Liu Xianbin
Chinese Democracy Activist Is Given 10-Year Sentence
I will tell my child: ‘In the final period of darkness in Chinese history, I continued to strive to live and fight as a person or as a citizen!’
Liu Xianbin is a veteran democracy and human rights activist who was a founding member of the Sichuan branch of the China Democracy Party (CDP) in 1998.
In 1991, Liu Xianbin was arrested and subsequently sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. On his release from prison, Liu Xianbin continued his activism and in 1998 he helped found a local branch of the CDP in Sichuan province. The following year he was convicted of 'subversion of state power' and sentenced to 13 years in prison and an additional three years' deprivation of political rights.
Liu Xianbin was released in November 2008 and once again resumed his human rights defence. He was an initial signatory of Charter '08 a month after his release from prison. He also wrote in support of fellow human rights defenders who had been imprisoned, including Mr Tan Zuoren, an activist jailed after documenting the poor construction of buildings which contributed to the death toll in China's 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province. In 2011 he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for 'inciting subversion of state power' for writing articles promoting human rights and democracy.
Chinese HRDs face intimidation, harassment, house arrest, abductions, torture and imprisonment. They also work under very restrictive legislation, including laws which criminalize all unauthorized demonstrations and require government sponsorship for NGO registration, which is refused to any organisation touching on human rights issues. Widescale investigations into NGOs with links to overseas organisations took place in 2014 and 2015 resulting in harassment, detentions and forced closures.
