Xu Zhiyong, Chinese Rights Advocate Releases Statement on Goals - NYTimes.com

Beijing City - 1st Intermediate People's Court

The Chinese Communist Party is well aware of the frictions created  by the country's rapid and uneven development.  And it is well aware of the cynicism of much of the population toward the government.  Like Americans Chinese people greatly overestimate the degree of official corruption, and are quick to believe the worst of government officials.  In China's case the problem is complicated by the revolutionary heritage and utopianism that drove the CP during the revolutionary period and the Cultural Revolution.  There is, therefore, a large audience for activists like Xu Zhiyong and his colleagues in the New Citizens movement.  Though they are few the CP sees such groups as presenting a large potential challenge - and has decided not to tolerate them.  But since Chinese law protects free expression offenses like creating public disorder must be relied upon even if the evidence is slim to none. 

Xu Zhiyong has now been sentenced to four years for creating public disorder. (court judgment HERE; translation in progress)  His real offense is that he is an open activist and organizer for a western-style multi-party democracy.  The issues around which he has agitated (e.g. the system of residential registration which creates an underclass of urban immigrants who do not have the same access to education and wages as local residents) are recognized as issues to be addressed by the central authorities.  It is not the activism but the ideology that Xu advances that causes the authorities to move against him.  The core language follows. - GWC
Chinese Rights Advocate Releases Statement on Goals - NYTimes.com:

Good politics is a result of true democracy and rule of law. On every level, the government and the legislature must be elected by the people. The power to govern should not come from the barrel of a gun but through votes.Under true democracy and rule of law, politics should be carried out within the the rule of law. Political parties should compete fairly and only those that win in free and fair elections are qualified to govern.Under true democracy and rule of law, state powers are scientifically separated and mutually subject to checks and balances; the judiciary is independent and judges abide by the law and conscience.Under true democracy and rule of law, the military and the police are state organs and should not become the private property of any political party or vested interest group.Under true democracy and rule of law, the media is a social organ and should not be monopolized to be the mouthpiece of any political party or vested interested group.Under true democracy and rule of law, the constitution stipulates and actualizes sacred civil rights, including the right to vote, freedom of speech and freedom of belief. The promise of people’s power should not be a lie.These modern democratic values and measurements are rooted in common humanity. They should not be Eastern or Western, socialist or capitalist, but universal to all human societies

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