Yang Zili

Yang Zili ( _zh. 杨子立) ("ca." 1971—), also known as Yang Zi, is a Chinese freelance journalist and webmaster, currently imprisoned in the People's Republic of China for “subverting state authority.”

Biography

Born in 1971, Zili was born to a rural muslim family in Daming County, Hebei Province. He received an undergraduate degree from Xi'an Communications University (Xi'an Jiaotong University), and attended Beijing University (Peking University) from 1995 to 1998, receiving a Master's Degree in mechanics (Mechanical Engineering).

Zili is also an amateur poet and has two known published poems, "Peasants - My Kinsmen" in 1998, and "The Ghost of Communism" in 2001, and is married to Lu Kun.

ocial activism

In early 1997 whilst at Beijing University, he co-founded the "Current Affairs Society", a student organization committed on discussion of social issues in China, which was banned several months later by school authorities.

In 1999, Zili and some close friends started to meet regularly and formed the "New Youth Society" to discuss social and political issues. Zili also started to publish his writings on his website, "Yang Zi's Garden of Ideas", hosted at lib.126.com and/or [http://lib.com lib.com] (accounts differ). He wrote articles for his website that advocated political freedoms, criticised the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and deplored the economic hardship of China’s peasants.

Imprisonment

On March 13, 2001, Zili along with fellow "New Youth Society" members Xu Wei, Jin Haike, Zhang Honghai, were arrested by agents of the Ministry of State Security, and Zili was officially charged on April 20 with “subverting state authority.”

On September 28, Zili appeared before the Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing, and was sentenced by the court on May 28, 2003 to eight years in prison. The case was appealed and the verdict was upheld on November 10, 2003.

In February 2007, Zili's wife, Lu Kun, requested a review of his trial because of new evidence that former State Security Bureau agent Li Yuzhou's fellow agents and superiors altered the four reports he made in order to justify arresting Zili. The Beijing Intermediate Court turned down her request, but she filed a new request to the Supreme People's Court and is still awaiting its decision.

References

* cite news
first= Elisabeth
last= Rosenthal
title= China Detains and Isolates Liberal Computer Wiz
url= http://www.intelmessages.org/China/freeyzl/nyt_0421.htm
work= New York Times
date= 2001-04-21
accessdate= 2007-02-26

* cite news
first= Philip P.
last= Pan
title= A Study Group Is Crushed in China's Grip — Beliefs Are Tested in Saga Of Sacrifice and Betrayal
url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A34768-2004Apr22&notFound=true
work= Washington Post
page= A01
date= 2004-04-23
accessdate= 2007-02-26

* cite press release
title= Four Internet Activists Imprisoned for Subversion
publisher= Human Rights in China
date= 2003-05-28
url= http://hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=27167&item%5fid=11379
accessdate= 2007-02-26

External links

* [http://www.intelmessages.org/China/freeyzl/ Free Yang Zili !]