Beijing detains Pro Reform Activist over NYT leak

In contravention to China’s international commitments to increasing transparency and to respect press freedom, Zhao Yan, a 42 year old employee of the New York Times’s Beijing office, was detained earlier this month on suspicion of providing unnamed Chinese State secrets to an unspecified outside agent.

Though Zhao was detained in the city of Shanghai on 17 September, it took Beijing officials four day to notify his family of his detention, and they provided no specific information as to the reason for his arrest. Saying only that he was suspected of transferring secret information to a foreign country, Zhao has been given limited access to a lawyer and has yet to be formally arrested.

Zhao’s arrest has promoted widespread concern among journalists and other media workers in China and abroad, and goes in contravention to China’s commitment to opening up to the international press community during and prior to the Beijing games.

Zhao’s employers and US offices have voiced concern for Zhao’s wellbeing and have made strong representations have been to Beijing though the US embassy, and to the Chinese embassy in Washington, on the issue.

 The definition of what constitutes a state secret in China is renowned to be fluid and is reputed to be a buffer used to detain those who speak out against the Chinese leadership on controversial issues. In the past, revealing state secrets has been used as a tool to detail people who spoke out against government policies or exposed flaws within the Chinese leadership. It has also been used as a catchall for holding people who have spoken out over SARS, AIDS and other health issues, as well as freedom and environmental issues in the country.

 There has been speculation that Zhao’s arrest was ordered by Beijing after the publication of an article in the New York Times, on 7 September, announcing the planned resignation of Jiang Zemin from the position of chairman of the Central Military Commission, which being information from within China’s leadership, would be considered a state secret in China.

However, and as has not been widely stated by the media, Zhao is also known as a human rights activist who has spoken out against the Chinese government on a number of occasions. Zhao has previously published articles that criticize the treatment of the poor in China, particularly the treatment of farmers by Chinese officials, which may prove to be a factor in, or the catalyst for, his detention.

Speculation about the reasons for Zhao’s detention remains rife, and Mo Shaoping, Zhao’s lawyer, has said that no specific act had been stated as the reason for Zhao’s detention.

In the run up to the 2008 games in Beijing, China pledged to allow full journalistic access to the country and to respect press freedoms, though this pledge has been met by skepticism from the wider media community. There has been little sign of increased access to China for the foreign press and a noted increase in the detention of ‘dissidents’, particularly those who publish through news groups and message boards, fueling fears that China is seeking to purge dissent in the run up to the games, when foreign sites will be set on China.

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