Du Daobin
Writer and former government official
Du Daobin (born Du Daohui, December 18, 1963-), a government official, internet writer and freelancer, was arrested in 2003 for internet writings and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power”.
This profile is part of a cooperation with Independent Chinese PEN Center. It has been written by Secretary-General Yu Zhang and was first published in From Wang Shiwei to Liu Xiaobo - Prisoners of Literary Inquisition Under Communist Rule in China (1947-2010). It’s part of our ongoing effort to support freedom of speech and human rights.
Member of the Xiaogan Prefectural Writers’ Association
Du Daobin was born in Hubei’s Huangpi County (now the Huangpi District of Wuhan City), a son of two primary school teachers (a twin brother died at birth). His father was labeled a Rightist in 1957, and during the Cultural Revolution, the family went to live in a rural village, where his parents were sent to teach.
Du was admitted to the Hubei Provincial School of Light Industry in 1980, and after graduating in 1983, he was assigned a job with the Yingcheng City Environmental Protection Bureau, serving as a technician, engineer, secretary, Youth League secretary and office head in succession. In 1985, he began to take distance-learning courses in his spare time, and published verse and prose in a variety of publications and newspapers. He became a member of the Xiaogan Prefectural Writers’ Association in 1987.
In 1988, Du Daobin was awarded a diploma in biological environmentalism from Huanggang Normal School. During the 1989 Democracy Movement, he wrote many poems sympathizing with the student movement, and although the poems were never published, they were used as evidence against Du when he was later arrested.
Famous Internet Writer
In 1997, Du was transferred to the System Reform Office of Yingcheng City, later becoming deputy section head of the Policy and Regulation Section of the Health Insurance Management Office. In 1999, he antagonized local officials by publishing an open letter to the CPC municipal committee complaining about excessive local revenue collection. He began publishing prolifically on several domestic websites in 2000.
On New Year’s Day 2001, Du Daobin wrote a long letter to Jiang Zemin targeting Jiang’s speech on New Year’s Day and pointing out the need to address injustices in urban and rural tax policies. In July that year, he wrote another essay on Jiang’s “utterly worthless” speech on July 1, the first essay to openly criticize Jiang’s theory of “Three Represents”. This essay was subsequently used as evidence against him. He went on to write several more articles on media and public policy issues that made him one of the most prominent writers on the Internet’s Tianya Forum.
As the government began cracking down on online media in 2002, Du began publishing essays on overseas websites such as New Century, Epoch Times, Observe China, Human and Human Rights and Beijing Spring, as well as in print media in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
On June 27, 2002, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Information Industry jointly issued “Temporary Provisions for Internet Publication Management”, which came into force on August 1 that year. On July 21, the lawyer Chen Yongmiao posted an appeal entitled “Defend Personal Websites” on the Guantian Teahouse website he ran, and Du Daobin responded on July 23 with a proposal to collect signatures for a letter condemning the GAPP and MII’s violation of citizen’s constitutional rights. After gaining widespread Netizen support, Chen and Du on July 26 jointly issued an “Open Letter to Defend Personal Websites and Challenge the Temporary Provisions for Internet Publication Management” that collected nearly 200 signatures, and on August 6, they followed up with a new signature campaign condemning the government’s violation of citizens’ constitutional rights.
On August 30, 2002, Taiwan’s Central Daily News reported, “Mainland political commentator Du Daobin has been silenced for criticizing the Chinese government”, quoting two essays that Du had published that day:
I am not loyal to the CPC regime; not only am I not loyal, but I am firmly opposed to it, and strongly oppose CPC sophistry and heresy.
Today’s Communist Party is a stray dog that has lost its theoretical homeland. The only thing left for it to do is make a last-ditch attempt to extend the life of its vested interests.
On November 7, 2002, Liu Di, a student at Beijing Normal University who posted comments under the name “Stainless Steel Rat” on the Internet, went missing after being detained by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, creating uproar in China and abroad. In February 2003, Du Daobin drafted an open letter to the NPC and CPPCC, which was signed by Wang Yi, Liu Xiaobo and more than ten others and published on November 28. From then on, Du Daobin came under investigation and harassment by the authorities. He published an essay entitled “Five Days under House Arrest” on March 9, and another on June 4 in which he wrote:
Starting on May 15, Du Daobin has ‘honored the agreement’ by not publishing a single word overseas. I will continue to honor the agreement from today onward.
However, Du went on to publish several more essays from June 15 onward targeting the increasing acclaim enjoyed by the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao regime at home and abroad:
The honeymoon period that the “new Hu-Wen regime” has been enjoying for more than 100 days has been accompanied by unprecedented persecution of Internet freedom: Yang Zili and three others have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, Huang Qi has been put on trial again, Liu Di remains in unlawful detention, and influential websites such as Beida Triangle, Century China, Sleepless Nights Forum, and Democracy and Freedom have been shut down, further constricting the domestic discussion space.
On June 30, 2003, Du Daobin drafted an open letter calling on the central government to suspend Hong Kong’s controversial Article 23 legislation, which would impose harsher restrictions on activities deemed subversive; Liu Xiaobo and others joined Du in signing and publishing the open letter on July 3. Du also continued publishing articles condemning Liu Di’s detention and the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. These rare examples of open protest in the political environment of that time were later used as evidence against Du. In his essay “Why Are Most of My Essays Published Overseas: A Discussion with a Certain National Security Bureau and a Certain CPC Committee”, published on August 4, Du wrote, “I had friendly contact with you on July 23 and 28. I thank you for that, because you ‘kindly’ ‘gave me an opportunity’ (I’m using quotation marks to show these are your own words, not for satirical intent)”, but Du then added, “I do not agree that Epoch Times, Yibao, Democracy Forum and Beijing Spring, where my essays are published, are hostile publications”.
Willing to join Liu Di in prison
From mid-August to early September 2003, Du Daobin continued to publish essays in which he exposed and protested attempts by local police to obstruct gatherings by himself and other Netizens and to prevent him from publishing essays overseas. Du said that the police had even used a carrot-and-stick approach on his wife, and on August 23 had prevented Du from taking his son on a trip to Beijing, keeping him under house arrest from then on.
Du Daobin drafted a statement entitled “We Are Willing to Join Liu Di in Prison”, which was signed by Liu Xiaobo, Zhao Dagong, Liao Yiwu and 20 others and issued on September 20. One month later, on October 28, Du was detained on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power. He was formally arrested on November 10, and later that month, Liu Di and two others detained with her, Wu Yiran and Li Yibing, were released “on bail pending trial”.
As concern and protest over Du Daobin’s case reached a new high, the Independent Chinese PEN Center held its first general assembly, and on November 4 released a statement condemning Du’s arrest:
Mr. Du Daobin is an active member of this PEN Center. It is therefore a matter of course that we should express special concern regarding his safety. We immediately informed the PEN International headquarters and have actively solicited the support of fraternal PEN Centers all over the world. ICPC will spare no effort in securing Mr. Du Daobin’s release and the restoration of his good name.
At its 69th Congress in Mexico City at the end of November, PEN International passed a resolution condemning the Chinese government’s persecution of Internet writer Du Daobin and others, and PEN leaders and hundreds of famous writers from all over the world signed a joint statement, while human rights organizations honored Du for his heroic contribution to freedom of expression.
On June 11, 2004, the Xiaogan Municipal Intermediate People’s Court handed down its verdict against Du Daobin:
Du Daobin published 26 essays... on domestic and overseas websites such as Epoch Times and New Century, adopting slanderous methods to brazenly incite subversion of state power. Since being brought to justice, Du Daobin has made a factual deposition of his crimes, and in the course of trial acknowledged that his behavior was a violation of criminal law that brought harm to society; he expressed admission of guilt and submission to the law, and his attitude was good. The Court of First Instance finds the defendant Du Daobin guilty of inciting subversion of state power and sentences him to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for four years, and two years’ deprivation of political rights, as well as confiscation of the Tianlin 1110 computer that his used as a tool to commit his crimes.
Du Daobin was released on bail that day. After his appeal of his guilty verdict was rejected by the Hubei Provincial Higher People’s Court, Du continued to appeal:
The court of first instance verdict is based mainly on seven sentences totaling 125 words, merely a few isolated words and phrases out of the more than 1.5 million characters that the appellant has written, and inadequate to prove the appellant’s intent to incite subversion of state power. The verdict of the court of first instance quotes out of context in a classic example of a Cultural Revolution-style frame-up.
Du Daobin also applied to the NPC Standing Committee and its Legal System Work Committee to investigate his case as a violation of the Constitution, and recommended scrapping crimes such as inciting subversion of state power that result in literary inquisition.
On July 21, 2008, 18 days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and 12 days before the end of his suspended sentence, the authorities withdrew Du Daobin’s reprieve and took him into custody again. The official website CNHubei.com reported the following day:
During the suspended sentence trial period, Du Daobin refused to show penitence or submit to supervision, on multiple occasions violated the law and the supervision and management stipulations of the law enforcement organs, and did not repent and reform following education; the circumstances are serious. In recent days, based on recommendations by the law enforcement organs, the Hubei Province Xiaogan Intermediate People’s Court made a criminal adjudication in accordance with law to rescind the suspension of the sentence declared against the criminal offender Du Daobin and to execute the original sentence of three years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights.
After being sent back to prison, Du Daobin refused to admit guilt, and stated in writing to the police:
I am a free citizen; I am not bound by the Prison Law, and the prison has no authority over me.
I have not come to accept education and remolding, but to educate and remold the CPC Central Committee and the police.
Du used regular exchanges with prison supervisors as an opportunity to expound his political viewpoints. For that reason, he was managed strictly and was often punished by being deprived of exercise in the prison yard.
PEN International and other international human rights organizations consider Du Daobin a typical case of the Chinese government violating its commitments as a host of the Olympics through the continued deterioration of freedom of expression. The ICPC awarded Du its 2008 Writers in Prison Award in honor of his heroic struggle against the evil laws of literary inquisition.
Du Daobin was released upon completion of his sentence on December 8, 2010. Since then, he has resumed his writing, and so often harassed and attacked by the local authorities in various ways.
Since October 2013, Du Daobin has been a member of ICPC’s Board.
Bibliography
1. Du Daobin, “The File of Du Daobin”, 2002.
2. Yang Yinbo, “A Concise Outline of ‘Report on Du Daobin’s Arrest’”, 2003.
3. Yang Yinbo, “Chronology of Du Daobin’s Arrest”, 2003.
4. Yang Yinbo, “Du Daobin’s Pre-Arrest Essays”, 2004.
5. Du Daobin, “Second Criminal Appeal Requesting Revocation of the Court of Second Instance Ruling”, 2004.
6. Hubei Provincial Higher People’s Court, “Criminal Ruling against Du Daobin”, 2011.
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