Only when the Chinese people start to wake up will there be hope in China.

Wei Jingsheng also responded to the criticisms that overseas pro-democracy groups are not united, and not really responding to peoples' needs. He said some overseas pro-activists may hold different views on some issues. But this is not strange as everyone has his or her own thoughts. However, every one us has the same goals to work toward the direction to promote democracy and human rights in China and make the Communist Party step down. He said, in this perspective overseas democracy groups are united. Regarding arguments within the democracy camp, he said they were expressed in a democratic manner, which is much better than the Communist Party.

During the show, Wei Jingsheng also interacted with viewers and audiences through many phone calls -- he answered various questions and responded some of their opinions.

The original link of this report:

http://www.voachinese.com/content/io-20151222-wei-jingsheng-china-human-rights/3113595.html

Related video is available at:

http://av.voanews.com/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2015/12/d/d0/d04ac81e-d1ae-4ca8-b400-b1b261e66b71.mp4

Or: http://www.weijingsheng.org/interviews/interviews2015/WeiJS2015review151222VOAtalkshow.mp4

Or on Youtube at:

https://youtu.be/Yr6DT_bArzI

or:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiLGzoT70XA

(VOA videos: http://bit.ly/VOAIO-youtube)

(One may subscribe VOA's YouTube Channel at: http://bit.ly/dingyue-youtube)

Related audio is also available at:

http://www.voachinese.com/audio/3113564.html

or:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/interviews/interviews2015/WeiJS2015review151222VOAtalkshow.mp3

(The Wei Jingsheng Foundation is grateful to Yi Shi for his translation of this report and his other contributions to this Foundation.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A908-W589

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A908-W589

Release Date: December 23, 2015

发布日：2015年12月23日

Topic: Voice of America's "Issues and Opinions" Program: Wei Jingsheng Summarizes Chinese Politics and Human Rights in the Year of 2015, and Also Comments on the Case of Pu Zhiqiang

标题：美国之音“时事大家谈”：魏京生直观2015中国政治与人权兼点评浦志强案

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2015/report2015-12/WeiJS2015review151223VOAtalkshowA908-W589.htm

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美国之音“时事大家谈”：魏京生直观2015中国政治与人权兼点评浦志强案

-- 丽雅

最后更新 2015.12.23 22:08

华盛顿-

北京的一家法院星期二对中国维权律师浦志强作出宣判，他的罪名是"煽动民族仇恨"和"寻衅滋事"。法院以浦志强"认罪悔罪"为由，从轻判处三年徒刑，缓期三年执行。

中国民主运动海外联席会议主席魏京生认为，浦志强被轻判说明很重要的一点，即国际社会的干预还是能起很大的作用。他说，浦志强的判刑甚至比他的律师预想的还要轻。他指出，在浦志强受审时，美国以及欧洲国家驻华外交官都在法庭外对浦志强案表示关注，这对中国当局造成很大的压力。他猜测浦志强判三缓三的裁决可能是在法庭现场决定的。他认为这是习近平的一个特点，而胡锦涛时代则比较死板，事先定成怎么样就怎么样，而习近平比较在意国际社会的看法，与江泽民时代有点相似。

浦志强的辩护律师之一莫少平在宣判之前接受美国之音采访时对浦志强的判刑作出四种可能，其中包括缓刑。

尽管浦志强的辩护律师团队对他做出了无罪的辩护，但是浦志强表示对判决不上诉。魏京生认为，这可能是浦志强与当局之间的妥协，因为判三缓三意味着他可以不蹲监狱了。曾经入狱19年的魏京生说，对于在监狱里的人来说，能够不蹲监狱是很重要的，所以浦志强选择不上诉也有他的道理。

这位老牌的民运人士分析说，浦志强被轻判和此前的高瑜被减刑可能与他们的态度有关，而广州的民运人士郭飞雄被重判可能是因为他的态度比较顽固，不认罪，因为这种政治案件是执政当局决定的，而不是法院决定的。另外，他认为，国际社会对郭飞雄案子的干预也少一些。

直观2015中国政治与人权

2015年即将谢幕。这一年，中国社会的各个方面，包括因特网、媒体、文艺创作和宗教等都受到中共当局严密的管控，公民的言论自由等权利进一步受到钳制。习近平为什么要把专制的图腾越抓越紧？这种高压统治对中共维持一党专制能起到多大作用？今天我们特别邀请中国民主运动海外联席会议主席魏京生先生到时事大家谈节目现场，分享他对这些问题的看法。

魏京生认为，2015年是自1989年以来中国人权状况最糟糕的一年，甚至比他当年受审时还要倒退。他说，他当年受审时多少还有一些法律的约束，而现在完全无法无天，监狱里实施酷刑，审判很随意，甚至时不时发生因为对辩护律师不满而把他们抓起来的案例。因为参与西单民主墙运动而被判处长期监禁的魏京生说，他们作为政治犯当时在监狱里的生活待遇可能没有现在好，比当时的普通刑事犯的待遇要低，但是没有遭受电棍殴打等酷刑。

2015年，中国当局对维权律师进行了力度空前的打压。大量的维权律师、律师事务所的工作人员和人权活动人士被拘留、带走或约谈，人身自由受到限制。中国当局为什么要把矛头对准律师呢？

魏京生认为，这是因为维权律师越来越重要了，因为他们不仅介入了民间的案子，而且也介入了涉及党内权斗的案子。在他看来，中国当局抓捕维权律师并对他们进行判刑是一种恐吓的姿态，以维持还是'党说了算'的局面。

美国的一些中国法律问题专家认为，围剿维权律师是当局发出的一个明确信号，即政府将不再容忍维权律师利用知名度较高的案件和舆论的压力来推动中国的法制建设、保护体制内弱势群体的做法，因为中共认为他们的行为是在挑战党的底线。

魏京生认为，近两年维权律师所受理案子的尺度并不比胡锦涛时代大，但是习近平对这种状况都不满意，希望回复到70年代律师替政府辩护的年代，而他最受不了的是律师的干预阻碍了他清除异己。

至于为什么习近平执政3年来对异议的打压更为严厉，魏京生认为，这种状况反应了中国社会矛盾的激化。他说，以前老百姓有'红眼病'，而现在则是仇富。随着社会矛盾的尖锐与党内斗争的日益激烈，习近平感觉控制不住了。他认为，习近平打压维权律师是他加强掌控力度的一个措施。

针对这种打压与依法治国之间存在的矛盾，魏京生认为，习近平所理解的依法治国是他说了算的法制，是他用来维护统治的工具，而不是老百姓用来保护自己的盾牌。他认为，习近平太习惯于毛泽东时代，尽管他们家当时也受到毛泽东的迫害。他说，很多受到迫害的人在得了'斯德哥尔摩'综合症以后，反而喜欢用同样的手段来对待他人，喜欢强力打压异见。他认为这是习近平上台以后与他的前任有所不同的原因。魏京生认为，这一方面反映了习近平的意识形态，同时也说明他现在处于非常危险的状态，就像猫与狗被逼到墙角一样，反而会孤注一掷。

魏京生认为，习近平在中国掀起反腐运动以及主办"世界马克思大会"和"世界互联网大会"等等，都是效仿毛泽东，试图控制意识形态和老百姓的思想，以便更有效的管理国家。不过他认为，毛泽东至少是有本事的，能够忽悠8亿中国人，而习近平则没有这个本事，而且当时共产党刚刚执政，老百姓对共产党的认识有限，相信共产党，愿意跟党走，而现在的老百姓根本不相信共产党，因此尽管习近平当局控制老百姓的手段更加现代化，但是无法实现控制他们思想的目的，那么结果只会导致中国走向更加混乱。

魏京生还分析了西方学者有关一个国家的经济自由化最终会导致政治自由的理论为什么在中国行不通，以及国际社会近年来对中国人权状况的关注不如以前的原因。

尽管习近平上台后西方企业在中国的投资环境恶化，但是魏京生认为，鉴于商界对于中国的重要性，习近平在上次访美和访英期间试图修补中共当局与西方资本家之间的关系，签署了大量的订单，执行的还是邓小平的策略，即收买西方资本家，让他们替中国政府说话，来阻止国际社会关注中国的人权。他认为，这种做法也许能起到一定的效果，但是目前国际的大趋势已经与20年前大不相同，因此不会很成功。

作为中国民主运动海外联席会议主席，魏京生还谈到了海外民运组织为推动中国的民主与人权进步所作的工作，包括推动国际社会对中国的人权以及民主化的关注，以及通过各种媒体向国内介绍一些观点并引起人们的思考，因为只有人民觉悟了，中国才有希望。

魏京生也回应了一些批评人士对海外民运组织不团结、不接地气等方面的批评。他说，海外民运人士在一些问题上的看法可能不一致，这并不足为怪，因为每个人有自己的想法，但是大家都有一个共同的目标并朝这个方向努力，即推动中国的民主化，都在关注中国的人权，都希望共产党下台以及中国走向民主。他说，在这方面，海外民运组织很一致，很统一。至于民运内部有争吵，他说，这种争吵至少是以民主的方式进行的，比共产党好多了。

节目中，魏京生还与很多打电话进来参与节目讨论的观众和听众进行了互动，回答了他们提出的各种问题，也对他们的一些看法做出了回应。

本报道的原始链接：

http://www.voachinese.com/content/io-20151222-wei-jingsheng-china-human-rights/3113595.html