Posted
September 5th, 2008
by
English PEN is seriously concerned about the recent detention of Tibetan writer and blogger Tsering Woeser, who was arrested and detained for eight hours on 21 August, while on a visit to Lhasa. English PEN fears that her arrest was linked to her dissident writings and critical stance towards the Chinese government, and that the detention was used as a means to silence dissident writers in China.
Woeser, who is currently living in self-imposed exile in Beijing, returned to Lhasa to visit her family and friends in August. On 21 August, eight police officers arrived at her mother’s home and insisted she leave with them for questioning. She was detained for eight hours, and it was later revealed that her arrest came after a member of the public reported her for taking photographs of armed police in Lhasa city from a taxi. Her husband, Wang Lixiong, told The Times during an interview that Woeser has not committed any illegal act and all images taken were legitimate, he also mentioned that his personal laptop has been taken away and all “inappropriate” materials were deleted before it was returned. After the detention, the couple decided to cut short their trip and return to Beijing on 23 August, 48 hours after her arrest and only six days after arriving in Lhasa for a planned month-long trip.
Background
Woeser is a famous Tibetan writer and blogger. She was born to a Tibetan mother and a Han father. Growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Woeser was raised and educated in Chinese and never learned her native Tibetan. However, it was her writing in Chinese that enabled her to become an influential voice and she is said to be the first Tibetan to have played the role of a public intellectual in China.
She started her writing career in the 1990s publishing collections of poems approved by the government. However, she became the subject of threat and suppression after she published her collection of travel short stories, Xizang Biji (Notes on Tibet), in January 2003. This book was a best-seller in China but was banned swiftly in September 2003 for revealing opinions ‘harmful to the unification and solidarity of [the Chinese] nation’. Since then, Woeser has been under constant surveillance and has received threats from both the Chinese government and some extreme nationalists. In June 2004 she was dismissed from her position at the Tibet Autonomous Region Literature Association, and left Lhasa for Beijing in order to ‘follow her conscience as a writer’. She continues to write and posts her essays on the internet during her self-imposed exile in Beijing. However, in May this year, her blog, skype and email accounts were hijacked by hackers who claimed themselves “Honker’s Union of China”, a well-known network of nationalistic Chinese hackers. Her current blog remains one of the most popular sites for many Tibetans since it was re-launched on an overseas server last year after an earlier hijack.
If you are interested in Woeser’s writings, please visit woeser.middle-way.net (note: content in Chinese).
Please send appeals
- Expressing concern that the detention of Tsering Woeser may be linked to her critical writings;
- Protesting the arrest as it is a direct violation of her right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights;
- Highlighting the threat Tibetan writers face from the authorities and general public, urging the Chinese authorities to improve the human rights situation in China/Tibet.
Addresses
His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
People’s Republic of China
It may be more effective, however, to send the above appeal via the Chinese representative in the UK:
Her Excellency Mrs Fu Ying
49-51 Portland Place
London
W1B 4JL
Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/bulletins/tibetwriterandbloggerwoeserbrieflydetained/
