H. E. President HU Jintao
The State Council General Office
Yongneixijie / Beijing 100017
People's Republic of China
Fax: 86 10 63070900
http://english.gov.cn/

Your Excellency,

I am concerned about the continuing deterioration of human rights in the People's Republic of China and am writing to urge that your government ratify the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

I understand your government is predominantly atheistic in nature and more materialistic-communistic in its political views and activities. It is therefore difficult, and actually impossible, that any atheistic-materialistic minded government official will really understand and appreciate motives of a spiritual person who believes in an Almighty God and in higher, spiritual and lasting values but nevertheless not showing disregard towards all those beautiful things on earth which all will change and pass away at the end. The duty of a government is to regulate wisely the living together of all different individuals and people. It is impossible for a government to regulate spiritual things. For thoughts, philosophies and religions are non-material things. A government can only manage that all citizens can live peacefully and safely together for the good and happiness of whole society.

Therefore I ask you to release all prisoners who are in prison solely for their spiritual-religious way of live. On the other hand it is a fact that these people are often very good citizens. They are righteous, diligent, friendly and respected in society. They do not belong in a prison, for they are mostly not criminals. Many prisoners have simply been forced into "illegality". An example: What can you do, when you are faced with a malicious, ignorant official who does not even try to understand a given situation but makes wrong judgements instead? How do you react then? Whether it is "legal" or "illegal", you will defend yourself, won't you? Laws are made to protect EVERY citizen. Laws are valid for everyone. It is morally wrong when government officials are not made responsible when they trespass a law. We all are human beings and we all must respect the same laws. This is the basis for social peace.

Taking all this into account, I ask you to allow the following five prisoners of conscience to come free:

• Pastor Zhang Rongliang. He is a man who leads Christian prayer meetings in private homes. By the way, Christians respect the whole creation, not only their own country, their government, but all the people in the world. They even pray for (ignorant and malicious) enemies that they may repent and change their evil ways. Any government can be lucky when it has good and law-abiding citizens! But citizens are not happy when they have a bad and law-breaking government!
• Xu Na – This is a young and very friendly lady who just happens to practice Falun Gong meditation for her own life and her own spiritual way and her own health. I can find no wrong in that.
• Hu Jia – Is a young Buddhist and an internationally well-known journalist. He is married and a happy father of a baby-daughter. Of course he must use also the internet, nowadays. Also for reporting on abuses of human rights. This is his job as an independent journalist; he is not a government official! Good journalists and good government officials both are vital for society.
• Shi Tao – Is a 40-year-old journalist. He was accused of reporting on "state secrets". What is a "state secret."? A journalist must report and inform people on what he sees and hears and experiences. A journalist cannot be blamed for reporting on "state secrets", for it is the duty of the government official to keep secrets really secret. A journalist has to report and he must do so always with peace of mind.
• Guo Feixiong – He is a human rights defender (his real name is Yang Maodong). He is a self trained lawyer. For taking part in rights defence activities on behalf of farmers he was put to prison on September 14, 2006. Obviously he did something the local government was unable to do.

Your Excellency, I realise that this is a significant request but I only ask that the Constitution be respected to the fullest and that also your government officials live up to its explicit human rights provisions. This is enough and I do not want to ask more.

Yours respectfully and sincerely,

Wilhelm H. Ludwig

Mitglied der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (IGFM) – www.igfm.de –

Member of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) – www.ishr.org –

Mitglied der Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) – www.gfbv.de –

Member of the Society for Threatened Peoples, c/o Streitbergstr. 93a, D 81249 München,

Phone: +49 (0)89 897 01 081; Fax +49 (0)89 871 39 357; e-mail:
whludwig@t-online.de