A victim of China’s oppressive authoritarian regime for most of his life, Liu Xianbin has repeatedly spoken out for human rights and democracy while sacrificing his own freedom. Liu and Chinese dissident writers Du Daobin and Zhou Yuanzhi are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Cisco, Systems Inc., currently pending in Federal Court in Maryland. Over the past decade, Cisco has enabled the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to crack down on dissent through highly sophisticated internet surveillance technology, known as the “Golden Shield Project”. Were it not for Cisco’s help , the Chinese Communist Party may not have had the tools and technology to persecute, punish and torture Liu for his peaceful and non-violent internet activities. (Download pdf of translated articles from Cisco's Chinese website about PSB business deals here.)

Born in 1968 in Sichuan Province, Liu Xianbin was attending Renmin University in Beijing when the pro-democracy student movement swept China. He participated in the 1989 protests, including the blocking of military vehicles in Tiananmen Square. Having lost faith in Communist Party rule, Liu helped to organize an anti-communist group and began writing articles criticizing the repression and violent crackdown of the Tiananmen incident and pushing for the establishment of a democratic party. For these "crimes", he was arrested in 1991 and eventually sentenced to 2.5 years in prison on charges of "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement," yet this was only the beginning of Liu’s activism.

Du Daobin is one of the earliest cyber dissident writers in China.  By the time of his detention in October 2003, he had published tens of articles on the internet at home and abroad. In June 2004 he was charged with “inciting to subvert state power” and sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment. Instead of serving his prison sentence immediately, it was postponed while he spent 4 years under probation. In June of 2008, on the eve of the Summer Olympics to be held in China, the authorities accused Du of disobeying the rules of probation, as he had continued to write articles critical of the regime. Thus, after four years of probation, Mr. Du was sent to serve his 3-year prison term. While in prison, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture and was held under the most stringent control.  He was forced to sit on a low bench for two months, which led to cardiac prolapse. After this incident, due to malnutrition and potassium deficiency, he lost his ability to walk and for a long time he was dependent on a wheelchair. Although today he is free and able to walk, Du remains under close watch. Who is this man that China views as such a threat, and what is it about his writings that has the government so nervous?

Du Daobin was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province in 1964. Formerly an employee of the district government, Du was a firm believer of communism. He read the works of Marx, Lenin, and Mao Zedong and took up writing poetry. After the tragic events of the 1989 protests, Du sympathized with the students and strongly opposed the killing that occurred. Before officially becoming a Party member, he retracted his application. He began to write works in support of the democracy movement and since 1997 he has been exploring the ideas of liberalism and promoting China's path to democracy. Originally a supporter of the movement, as Du became more outspoken, he too became a victim of the government’s crackdown on freedom of speech. Starting in 2001, Du published articles on a number of Chinese websites, calling for fair treatment of city and rural dwellers, social security and fair wages for farmers, and for the abolishment of the discriminatory policies of usury towards farmers. He also published articles on foreign websites, severely criticizing Chinese Communist Party ideals and the one-party dictatorship system and policy.

On his visit to Shanghai, President Obama defended internet and religious freedoms during a townhall forum with around 400 Shanghai students.  "These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights," the president said, referring to four rights curtailed in China.

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government was at work to censor the President's anti-censorship message, blocking internet portals that streamed the event.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, "Chinese censors blocked Facebook and YouTube, limiting coverage to local TV and China's official news agency." To see the president's message, view the videos below:

Harry Wu, Laogai survivor and LRF founder, testified for The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the United States House of Representatives regarding the state of Internet freedom in China.  His statement is below:

I want to thank Co-Chairman Wolf and Co-Chairman McGovern for inviting me to speak before the Commission today and for the Commission’s ongoing attention to the human rights situation in China.

Over the past several weeks, the Chinese government has caused quite an uproar among its 300 million or so Internet users, the most of any country in the world, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced its decision requiring that all computers sold within the country from July 1st onward be preinstalled with the Green Dam Youth Escort (‘Green Dam’).  Developed by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., Green Dam is software that uses blacklists and image processing technology to filter out “harmful” words, images, and website addresses.