Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: February 4, 2021
Geng Xiaonan with her husband Qin Zhen prior to CCP detention.
(Photo: ChinaAid)
(Beijing, Hebei Province—Feb. 03, 2021) Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have officially charged Geng Xiaonan and her husband Qin Zhenwith with “operating an illicit business.” Their trial, scheduled for February 9, will be held at Beijing Haidian People’s Court.
CCP officials criminally detained Ms. Geng and Mr. Xu September 9, 2020 on suspicion of “operating an illicit business,” and approved their arrest a month later. Public consensus suggests that authorities arrested Ms. Geng due to her active support of Tsinghua University professor Xu Zhangrun and dissidents like citizen reporter Chen Qiushi.
Ms. Geng, 47-years-old, a multitalented publisher and filmmaker, served as the editor-in-chief of Rui Ya Culture (2001-2018), where she published nearly 2,000 books during her tenure. China’s Press and Publications rated Rui Ya Culture as a classic representative of private enterprise and named it the “Pioneer of China’s paperback era.” Ms. Geng, a free-spirited, righteous, and passionate person, well-known in the Beijing cultural circle, regularly won various awards in the publishing industry. The media has also honored Ms. Geng as a “Chinese Human Rights Heroine.”
In recent years, Ms. Geng, known for her activeness and boldness in the public domain of Beijing’s culture, actively committed to the planning, execution, and dissemination of “Cultural Thought” activities for the public’s welfare. As a result, Beijing authorities have subjected her to surveillance and suppression.
Initially, Beijing authorities used the pretext of financial issues to investigate the publishing company Ms. Geng and Mr. Qin owned. This led to CCP officials seizing the accounts of her husband and their publishing company. Their current case reportedly relates to previous public appeals against the suppression of several Chinese public intellectuals and dissidents.International human rights organization China Political Prisoner Concern estimates that CCP authorities have jailed more than 220 female prisoners of conscience or political prisoners in China for pursuing freedom of democracy or defending rights.
Prior to her scheduled February 9 trial, CCP authorities forced Ms. Geng to dismiss her defense lawyer Shang Baojun. Now, one of the more than the 220 females targeted for their stance on freedom, she appears haggard at the Detention Center of Haidian District, Beijing where she remains detained—waiting for her not yet published trial.
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For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life
take counsel together
~ Psalm 71:10 (NKJV)
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