March 15, 2005

Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) is very alarmed about a new case of violation of freedom of expression in China, that is, the arrest and official accusation of professor, poet and critic Zheng Yichun. According to the information provided by Mr.Zheng's brother Prof. Zheng Xiaochun, who is the principal of Yingkou Institute of Foreign Languages, Liaoning Province (telephone + 86 417-2609714 to office at his institute), Mr. Zheng Yichun was actually already arrested on December 3rd, 2004, and in the first ten days was detained at Liaohe Hotel in Yingkou City, since December 20th he has been imprisoned in No. 1 Prison of Panjin City, Liaoning Procince (where many famous prisoner were prisoned before, such as Zhang Zhixin). It was first on the 31st of December, 2004 that Mr. Zheng's family was officially informed that Mr. Zheng was charged an accusation of ¡®advocating to subvert the state', and the arrest was officially approved by the Yingkou Procurator. However, his family members were threatened by the authorities not to inform the massmedia and other human rights activists, that was why his family members could not expose this case until recently when the local newspaper Yingkou Daily officially published a news on February 24th, 2005 announcing the accusation. According to ICPC's information, police also searched his home and took away his computer and other written material and belongings. They copied about 600 articles in his computers and of these 63 articles were used in the accusation as evidences. At this moment the case is under processing and his family is seeking a lawyer to defend him.

Zheng Yichun was born on January 27, 1959 in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, and he is of Korean minority nationality in China. He also took part in the 1989's university students democratic movement in China. Before the arrest he worked as a professor in English at a university in Liaoning province. He has published several books about political reforms in China, history, literary criticism and poetry, and has been regarded as one of the important intellectuals in China today. ICPC member Yang Yinbo interviewed him on May 21, 2004, which was published in an oversea democratic magazine Beijing Spring later.

ICPC believes that the accusation against Prof. Zheng is totally based on his writing and expression, thus is a violation of article 19 in UN's declaration of human rights. ICPC demands therefore an immediately release of Mr. Zheng Yichun.