2006
Hu Jia spends 168 days under house arrest.
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Police take Hu Jia away from his home and detain him incommunicado for 41 days. His wife Zeng Jinyan starts a blog retracing the steps she takes in trying to find out his whereabouts and the reasons for his detention.
August 2006 to March 2007:
Hu spends 214 days under house arrest.
February 1, 2007:
Hu and Zeng release a documentary about his house arrest and the constant police surveillance they have to endure. “Prisoner of Freedom City” is widely distributed on internet.
March 2007:
Police lift the house arrest of Hu. Hu and Zeng are allowed to travel abroad for a few weeks.
May 2007:
Zeng Jinyan is selected as one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people globally.
May 18, 2007:
Minutes before the couple are to board a flight for a two-month trip to Europe, Hu and Zeng are stopped by police officers. Police reimpose Hu’s house arrest.
August 8, 2007:
Along with 42 Chinese intellectuals and activists, Hu co-signs an open letter, “One World, One Dream: Universal Human Rights,” calling for greater attention to human rights on the occasion of the Olympics.
September 6, 2007:
Hu Jia and Teng Biao, a fellow human rights activist and leading civil rights lawyer, publish an open letter entitled “The Real China and the Olympics.” In this letter, the two authors document specific and wide-ranging violations of human rights by the government, and call on the international community to hold Beijing to the promises it made when bidding to host the Games, which included improving human rights.
Mid-November 2007
Hu and Zeng’s daughter Qianci is born.
November 26, 2007:
Hu testifies via audio link at a European Parliament hearing. In his testimony, he criticizes rights abuses related to the preparations for the Beijing Games and accuses the ruling Chinese Communist Party of using the Olympics as a platform to strengthen itself.
December 27, 2007:
Hu is taken away from his home by the police. Police confiscate all communication equipment, including computers, a video recorder, a digital recorder, and cell phones, including Zeng's cell phone. Zeng and Qianci are confined at home under police surveillance.
December 29, 2007:
Hu’s mother engages lawyer Li Jinsong to serve as Hu's defense counsel.
January 2008:
Zeng and Qianci are confined at home under police surveillance. The police take over an apartment adjacent to the one occupied by Hu and Zeng, install CCTV cameras and prevent any visitors from visiting Zeng and Qianci.
January 2, 2008:
Police turn down the first request by Hu’s lawyer to see his client, on the basis that his case involves “state secrets.” Cases involving “state secrets” in China entail the suspension of critical due process rights for the defendant.
January 7, 2008:
Thirty prominent intellectuals, lawyers, and dissidents publish a petition on behalf of Hu, asking for his release.
January 10, 2008:
Police place one of Hu’s lawyers under police surveillance and confine him at home for a few hours in a Beijing hotel to prevent him from meeting foreign journalists.
January 19, 2008:
A letter from Hu to his family is transmitted by the authorities.
January 25, 2008:
Police turn down a second application from Hu’s lawyer to visit him. Police tell his lawyers that Hu is not eligible for bail.
January 30, 2008:
Hu’s family and his lawyer are notified by the prosecutor’s office that Hu’s formal arrest had been approved on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.”
February 4, 2008:
Hu’s lawyer, Li Jinsong, is able to visit him for the first time. The meeting is monitored by the police. Li reports that Hu showed no signs of having been mistreated.
February 10, 2008:
Zeng is allowed to visit her husband for the first time since his arrest on December 27, 2007.
March 6, 2008:
Teng Biao, who with Hu Jia co-wrote the open letter “The Real China and the Olympics” in September 2007 and who has been active in advocating for Hu, is taken away by the police. During his 40 hours in detention, the police threaten to arrest him and to have him dismissed from his position as university lecturer if he does not stop raising Hu Jia’s case, writing about the Olympics, and accepting interviews from foreign journalists.
March 14, 2008:
Hu Jia’s lawyers and relatives are notified that his trial will open on March 18.
March 15, 2008:
Hu Jia’s wife Zeng Jinyan learns that she will not been allowed to attend the trial.
April 3, 2008:
Beijing's First Intermediate People's Court sentences Hu Jia to three years and a half imprisonment and one year of deprivation of political rights. His lawyers announce their intention to appeal the verdict.
