Urge the Chinese government to release Mr. Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.

A group of 303 Chinese citizens, including many prominent Chinese scholars, lawyers and former officials, issued a manifesto on December 10, 2008, demanding bold political reforms including direct elections, a separation of powers and the rehabilitation of people persecuted under authoritarian rule, promoting human rights and democracy, and articulating principles for a platform of citizens’ actions.

Charter 08, a 4,000-word document states: “the Chinese people, who have endured human-rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these same years, now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values.”
This document takes its title and inspiration from Charter 77, which was issued in January 1977 by Czech and Slovak intellectuals calling for human rights in Czechoslovakia and abroad. Like its historical predecessor, Charter 08 recalls moments throughout Chinese history when intellectuals felt an obligation to speak out against shortcomings of the state, such as the 100-Days Political Reform of 1898, when scholars pressed the crumbling Qing dynasty to reform.
However, on the eve of the publication of Charter 08, Dr. Liu Xiaobo, one of the cosigners and most prominent dissident writers in China, was arrested together with a number of other dissidents. Dr. Liu has been still held by the police for “suspicion of inciting subversion of State power” while others have since been released.
Dr. Liu Xiaobo has made longtime efforts for the realization of basic human rights in China, including freedom of speech and freedom of press. As a result, he has received endless harassments from the Chinese authorities and has often been put into mandatory house arrests and this is the fourth times into prison.
This incident happened on the eve of Human Rights Day on 10 December, the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also the 10th Anniversary of China’s signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. At such a memorable moment of the historical events, the detention of Dr. Liu Xiaobo, a human rights defender, can only arouse angers in people. It is a severe violation against human rights, and also a threat to the practices of democracy in other countries.

After Mr. Liu Xiaobo was taken by police from his home in Beijing on the 8th, December 2008, they put him in an unknown place; he has disappeared from public eye since.

Now more than four months have passed, even his wife Liu Xia doesn’t know where her husband is, and her visiting application for the Chinese New Year had been rejected. However, she still doesn’t know where Mr. Liu is locked up after recently the second time visited her husband.

We, hence make the strongest protest against the violation of human rights committed by the Chinese government, and urge the Chinese government to release Mr. Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.

Some Australia-Chinese of Melbourne