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Chinese activists ask Biden to support human rights and Liu Xiaobo’s release
He Depu makes an appeal to this effect. He spent eight years in jail for creating a pro-democracy party in 1998. However, analysts expect the economic crisis to dominate talks.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Some pro-democracy activists in China have asked the US Vice President Joe Biden to support human rights and the release of jailed dissidents, like Liu Xiaobo.
Tonight, the US vice president will be in Beijing where he will meet with Chinese president Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, as well as Vice President Xi Jinping, who had invited Biden to come to China and is tipped to replace Hu next year.
Experts believe discussions will centre on the economy, especially the downgrading of US debt, and the difficult recovery of the US giant.
The two economies are intertwined. In June, China held US$ 1.7 trillion in US securities. It is also highly dependent on the US market for its exports. For this reason, Chinese leaders want reassurance and guarantees for the future.
“I hope he can focus his attention on the human rights conditions in China, and on the conditions of human rights activists and religious rights activists in particular,” said He Depu, a famous dissident.
In 1998, He Depu tried with other activists to create the Democracy Party of China, which was banned right away.
He himself was arrested in 2002 given an eight-year sentence.
“I also want Mr. Biden to raise the issue of jailed dissidents and the extremely dreadful situation in China’s prisons to Chinese leaders,” he said.
“There are a lot of people still behind bars today, such as Mr. Liu Xiaobo,” He said, referring to the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was tried on subversion charges in 2009 and sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment for publishing articles online in which he hailed democracy and called for the end of Communist one-party rule.
After Beijing, Biden is set to travel to Chengdu (Sichuan) on Saturday where he will hold on conference on US-China relations. Later, he will stop in Mongolia and Japan.