Underground church leader gets 7.5 years in prison for subversion

TIANJIN -- Hu Shigen, leader of an underground church, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of subverting state power Wednesday.

He has also been deprived of his political rights for five years, according to Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Hu, 61, pled guilty and said he will not appeal.

He had been in prison previously, serving 14 years of a 20-year sentence from 1994 to 2008 for organizing and leading counter-revolutionary cliques and engaging in counter-revolutionary propoganda and instigations.

Since 2009, he has used an illegal religious organization to attract illicit lawyers and paid petitioners to spread subversive ideas while also arranging for Gou Hongguo, another suspect, to receive anti-China training overseas, the court said in a statement. He conspired and plotted to subvert state power with others, including Zhou Shifeng, Li Heping and Zhai Yanmin and established "a systematic ideology, method and steps" to achieve it.

Hu also encouraged Zhai Yanmin to organize professional petitioners to gather at public places and cause chaos, attacking the country's judicial system and influencing public opinion to fire-up hatred for the government, said the statement.

Zhai was given a suspended sentence in a separate trial Tuesday.

"I recognize the severity of my crimes, and the huge damage I've brought to the country, society, my family and myself," Hu said in his final statement.

He said he had "long been influenced by bourgeois liberalism" and after being released from prison "fell deeper and deeper into the mire of anti-Party and anti-government criminal activities."

He thanked the government for looking after him while he was ill and in the hospital.

"I want to thank the police, procuratorate, judges and medical staff for their help and education, which has been more impressive and soul-touching than any time before... I am resolved not to participate in any activities against the Party and government in the future, and be a citizen abiding by the law," he said.

Hu is a native of Nanchang city, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province. He was a teacher in a Beijing university before engaging in subversive activities.

Hu hired two attorneys. A pre-trial conference was held to listen to the opinions of the prosecution and defense teams.

During the trial, the court investigated the allegations. Prosecutors presented evidence and witness testimonies, and the defence team did not object.

"Hu Shigen always talked about sensitive cases and the ways to hype them up," said a witness with the surname Liu in court.

"He wanted to use sensitive cases to trigger friction, put pressure on the government, overturn China's existing system and realize 'color revolution' in China," Liu added.

In May 2015, police officer Li Lebin shot dead Xu Chunhe at Qing'an County Railway Station after Xu had been attacking Li despite multiple warnings. Follow-up investigations confirmed that Li had acted within the law.

But Hu instructed Zhai to organize illegal protests at the railway station and in front of the county government buildings, influencing online opinions and misrepresenting the incident as police brutality.

"I just wanted to smear the judicial organs, police and government," confessed Hu, adding all these efforts were intended to promote his "peaceful transition" theory, which he had advocated on multiple occasions to lawyers and petitioners.

He also put forward the idea of "three factors" -- stronger citizen power, an internal split within the ruling bloc, and interference of international society -- and "five plans" for the "peaceful transition."

"I instilled these concepts into others to achieve the aim of 'color revolution,'" he said.

Hu has also sustained links with overseas anti-China forces. Between March and April 2014, he sent his "successor" Gou Hongguo overseas to take part in anti-China training, which involved separatists and ideology and methods of subverting state power.

Evidence shows that Gou reported the training content to Hu after he returned to Beijing and provided him related training documents.

"Some separatists seeking 'Tibet and Xinjiang independence' also took part in this 'leaders' camp' to learn anti-China theories and skills to confront the government and law enforcement agencies," Hu confessed.

The prosecutors said Hu wanted to contact various anti-China forces, learn to confront the government, and cultivate agents.

The court handed down a light sentence to Hu because he confessed and repented, according to its statement.

Altogether 48 people, including 20 journalists from China and overseas, observed the trial.