The Persecution of Xiao Xuehui

THE IHEU is starting a campaign to help a humanist who is being persecuted by the Chinese government. Xiao Xuehui (pronounced Shou Shoo'hwee) is a 45-year-old moral philosopher, political essayist and democracy activist in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. As a result of her campaigns and writings she has been imprisoned, beaten, and deprived of her job. She now suffers from constant harassment.

Xiao Xuehui's case does not have a high profile. Unfortunately there are worse cases than this, and unfortunately human rights groups have to select priority or high-profile cases for campaigns. Therefore, little pressure is being put on the Chinese government to honour Dr Xiao's human rights. A friend and former colleague of Dr Xiao, Xiarong Li, has therefore appealed to IHEU to adopt the case of this brave and persecuted humanist.

Xiao Xuehui is being persecuted for two reasons. Firstly, she wrote articles and books that rejected the official Marxist arguments about human life and morality in favour of a humanist view (emphasising individual autonomy rather than economic determinism as the basis for moral action). Secondly, she took a leading role in Chengdu in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Arrested after the infamous government assault on Tiananmen Square, Dr Xiao rejected an offer of lenient treatment in exchange for informing on her associates. She was in prison for 19 months without trial until, under increasing international pressure, the Chengdu authorities tried and convicted her of 'counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement'. She was released from jail with a sentence of 'deprivation of political rights'. In prison Dr Xiao was harshly treated and beaten repeatedly. As a result she now suffers from serious kidney and liver problems.

At her trial Dr Xiao mounted a spirited defence and she has refused to recant her democratic and humanist views. The Chengdu government appears to have singled out Xiao Xuehui to make an example of her. She was stripped of her Associate Professorship and is now banned from her teaching job. She has to survive on about US$19 a month. She finds it very difficult to pay for the medical treatment she requires because of her kidney and liver complaints.

Dr Xiao now concentrates on writing moral philosophy and political essays, struggling to find journals which will ignore warnings not to publish her work. Some of her earlier writings have been plagiarised by academics in government favour. These academics claim all the credit for work actually done by Dr Xiao. (N.B. IHEU has all the relevant references on this plagiarism.} She is pursuing legal battles to regain her teaching job and to assert her copyright. But this is not an easy or promising course for a Chinese dissident to pursue.

Dr Xiao is determined not to give in, but she suffers constant 'low-level' harassment and is very isolated. She is followed everywhere she goes. State security agents occupy the neighbouring flat. All mail to and from her is intercepted. She has no phone. Any friends contacting her are interrogated and persecuted and she is therefore cut off from social contact and support. Her husband died in 1982 of heart disease, which he developed while undergoing 're-education by the peasants' in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Her parents have been prevailed upon to denounce her.

Xiao Xuehui's friend and former colleague Xiarong Li (now at the University of Maryland, USA) recently visited her in Chengdu. Dr Xiao told Xiarong Li: 'They would have let me rot in jail without a trial if it had not been for a letter with many signatures from Amnesty.'

International pressure remains vital in support of dissidents' challenges to the system, she said. But human rights groups abroad have difficulty getting information about Xiao Xuehui and other dissidents who live in the interior of China, thousands of miles from Beijing and Shanghai. 'If they {the authorities) do anything to me, no one would notice,' she said. Xiarong Li described Dr Xiao as vivacious -- chuckling as she recounted some of the methods of harassment she had experienced - but frailer than she used to be. Dr Xiao said her resolve was unbroken, but help from the outside world could be crucial.

PUBLICITY and pressure from the international community can force the Chinese authorities to improve their treatment of specific individuals.

IHEU has written directly to the Mayor of Chengdu and to the Sichuan Provincial Governor, expressing its concern about Dr Xiao and pointing out that her treatment by the Chinese authorities violates her internationally recognised rights. IHEU asked that her persecution be stopped and that she be reinstated to her teaching post. We also raised the question of the contravention of Dr Xiao's copyright {the Chinese authorities have a strong self-interest in not undermining the reputation of Chinese academia}. IHEU is also asking its representatives at the UN and UNESCO to use the human rights mechanisms of these organisations to pressure the Chinese government.

Pressure from national governments is also extremely valuable. If you, or your group, are willing to help, we strongly recommend that you work to get your own government to raise Dr Xiao's case with the Chinese authorities. We suggest that you write to your minister for foreign affairs. If your government has a minister responsible for human rights, or a designated human rights minister or official within the foreign office, please also write to them. It is worthwhile sending a copy of your letter to the Chinese Embassy in your country.