Advocates for Increased Chinese Human Rights

China Cracks Down in Wake of Tibetan Protest

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:49:25 -0400

China Cracks Down in Wake of Tibetan Protest:

Witnesses say Chinese forces have clamped tight controls on community life in the Tibetan capital after two young men set themselves on fire in an apparent protest of Chinese rule. China says one of the protesters, a 19-year-old male, died at the scene Sunday, while the other remains hospitalized.

Sources tell VOA’s Tibetan service there have been an undetermined number of arrests since the incident near Lhasa’s Jokhang temple, as Chinese authorities seek to control the spread of anti-government self-immolation protests. Those protests have rocked Southwestern China and the neighboring Tibetan Autonomous Region for the past 14 months, as Buddhist monks, nuns and their supporters push their demands for freedom and the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Witnesses say firefighting equipment arrived at the scene of Sunday’s self-immolations within minutes, underscoring tensions in the capital described by Lhasa residents and reported by the New York Times as “a boiling situation” in the central city.

Tibetan sources also tell VOA that eyewitnesses have photographed the latest protest. But they said the photos could not be forwarded because Chinese authorities immediately cut information links to the outside world.

Sunday’s protest is the most dramatic act of defiance in the capital since the 2008 uprising, when Chinese security forces placed the entire central city in a permanent state of lockdown.

It follows a new Chinese move to ban Tibetan Buddhists, including current and former government officials, students and party members, from engaging in religious activities during the sacred month of Saka Dawa, which began May 21. Saka Dawa commemorates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death.

At least 37 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011.

Blind Chinese activist to speak in NYC this week

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:47:50 -0400

Blind Chinese activist to speak in NYC this week:

A blind Chinese activist who was the focus of a nearly monthlong diplomatic standoff has a speaking engagement in New York City this week.

Chen Guangcheng will speak Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan. His mentor, New York University law professor Jerome Cohen, also will participate in the event.

The dissident and the professor have been in touch for years, since they met when Chen came to the United States on a State Department program in 2003.

Cohen advised Chen while he was in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he was given sanctuary after his daring escape following seven years of prison and house arrest.

That triggered a diplomatic standoff over his fate. With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beijing for annual high-level discussions, officials struck a deal that let Chen walk free, only to see him have second thoughts. That forced new negotiations that led to an agreement to send him to the U.S. to study law at New York University.

Chen gained recognition for crusading for the disabled and for farmers’ rights and fighting against forced abortions in his rural community. That angered local officials, who seemed to wage a personal vendetta against him, convicting him in 2006 on what his supporters say were fabricated charges and then holding him for the past 20 months in illegal house arrest.

Since his arrival from China this month, Chen has stayed in faculty housing with his wife and children.

Chen also has received medical treatment for his foot. Cohen has said the dissident suffered three broken bones while fleeing from his village.

Chen Guangcheng is gone, but his village stays locked down

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:47:06 -0400

Chen Guangcheng is gone, but his village stays locked down:

Chinese security is tight around the area where the blind human rights activist lived under house arrest. It’s symptomatic of a paranoid security apparatus that invested heavily in his imprisonment.

Inside Foxconn: Exclusive look at how an iPad is made

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:40:36 -0400

Inside Foxconn: Exclusive look at how an iPad is made

An Exclusive Look Inside The Foxconn Factory That Makes iPads

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:40:12 -0400

An Exclusive Look Inside The Foxconn Factory That Makes iPads:

Shenzhen China is home to one of the world’s largest – and most talked about – factories. It is where the Longhua facility of Foxconn is driven by the manpower of a 240,000 person workforce, nearly all of them migrant workers from the Chinese countryside. The facility and its workers have come under scrutiny in recent months after a series of disturbing reports that included sweatshop-like conditions and hours, anexplosion that killed three, underage workers, and 14 suicides.

Also under scrutiny is Apple whose iPads are assembled at the Foxconn factory.

Rob Schmitz, correspondent for Marketplace China, recently visited the beleaguered factory andgot a glimpse of the people and machines that put our iPads together.

The first step in the assembly line is where the motherboards are assembled. Here a machine attaches a tiny buckle to the motherboard, a kind of ID tag so that if something is found faulty with the motherboard they can trace it back to when and where it was assembled. Other machines help the workers to install the battery, LED display, and other components. Once assembled, the iPad is placed in devices that test its display and its gyroscope. The vast majority of tasks take the workers just seconds to complete. When a task is completed, the iPad is scanned, a computer says, “OK,” and the iPad is passed on to the next station. This sequence is repeated thousands of times a day.

Ninety-nine percent of workers at the plant are migrant workers, traveling from the Chinese countryside in search of higher pay. That’s a relative term, of course, as the starting wage at one Foxconn assembly line is about $14 a day. But that’s a high wage, at least compared to Chinese garment factories where workers make just over $100 per month. And at Foxconn their salary will double after two years. Assembly lines are tedious work by definition, and the Foxconn workers rotate to different stations every few days.

You can read Schmitz’s accompanying article about “The People Behind Your iPad” here.

Perhaps in part in response to international criticism, in part to increase efficiency, China plans on replacing many of the workers at the Foxconn facility with robots. But even now it is already clear that Foxconn has produced two efficient and robust machines.

Some Chinese Issues YTD

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:14:31 -0400

So far this year, already a third into 2012, the events surrounding the leading Chinese Communist Party Politician Bo Xilai takes precedent. He was a likely member for a high ranking position within the CPC Politburo Standing Committee until he was removed from his party position in March. Bo was an ambitious leader (Party Chief) of the Chongqing municipality—a region of China that has long been overrun with organized crime. Rampant extortion, murder, and high level mafia-style triad activities plagued Chongqing until Bo lead Wang Lijun and the police force to a sweeping anti-gang campaign in the region. This was a few years ago, and now when Wang Lijun was questioned for trying to leave China as he fled to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, problems began to arise for Bo. Bo Xilai, by the beginning of this year, was wildly popular with Chinese in the region. He was seen as a savior, a leader who had finally stood up to heavy handed crime. Wang Lijun however, was said to have accused Bo of being “the biggest gangster in China”. The alleged corruption of Bo began to surface in February this year. On March 15th, Bo was dismissed as Chongqing Communist Party Secretary. Corruption remains the largest and most widespread problem in China today. The details of Bo’s dealings with the police, gangsters, and political organizations are still being investigated but it is unlikely the mainstream Chinese Media would give details of political corruption that is rampant not only in the Chongqing Region but throughout the whole of the country. Bo’s incident might have larger repercussions for Chinese politics that I cannot yet comment on.

Economic concerns are also frequent, as there are rumors that China’s over GDP has slowed in Q1 but the economy still expresses nearly 8.4% growth.

There were widespread internet rumors of some military coup d’état in Beijing earlier last month, but no conclusive evidence was given. Much akin to the rumors that Kim Jong Un was assassinated, when really there was a birthday party occurring for his late father (more here).

The New York Times Article that brought the Foxconn factory issues to a wider audience, began a spark of interest in Chinese human rights on Jan. 25. After the article was published, several hundred thousand petitioners signed up on change.org to boycott Apple products. Apple vowed reform.

Chinese Coup Rumors Run Wild Online, Then Disappear: Adam Minter

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:05:06 -0400

Chinese Coup Rumors Run Wild Online, Then Disappear: Adam Minter

Shanghai, China, 2011

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:00:05 -0400

Shanghai, China, 2011

China Must Not Legalize "Disappearances" and "Two-track Justice," says Amnesty International

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0400

China Must Not Legalize "Disappearances" and "Two-track Justice," says Amnesty International:

Contact: Sharon Singh, ssingh@aiusa.org, 202-509-8194

(Washington, D.C.) — A major overhaul of China’s criminal procedure law could legalize the “disappearance” of people deemed “subversive” by the state through a dangerous extension of police power, Amnesty International said.

In a memorandum to the country’s National People’s Congress, which is considering multiple changes to the law, Amnesty International called for the rejection of a proposed amendment — Article 73 — which would make legal the increasingly common police practice of subjecting individuals the state authorities see as politically “subversive” to enforced “disappearance.”

“Such an extension of police powers would effectively legalize secret detentions and ‘disappearances,’” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Asia and the Pacific.

Over the past year the Chinese authorities reacted to peaceful calls for a “Jasmine revolution,” inspired by events in the Middle East and North Africa, by arbitrarily detaining dozens of activists. Some were held incommunicado, while many were beaten and tortured.

Amnesty International commends some of the proposed legal reforms, including improved legal protections for minors and the mentally ill, and the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence from criminal proceedings and for those appealing the death penalty.

The human rights organization also urged the inclusion in the amendments of a “right to silence,” a right to be “presumed innocent until proven guilty” and specific safeguards to prevent the abuse of “technical surveillance” techniques, such as wiretapping, in criminal investigations.

The charge of “endangering national security” has long been used to silence government critics in China. The proposed revision would deprive individuals suspected of this crime, “terrorism” and other “serious crimes” of their basic rights, including the right to have family informed of their detention and access to a lawyer.

“China is at risk of creating a two-track criminal justice system, where basic legal protections for those suspected of vaguely defined crimes such as ‘endangering national security’ are stripped away,” Baber said. “This would fundamentally undermine China’s long-stated commitment to the rule of law as well as the leadership’s claim that they have drafted these revisions to ‘ensure people’s freedom’ and ‘protect human rights.’”

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom and dignity are denied.

A FAMOUS story tells how, in a previous life, the Buddha took pity on a starving tigress, who might otherwise have had to eat her newborn cubs. He sacrificed himself instead. The tale is often recalled by Tibetans in exile in Dharamsala in northern India as they lament a seemingly endless cycle of self-immolations in their homeland.

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:00:05 -0400

A FAMOUS story tells how, in a previous life, the Buddha took pity on a starving tigress, who might otherwise have had to eat her newborn cubs. He sacrificed himself instead. The tale is often recalled by Tibetans in exile in Dharamsala in northern India as they lament a seemingly endless cycle of self-immolations in their homeland.

Shanghai, China, 2011

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:55:43 -0400

Shanghai, China, 2011

China Rural Portraits by Carlos de la Rua

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:54:23 -0400

Shagouzhen, 5 hours bus trip from Shanghai. My first trip to the Chinese countryside days before the New Year of The Dragon. Freezing cold temperatures, but amazingly welcoming warm people, completely different than the people of Shanghai where the daily battle to survive has converted them into mechanical machines of making money at any cost. During my time in the village I understood why the government said once that it will take 300 years to modernize China. What I’m not really sure is if these people really want to be “modernized”. That indiscriminate modernization will definitely corrupt their souls.

Inside the Ring: Beijing coup rumors

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:40:13 -0400

Inside the Ring: Beijing coup rumors:

U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring China’s Internet say that from March 14 to Wednesday bloggers circulated alarming reports of tanks entering Beijing and shots being fired in the city as part of what is said to have been a high-level political battle among party leaders - and even a possible military coup.

The Internet discussions included photos posted online of tanks and other military vehicles moving around Beijing.

The reports followed the ouster last week of senior Politburo member and Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, who was linked to corruption, but who is said to remain close to China’s increasingly nationalistic military.

Chinese microblogging sites Sina Weibo, QQ Weibo, and the bulletin board of the search engine Baidu all reported “abnormalities” in Beijing on the night of March 19.

The comments included rumors of the downfall of the Shanghai leadership faction and a possible “military coup,” along with reports of gunfire on Beijing’s Changan Street. The reports were quickly removed by Chinese censors shortly after postings and could no longer be accessed by Wednesday.

The unusual postings included reports that military vehicles were sent to control Changan Street, along with plainclothes police officers and metal barriers.

Another posting quoted internal sources as saying senior Communist Party leaders are divided over the ouster of Mr. Bo. The divide was said to pit Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and against party security forces and Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang.

Late Wednesday, another alarming indicator came when Beijing authorities ordered all levels of public-security and internal-security forces under Mr. Zhou to conduct nationwide study sessions, although Mr. Zhou’s name was not on the order - a sign his future may be in doubt.

Additional references on Chinese social media included vague mention of high-level party political struggles and related police activity in Beijing.

One posting referred to a mysterious atmosphere in Beijing and a reported shooting Tuesday night. The posting was quickly censored by authorities.

PENTAGON CYBERSECURITY LACKING

A defense official told Congress this week that Pentagon security efforts against hackers and other threats remain weak.

Kaigham J. Gabriel, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, told aSenate hearing Tuesday that the Pentagon is “capability-limited in cyber, both defensively and offensively.”

“We need to change that,” Mr. Gabriel said.

He noted that most details of cybersecurity threats and efforts to counter them can only be disclosed at the “special-access level,” the most secret security classification.

However, in both public and prepared statements to the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats, Mr. Gabriel issued unusually blunt criticism of Pentagon cyberwarfare programs, both offensive and defensive.

As for cyberdefenses, Mr. Gabriel revealed that “attackers can penetrate our networks.”

“In just 3 days and at a cost of only $18,000, the Host-Based Security System was penetrated,” he said.

Also, password security remains a “weak link.” For example, in security tests, 53,000 passwords were given to simulated hackers and, within 48 hours, 38,000 passwords were cracked.

Also, the defense supply chain is “at risk,” Mr. Gabriel said.

“More than two-thirds of electronics in U.S. advanced fighter aircraft are fabricated in off-shore foundries,” he said.

Additionally, physical systems can be penetrated easily by hackers. In one case, a smartphone hundreds of miles away took control of a car’s drive system through a security hole in its wireless interface.

“The United States continues to spend on cybersecurity with limited increase in security,” Mr. Gabrielsaid. “The federal government expended billions of dollars in 2010, but the number of malicious cyberintrusions has increased.”

Mr. Gabriel said the Pentagon has used a layered approach to protecting networks from attack that is not well-suited to dealing with evolving cyberthreats.

“Malicious cyberattacks are not merely an existential threat to [Defense Department] bits and bytes. They are a real threat to physical systems, including military systems, and to U.S. warfighters,” he said. “The United States will not prevail against these threats simply by scaling our current approaches.”

Regarding offensive cyberwarfare operations, Mr. Gabriel said the Pentagon “must have the capability to conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our nation, allies, and interests.”

The Pentagon needs a full range of cybertools for offensive attacks to secure national interests.

“Modern operations will demand the effective use of cyber, kinetic, and combined cyber and kinetic means,” Mr. Gabriel said. He said the shelf life for such weapons may be “days” as defenses are devised or offensive attacks thwarted.

Cyberwarfare tools also can be adapted from intelligence-gathering methods, Mr. Garbriel said.

“Rather, cyber [warfare] options are needed that can be executed at the speed, scale, and pace of our military kinetic options with comparable predicted outcomes,” he said.

In criticism of current U.S. government squabbling over controls and structure, Mr. Gabriel said a better question to be asked once lines of authority are clarified is: “What now?”

“The lack of capability is the overwhelming issue,” Mr. Gabriel said. “Further oversight strategies must be updated and be at pace with the threat.”

SCHWARTZ ON CHINA

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told the Senate this week that he is most concerned byChina’s military integration.

Asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday about China’s aircraft carriers, stealth fights and advanced space programs, Gen. Schwartz said he is less worried about hardware than developments in joint-warfighting and electronic advances.

“I would say their areas, in not so much hardware, but in integration of electronic warfare techniques, of cyber capabilities and so on, with more traditional tools of the trade,” Gen. Schwartz said. “They are becoming more sophisticated in this respect, and that is the thing that I am paying the most attention to.”

China is rapidly building up its military forces to be able to conduct high-technology warfare using a combination of advanced conventional weapons and a growing arsenal of nuclear and non-nuclear strategic weapons.

They include new nuclear arms, multiple-warhead missiles, an advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles, anti-satellite weapons and cyber warfare capabilities.

View Annual Report: China 2011

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:33:42 -0400

View Annual Report: China 2011:

Head of state: Hu Jintao
Head of government: Wen Jiabao
Death penalty: retentionist
Population: 1,354.1 million
Life expectancy: 73.5 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f): 25/35 per 1,000

The Chinese government responded to a burgeoning civil society by jailing and persecuting people for peacefully expressing their views, holding religious beliefs not sanctioned by the state, advocating for democratic reform and human rights, and defending the rights of others. Popular social media sites remained blocked by China’s internet firewall. The authorities continued to repress Tibetan, Uighur, Mongolian and other ethnic minority populations. On the international stage, China grew more confident and more aggressive in punishing countries whose leaders spoke publicly about its human rights record.

Background

China maintained a relatively high level of economic growth compared to other major economies, despite the continuing global recession. However, it faced intensifying domestic discontent and protests stemming from growing economic and social inequalities, pervasive corruption within the judicial system, police abuses, suppression of religious freedoms and other human rights, and continuing unrest and repression in the Tibetan and Uighur regions of the country. Despite a rise in average incomes, millions had no access to health care, internal migrants continued to be treated as second-class citizens, and many children were unable to pay school fees.

The authorities renewed their commitment to strengthening the rule of law. However, access to justice remained elusive for those considered a political threat to the regime or to the interests of local officials. Political influence over and corruption within the judiciary remained endemic.

Reflecting its growing international economic and political influence, China increasingly threatened economic and political retaliation against countries that criticized its human rights record. Many countries appeared reluctant to publicly challenge China on its lack of progress on human rights, and bilateral channels, such as human rights dialogues, proved largely ineffective. The authorities reacted angrily to the news that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to long-time Chinese political activist Liu Xiaobo, indefinitely postponing bilateral trade talks with Norway. Foreign diplomats reported being pressured by China not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December in Oslo.

Freedom of expression

The authorities stopped people from speaking out about or reporting on politically sensitive issues by accusing them of divulging “state secrets”, “splittism” (ethnic minority nationalism), slander, and the crime of “subversion”. Vague regulations were used to tightly control publication of politically sensitive material, including references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, human rights and democracy, Falun Gong, and Tibetan and Uighur issues. Official censorship relied heavily on “prior restraint”, a form of self-censorship, and the use of an internet “firewall” that blocked or filtered out sensitive content.

The amended state secrets law, effective 10 October, added a new provision, Article 28, which requires internet and other telecommunications companies to co-operate in investigations of “state secret” leaks, or face prosecution. The authorities maintained tight control over online news reports, restricting licences to large, government-backed websites. Many social media sites remained blocked, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

On 5 July, Liu Xianbin, a member of the banned Chinese Democracy Party, was detained in Suining city, Sichuan province, for “inciting subversion of state power”. The charge was linked to his support for human rights activists and articles he posted on overseas websites.
In July, Gheyret Niyaz, an ethnic Uighur, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “leaking state secrets”. Evidence used against him included essays he had written on the economic and social conditions of Uighurs in China. It was reported that his sentence was also linked to comments he made to foreign media which criticized government policies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

Freedom of religion

The state required all religious groups to register with the authorities, and controlled the appointment of religious personnel. Followers of unregistered or banned religious groups risked harassment, persecution, detention and imprisonment, with some groups labelled “heretical cult organizations” by the authorities. Churches and temples constructed by religious groups deemed illegal by the state risked demolition. More than 40 Catholic bishops of unregistered “house churches” remained in detention, under house arrest, in hiding or unaccounted for.

In December, over 100 students from a Catholic seminary in Hebei province protested against the appointment of a non-Catholic government official as school head – the first protest of its kind since 2000.
Alimjan Yimit’s 15-year sentence was upheld on appeal by the XUAR People’s High Court in March. Alimjan Yimit was detained for “leaking state secrets” after he spoke twice with an American Christian in Urumqi city in April and May 2007.

Falun Gong

The authorities renewed the campaign to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners, which required prison and detention centres to force Falun Gong inmates to renounce their beliefs. Those considered “stubborn,” that is, those who refuse to sign a statement to this effect, are typically tortured until they co-operate; many die in detention or shortly after release.

Falun Gong members continued to be targeted in security sweeps carried out prior to major national events. Falun Gong sources documented 124 practitioners detained in Shanghai prior to the World Expo, with dozens reported to have been sentenced to terms of Re-education through Labour or prison. Human rights lawyers were particularly susceptible to punishment by the authorities for taking on Falun Gong cases, including losing their licences, harassment and criminal prosecution.

Guo Xiaojun, a former lecturer at a Shanghai university and a Falun Gong practitioner, was detained in Shanghai in January and later charged with “using a heretical organization to subvert the law”. He was sentenced to four years in prison for allegedly having distributed Falun Gong materials. He was tortured in detention, kept in solitary confinement and eventually signed a confession that was used to uphold his sentence at a closed appeal hearing. He had already previously served a five-year prison term for his beliefs.
Lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei had their licences permanently revoked in April by the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau, on grounds of “disrupting the order of the court and interfering with the regular litigation process”. The two had represented a Falun Gong practitioner in April 2009 in Sichuan Province.

Human rights defenders

Civil society continued to expand, with increased numbers of NGOs operating in the country. However, the authorities tightened restrictions on NGOs and human rights defenders. In May, under pressure from the authorities, Beijing University severed links with four civil society groups, including the Center for Women’s Law and Legal Services.

Prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who had “disappeared” while in the custody of public security officials in February 2009, remained unaccounted for after briefly resurfacing in April.
Chen Guangcheng, who was released from prison on 9 September, and his wife, remained under house arrest. They could not leave their home, even to seek medical care.
Tian Xi, who contracted HIV and hepatitis B and C through a blood transfusion in 1996 when he was nine years old, was tried on 21 September on charges of “intentionally damaging property”. For years, Tian Xi had lobbied the hospital for compensation for himself and others infected through blood transfusions there. On 2 August, he lost his temper in a meeting at the hospital and knocked some items off a desk. Through a legal loophole his trial was suspended, allowing the authorities to keep him in indefinite detention.

Detention without trial

The use of illegal forms of detention expanded, including prolonged house arrest without legal grounds, detention in “black jails”, “brain-washing” centres, psychiatric institutions, and unidentified “hotels”. The government did not make any progress on the reform or abolition of systems of administrative detention, including Re-education through Labour, used to detain people without charge or trial. Hundreds of thousands continued to be held in such facilities.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Torture and other ill-treatment remained endemic in places of detention. Amnesty International received reports of deaths in custody, some of them caused by torture, in a variety of state institutions, including prisons and police detention centres. In July, new regulations were introduced to strengthen prohibitions against the use of illegal oral evidence in criminal cases, including coerced confessions. However, China’s Criminal Procedure Law had not yet been amended to explicitly prohibit the use of confessions obtained through torture and ill-treatment as evidence before the courts.

Death penalty

Statistics on death sentences and executions remained classified. However, publicly available evidence suggested that China continued to use the death penalty extensively, with thousands being executed after unfair trials. A number of cases where innocent people were sentenced to death or executed became heated topics of public debate, putting pressure on the authorities to address the issue.

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region

The authorities failed to independently investigate the clashes of July 2009 in Urumqi city, including possible abuse of state power. People involved in the clashes continued to be sentenced after unfair trials. In March, Nur Bekri, governor of the XUAR, announced that 97 cases involving 198 individuals had been tried; however, only 26 cases involving 76 individuals were made public. The authorities continued to warn human rights lawyers against taking up these cases and in January the XUAR High People’s Court issued “guiding opinions” to the courts specifying how such trials should be conducted.

Security measures were tightened in the XUAR, including revision of the Comprehensive Management of Social Order, effective 1 February. This renewed the authorities’ commitment to “strike hard” against crime in the region, in particular crimes of “endangering state security”. The authorities announced that 376 such cases had been tried in 2010 in the XUAR, up from 268 in 2008.

Freedom of expression

Freedom of expression in the XUAR was severely curtailed by laws criminalizing the use of the internet and other forms of digital communication. Infractions included vaguely defined crimes of “ethnic separatism”, such as “inciting separatism”, and distributing materials and literary works with “separatist content”. After partial restoration of text messaging in January, over 100 people were detained for “spreading harmful information” and “harming ethnic unity” by sending text messages, five of whom were taken into criminal custody. The complete block on information and communications imposed across the XUAR in the aftermath of the July 2009 unrest was almost fully lifted in May; however, several popular Uighur websites remained banned.

A “central work forum” held in May set out ambitious economic and political plans for the region, but did not address long-standing grievances of Uighurs, including serious employment discrimination. The XUAR authorities pushed forcefully ahead with the “bilingual education” policy which in practice promotes the use of Mandarin Chinese as the language of instruction while marginalizing Uighur and other ethnic minority languages, even in ethnic minority schools.

In July, Uighur website managers Nureli, Dilixiati Perhati and Nijat Azat were sentenced to three, five and 10 years respectively in July for “endangering state security” through postings on their websites.
On 1 April, the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Gulmira Imin, a Uighur website administrator, to life in prison for “splittism, leaking state secrets, and organizing an illegal demonstration”. It was believed the charges were linked to regular postings she made to the website Salkin, which was one of the websites on which the call to join the protests on 5 July 2009 was published.

Tibet Autonomous Region

The authorities continued to crack down on local protests associated with the March 2008 protests. Leading Tibetan intellectuals were increasingly targeted, with a number of well-known people in arts, publishing and cultural circles being sentenced to harsh sentences on spurious charges. Providing information on politically sensitive topics to foreigners was severely punished. Thousands of Tibetan students demonstrated against an official language policy which imposed Mandarin Chinese as the main language of instruction in schools at the expense of Tibetan. The policy is widely seen by Tibetans as a threat to the preservation of their culture. Although the authorities did not suppress these protests, they reiterated their commitment to the policy. Demonstrations by hundreds of Tibetan students against this policy spread to the Beijing National Minorities University in October.

The authorities continued to restrict freedom of religion. The official Buddhist Association of China issued measures, effective 10 January, calling for the Democratic Management Committees of monasteries and nunneries to verify the “conformity” of religious personnel with political, professional and personnel criteria, giving the authorities another way to weed out politically “unreliable” religious leaders.

In May, Tagyal, a Tibetan intellectual who worked in a government publishing house, was charged with “inciting splittism” after he warned Tibetans to avoid corrupt official channels when donating money to victims of the April Yushu earthquake in Qinghai. Tagyal had also published a book on the 2008 Tibetan protests.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

The government proposed amendments allowing limited reform of the methods for electing the Legislative Council (LegCo) and selecting the Chief Executive in 2012. This prompted calls for speedy progress towards universal suffrage as stipulated in the Basic Law. LegCo passed the amendments in June, only after a controversial last minute compromise between the central government and the Democratic Party. This extended a second vote to all the electorate via a functional constituency composed of district councillors.

Freedom of expression, association and assembly

Foreign nationals denied entry to Hong Kong included Chen Weiming, sculptor of the Goddess of Democracy statue used in the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen vigil, and six Falun Gong dance troupe technicians.

In January, police used pepper spray to disperse thousands of demonstrators surrounding the LegCo building during voting on a HK$66.9 billion (US$8.6 billion) rail link with Guangdong province. Protesters highlighted inadequate consultation or compensation for those evicted.
On 29 and 30 May, police arrested 13 activists and twice confiscated Goddess of Democracy statues displayed in Times Square. Using new tactics, hygiene department officials pursued prosecution for failure to obtain a “public entertainment” licence. Following public criticism, the statues were returned before the Tiananmen vigil which attracted between 113,000 and 150,000 participants.

Several activists prosecuted for unlawful assembly or assaulting officers while demonstrating outside the Central Government Liaison Office were acquitted. In August, police issued internal guidelines on charging individuals for assaulting security officers after public criticism of cases perceived as frivolous prosecutions or biased sentencing.

Discrimination

In April, the government issued administrative guidelines on promoting racial equality.

In May, a coroner’s jury returned a verdict of lawful killing over the March 2009 hillside shooting of Hong-Kong born Nepali street sleeper, Dil Bahadur Limbu, by a police constable investigating a nuisance complaint. Ethnic minority groups had called for an independent commission of inquiry. Application for judicial review by Dil Bahadur Limbu’s widow was pending.
In October a post-operative transsexual woman lost her legal challenge for the right to marry her boyfriend in her reassigned sex.

Refugees and asylum-seekers

A 2009 pilot scheme, screening applicants opposing deportation on grounds that they would be at risk of torture, completed 122 applications in 10 months, leaving a backlog of 6,700.

In November three UNHCR mandated refugees and one successful torture claimant long resident in Hong Kong challenged the constitutionality of policies denying them legal status, visas and the right to work.

Lawyers in China to swear allegiance to Communist Party

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:29:59 -0400

Lawyers in China to swear allegiance to Communist Party:

The Justice Ministry in China says lawyers are now required to swear allegiance to the ruling Communist Party for the first time.

All lawyers obtaining or renewing their professional licence will have to pledge their loyalty to the country and the leadership of the party.

Critics see the move as lacking legal basis and ”inappropriate”.

The oath was necessary to raise lawyers’ political, professional and moral standards, said the ministry.

It has also named institutions to organise the oath-taking ceremonies and specified that lawyers need to take the pledge within three months from the date on their certificates, state media Xinhua news agency reported.

The new requirement comes at a sensitive time of political transition, with the Communist Party preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership transfer later this year.

In recent years, the Chinese authorities have increased pressure on lawyers who take on politically sensitive cases.

‘Inappropriate, baffling’

Last year, authorities suspended or revoked licenses to deter lawyers from taking on cases defending government critics and human rights activists.

Some lawyers, such as the high-profile dissident Gao Zhisheng and blind activist Chen Guangcheng, were secretly detained or put under house arrest.

Mr Gao, who was arrested in February 2009, was released briefly in March 2010 and disappeared soon after. His family was told in January this year that the lawyer, known for defending religious minorities and activists, was in a jail in the remote Xinjiang area.

Mr Chen, known as the “barefoot lawyer”, clashed with the authorities over the enforcement of China’s one-child policy. He defended women whom he said were being forced into late-term abortions and being sterilised by over-zealous health officials in Linyi city, Shandong Province.

Several lawyers have already expressed concern at the announcement, describing it as inappropriate, baffling, without legal basis and harmful to the rule of law.

Jiang Tianyong, a lawyer for Aids activists, was detained for two months last year. He said the measure was ”ridiculous in a modern society” and ”unimaginable in any other country”.

“As a lawyer, you should only pay attention to the law and be faithful to your client,” another well-known rights lawyer, Mo Shaoping told Reuters news agency.

“The oath will hurt the development of the Chinese legal system.”

"China is like a sleeping giant. And when she awakes, she shall astonish the world."

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:25:00 -0400

“China is like a sleeping giant. And when she awakes, she shall astonish the world.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803

Uh, No One Knows Whether There Was a Coup in China?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:21:00 -0400

Uh, No One Knows Whether There Was a Coup in China?:

Here’s the most disconcerting thing we’ve read this afternoon: an explainer from Mark MacKinnon, The Globe and Mail’s China correspondent, on why reporters can’t really nail down hard information about rumors of a coup in China. Wait, a coup in China? Implausible as it might sound, there have been rumors circulating that the world’s most populous nation and the United States’ largest foreign creditor may have switched leaders or something. The basis for the rumor is incredibly thin — it all stems from news that Bo Xilai, a populist Communist leader, had been removed from his position — but it has reached the point where major outlets like the Financial Times have weighed in. But MacKinnon explains that the story — well, really, the hint of a story — has continued to be passed around because of just how difficult it is to get any information out of the Chinese government:

I know many of the foreign journalists based here, and more than a few of the Chinese ones. None have ever claimed to me, or their readers, that they have a contact inside, or even close to, the decision-making Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China …

… [T]he wall of secrecy that Communist Party leadership has built around itself also prevents the development of trust between the government, media and public. It leaves the media with no one to talk to and get real information from when there’s a wild rumour floating about, like the continuing – and so far unfounded – talk that some kind of coup d’état was attempted Monday night in Beijing. And it leaves the public unsure of what to believe in such situations.

It sounds like McKinnon’s article is as much an effort to get anyone in the Chinese government to just deny the report for him, something that’d be easy in most other countries, as it is to inform us that there’s political unrest in China. As he concludes, “Maybe that distinction will convince someone in Zhongnanhai to ring me up – an off-the-record conversation is fine – to let me know what all the fuss was about on Monday night.” We hope they do.

China’s Criminal Procedure Law: Good, Bad and Ugly

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:17:46 -0400

China’s Criminal Procedure Law: Good, Bad and Ugly:

The revised Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) enacted this month by China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) is being hailed by the local media as a significant step forward, which it may well be if its provisions are implemented in practice.

High points of the revision, and one additional provision that has provoked considerable criticism, are briefly reviewed here, as well as possible negative implications for foreigners.

If strict enforcement of the new law is to be even remotely possible, more than mere promulgation is required: It’s going to take new guidelines and training in order to draw the agencies responsible for the “political-legal system” away from previous patterns of disregard for existing procedural requirements.

The Chinese media have praised the insertion of “respecting and protecting human rights” into the general principles of the Law. Ironically, only days before this provision was adopted along with the rest of the complex Law, China Human Rights Defenders issued its Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China, which catalogs “a year of harsh crackdowns for human rights defenders (HRDs), characterized by lengthy prison sentences, extensive use of extralegal detention, and enforced disappearance and torture.”

Given China’s human rights record, actual practice under the amended Law will be watched closely for signs that this provision will improve police conduct.

The Law now provides that police cannot force suspects to incriminate themselves, and forced confessions such as those obtained through torture are illegal. Evidence, testimony, and statements extracted through illegal means such as violence or threats must be excluded. This is a broadening of guidelines issued in 2010, which did not explicitly state an exclusionary rule in non-capital cases.

After the full text of the amended Law has become available, it will be subjected to intense scrutiny, and we can expect that other changes in criminal procedure will become apparent. At this moment, it is enough to note that the amendment does create or modify rules that constitute advances toward legality in the sector of Chinese law that has, up to now, been the most backward of all.

One new provision has received a great deal of attention: The Law previously provided for “residential surveillance,” meaning house arrest, but in practice – although without legal authority – the police have caused the “disappearance” of criminal suspects and activists. In the recent past the police have held dissidents such as Ai Weiwei and human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in undeclared locations for months without notifying family members.

One draft of the amendment to the Law had provided that the police could hold suspects incommunicado and in secret locations. The provision was later omitted after a considerable amount of public debate that was marked by strong criticism by human rights activists and legal experts.

Under the amendment just adopted by the NPC, law enforcement agencies would still have the power to detain persons suspected of crimes related to national security or terrorism in a designated location of the agencies’ choice for up to six months. The agency imposing the measure would have to notify relatives within 24 hours, but would not be required to disclose the whereabouts of the person. Police would also be allowed to deny suspects’ access to a lawyer for the duration of the detention. An exception suspends the requirement to notify relatives within 24 hours if the law enforcement agency believes that such notification could “impede the investigation.”

Other provisions would allow secret detention of criminal suspects in “national security, terrorism and major bribery” cases for up to 37 days.

Human rights researcher Nicholas Bequelin has noted that “endangering state security” or “terrorism” are vaguely defined offenses that have long been manipulated by the government “to crack down on dissidents, human-rights lawyers, civil-society activists and Tibetan and Uighur separatists.”

Bequelin also pointed to the possibility that accusation of “major bribery” could be used against foreigners to justify extended detention without notification. The “most common” charges against foreign businessmen have allegedly involved a national security crime, the theft of “state secrets,” which is sometimes applied to documents that are publicly available and “ordinary paperwork” from state-owned enterprises. Several convictions of foreigners in 2010 involved “state secrets.”

In the Rio Tinto case the documents were iron ore sales contracts, and in a second case an American citizen who helped his US employer purchase a commercial database was sentenced for “unlawfully sending state secrets” abroad.

For the first time, cases no longer have to be tried publicly if they involve “commercial secrets.” This step backward obviously decreases transparency of the criminal process.

As is common in the drafting of Chinese laws, the amendment does not clarify the content and scope of the term “commercial secrets.” Once again the “political-legal” institutions, as police, procurators and courts are collectively known, will use their discretion subject, of course, to political guidance.

How effectively will the new Law be enforced? It is useful to recall that in 2010, the use of evidence obtained through torture by police and prosecutors in capital cases was absolutely banned by guidelines issued by no less than five Chinese agencies involved with law enforcement: the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice.

These same agencies should send a strong signal to their personnel expressing commitment to carrying out the amended CPL: A guideline should be issued ordering them to do their utmost to put the new law into practice and institute training programs within each agency to educate personnel. Moreover, the guideline and training should be widely publicized. The leaders of the party-state have long used such methods to implement and reinforce policies, and they need to do so now.

Why the coup rumours in China aren’t going away

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:15:02 -0400

Why the coup rumours in China aren’t going away:

One of the truths of reporting on China is that few journalists, maybe none, can honestly claim to know what’s going on inside the upper echelons of power.

In other countries, you might see reporters offhandedly refer to their unnamed contacts inside the Prime Minister’s Office, or the White House, or whatever institution they’re covering. Even when I worked in famously enigmatic Russia, I had a few “Kremlin sources” I could occasionally turn to.

Not in China. I know many of the foreign journalists based here, and more than a few of the Chinese ones. None have ever claimed to me, or their readers, that they have a contact inside, or even close to, the decision-making Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

Which, often, is to the credit of those who run this country. This is not a place where trial balloons get floated by cabinet ministers trying to build public support and win funding for their pet project, nor are China’s leaders crippled by the constant and public infighting that brought down Canada’s Liberal Party or Britain’s Labour, to name two prominent examples.

But the wall of secrecy that Communist Party leadership has built around itself also prevents the development of trust between the government, media and public. It leaves the media with no one to talk to and get real information from when there’s a wild rumour floating about, like the continuing – and so far unfounded – talk that some kind of coup d’état was attempted Monday night in Beijing. And it leaves the public unsure of what to believe in such situations.

The coup rumour began with Chinese bloggers noting some unusual security around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in the centre of Beijing on Monday night. The speculation grew more excited when some residents reported hearing gunshots in the area.

The whispers gained a wider audience a day later when websites like the Falun Gong-linked Epoch Times (“Coup in Beijing says Chinese Internet rumour mill”) and the Taiwan-based Want China Times (“Shots Fired in Beijing – but what kind?”) quoted unnamed “sources” suggesting a coup attempt had been launched against the government of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The mutiny was supposedly led by a leftist faction inside the Politburo headed by Zhou Yongkang, the chief of China’s massive internal security apparatus, and the recently ousted leadership contender Bo Xilai.

In another country, reporters would have been on the phone to people in the offices of Mr. Hu, Mr. Wen, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Bo, in all likelihood getting a quick denial that there was anything like a coup happening.

(I should add here that if there is a serious conflict inside Zhongnanhai, it seems odd that security in the rest of Beijing remains normal, without even the extra police presence regularly seen during national holidays and major political events. Chinese official media have said there was a meeting between senior government leaders and a North Korean delegation at Zhongnanhai on Monday night, something that could explain the extra security, if not the reported gunshots.)

But no one has the rock-solid contacts who can irrefutably confirm or deny such a sensitive tale, especially not now, with the Chinese political scene in uncommon turmoil following the dramatic firing of Mr. Bo last week.

So the rumour has continued to snowball all week, to the point where some believe it had an effect on the foreign exchange markets. The esteemed Financial Times finally felt compelled to report on Thursday that “the Chinese capital is awash with speculation, innuendo and rumours of a coup.”

And now I’m passing on the scuttlebutt too. Why? Because no one in Zhongnanhai is taking my calls. They’re not taking anyone’s calls – which leaves the outside world in the dark at a crucial moment in Chinese history (by which I mean the once-in-a-decade leadership transition that begins this fall, not the rumoured coup effort).

Try it: Google “according to a source inside the Prime Minister’s Office” and you get 85,600 results.

Searching “according to a White House source” gets you 131,000. “According to an al-Qaeda source” brings 19,900.

But “according to a source in the Chinese Politburo”? None. When this story gets posted online, it will go right to the top of the charts as the first use of that phrase in all of Googledom.

Maybe that distinction will convince someone in Zhongnanhai to ring me up – an off-the-record conversation is fine – to let me know what all the fuss was about on Monday night.

Advocates for Increased Chinese Human Rights

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Chinese security is tight around the area where the blind human rights activist lived under house arrest. It’s symptomatic of a paranoid security apparatus that invested heavily in his imprisonment.

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Background

Freedom of expression

Freedom of religion

Human rights defenders

Detention without trial

Torture and other ill-treatment

Death penalty

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region

Tibet Autonomous Region

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Lawyers in China to swear allegiance to Communist Party

"China is like a sleeping giant. And when she awakes, she shall astonish the world."

Uh, No One Knows Whether There Was a Coup in China?

Top China Stories from WSJ: Bo Chatter Blocked, Starbucks in Asia, Hong Kong Poll

China’s Criminal Procedure Law: Good, Bad and Ugly

Why the coup rumours in China aren’t going away