A 20-year-old factory worker who joined a banned political party because he was unhappy with one-party rule in China was sentenced to jail for 18 months today, his mother said.
A court in southern China’s boomtown city of Shenzhen found Xue Mingkai guilty of subversion of state power because he joined the US-based China Democracy Party last April, Xue’s mother Wang Shuqing said.
Xue was the latest of several people jailed in recent months for subversion or other vaguely defined laws that critics say are often used to silence dissent.
“This is very wicked, our country,” Wang told The Associated Press by phone. “Chinese people have no human rights.”
Human rights groups had said Xue faced up to 10 years in jail and three others he was in contact with had also been arrested and tried for subversion, in Liaoning, Hunan and Hubei provinces.
