Chinese Voices for Justice: Chen Pingfu’s Inciting to Subvert State Power by His Blogposts?

Posted on September 9, 2012

On September 4, 2012, a laid-off math teacher, a blogger, and a street violinist, CHEN Pingfu was accused of inciting to subvert state power at the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Gansu Province, China. The accusation was mainly based on blog posts Chen wrote on a few Chinese blog communities, such as Sina, netease, sohu, etc. The following is the English translation of the Accusation by Gansu Lanzhou People’s Procuratorate
The accused Chen Pingfu, male, han nationality, born on March 1st 1957, ID number XXXX, hukou registration: XXX, resident address: XXX. On June 27, 2012, suspected of inciting to subvert state power, Chen was put under police surveillance.

The investigation by the public security bureau has been finished now, and the People’s Procuratorate took the case to our court for accusation. We found the following facts according to law:

Between July 2007 and March 2012, the accused Chen Pingfu registered blogs or microblogs under the name of Chen Pingfu’ s blog on Netease, Baidu, Sohu, Sina and other websites. He worte, and reposted blogs titled: “This is a fight of determining our mind between right and evil” , “Weasels serve chickens”, “To fight against brutality, to pursue civilization”, “Robbery? Law Enforcement?”, “Rule of law shall not only bind common people”, “An unyielding soul will never be conquered”, “To learn from Egyptian people, we will not be fooled by sweetened lying words”, “I cannot bear the humiliation in silence”, “Socialism stands, hard time suffers, dances in shackles”, “Do not be the supporters of brainwashed education”, “The bells rings for overturning the dictators”, “All parties shall retreat from schools”, “A ghost under the dictator’s knife to Wang Lijun”, “No fluffing, the whole world knows it”, “People alive, wake up”, “Where the Great Leader appears, where people suffer”, “The bright light shines the reality, beautiful violin moves society”, “Attempt to stop democratic tide is to stop God’s will”, “Authoritarian system makes authority power the centre, democratic system makes people’s right the centre”, “Chinese characteristics: Leaders make thoughts”, “Government does not allow making a living illegally, Tunisians overthrew Ali”, “Truth has its power, true words has its energy”, “To resist democracy and rule of law, the whole nation will lose”, “Ten days from North West to South West, had to return, a nightmare”, “The human being’s pursuit for freedom and dignity has been reaching a consensus”, “ I oppose with anger against the authorities’ abridging my right to make a living”, “I want freedom, I want dignity, I want to live a normal live a normal life”, “Indeed scary, the tiger of power”, “I was bullied by civil servants in my motherland”, “A nation with thoughts bounded is hopeless”, “There is such a political system”, “The biggest enemy in our era”, etc. He posted about 34 articles, expressing that Marxism Leninism, Mao Zedong thoughts, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and Three Representatives and Scientific Development have no benefit for people. The rule by the Communist Party is only repressing ordinary people, cut their way to make a living, the current system is non-democratic, and democracy and constitutionalism shall be adopted and other inflammatory opinions.

The evidence to prove the above criminal action including written evidence, material evidence, and the defendant’s statement etc has all been affirmed.

Our Procuatorate decides, the defendant Chen Pingfu neglected the Chinese law, spread words attacking the Communist Party the ruling government to indefinite Internet users. His action defames and slanders state authority and socialist system and violated Article 105, item 2.2 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China. The criminal fact is clear, the evidence is accurate and sufficient, the accused should be imposed with criminal penalty for inciting to subvert state power. In accordance with Article 141 of the Criminal Procedural Law of the People’s Republic of China, our Procuratorate brings up this lawsuit and ask for judgement according to law.

Address to Gansu Lanzhou City Intermediate People’s Court

Deputy Prosecutor: XXX

August 2, 2012

The trial of Chen Pingfu was on September 4th in Lanzhou city. After the trial, netizens have been spreading their support for Chen Pingfu, and voicing their opinion against “words crime”, despite the ceonsorship on the Internet. On Sina Weibo, many people are expressing their anger as well as worries. Some think that if we do not voice our opinion to support Chen Pingfu, or protest and struggle, the tragedy falls upon Chen Pingfu will sooner or later falls upon many others and us.

The following is an interview of Chen Pingfu in Chinese, where he talked about his experience of being a street violinist.



link （原文链接）《Chinese Voices for Justice》