April 22, 2004
China suppresses Hayek inspired study group.
The Washington Post -- "On a Saturday morning in the summer of 2000, eight young people met in a shabby apartment near Beijing University and started a study group to debate the need for political reform in China. Some were students. Others were recent graduates. Not one was over 30 ..
Three and a half years later, four members of the [New Youth Study Group] are in prison, serving eight- to 10-year sentences on subversion charges ..
Lu Kun remembers standing over a stove in the alley outside her one-room house, making dinner as she lectured her husband, Yang Zili. He was inside, sitting in front of the computer they had purchased as a wedding present for themselves, tinkering with an essay on democracy he planned to post on the Internet.
"You don't have to do all this," she recalled admonishing him, her voice carrying through the open doorway. "With your education, you could have a better future. You should think of your parents, your family, our economic situation. We don't even have a real apartment!"
But Yang brushed aside the complaint. "He told me that someone had to stand up and work for social progress, and he had decided to stand up," Lu said.
"I knew he was right," she added. "But I was worried."
A slim, outgoing computer whiz with a youthful, angular face, Yang developed his political views at Beijing University, where he earned a master's degree in mechanics but was inspired by reading Vaclav Havel, Friedrich Hayek and Samuel P. Huntington. As the eldest son of farmers so poor they gave his brothers up for adoption, he was especially interested in rural poverty and often traveled to the countryside to investigate the abuse of power by local officials.
After graduating in 1998, Yang found work as a programmer and set up a popular Web site, "Yangzi's Home of Ideas," where he posted forceful essays condemning communism and arguing for democratic reform. "I am a liberal," he wrote, "and what I care about are human rights, freedom and democracy." More "A Study Group Is Crushed in China's Grip".
Yang Zili, 33, inspired by Friedrich Hayek, is serving a 8-10 year sentence in China for subversion.
MORE: "According to Human Rights in China, a New York based advocacy group, all four men have suffered harsh treatment in custody because of their refusal to admit guilt, and Xu has been subjected to beatings and electric shock. On May 28, Xu went on a hunger strike to protest his conviction and ill treatment in custody." -- Committee to Protect Journalists.