China activists urge greater freedom in open letter

BEIJING, Aug 28 (Reuters) More than 1,000 Chinese activists, lawyers and scholars have written an open letter to President Hu Jintao, urging the release of political prisoners and greater media freedoms before a key party meeting.

So far, 1,060 people, mainly activists, Internet writers, lawyers and journalists, including AIDS activist Hu Jia and disbarred lawyer Li Jianqiang, have signed their names to the letter.

''Under the Chinese constitution, the Communist Party has solemnly pledged to fulfil the promise of ruling the country by law and protecting human rights,'' said the letter, sent to Reuters today.

''However, police and legal authorities under the leadership of the party have arrested and sentenced many writers, journalists, lawyers and activists in the past three years for ... thought and political crimes,'' it said.

China is the world's leading jailer of journalists and Internet writers, with about 30 in custody, and another 50 Internet campaigners also in prison, according to Paris-based press watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Activists have been pushing China, whose ruling Communist Party brooks no challenges to its rule, to improve its human rights policies ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But critics say that with a five-yearly party congress expected within months, the leadership is tightening controls, keen to ensure a stable atmosphere for the sensitive meeting.

Last Friday, police in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang detained writer Lu Gengsong for ''incitement to subvert state power'' and ''illegally attain state secrets'', according to the letter.

The letter urged authorities to release Lu to ''create a new image for the upcoming 17th Party Congress''.

New York-based Human Rights in China also called for Lu's release, and said his detention was the most recent in a string of arrests in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics.

Police warned Lu's wife that she would be dismissed from her job if she went to Beijing to petition on his behalf, the group said in a statement.

The open letter also called on Hu to release other prisoners, including Shi Tao, a Chinese Internet writer who was jailed for 10 years for leaking state secrets abroad.

Last August, Hong Kong-based reporter from Singapore's Straits Times was jailed for five years on spying charges, days after a court jailed a Chinese researcher for the New York Times for three years for fraud but dismissed a more serious charge of illegally leaking state secrets.

REUTERS LPB HT1607