The convictions of several activists for subverting State power are appropriate and reflect the authorities' heightened awareness of destabilizing forces, especially as these activists had been organizing lawyers and petitioners, and forging links with overseas anti-China forces to push toward a "color revolution," experts said Thursday.
Zhou Shifeng, chief lawyer at Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm, was convicted of subverting State power and sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday by the Second Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
On Wednesday, Hu Shigen, the leader of an underground church, was also sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of the same crime at the Tianjin court.
Since 2009, Hu had used an illegal religious organization to attract illicit lawyers and paid petitioners to spread subversive thoughts and ideas, prosecutors said. He also sent a follower to receive anti-China training overseas.
The training camp also hosted separatists advocating the "independence" of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It gave participants instructions on how to turn against the Communist Party of China and the Chinese authorities, Xinhua quoted Hu as saying during his trial.
He conspired and plotted to subvert State power with others, including Zhou and Zhai Yanmin, and established the "systematic thinking, method and steps" to achieve it, Xinhua reported.
Zhai, described as an "illegal protest organizer" and an "unemployed Beijing resident," was handed a three-year sentence with a four-year reprieve on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
"What those convicted have in common is they were all found to have publicized subversive information that threatens national security, including organizing symposiums and seminars," said Hong Daode, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law.
"One can have different opinions or reasoning, which would not lead to criminal prosecutions. But if they express or hype opinions and theories that could jeopardize national security to the public, they will have crossed a legal boundary," Hong told the Global Times on Thursday.
Counterrevolution to subversion
People who were suspected of working against the authorities were charged with the crime of being a counterrevolutionary in the earlier years of the People's Republic of China.
The 1997 Criminal Law removed this crime, adding instead the crime of subverting State power under the larger crime of "threatening national security."
In the latest version of China's Criminal Law, Article 105 states that the crime of subverting State power applies to "anyone who organizes, plans, and executes the action to subvert the political power of the State or to overthrow the socialist political system."
"Hu, as a leader and organizer, played a big role in the cases, and the fact that he was a recidivist meant he would have been in line for a heavy punishment," Ruan Qilin, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.
Hu was imprisoned from 1994 to 2008 after he was convicted of inciting, organizing and leading "counterrevolutionary" activities, Xinhua reported. Repeat offenders normally face penalties that are one-third to two-thirds heavier than those without prior criminal records, Ruan said.
Color revolution
"We wanted every issue to gain as much exposure as possible, so we would send ordinary people out on the streets and initiate conflict between the people and officials. We wanted the international community to interfere, [with the aim of] overturning the CPC and launching our own 'color revolution,'" Zhai said in the court.
Zhang Weiwei, dean of the China Institute at Shanghai's Fudan University, told the Global Times on Thursday that convicting these people of the crime of subverting State power is accurate, because these people had been trying to launch a color revolution with the support of overseas forces.
"This has certainly disturbed China's order and threatened security," Zhang noted.