With regret the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has learned that Göttingen's cooperation agreement with its sister city in China completely ignores the difficult human rights situation in Nanjing. "Göttingen has lost an opportunity to take steps toward improving the human rights situation in Nanjing," criticized Ulrich Delius of the STP's Asia section on Friday. "As a university town and home of the Göttinger Sieben, it would have been appropriate for this city to take a stand for the release of imprisoned college professors, writers and journalists in Nanjing."

"Hamburg, sister city of Shanghai, has been more progressive in this respect," reported Delius. "Hamburg's coalition government has openly discussed the question of how to effectively advocate for the rights of political prisoners in their sister city. And their partnership with Shanghai has even more economic significance for the Hanseatic city than Nanjing does for Göttingen."

The bestowal of the Nobel Peace Prize on Liu Xiaobo showed clearly how important it is for other countries to actively promote democracy in China. Beijing is not the only place where leading intellectuals like Liu Xiaobo are subjected to illegal trials and condemned to long prison terms. "Nanjing offers many opportunities for anyone who wants to take an effective stand for human rights in China," said Delius.

Several members of the independent PEN center, formerly headed up by Xiaobo, are political prisoners in Göttingen's sister city, including the author Yang Tongyan. The STP has published reminders about his fate several times over the past two years. Yang Tongyan was arrested in December 2005 and later condemned to twelve years in prison. Like Liu Xiaobo, he was accused of endangering national security with his writings on democratization.

Göttingen should also advocate for the release of Guo Quan, a former professor of literature at the University of Nanjing. He was demoted to a clerk's position and then, in 2009, sentenced to ten years in prison. His only crime was to call for stronger rule of law and more democracy, in letters to state leaders and in publications.

For further information, please contact Ulrich Delius.

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford