An 81-year-old man faces up to seven years in a Beijing prison for online criticism of the Chinese government and self-publishing the memoirs of those who suffered under Mao Zedong.
Writer Huang Zerong, also known as Tie Liu, has officially been charged with “illegal business activities” and “creating a disturbance” by the Chinese government, and is now believed to be the oldest activist charged under the President Xi Jinping regime, The New York Times reported Thursday.
“I had expected bad news,” Mr. Tie’s wife, Ren Hengfang, said in a telephone interview from Beijing, The Times reported. “But this still seems a bit abnormal.”
Mr. Tie’s wife said that the charge of illegal business does not makes sense because he was not making a profit from the memoirs, which were often given to scholars and survivors of labor camps. The other charge stems from essays he wrote that were published online and used in Chinese publications overseas, The Times reported.
Mr. Tie has been in a detention center since last month as the government builds its case against him. His lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, hopes to secure his release on bail due to old age and poor health, The Times reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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