2009 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE NOMINATION: ZENG JINYAN

UNCLAS BEIJING 004075 SIPDIS STATE FOR G/IWI, EAP/CM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KWMN KPAO CH SUBJECT: 2009 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE NOMINATION: ZENG JINYAN ¶1. Embassy Beijing is pleased to nominate rights activist Zeng Jinyan for the 2009 Secretary's Award for International Women of Courage. An inspiration to many within her own country and throughout the world, Zeng represents not just courageous women activists, but all those who strive for justice, human rights and human dignity. Zeng first earned fame for "blogging truth to power" during a six-week period in early 2006, when Chinese authorities detained her husband Hu Jia, a well-known activist on issues such as HIV/AIDS and the environment. Since then, Zeng has steadfastly refused to yield to PRC Government pressure and intimidation, despite being placed under house arrest with her infant daughter following Hu Jia's imprisonment on trumped up charges of "inciting subversion." ¶2. Nomination details: Name: Zeng Jinyan. Occupation: Rights activist and mother. Date of Birth: October 9, 1983. Country of Birth/Citizenship: China. Passport #: To be provided later, if possible. Contact Information: To be provided later. ¶3. Justification: Zeng Jinyan is a Chinese rights activist who first earned fame for "blogging truth to power" during a six-week period in early 2006, when Chinese authorities detained her husband, the rights activist Hu Jia, who has worked on issues such as HIV/AIDS and the environment. Refusing to yield to PRC Government intimidation despite being placed under house arrest, Zeng blogged about her famiy's life under constant surveillance and harassment until August 2008, when authorities removed Zeng and her daughter from Beijing for the duration of the Olympics. After being returned to her home in Beijing following the Olympics, Zeng bravely returned to her blog, posting about her ordeal, her family and Hu Jia's condition. Previously, Zeng Jinyan and Hu Jia made a 31-minute video documenting their earlier house arrest from August 2006 to March 2007. In April 2008, Hu Jia received a three-and-one-half-year sentence on trumped-up charges of "inciting subversion." An inspiration to activists within her own country and throughout the world, Zeng represents the admirable efforts not just of courageous women, but all those who strive for justice, human rights and human dignity. Zeng and her family have been subject to near-constant harassment, house arrest and detention since the beginning of 2006. During recent months, she has cared for her infant daughter while under house arrest and with her husband in prison. Zeng has nevertheless steadfastly continued to publicize actively both the plight of her family and human rights conditions in China. Zeng said that blogging helped her "learn to fight back." "If a person cannot live with dignity," she wrote, "then what is the point of enduring it anymore? If I keep being afraid of the politically powerful but invisible dark forces and my work is stalled, then what will happen to the old people, children, patients and volunteers in the AIDS villages?" Time magazine recognized Zeng's courage prior to the Olympics by naming her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2007. Time called Zeng, who is nicknamed "Tiananmen 2.0," the "online progeny of the protester who blocked a column of advancing tanks during China's Tiananmen uprising in 1989." On October 23, 2008, the European parliament awarded Zeng Jinyan's husband Hu Jia the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. ¶4. Embassy contact: Brooke Spelman, telephone +86-10-8531-3827, e-mail .