President Xi: No More Silence

Dear President Xi Jinping,

On World Human Rights Day, our PEN International community of writers, readers, activists and publishers condemn the Chinese authorities’ sustained and increasing attack on free expression and call for an immediate end to China’s worsening crackdown on fundamental human rights.

We cannot stand by as more and more of our friends and colleagues are silenced. Where is the voice of Ilham Tohti, Uyghur scholar and PEN member, currently serving a life sentence, when his life’s work has been about creating peace and dialogue in China? Where is the voice of veteran journalist Gao Yu, who spent close to two years in prison and is now under house arrest? Where is the voice of publisher Gui Minhai, who disappeared from his holiday home in Thailand and is now being held incommunicado? Where is the voice of Nobel Peace Laureate and former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, Liu Xiaobo serving an 11-year prison sentence and the voice of his wife, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest for over six years without even having been accused of a crime?

These writers represent the many critical voices across China currently being silenced. Like the imprisoned and persecuted members of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre: Yang Tongyan, Zhu Yufu, Lü Gengsong, Chen Shuqing, Hu Shigen, Qin Yongmin, Liu Yanli and Liu Feiyue, (and honorary members) Zhang Haitao, Sun Feng, Lu Yuyu, Li Tingyu, Huang Qi and Su Changlan. The enforced silence of these friends and colleagues is deafening, and the disappearance of their voices has left a world worse off for this egregious injustice and loss.

Today we call for their words to reverberate across the globe as we commit to fighting for their freedom until China heeds our call. On days like today we have to reaffirm our refusal not to be complicit in their silence. We have to use our own words to give power to theirs.

China and the rest of the world can only be enriched by these opinions and voices. We therefore urge the Chinese authorities to release the writers, journalists, and activists who are languishing in jail or kept under house arrest for the crime of speaking freely and expressing their opinions.

We urge them to uphold freedom of expression and all human rights.

Abraham Zere, PEN Eritrea

William Nygaard, PEN Norway

Alejandro Sánchez-Aizcorbe, Peruvian PEN

Alexander McCall Smith, PEN Writers Circle

Anders Heger, PEN International

Andrew Solomon, PEN America

Anna Nasiłowska, Polish PEN

Annika Thor, Swedish PEN

Anotnio Della Rocca, PEN Trieste

Burhan Sönmez, PEN Writers Circle

Carles Torner, PEN International

Carme Arenas, PEN Catala

Colm Toibin, PEN Writers Circle

Elif Shafak, PEN Writers Circle

Eugene Schoulgin, PEN International

Fiona Graham, Scottish PEN

Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah, PEN Ghana

Gloria Guardia, PEN International

Hanan Al Shaykh, PEN Writers Circle

Hanan Awwad, PEN Palestine

Iman Humaydan, PEN Lebanon

Jennifer Clement, PEN International

Jiro Asada, Japan PEN

Joanne Leedom-Ackermon, PEN International

Judyth Hill, PEN San Miguel

Juraj Šebesta, Slovak PEN

Lucina Kathmann, PEN International

Ma Thida, PEN International

Magali Tercero, PEN Mexico

Magda Carneci, PEN Romania

Margaret Atwood, PEN Writers Circle

Margie Orford, PEN South Africa

Michelle Franke, PEN Centre USA

Mohamed Sheriff, PEN International

Moris Farhi, PEN International

Myo Myint Nyein, PEN Myanmar

Nedzad Ibrahimovic, PEN Bosnia-Herzegovina

Nguyên Hoàng Bao Viêt, PEN Suisse Romand

Per Øhrgaard, Danish PEN

Per Wästberg, PEN International

Randy Boyagoda, PEN Canada

Regula Venske, PEN Germany

Salil Tripathi, PEN International

Salman Rushdie, PEN Writers Circle

Samay Hamed, Afghan PEN

Sirpa Kähkönen, Finnish PEN

Sjón, Icelandic PEN

Sofi Oksanen, PEN Writers Circle

Suzanne Nossel, PEN America

Syeda Aireen Jaman, PEN Bangladesh

Tienchi Liao, Independent Chinese PEN Centre

Tung Van Vu, Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre

Vida Ognjenovic, PEN Serbia

Vonne van der Meer, PEN Netherlands

Waheed Warasta, PEN Afghanistan

Yann Martel, PEN International

Zeynep Oral, PEN Turkey