Xu Zhiyong's detention and its significance for Chinese political reform

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Source: lawprofessors.typepad.com --- Sunday, August 04, 2013
The following is a very slightly modified version of my contribution to the ChinaFile conversation on this subject: When I heard that Xu Zhiyong had just been detained, my first thought was, ?Again?? This seems to be something the authorities do every time they get nervous, a kind of political Alka Seltzer to settle an upset constitution. I searched the New York Times web site to confirm my intuition. Although my hopes were briefly raised by a pop-up ad that optimistically proclaimed, ?We know where Xu Zhiyong is? and offered me his address, telephone number, and credit history, the stories in the results list were depressingly as expected: ?A leading human rights advocate is detained in Beijing? (July 13, 2013); Xu Zhiyong ?in the company of security agents and unable to talk? (Feb. 20, 2011); ?Just before dawn on Wednesday, the founder of Gongmeng, Xu Zhiyong, was taken into police custody, and he has not been heard from since? (July 31, 2009). Two other detentions, on June 7, 2012 and in June 2011, didn?t show up. There may be more I?ve missed. In any case, this is clearly a man who knows his way around the back seat of a Black Maria. Today?s topic is what, if anything, this detention means for the broader question of political reform in China. Let?s be clear: Xu Zhiyong is an extremist in his moderation. As Jeffrey Prescott, then at Yale?s China Law Center, said in 2009, ?He is someone of rare idealism, judgment, commitment t ...

Source: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2013/07/xu-zhiyongs-detention-and-its-significance-for-chinese-political-reform.html

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