Chinese court imprisons man for joining overseas democracy party

HONG KONG, Feb. 10 Kyodo -
A court in the southern Chinese city Shenzhen on Wednesday sentenced a
20-year-old man to 18 months in prison for joining a U.S.-based political party
that authorities deem subversive, a human rights watchdog said.
Xue Mingkai, a former security guard of a metal factory, was said to have
joined the China Democracy Party after contacting its chairman Xie Wanjun on
the Internet last year, even though the party is regarded by the government as
a hostile organization, the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said on its
website.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court rejected Xue's mental illness defense
and found him guilty of ''subversion of state power'' with the aim to
overthrowing the ruling Chinese Communist Party
Xue's mother was allowed to hear the ruling in court. She said the conviction
was unjust and will launch an appeal, the group said.
On its website, the China Democracy Party tells aspiring members in mainland
China they should be aware the party is deemed a hostile and subversive
organization, and so by joining it they would ''assume danger for pushing the
democratic course of China.''
Xue's conviction was a lucid contrast to the relatively harsh sentences given
to two high-profile human rights advocates Liu Xiaobo and Tan Zuoren, who were
recently imprisoned for 11 years and five years, respectively, for inciting to
subvert state power.
Liu, a former professor in the mainland, helped draft the Charter 08, drawn up
under the inspiration of the Charter 77 of Czechoslovakia, which calls for an
end to one-party rule and for a reformed political system based on human rights
and democracy.
Tan, an activist who called for an independent investigation of shoddily
constructed buildings after the May 2008 earthquake in southwestern China's
Sichuan Province, had been building an online database of children who
believably died or were missing under the collapsed structures.
Earlier Wednesday, Hong Kong's veteran democracy advocate Szeto Wah called for
the release of Liu and Tan, while he also warned Hong Kong against being
assimilated by an undemocratic China.
Undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, the 78-year-old Szeto told reporters
during a half-hour public appearance that Hong Kong must remain the beacon of
democracy for China and he is concerned about the former British colony's
closer political ties with Beijing.
''(Beijing) must implement the 'one country, two systems' principle,'' he said,
adding that care must be taken to ''prevent Hong Kong from becoming like Macao
and Macao becoming like the mainland.''
The Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution in effect since returning to
Chinese rule in 1997, stipulates that Hong Kong is to retain a different
political system than that of the mainland.
As head of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements
of China, which organizes an annual memorial and candlelight vigil to
commemorate the victims in the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, Szeto once again called
for a redress of the June incident.
''A redress of June 4 would be China's first step toward democracy. If China
were to have democracy, it would be a big leap forward for mankind. I will join
this year's march and candlelight vigil, even if I need a wheelchair,'' he
said.
==Kyodo