Tan Zuoren
Environmentalist, doctor, writer
Tan Zuoren, a doctor, environmentalist, editor and freelance writer, was arrested in 2009 for publishing a documentary article on the June 4th Massacre after reporting a name list of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake, and was eventually sentenced to five 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.
Tan Zuoren was born in the Sichuan megacity of Chengdu, the fourth of five children. His father, Tan Yinghua, was a professor of history at Sichuan University who was labeled a Rightist when Zuoren was three years old.
After graduating from middle school in 1972, Tan Zuoren was sent to farm in Sichuan’s Shimian County as an “educated youth”. His experiences qualified him for admission to the Sichuan Medical College (now West China University of Medical Sciences) as a “worker-peasant-soldier student” in 1975. After graduating in 1978, he was assigned work as an anesthesiologist at the college’s affiliated hospital, and then became a surgeon.
In 1985, Tan Zuoren became involved in the entertainment industry, writing a television drama and then organizing a celebrity benefit performance to raise funds for the handicapped in 1987. He continued to work in the medical field, however, establishing a laser treatment center at his hospital.
When the 1989 Democracy Movement broke out, Tan supported protesting students, first in Chengdu and then in Beijing, where he witnessed the violent official crackdown on June 3 and 4. His involvement brought him to the attention of the Sichuan authorities, and he was forced to leave Chengdu for Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, where he sold electronic projects.
Tan became involved in environmentalism in 1994, and in 1998 helped establish the Green Rivers Association for the Promotion of Environmental Protection, serving as its deputy secretary general. The Chengdu media named him a “civilized citizen” in 2001, and the following year, his proposal for a “Great Panda Protection Management Ordinance” was adopted by the provincial people’s congress.
Tan helped establish the privately published Cultured Person (Wenhuaren) magazine in 2004, serving as executive editor while also involving himself in the Chengdu Reading Club’s book exchange activities. He also began publishing articles on environmental topics and other social issues, including a diary of his time at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
When Sichuan was struck by a massive earthquake on May 12, 2008, Tan Zuoren went several times to the disaster zones to help quake victims. He also collected data on the deaths of students and teachers in substandard school buildings that crumbled during the quake, publishing his findings in a number of articles. In February 2009, he drafted a “May 12th Student File”, which appealed for a non-governmental investigation of the structural factors behind the student deaths. Soon after that, the Chengdu police searched Tan’s home and seized his data and files. Tan was placed in criminal detention on March 28 on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power, and was formally arrested on April 30. He went on trial on August 12 in the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court, which handed down its ruling on February 9, 2010:
Tan Zuoren was dissatisfied with the PRC government’s handling of the June 4th Incident. On May 27, 2007, Tan Zuoren concocted a so-called “on-the-spot” article entitled “Diary on the Square”, which he published on the overseas Fire of Liberty website. This article disregarded objective facts, and with gross distortion framed and slandered the PRC government’s lawful handling of the June 4th Incident, inciting the masses inside and outside of China’s borders to oppose and resist the PRC government.
On June 4, 2008, Tan and others, under the name “Donating Blood as a Duty”, commemorated the so-called June 4th Incident at Chengdu’s Tianfu Square, and he accepted a telephone interview from the overseas Sound of Hope radio program in which he openly declared a wish to “donate blood as a duty” to “carry on the spirit of June 4th”. The Sound of Hope website published the content of Tan Zuoren’s interview that same day.
On this basis, the court found Tan guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. Tan’s appeal was rejected by the Sichuan Provincial Higher People’s Court on June 9.
Tan’s arrest and imprisonment raised concern in China and the international community, with foreign government and international rights organizations advocating on his behalf. The Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) adopted Tan as an honorary member. On November 7, 2008, the US House of Representatives passed a motion to demand that the Chinese government release Tan Zuoren and another imprisoned dissident, Huang Qi. On June 11, 2009, the High Representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement calling for Tan’s unconditional release: “The verdict against Tan Zuoren is entirely incompatible with his right to freedom of expression and does not meet international standards of fairness”.
Tan Zuoren was honored the ICPC’s Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award in 2013, and released on completion of his sentence on March 27, 2014.
Bibliography
1. Tan Zuoren, “How Proud the Rivers and Mountains”, 2006.
2. “Verdict of the Sichuan Province Chengdu Municipal Intermediate People’s Court”, 2010.
3. Ran Yunfei, “Daring to Sing Out Earth-shaking Grief”, 2010.
4. Yang Yinbo, “The Conscience in Troubled Times – Tan Zuoren’s Kind of Backbone”, 2010.
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