This is the poem that got a Chinese activist seven years in jail

Veteran Chinese activist Zhu Yufu has been jailed for seven years after being accused of “subversion of state power” by writing a poem.

This is his poem.

IT’S TIME

By Zhu Yufu, translated by A. E. Clark and reprinted with permission

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
The Square belongs to everyone.
With your own two feet
It’s time to head to the Square and make your choice.

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
A song belongs to everyone.
From your own throat
It’s time to voice the song in your heart.

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
China belongs to everyone.
Of your own will
It’s time to choose what China shall be.

Chinaaid.org

Zhu Yufu

References to a “square” might evoke memories among many Chinese people of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the epicentre of pro-democracy protests in 1989 that were quelled by armed troops, according to Reuters. But the poem did not mention that.

The harsh sentence has already led to calls for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to condemn the verdict. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy urged Mr. Harper to speak out on Mr. Zhu’s behalf.

Amnesty International also hit out at the assault on Mr. Zhu’s “basic human right to freedom of expression.”

“We believe this is a sign that the Chinese leadership is afraid,” said Sarah Schafer, Amnesty International’s China researcher in a statement. “Why else would they sentence someone to seven years in prison for writing a poem? The Chinese government has seen the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. It has seen the people coming out in the tens of thousands to protest a repressive regime in Russia. And it has seen the Chinese people themselves grow stronger in their demands for more freedoms and a say over their country’s future. And now the leaders at the very top have clearly given out orders that any hint of dissent must be crushed.”

Mr. Zhu has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government for more than a decade.

Jason Lee / Reuters

A paramilitary policeman stands guard near the Great Hall of the People, the venue of the National People's Congress or parliament, on Beijing's Tiananmen Square March 2, 2011

Between 1999 and 2006, he was jailed for founding a controversial political magazine and served another two years from 2007 after he confronted a policeman who questioned his son, said Agence France-Presse.

Mr. Zhu was detained last year as part of a widespread crackdown on dissent. As evidence of the “subversion of power” charge, prosecutors cited the poem as well as messages he sent on the Internet.

“The court verdict said this was a serious crime that deserved stern punishment,” said Mr. Zhu’s son, Zhu Ang, quoted by Reuters.

In December last year dissident Chen Wei was jailed for nine years for subversion after writing four online essays. Another activist Chen Xi was jailed for ten years for writing online.

The sentences were some of the heaviest since Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo was jailed for 11 years on Christmas Day 2009.

National Post, with files from news services