Members of PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favor of good understanding and mutual respect among nations; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class, and national hatreds and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in the world.
PEN stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and among all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in their country or their community.
PEN declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of peace. It believes that the necessary advance of the world toward a more highly organized political and economic order renders free criticism of governments, administrations, and institutions imperative. And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood, and distortion of facts for political and personal ends.
International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee works to help persecuted writers worldwide. The Writers in Prison Committee monitors the cases of over 900 writers who have been imprisoned, tortured, threatened, attacked, made to disappear, and killed for the peaceful practice of their profession. It publishes a bi-annual Case List documenting free expression violations against writers around the world. This committee was started in 1960 in response to increasing attempts to silence voices of dissent by imprisoning writers,
Liu Xia (poet)
Liu Xia (born 1 April 1961), is a painter, poet, and photographer who resides in Beijing, China. She was married to 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Liu used to be a civil servant in the Beijing tax bureau. She met her husband Liu Xiaobo while part of the Beijing literary scene in the 1980s. She married Liu Xiaobo while he was in prison in a Chinese labor re-education camp between the years of 1996 and 1999.
Ms. Liu prefers to lead the solitary life of an intellectual. However, she has been forced to act for her husband in public because of he is often in prison for his activism. She has been described as her husband's "most important link to the outside world." She also personally experiences pressures from the Chinese authorities for publicly voicing opinions because she is the wife of one of China's most prominent human rights advocates. Since his arrest, the government watches her constantly. She speaks out on issues of human rights both for herself and for her husband. Although she may not want always want to, she has continued to speak publicly all during their marriage and while her husband has been in prison Despite the pressures, she attempts to keep her life normal.
Liu Xiaobo's was sent to prison for 11 years after he helped write the political manifesto 2008 called Charter 08. Liu Xia begged her husband to not participate in writing the document. At first, he did as she asked. But later, he spent much of his time writing and re-writing the document which took three years. He later got more than 300 prominent workers, Chinese Communist Party members, and intellectuals, to sign the charter. 10,000 people added their names to a charter support list on the Internet.
After it was announced that her husband had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xia said that “For all these years, Liu Xiaobo has persevered in telling the truth about China and because of this, for the fourth time, he has lost his personal freedom." She also said that she would visit him in jail and "give him a big hug". After visiting him, however, she was placed under house arrest and her mobile phone number was canceled. Liu Xiaobo died on 13 July 2017 from liver cancer complications.
Jilin University
Jilin University (; often abbreviated JLU or 吉大) is a national university. China's Ministry of Education controls the university directly.
Down to the Countryside Movement
The Down to the Countryside Movement was a government plan in China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During the Cultural Revolution, anti-bourgeois thinking was very common. Mao Zedong said that richer youth from the cities would be sent to mountains or farming villages so they could learn from the workers and farmers there.
Many fresh high school graduates were forced out of the cities. They had to stay in far away areas of China. They became known as the Rusticated Youth of China Many of them lost the chance to go university. Some call them China's "lost generation." Famous authors who have written about their experiences during the movement include Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Jiang Rong and Zhang Chengzhi, both of whom went to Inner Mongolia.
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who was the paramount leader of China and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 2002 to 2012. Hu Jintao also served as the President of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2013 and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 2004 to 2012.
Hu was born in Taizhou, Jiangsu. Hu left office of General Secretary on 15 November 2012 and the office was taken by Xi Jinping.
Hu Jintao was educated as a hydraulic engineer from Tsinghua University in 1965. According to official biographies, he has a photographic memory. Politically, he is moderate and careful. He spent most of his previous career in Tibet and the poorer provinces, and was therefore unknown to Western analysts until he unexpectedly became the General Secretary (paramount leader). Even as a general secretary, he was quite private - and so has never given an interview.
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (), 5 October 1936–18 December 2011, was a Czech playwright, essayist, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92). He then became the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote more than twenty plays and many non-fiction works. Many of them were translated into multiple languages.
Beginning in the 1960s, Havel mostly wrote about the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became more and more active against the government. In 1977, he became famous internationally for his work on the human rights manifesto, "Charter 77". He became known as a leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia. He was also sent to prison for these activities. The 1989, Havel became president during the "Velvet Revolution". As president, he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to an open democracy with several political parties. His country changed greatly during the thirteen years he was president. The Czech Republic separated from Slovakia, even though Havel was against separation. The Czech Republic also joined NATO and started negotiating membership in the European Union. The country became a member of the EU in 2004. He was one of the first people to sign the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.
Václav Havel was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 5 October 1936. He grew up in a well-known and wealthy entrepreneurial and intellectual family. His family was active in culture and politics in Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s. His father owned part of the suburb of Barrandov. This is the highest part of Prague. Havel's mother came from a well-known family. Her father was an ambassador and journalist. Havel completed his required education in 1951. However, the Communist government did not allow him to continue to study formally because of his bourgeois family background.