The European Parliament, in a move certain to rile Beijing, on Thursday awarded its top human rights prize to Chinese dissident Hu Jia, who was jailed for subversion after testifying to the EU Assembly last year.Announcing the award of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering called Hu “one of the real defenders of human rights in the People’s Republic of China”.“By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Hu Jia, the European Parliament is sending out a signal of clear support to all those who defend human rights in China,” Poettering told the Assembly. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said before the award that giving Hu the prize would be “an interference in China’s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty”.“We are opposed to interfering in the affairs of other countries, using the excuse of human rights. What kind of person Hu Jia is, I think, is known to all. He is a criminal convicted by China’s courts on charges of inciting subversion,” Qin said.Starting with advocacy for rural AIDS sufferers, Hu emerged as one of China’s most vocal advocates of democratic rights and religious freedom for Tibet, which was shaken by protests and a security crackdown earlier this year. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in China in April. He was arrested and charged with “inciting subversion of state power” following his testimony on human rights in China.His wife Zeng Jingyan was delighted by the news of the award when told of it. “At last some good news,” she said.
