Great Regulars: I call on the Chinese government to to answer me this:

"Where is the crime in Charter 08?" The basic concepts of the Charter are freedom, human rights, equality, republicanism, democracy, and constitutional rule. So would the powers-that-be please tell 1.3 billion people why freedom is a crime, why human rights, why equality, or republicanism, and what is criminal about democracy and the rule of law under the Constitution? "Charter 08" puts forward 19 propositions. Not one of them is the invention of the people who signed it. They have all already been implemented in modern, civilized countries, and they have shown themselves to be part of a worthwhile system with beneficial effects. [--Bao Tong]

from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: China Detentions 'Challenge Constitution'

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Authorities in Beijing are still holding writer Liu Xiaobo, one of the signatories to a document published online earlier this week that called for substantial reforms to China's one-party system.

Mo Shaoping, a lawyer hired by Liu's wife Liu Xia and himself a signatory to Charter 08, said he feared police were preparing to pursue a criminal case against the writer, probably for subversion.

from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Writer Held After 'Charter 08'

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