Zhu Yufu, a poet and activist, was last week charged with crimes relating to subversion for writing and publishing a poem online. The poem, It’s Time, has been translated by A.E. Clark:

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
The Square belongs to everyone.
With your own two feet
It’s time to head to the Square and make your choice.

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
A song belongs to everyone.
From your own throat
It’s time to voice the song in your heart.

It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
China belongs to everyone.
Of your own will
It’s time to choose what China shall be.

Zhu is not new to activism, he was involved in the Democracy Wall movement in 1979. He was formally arrested last April for publishing the poem online, as China began a fierce clampdown on dissent.

A number of artists and writers have been imprisoned in recent weeks for word crimes. Activists Chen Xi and Chen Wei, and writer Li Tie, now face sentences of between nine to 10 years.

Chen Wei was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for inciting subversion, while Chen Xi and Li Tie face 10 years in jail for subversion, a more serious charge. Joshua Rosenzweig, Research Manager at the Duihua Foundation, an organisation seeking clemency and improved treatment for at-risk detainees, notes that, “as far as the law is concerned, ‘subversion’ and ‘inciting subversion’ are not synonymous or interchangeable. The difference has important ramifications.”

Quoting China’s Criminal Law, Article 105, Rosenzweig writes that subversion refers to the following:

Among those who organize, plot or carry out acts to subvert the state power or overthrow the socialist system, the ringleaders and the others who commit major crimes shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years;

The latter, “inciting subversion” is defined as:

Whoever incites others by spreading rumors or slanders or any other means to subvert state power or overthrow the socialist system shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights; and the ringleaders and the others who commit major crimes shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years.

There can be no doubt that China is displaying less tolerance for words of dissent. Zhu Yufu’s sentence is likely to be lengthy.