Writers in China

 The numbers of writers jailed in China has surpassed 100, with nearly half imprisoned for online expression.

The grim milestone is revealed in the 2023 Freedom to Write index, a report compiled by Pen America, published yesterday.

With the total number of people imprisoned globally for exercising their freedom of expression estimated to be at least 339, China accounts for nearly one third of the world's jailed writers. There are 107 people behind bars because of their published statements in China, more than in any other country on the index.

It is the first time that Pen America's count of writers jailed in China has surpassed 100. Other databases, such as the Reporters Without Borders' tally of journalists and media workers detained in China passed that milestone in 2020.

The index defined ""online commentator" as bloggers and people who used social media as their main platform for expression.

James Tager, the director of research at Pen America, said... "It is certain that the true toll of all those who are punished for their expression in China is far higher than the numbers represented here, and that is not even to count those who are censored or who censor themselves for fear of formal punishment...

Among those jailed for "picking quarrels" is the citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who has been in prison since 2020, after she was arrested for reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

Egg Boats  off Macao, China
William Daniell (1769-1837)
Photo Credit: Leicester Museum & Art Gallery [CC By-NC-SA]

Several other writers in the index were targeted for commenting on the government's Covid policies, such as Sun Qing, who was arrested in May 2020 after posting critical statements on WeChat and X, then known as Twitter. Sun was arrested for "inciting subversion of state power".

Writers in Xinjiang are treated particularly harshly. The region is home to the Uyghur minority, a Muslim group who have been subjected to harsh cultural and political suppression in the past decade.

Gulnisa Imin, a Uyghur poet, is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence on the grounds that her poetry ... promotes "separatism".

A crackdown on free expression in Hong Kong has contributed to China's rising count of jailed writers. Since the 2019 pro-democracy protests, Hong Kong has plummeted down the Reporters Without Borders' press freedom index.

Tager said: Hong Kong's 2020 national security law and the ongoing crackdown on any dissent or disagreement in the city has triggered a devastating transformation for the city's creative sector.

(Amy Hawkins, The Guardian, 2024)

Why is this happening? If this report is accurate it reveals a shocking state of affairs. Commentating on what is happening within a country should be a basic right.