Court jails head of illicit church for subversion
Print Edition
HU Shigen, leader of an underground church, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of subverting state power yesterday.
He has been deprived of his political rights for five years, according to the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court. Hu, 61, pleaded guilty and said he will not appeal.
Hu previously served 14 years of a 20-year sentence from 1994 to 2008 for organizing and leading counter-revolutionary cliques and engaging in counter-revolutionary propaganda and instigations. Since 2009, he has used an illegal religious organization to attract lawyers and paid petitioners to spread subversive ideas while also arranging for Gou Hongguo, another suspect, to receive anti-China training overseas, the court said in a statement. He conspired and plotted to subvert state power with others, including Zhou Shifeng, Li Heping and Zhai Yanmin, and established “a systematic ideology, method and steps” to achieve it.
Hu encouraged Zhai Yanmin to organize “professional petitioners” to gather at public places and cause chaos, attacking the state judicial system and influencing public opinion to fire-up hatred for the government, the court statement said.
Zhai was given a suspended sentence in a separate trial on Tuesday.
“I recognize the severity of my crimes, and the huge damage I’ve brought to the country, society, my family and myself,” Hu said in his final statement at the court. He said he had “long been influenced by bourgeois liberalism” and after being released from prison “fell deeper and deeper into the mire of anti-Party and anti-government criminal activities.”
He thanked the government for looking after him while he was ill and in the hospital.
“I want to thank the police, procuratorate, judges and medical staff for their help and education, which has been more impressive and soul-touching than any time before ... I am resolved not to participate in any activities against the Party and government in the future, and be a citizen abiding by the law,” he said.
Hu, a native of the eastern city of Nanchang, taught at a Beijing university before engaging in subversive activities, authorities said.
During the trial, the court investigated the allegations. Prosecutors presented evidence and witness testimonies.
“Hu Shigen always talked about sensitive cases and the ways to hype them up,” said a witness surnamed Liu in court.
“He wanted to use sensitive cases to trigger friction, put pressure on the government, overturn China’s existing system and realize ‘color revolution’ in China,” Liu added.
In May 2015, police officer Li Lebin shot dead Xu Chunhe at Qing’an County Railway Station after Xu had been attacking Li despite multiple warnings. Follow-up investigations confirmed that Li had acted within the law. But Hu instructed Zhai to organize protests at the railway station and in front of the county government buildings, influencing online opinions and misrepresenting the incident as police brutality.
“I just wanted to smear the judicial organs, police and government,” confessed Hu, adding that all these efforts were intended to promote his “peaceful transition” theory, which he had advocated on multiple occasions to lawyers and petitioners.
He also put forward the idea of “three factors” — stronger citizen power, an internal split within the ruling bloc, and interference of international society — and “five plans” for the “peaceful transition.”
“I instilled these concepts into others to achieve the aim of ‘color revolution,’” he said.
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