Liu Xiaobo sentence criticized as harsh

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Human-rights groups and governments have condemned the 11-year sentence of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo despite Beijing claiming criticisms are interference in its internal affairs.

In Brussels, the European Union said it was "deeply concerned by the disproportionate sentence," according to a report by the British Broadcasting Corp. U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva that the case represents "a further severe restriction on the scope of freedom of expression in China."

The Obama administration issued a statement on the America.gov Web site that the trial is "uncharacteristic of a great country." Philip Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, told reporters just before the sentencing that Liu's case is "clearly a political trial that will likely lead to a political conviction."

A reporter with the BBC said Liu's sentence could have been worse given that the maximum sentence is 15 years. Nonetheless, it was a harsh sentence, according to human-rights groups and people familiar with the Chinese judicial system. Amnesty International said that according to their records this is the longest sentence handed down for this charge since at least 2003.

But Chinese media reported very little of the sentencing by a Beijing court of the academic, literary critic and political activist Liu, 53, who had been calling for an end to one-party rule in China. Liu had been arrested previously in 1989 and jailed for 20 months just after the Chinese government cracked down on dissidents after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and subsequent massacre. He also spent three years in jail during the 1990s.

Liu was arrested in December 2008 after he and 300 other activists including Tibetan bloggers and Chinese human-rights lawyers signed and published online their Charter 08. The petition document outlined legal and governmental changes needed for more democracy for China.

Charter 08 was set up to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 10th anniversary of China's signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the document says. It called for an independent judiciary, the separation of government and executive powers, freedom of expression and the right to form groups. In particular it called for the right to elect a government.

Just after Liu's arrest, a report by Washington-based Radio Free Asia said China's powerful Central Propaganda Department had verbally ordered a crackdown on Chinese media workers who had signed Charter 08. Also, media outlets were banned from interviewing anyone who had signed it.

However, Liu was officially charged only in June. At the time the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily reported that he was accused of "spreading of rumors and defaming of the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialist system in recent years."

The blogging Web site bullog.cn, used often by Charter 08 activists, has recently been shut down, some media report. But to date Liu remains the only Charter 08 signatory to have been arrested, according to the BBC.

Liu's sentencing in face of international criticism may show that Beijing wants to send a warning to would-be activists. However, the lack of other arrests might also show the Communist Party believes it must balance harsh measures for dissidence with allowing a certain amount of unauthorized freedom of expression. At the time of Liu's arrest, one Chinese journalist told Radio Free Asia that Beijing knows it does not -- and cannot -- have total control over freedom of expression.

In the Radio Free Asia report, Zan Aizong, former reporter with China Ocean News, said he doubted Beijing would be able to exert total control. "More than 300 people signed the Charter initially. And so many more people have subsequently expressed support for it. Numerous articles have been written about it. It's impossible for them to have total control."