Bad omen from Beijing

The arrest of a leading Aids and environmental activist doesn't bode well for China's human rights record in the run-up to the Olympics. Comments by Isabel Hilton Feb 02 The Guardian

Since the charges against the Chinese Aids and environmental activist Hu Jia are a state secret, we cannot be precise about his crime. After repeated periods of house arrest, Hu Jia was detained in December and has now been charged, but even his lawyer does not know with what. But the trail of evidence Hu Jia has left on the internet might offer some clues. If it is an offence against the dignity of the People's Republic of China to show the security police, sent to ensure that Hu did not leave his flat, lounging around, smoking, picking their noses, playing cards, scratching themselves, eating the boxed meals that are delivered to them at regular intervals and leaving the debris for others to clear up, Hu Jia is guilty without question. His video postings, now on YouTube, his blog, the photographs and the demonstrations of support for him both on the internet and in real life testify to the power of his non-violent protest.

Much of China is paralysed this week by snowstorms. The authorities were so ill-prepared that both the party chairman and the premier had to get out a megaphone to apologise to stranded travellers whose annual trip home for New Year celebrations was wrecked by collapsing train services. It is unlikely that many of those millions of disappointed travellers had heard of Hu Jia, or would think his misfortune any greater than theirs. But figures like Hu have always been one of China's strengths and China's history and literature remembers them as heroes, individuals whose moral and ethical compass remains true regardless of the cost.

Hu is a Buddhist who has worked bravely and tirelessly to expose police abuses and to defend victims of environmental abuse and Aids. In 2006 he was detained illegally for more than 40 days and the cumulative effects of successive police encounters have done lasting damage to his health. The government's treatment of Hu Jia could not be further from the official declarations of "harmonious society" and rule of law - the image that China aims to project in Beijing in August and through months of mood music around the world in the promotional build-up to the main event.

British business and cultural organisations have set up their own tribute to official China, under the label China Now, described as the biggest festival of Chinese culture ever held in Britain. But culture does not begin and end with music or art. Hu Jia is part of China's culture too - in the tradition of the honest official who speaks truth to power, or the outlaws of the classical novel Shui Hu Chuan Zhuan (The Water Margin) who battled against tyranny on behalf of the poor. Official culture - like official sport - prefers to erase the awkward messages that culture often contains, and once-daring filmmakers end up as regime propagandists. The real documents of China today will not be on display in the government sanctioned celebrations. For those, try Hu Jia's video postings of life under house arrest on YouTube.