The court has rejected the appeal of the four “cyber-dissidents.”

I really can’t describe how tragic this is. With prison sentences up to 10 years (!), the four Internet essayists now have no hope,

There was that glimmer of hope just a few days ago when their appeal was being considered. Hope, not just for the “subversives,” but for China itself. Hope that they could truly demonstrate an easing of their obsession with control of people’s minds, hope that things were truly changing. Hope that there was some substance behind Hu’s promises of reforming the media.

And then the criminals themselves. I try to visualize it. I try to imagine what 10 years in a Chinese prison might be like. I can’t.

In a related story, 500 brave Chinese intellectuals have signed a petition demanding the release of another Internet subversive, Du Daobin. The most optimistic aspect of the story is that the 500 have not been arrested themselves — yet.

But this was the scariest article of all, warning us that absolutely no one is safe in China when it comes to “cyber-subversion.”

A Chinese crackdown on online activism — highlighted by a mounting wave of arrests and trials — is unlike other recent government campaigns, because anyone can become a victim, experts said Monday.

The year-long detention of Liu Di, an ordinary Beijing student who posted democracy essays on the Internet, shows that this time the target is not just a well-defined group of open-mouthed intellectuals.

“What you see is a pattern in which the government is arresting more and more people who are not ‘dissidents’,” said Bobson Wong, a New York-based researcher on the social impact of the Internet.

“Liu Di wasn’t a dissident, she was just a kid.”

How ironic, that only weeks ago Hu was being congratulated as a reformer, someone who really wants to change things. Some have speculated that he really does, but his hands are tied by the local courts and authorities. I can’t believe that. If he truly wanted to take action, he could.

Links via Radio Free China, possibly the most important site for those who wish to keep track of the CCP’s crimes and misdemeanors.