Shenzhen Public Security Authorities Release Activist and Journalist Liu Shui

Authorities in Shenzhen released activist Liu Shui on November 2, after he had completed 18 months of a 2-year administrative detention sentence, according to a November 4 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese). Liu told RFA that authorities required him to sign a written pledge that he would return to appear in court when summoned. Authorities also required him to pay over 4,700 yuan in room, board, and medical fees, according to a November 7 report on the Epoch Times Web site.

The RFA report speculated that Liu’s early release may have been connected with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to China in mid-November. RFA quoted Sichuan professor and political commentator Wang Yi as saying "Hostage diplomacy is arranged for these kinds of times, but when they let one person go, they have to replenish their stock. Liu Shui is released, Xu Wanping is detained."

Public security officials detained Liu on May 2, 2004, for soliciting prostitution, and three days later sentenced him without trial to two years of "custody and education." The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a May 2004 press release that before his detention Liu worked as an editor and reporter for such publications as the Southern Metropolitan Daily and the Shenzhen Evening News. Immediately before he was detained, CPJ reported, Liu had posted a number of essays on Chinese language Web sites hosted overseas, including the following:

• On April 23, 2004, Liu reported on an anti-corruption protester whom police beat and detained in Shanghai; and
• On April 27, 2004, Liu interviewed the families of Xu Wei, Jin Haike, Yang Zili, and Zhang Honghai (sometimes referred to collectively as the "New Youth Study Group"), who were imprisoned in September 2001 for publishing political and social commentary on the Internet.

"Custody and education" is a form of administrative detention. Chinese law allows public security authorities to deprive Chinese citizens of their liberty through administrative detention without judicial review or the minimal procedural protections that the Criminal Procedure Law provides to criminal defendants. According to Xinhua, public security agencies handled over 5 million public order cases involving more than 10 million people in 2004.

In February 2005, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released an advance version of the report on its September 2004 mission to China in which it criticized the government's failure to create real judicial oversight of administrative detention. The Working Group concluded that Chinese citizens enjoy "no genuine right to challenge administrative detention." The National People's Congress Standing Committee passed a new Public Order Administration Punishment Law in August 2005 to provide a basis in national law for the government's use of administrative penalties, including fines and administrative detention, against offenders of "minor crimes."

For more information on administrative detention in China, see Section III(b) - Rights of Criminal Suspects and Defendants, of the Commission's 2005 Annual Report.