The Epoch Times
By Wang Qian & Si Ming
Sound of Hope Radio Created: May 16, 2010 Last Updated: May 17, 2010

On Feb 9, Chinese activist and writer Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” allegedly for his online comments regarding the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Tan’s supporters say the charges were really aimed at silencing his investigation into corruption in the construction of school buildings in Sichuan.

There were 14,000 school buildings damaged in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, according to official Chinese government statistics. Tan was exposing information that, in many cases, the schools collapsed while adjacent buildings remained standing. In some districts, schools were the only buildings that fell.

Tan had also been collating information on students who lost their lives in the earthquake, attempting to arrive at an accurate student death toll.

“That is what really made the officials panic,” Ran Yunfei, a writer from Sichuan, told Sound of Hope Radio.

“Whatever Tan was working on had nothing to do with subversion. It was about exposing corrupt local officials,” Ran said.

Tan’s lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, says the 56-year-old activist was convicted based on his email correspondence with an overseas activist for democracy. In an email, Tan discussed China’s brutal crackdown on student protestors at Tiananmen Square in 1989.    more …