Alrighty folks, this one’s a bona fide off-topic post, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Apparently, in the land of trademark infringement and mobile phone rip-offs (we’re talking about China), a Chinese blogger has been sentenced to 4 years in a swanky Chinese prison on charges of writing about democracy. Well, actually, he was officially charged by the Intermediate People’s Court in Hangzhou with “inciting to subvert state power” – but we all know what that means. In either case, we’re sure that Chen Shuqing isn’t going to be spreading the word about democracy anytime soon.
And, to take things even futher, this guy’s attorney was disbarred for representing him! Said ,”It’s totally wrong to convict him … He was only expressing his political views. He should enjoy free speech.” We guess he didn’t get the memo that China doesn’t do freedom of anything.
Chen joins about 5 other people currently spending time in the slammer for posting their opinions online.
Way to go China! Jailing bloggers for writing about democracy sounds like a sure-fire plan to isolate your billions of citizens from those Yankee ideals.
If you ever took your freedom of speech for granted, be glad you don’t live in China – especially if you blog about democracy.
[Via: Reuters]