Li Zhi | |
---|---|
李智 | |
Born | 1970 or 1971 (age 52–53) [1] |
Occupation | City government official |
Known for | Civil rights advocacy |
Li Zhi ( Chinese: 李智; pinyin: Lǐ Zhì) is a Chinese dissident. He worked as a civil servant in Dazhou. He was arrested in 2003 for his postings of information on local corruption on the Internet. [1]
At a time when the internet began to gain popularity with Chinese dissidents to exchange their views, while police had begun monitoring chatrooms, [1] Li posted essays online that detailed local corruption. [2] He was detained in Sichuan province in August 2003, formally charged with "conspiracy to subvert state power" in September, [1] and sentenced for " inciting subversion" to eight years imprisonment in December that year. [2] He was convicted also for his association with the Democracy Party of China, which is a banned organization in communist China. [3] The Congressional-Executive Commission on China describes him as a political prisoner. [4] It is alleged that part of the evidence against him, namely his e-mail account and username, was provided by the Hong Kong subsidiary of the Internet company Yahoo! to the Chinese authorities. [2] [3] Local sources said that the cooperation of Yahoo! with authorities had been mentioned in the verdict. [5]
Other cases involving political prisoners in the People's Republic of China where information had been provided by Yahoo! are Shi Tao, Jiang Lijun, and Wang Xiaoning.