Beijing gave Chinese publisher a three-year prison sentence after she repeatedly spoke up for prominent dissidents

Chinese publisher Geng Xiaonan, who advocated for several activists and Chinese intellectuals facing Beijing’s crackdown over the last few years, was sentenced to three years by a court in Beijing for “illegal business operations.” Her friends view the sentence as a political crackdown.

Prominent Chinese publisher Geng Xiaonan, who voiced support for former Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun last year, was sentenced to three years in prison under the charge of “illegal business operations” on Tuesday by a court in Beijing. Her husband Qin Zhen, who was arrested with her in September last year, was also given a suspended jail sentence of two years and six months. Both pleaded guilty in court.

During the trial, Geng told the court that she wanted to use the opportunity to express her view regarding the case, and she pleaded guilty to all the charges against her. “I want to use the precious opportunity in court to admit my mistakes and apologize to society,” Geng said. “I plead guilty to all the evidence presented by the court earlier.”

Geng claimed that since 2001, she has been the sole decision-maker of her publishing business and that her husband and two other employees were following her orders to fulfill their duties. “They were fulfilling duties based on the owners’ orders, so I hope the court can give them lighter punishments,” Geng said. “If the court can concentrate all the punishments on me, I’ll be grateful.”

The prominent Chinese independent journalist Gao Yu wrote on Twitter that a sociology professor at Tsinghua University Guo Yuhua and Geng’s other friends tried to attend the trial on February 9, but they were banned from entering the court.

Additionally, former Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun and two other friends tried to get to the court to support Geng, but they were prevented from leaving their houses by police. Cai Xia, a former professor at the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Party School, described Geng’s trial as political persecution.

“Authorities prevented her friends from entering the court while allowing the trial to be broadcast,” said Cai. “Then, video of the trial disappeared within a few hours. It proves that the trial is a political persecution against Geng and they were afraid that the trial might attract the world’s attention.”

“Geng would rather endure all the punishments”

One of Geng’s friends said the trial on Tuesday was clearly political persecution. In her view, Geng’s case should be viewed as a speech crime, but since prosecuting someone for their speech is against China’s constitution, authorities could only use an economic crime to prosecute Geng.

“What crime has Geng committed for running a small publishing business?” asked Geng’s friend. “What crime has she committed for organizing cultural and academic events? What crime has she committed for speaking up for friends punished for their speeches? A lot of people are doing these things, and the only difference is that Geng has done more than others. I don’t see how anything she has done constituted crimes.”

Apart from charging those who they want to target with economic or administrative crimes, Beijing also tries to punish family members or friends of those who they want to target. Their goal is to force these individuals to give in.

“Beijing is trying to force Geng to plead guilty to all the charges against her,” her friend said. “Geng didn’t want her family members and employees to be harmed, so she tried to plead guilty to all the charges. Even though she sounded very soft during the trial, her speech actually reflected her inner toughness.”

Her friend described Geng as someone with a strong sense of justice and that’s the one thing that Beijing can’t tolerate. “They choose to prosecute a woman through this kind of trial, which proves that the so-called ‘rule of law’ that the Chinese government has been boasting about is ridiculous,” her friend said. “It also proves that their behaviors are unconstitutional.”

Geng and her husband lost touch with friends in early September 2020, and police in Beijing later confirmed that they have been detained following an arrest. Police accused Geng of printing and selling illegal books through her publishing business and they claimed to have found a large number of illegal publications in their company’s warehouse. They were detained under the charge of illegal business operations.

Formerly, her lawyer said Geng’s company has published around 8000 cooking books since 2012, but since these books didn’t have the government-issued book number, they were viewed as illegal publications by the Chinese government. Geng was reportedly interrogated more than 20 times during the first 14 days of her detention.

After former Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun was arrested under the charge of “soliciting prostitution” in Sichuan Province, Geng advocated for Xu on social media, calling on the Chinese government to release him. Additionally, she also spoke up for Chinese citizen journalist Chen Qiushi and businessman Ren Zhiqiang after they were arrested by the Chinese government.

This piece was first published in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.