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Liu Xianbin

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Liu Xianbin
刘贤斌/劉賢斌
BornOctober 2, 1968
Suining, Sichuan, China
NationalityChinese
Occupationwriter
Known forhuman rights activist
WebsiteLiu Xianbin essays collection on Independent Chinese Pen Center website

Liu Xianbin 刘贤斌 (born October 2, 1968), from Suining, Sichuan province, People's Republic of China, is a human rights activist, China Democracy Party organizer, writer and signer of Charter 08.

Liu Xianbin was born on October 2nd, 1968 in Suining city, Sichuan Province. In 1987, he entered the School of Labor and Human Resources at Beijing's Renmin University. As he writes in his autobiographical essay "In 1998, influenced by the "liberalization" movement, I lost faith in the rule of the Chinese Communist Party and joined with some others in organizing an anti-communist group and contributed articles to a magazine."

In May 1989, Liu participated in the pro-democracy demonstrations as well as in student fasts and blocking the movement of military vehicles that was followed by the Tiananmen Massacre in and near Tiananmen Square on June 4th. By then, Liu was in Sichuan where he participated in the large Chengdu June 4th demonstration.

Keeping the Faith After Tiananmen

Returning to school in Beijing after Tiananmen, Liu wrote many posters and articles criticizing the repression and agitated for the establishment of a democratic political party in China.[1] On April 15, 1991, he was arrested by Beijing Public Security Bureau and sent to Qiucheng prison for his democratic activism and publications. On December 28th, 1992 Liu was sentenced to two and half years in prison for the crime of "counter revolutionary propaganda and incitement". He was released in October 1993.[2][3]

In December 1992 the Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced the suspect Liu Xianbin to 2 years and six months of imprisonment for counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation. He was released in October 1993 after completing his sentence.

After his release, Liu Xianbin continued his democracy activism. In May 1995, he participated with Wang Dan and Liu Xiaobo in a petition drive entitled "Drawing Lessons from Blood and Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law". The police raided his home and detained him again in July of the same year.[4]


In March 1998, Liu Xianbian wrote an open letter to the Ninth National People's Congress, demanding that the Chinese government improve human rights conditions and signed the Convention on Human Rights. In the same year, a group of dissidents in Zhejiang founded China Democracy Party (CDP). Liu Xianbin came to Chongqing to set up the Sichuan branch for CDP. On October 15th, 1998, Liu Xianbin, She Wanbao and other like-minded people went to Sichuan Bureau of Civil Affairs and registered "the Sichuan Organizing Committee of China Democracy Party". Together with She Wanbao and Ouyang Yi, he also established the temporary headquarter of China Human Rights Watch and was appointed the acting director. He organized a nationwide rescue effort for Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai.[5][6]

1999 Subversion Conviction

In the mid 1990s, Liu Xianbin was active as an organizer for the China Democratic Party. In 1999, Liu was arrested in Beijing and was detained for a month in the Beijing Detention Center. Then he was sent back to Suining and was put under house arrest. On July 7th, he was criminally detained by the Suining Public Security Bureau at the Lingquan Temple Detention Center in Suining city. [7] On August 6, 1999, he was convicted of "subversion of state power" by the Suining City, Sichuan Intermediate People's Court and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment and deprivation of political rights for three years for subversion of state power. On November 6, 2008, he was released after completing his sentence with allowance for time served and good behavior after 9 years and four months in Sichuan's Chuandong prison.[8]

After his release from prison in November 2008, Liu Xianbin became one of the first signers of Charter 08.

Detained for Subversion Since June 2010

Liu Xianbin noted in his account of his police interrogation of March 2010 that public security asked him about four articles that had appeared on foreign websites. Liu concluded his account saying he was allowed to go home after interrogation this time, but his arrest was just a matter of time.[9]


On June 27, 2010, Liu Xianbin was detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” Suining, Sichuan Public Security Bureau on July 21, 2010 sent a recommendation to the Suining Procuratorate that Liu be indicted for inciting subversion of state power. The Suining Public Security Bureau's advice to the prosecutors lists several statements made by Liu Xianbin in his many articles published in Chinese magazines and websites overseas which it found subversive. The "Indictment Advice" notes that Liu "wrote and transmitted through the Internet articles for publication. These articles appeared in publications outside the borders of mainland China such as "People and Human Rights", "Beijing Spring", "China Weekly", "Democratic China", "China Human Rights Semi-weekly". He slandered the people's democratic dictatorship political power led by the Chinese Communist Party as "autocratic rule" and on several occasions incited the overthrow of our country's political regime and socialist system." Liu's "rumors and slanders" against the Chinese Communist Party and the PRC government found in recent articles:[10]


  • "The rule of the Communist Party has always been characterized by high pressure and terror",
  • "The Communist Party authorities "rely on naked violence",
  • The evening news television broadcast is "an important tongue of the authorities for idiotizing the people",
  • The Chinese people live under "the terrorizing rule of the political police", and "live their lives mechanically like slaves", and
  • "The officials of the Chinese authorities I have actually had contact with have all been playing the role of accomplices to the inhumane state apparatus".

Many of Liu Xianbin's suspect articles are available online at the Chinese Independent Pen Center website[11] including:

  • "Baptism of Blood and Fire",
  • "Liu Xianbin: 100 Days Since Release from Prison",
  • "A Late Remembrance: Remembering the Death of Zhao Ziyang Five Years Later ",
  • "Looking at China with Vaclav Havel's Eyes ",
  • "Street Actions are an Important Tactic for the Chinese Democratic Movement",
  • "A Discussion Starting From "'The People Are Masters in Their Own Homes'",
  • "Choices for the Chinese Movement After the Heavy Sentence that Liu Xiaobo Received", and
  • "My Twenty Years in the China Democracy Movement -- The Arrest of Chen Wei, Part 1",

See also

References

  1. ^ Liu Xianbin autobiographical article, retrieved on 2010-08-07.
  2. ^ Initiatives for China website article on prisoner Liu Xianbin
  3. ^ Liu Xianbin autobiographical article, retrieved on 2010-08-07.
  4. ^ Initiatives for China website article on prisoner Liu Xianbin
  5. ^ Initiatives for China website article on prisoner Liu Xianbin
  6. ^ Liu Xianbin autobiographical article, retrieved on 2010-08-07.
  7. ^ Liu Xianbin autobiographical article, retrieved on 2010-08-07.
  8. ^ Initiatives for China website article on prisoner Liu Xianbin
  9. ^ "On My Interrogation" March 4, 2010 article by Liu Xianbin on the Chinese Independent Pen Center website, retrieved August 3, 2010.
  10. ^ "Suining, Sichuan Public Security Bureau Advice on the Indictment of Liu Xianbin, transmitted to Suining Procuratorate on July 27, 2010". Suining Public Security Bureau, retrieved on 2010-08-07.
  11. ^ "Collection of Liu Xianbin's Essays"
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