Writers in Prison (13)

Wang Xiaoning (王小宁，pen name: Shi Cheng, Chen Ping, Tiandi Pingshu), an engineer and freelance writer who was arrested in 2002 for “inciting subversion of state power”. He is currently serving his 10-year sentence in Beijing No 2 Prison, to be released on 31 August 2012. This is the earliest case found in which Yahoo! had a role of cooperation with Chinese authorities.

Wang was born on 7 January 1951 in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. He graduated from the East University of Technology, Nanjing City in 1977. In 2000 and 2001, Wang, who was an engineer by profession, posted electronic journals in a Yahoo! group calling for democratic reform and an end to single-party rule. He was arrested in September 2002, after Yahoo! assisted Chinese authorities by providing information used to identify him. On 25 July 2003, Wang was convicted by the No 1 Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing of charges of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced to ten years in prison with two years deprivation of political rights.

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Protesting against the organizers of the London Book Fair 2012 who have not featured in their programme any writers imprisoned by the Chinese regime, this blog will be highlighting one such writer every day leading to the book fair. Although this will only show the tip of the iceberg of today’s ‘literary persecution’ under the rule of the CCP, I hope it will make more people realize the necessity of our daily question: Why haven’t British Council, Reed Exhibitions and London Book Fair invited Liu Xiaobo and other writers imprisoned by the CCP?