Chinese activist doesn't answer questions at trial

The founder of a grassroots movement to boost accountability for Chinese officials went on trial today on charges of disrupting public order but refused to answer prosecutors during the six-hour, closed-door proceedings to protest what he considers an unjust case, his lawyer said.
The trial of legal scholar and New Citizens founder Xu Zhiyong reflects the determination of the government led by Xi Jinping to quash the loosely knit activists before they can challenge Communist Party rule, even though their goals largely overlap with the party's stated drive to root out corruption and build a fairer society.
The same court later announced it had granted bail to a well-known venture capitalist who supports the New Citizens group, Wang Gongquan, who had been detained since September. The court did not set a date for Xu's verdict.

Xu's lawyer, Zhang Qingfang, said a conviction is almost certain, and that prosecutors suggested five years in prison, the maximum sentence for the crime of gathering crowds to disrupt order in a public place.
Both Xu and his lawyers refused to respond to prosecutors. "In an unfair trial, when one is defending oneself, appearing in court and answering the questions already amounts to half a confession," Zhang said. "So in this unfair situation, for us not to answer the prosecutors' questions is the most efficient possible defence. It's a kind of protest."
At the end of the trial, Xu began reading a speech intended to act as his defence but was cut off after 10 minutes, Zhang said.

"He wanted to express how a citizen doesn't necessarily oppose the government, but is just somebody who wants to build a better China. But they didn't give him a chance to express this," the lawyer said.
Xu has participated in small public rallies that, among other issues, have called for officials to declare their assets as a way of curbing graft something party leaders have expressed a willingness to consider but have resisted while pushing a high-profile corruption crackdown.
The proceedings opened the same day that a US-based journalist group released a report linking relatives of Xi and other political leaders to offshore tax havens, renewing allegations that the Communist elite has benefited from China's economic boom and hidden the proceeds overseas.