Zhu Yufu, China Belongs to Everyone

The square belongs to everyone.
With your own two feet
It’s time to head to the Square and make your choice.
It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
A song belongs to everyone.
From your own throat
It’s time to voice the song in your heart.
It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
China belongs to everyone.
Of your own will
It’s time to choose what China shall be.

Zhu Yufu, translated by A.E. Clark

In 2007, one year after Chinese activist Zhu Yufu completed a seven-year prison term for “subversion of state power,” he was sentenced to two years in prison for “obstructing official business.” Last March, Chinese officials again detained Zhu, whom they formally arrested and charged the following month with “inciting subversion of state power.” Among the materials prosecutors have cited as evidence in his latest trial is this poem, which Zhu posted on the Internet.