Press Release

for the press conference to be held on behalf of Yu Jie

 

Contact:        James Zhang, Research Fellow

                    Laogai Research Foundation

                    1734 Twentieth Street, Northwest

                    Washington, DC 20009

 

September 27, 2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Yu Jie’s New Books—Criticizing Hu Jintao and Releasing Liu Xiaobo

 

The Laogai Research Foundation will hold a press conference for the famous Chinese dissident and writer, Yu Jie. Details are as follows:

 

                                                                      Monday, October 1, 2012 at 1 pm to 3 pm

                                                                             National Press Club, Lisagor Room

                                                                                     529 14th Street, Northwest

                                                                                         Washington, DC 20045

 

On January 11, 2012, Chinese dissident writer Yu Jie left China together with his wife and son. Shortly after his arrival in the U.S., he spoke at a press conference in Washington, DC, where he issued a statement exposing the abuses imposed by the Communist Party on him through illegal house arrest and torture. The event was widely covered in the international media. The main reasons for his leaving China had to do with his writing two books: A Biography of Liu Xiaobo and China’s Lost Decade under Hu Jintao. China’s secret police threatened Yu Jie that if he continued to write and published the two books, he would be sentenced to the same long prison term as Liu Xiaobo. With the help of the Laogai Research Foundation, Yu Jie finished the two books in the U.S. and then had them published in Hong Kong on the eve of the 18^th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

 

At the same time, Yu Jie became the editor of Observe China, an online journal devoted to discussing political issues in China. During the past decade, both Yu Jie and Liu Xiaobo had been important contributors to this online journal. Yu Jie has since worked to build the online journal into an important publication focusing on China’s democratization.

 

After his exile from China, the Communist Party continued to obstruct his writing efforts, and exert pressure on the publishing houses in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The secret police in China even sent him an anonymous email, hinting at the possibility of being murdered if his book angered Hu Jintao. Not afraid of the threats from the Chinese Communist Party, Yu Jie pressed ahead with the publishing of his two books in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

At the press conference, Yu Jie will talk in detail about the writing process of the two books, as well as about his life, his writing and research plans in the US, and his views on China’s future. Harry Wu, the founder and executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation, will be present to make introductions and comments.

 

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