HIS SIGHT DETERIORATED during his time in prison. There was insufficient reading light and the nutritional value of food was inferior.
His career as a journalist is over, and his Internet-published articles continue to be censured in China, says Li Changqing in an interview with DN in an apartment in Peking
The former assistant news editor at Fuzhou Daily was released from the Yong An prison in the Fujian Province in southern China on February 2. He had been imprisoned a total of three years and 50 days at that point.
His wife and daughter were to accept the Golden Pen Award in Gothenburg at the beginning of June on Li's behalf. The prize is awarded by the World Association of Newspapers. This is the second year in a row that a Chinese journalist has received the award.
"I would like to have traveled abroad, and accepted the award personally, but realized that was an impossibility since I don't have a passport," says the 43-year old journalist.
MRS. BAO DINLING and Li's 17-year old daughter were stopped when they arrived at the airport in Peking last Wednesday for their flight to Gothenburg. They were detained and interrogated. Their passports were confiscated.
Now it is no longer just Li Changqing who is impacted by the articles he has written and published - his entire family is afflicted. He was first arrested for having given his written support to a local member of the Communist party who had publicly dissociated himself from corruption. His support put Li under suspicion of subversive activity". He was later condemned to prison for having spread false news" when he warned of an outbreak of dengue fever in southern China.
"My imprisonment hit my family and me hard. My family didn't know what was happening to me in prison, and Fuzhou Daily fired me. I don't have steady work since no one in Fuzhou dares give me any. Everyone experiences fear when they hear my name. That's why I came to Peking, but it is going to take time to get back into society," explains Li Changqing.
"I thought long and hard before I wrote the articles. I was aware of the risks, but could never imagine the consequences would be so serious."
He has a temporary job in Peking, and we are in an apartment that belongs to one of his colleagues. Li serves green tea from his home province, and tells how he went to the same university as Shi Tao, the 2007 recipient of the Golden Pen Award. Shi Tao is also Chinese.
"I am very grateful for the Golden Pen Award, but I wish it weren't always Chinese journalists who are the recipients. If China's freedom of speech were better, Chinese writers wouldn't have to receive the award," says Li Changqing.
He says he has to watch his words carefully since he has friends in prison whose safety he does not want to jeopardize.
"Prison food is not very good, healthcare is not very good and inmates do not have the rights stipulated by Chinese law. My health deteriorated. I was also among those who were most closely guarded since I was a political prisoner."
LI'S WIFE BAO DINLING was allowed to visit him once a month for half an hour. Everything they said during visits was recorded.
"We spoke of normal matters. I asked my wife how my mother and daughter were. I knew she wouldn't say everything, just say that everything was fine to avoid worrying me. And when she asked how everything was in prison, I didn't tell her everything either so she wouldn't worry."
Now that he is in Peking far from home, his wife and daughter send lots of text messages every day. Li responds to all of them, so they won't worry that anything has happened to him again.
It was his wife and daughter that should have traveled to Gothenburg to accept the award. When we saw Li Changqing, he thought it was going to be all right. At the airport in Peking about a week later, though, the police were waiting and stopped them.
LI CHANGQING DESCRIBES himself as a different kind of Chinese journalist - he does not want just to listen to his editor at the newspaper and do what he is told.
"I don't just want to earn money from my profession. I also want to take responsibility for China's development."
"The fact is, I love China and feel a great deal of hope for the country. All I want is for China to become a real democracy with real freedom. Common people should have greater rights. If they receive more rights, they will also have to take greater responsibility."