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China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update
Message from the Chairman and Co-Chairman
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China adopted its 2008 Annual Report on October 31 by a vote of 22 to 1. The Commission also published a new compilation of case records providing details on 1,088 political prisoners detained or imprisoned in China as of the time of the Annual Report¡¯s release.
The findings of this year¡¯s Annual Report prompt us to consider not simply what the Chinese government and Communist Party may do in the months and years ahead, but what the United States must do differently in managing our relationship with China in light of developments over the last year. In spite of what the Chinese government has written into its laws and regulations, China¡¯s leaders in practice have failed to keep their international commitments, including commitments to WTO norms and other international economic norms, to human rights, including worker rights, to the free flow of information and other safeguards of the rule of law.
We understand that China today is significantly changed from the China of several decades ago, and that the challenges facing its people and leaders are complex. But the Chinese government¡¯s and Communist Party¡¯s continuing crackdown on China¡¯s ethnic minority citizens, ongoing manipulation of the media, and heightened repression of lawyers and human rights defenders reveal a level of state control over society that is incompatible with the development of the rule of law and the advancement of human rights. The Chinese government and Communist Party continue to equate citizen activism and public protest with "social instability" and "social unrest." China¡¯s increasingly active and engaged citizens are its most valuable resource for addressing the myriad public policy problems China faces, including food and drug safety, forced labor, environmental degradation, and corruption. Engaging activist citizens, not repressing them, is the key to effective implementation of basic human rights, and to the ability of all people in China to live under the rule of law.
As this newsletter goes to press, new reports have emerged of child labor and other abuses, and heightened surveillance and censorship of individuals and NGOs. These developments underline how vital it is that the United States in its relationship with China pursue the issues that are the charge of this Commission: individual human rights, including worker rights, and the safeguards of the rule of law. This is not a matter of one country meddling in the affairs of another. All nations, including ours, have both the responsibility and a legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with international commitments.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-25 / English / Free) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Child Labor Found in Shanghai and Wuhan, Following Earlier Reports on Scandal in Guangdong
Reports of the employment of underage workers in factories in Shanghai and Wuhan emerged in October, according to October 6 reports from Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch (CRLW) and Radio Free Asia, as well as an October 21 report from the Hong Kong-based China CSR and an October 9 entry from a well-known Chinese blog. In Shanghai, a 15-year-old laborer died from wounds suffered at the hands of coworkers at a pipe valve factory earlier this year, while a local blogger exposed several cases of child labor in Wuhan factories in October. These reports follow a child labor scandal in Guangdong that attracted international attention in late spring of this year. Chapter 2 Article 15 of the PRC Labor Law prohibits the employment of minors under the age of 16. The PRC Law on the Protection of Minors and the Provisions on the Prohibition of Using Child Labor also include similar protections for minors.
The Hubei provincial government now reportedly is taking steps to address the use of child labor, according to the China CSR report. However, the October 9 blog entry that reportedly prompted the Hubei government to take action, appears to have been removed from the blogger's Web site, Wang Haofeng Jujiao Zhanbao (Wang is the name of the blogger). A Web site called China Crossroads that promotes corporate social responsibility in China reported on Wang's investigation and posted a rough English translation of his original Chinese language report. Wang's blog includes another report dated June 23 that documents the use of underage workers at a business that offers traditional Chinese medical treatments in Wuhan.
The October incidents follow reports of child labor earlier in the year. In April 2008, an investigative report by the Southern Metropolis Daily (SMD) uncovered a trafficking network operating in the city of Dongguan in Guangdong province in which hundreds of child laborers were sold to factories and workshops throughout the Pearl River Delta. Minors were transported more than 1,300 miles from the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, an impoverished ethnic minority region in Sichuan province, to work in the factory towns of Guangdong. SMD journalists met firsthand with child workers as young as 8 years old, though most were between the ages of 13 to 15. Traffickers who recruited the children and served as intermediaries to prospective employers reportedly admitted to falsifying the children's household registration papers to make them appear to be 18. One underage worker indicated that overseers employed death threats to deter them from trying to escape. Another alleged that some girls had been sexually assaulted by their overseers.
SMD reporters spoke with a former overseer who characterized the underground network as a well-organized and "powerful force," primarily comprised of former child workers who grew up in Liangshan. According to a May 10 New York Times (NYT) report, a primary school teacher from Erwu village in Liangshan lamented that she lost 16 of her 30 students over the past year, most of whom had left the area in search of employment. The ages of the teacher's students mostly ranged from 12 to 14 years old. More than 10 families in Liangshan interviewed by the NYT told of underage children who had left home to work in factories.
The government's response to the labor scandal was characterized by contradictory statements. The day after the scandal broke, Dongguan police reported that the initial round of their investigation had identified 167 workers from Liangshan, the majority of whom were believed to be underage, according to an April 30 SMD report (reprinted on Sohu). On May 1, Dongguan officials told the South China Morning Post (SCMP - subscription required) that around 20 officials from Liangshan had been dispatched to Dongguan to assist in the rescue of the children. In an April 30 report from the China Daily, a spokesperson for the town of Shipai in Dongguan municipality said that police had rescued "more than 100 youngsters" in his township alone and arrested several people in connection with the scandal. Liangshan authorities also claimed that 66 underage workers had returned from Dongguan following the initial investigation, according to a May 7 SCMP report. A Dongguan official quoted in a May 1 SMD report revealed that Liangshan authorities had already identified four individuals suspected of abducting children to work in Dongguan factories.
Two days after the scandal first broke, however, the SMD also reported that Guangdong authorities began to issue statements that described the scale of the child labor problem in terms that contradicted earlier reports. At a press conference on April 30, the vice mayor of Dongguan, Li Xiaomei, claimed that a two-day "preliminary investigation" of 3,629 enterprises throughout the city failed to find "large-scale use of child labor." Li allowed for the possibility that child laborers might be employed in smaller enterprises or workshops in which "underground intermediaries" are commonly used to recruit workers, but she added that no "substantial evidence" was available at present to support such a claim, according to the May 1 SMD report. The Dongguan government neither detailed the methods used in their investigation nor issued a report of its findings, which raises questions about the thoroughness and rigor with which it was conducted.
On May 2, the SMD (reprinted on Sina) reported that Premier Wen Jiabao directly ordered an investigation into the scandal, but also stressed the importance of "preventing speculation." A spokesperson for the Guangdong provincial government, Li Shoujin, was quoted in a May 7 SCMP report as saying the original SMD reports were "inauthentic." Li further claimed that police had found only six underage workers in three factories in Dongguan, none of whom had been raped or abducted, according to the Guangdong Emergency Management Office. According to a July 19 China CSR report, the Dongguan government issued an opinion on July 14 stipulating that individuals who recruit child laborers would be fined 5,000 yuan (US$733) per child, factories that employ child laborers would face the same penalty levied for each month the child was employed, and employment agencies that recruit child laborers would be shut down. An investigation of 124 employment agencies in Dongguan reportedly yielded only 10 child laborers employed by six companies.
As reported in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008 and 2007 Annual Reports, a similar pattern of conflicting accounts emerged from the May and June 2007 brick kiln scandal in Shanxi and Henan provinces. Officials involved in the brick kiln scandal were given lenient punishments such as demotion or dismissal from their posts rather than prison sentences or capital punishment, according to a February 2008 CECC analysis.
For more information on child labor and forced labor in China, please see Section II -- Worker Rights, in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's CECC 2008 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-21 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Beijing Requires Photo Registration at All Internet Cafes by December
Beijing officials have issued a "new regulation" requiring all Internet cafes in the city to forward photographs of customers to a city law enforcement department to be kept on file for monitoring purposes, according to an October 16, 2008, Xinhua article. According to the article, by mid-December all Internet cafes will be required to install and use a machine consisting of a digital camera and ID scanner. First-time customers wishing to access computers at a cafe will be required to stand before the machine, known as the "Beijing City Internet Cafe Internet Access Registration Device," which will photograph the customer, scan his or her ID, and forward the information to the Beijing Cultural Law Enforcement Agency. The Xinhua article said that 1,500 Internet cafes in Beijing already have begun using the system, which was first introduced in 2005. Previously, customers had to show only an ID to gain entry.
A spokesperson for the agency said the new measures are intended to prevent multiple persons from using the same ID, a ploy sometimes used by young people who do not meet the minimum age requirement to enter Internet cafes, according to an October 17 Wall Street Journal article. Chinese officials blame the cafes for contributing to school absences and juvenile crime, according to a February 12 Associated Press article (reprinted in ABC News).
The new system will make it easier for Chinese officials to monitor the activities of Internet cafe customers. Under the Regulations on the Administration of Internet Access Service Business Establishments issued in 2002, Internet cafes already must examine and register a customers' identification card, keep such records for at least 60 days, and provide the information to cultural and public security agencies for examination if requested to do so. Under the new system, both the customer's photo and identification information are forwarded directly to a "monitoring platform" hosted by the Beijing Cultural Law Enforcement Agency at the time of registration. News reports did not indicate the length of time such records would be maintained.
The new measures could have a chilling effect on free expression because they make it easier for officials to identify persons who access the Web at Internet cafes. Officials continue to punish citizens for peacefully criticizing the Chinese government and Communist Party on the Internet, including, for example, Yang Chunlin, Hu Jia, and Lu Gengsong. Officials rely on information provided by Internet access providers to prosecute such cases. For example, Chinese officials submitted customer identification and e-mail account information provided by Yahoo! as evidence against the journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for illegally supplying state secrets. A People's Daily online poll found that 72 percent of the respondents were against the new measure, saying it infringed on their rights, according to an October 17 Times of London article. Chinese citizens quoted in an October 17 Xinhua article and the Wall Street Journal article called the new measures unnecessary and said they would stop going to Internet cafes, although some supported the measures as a way to prevent students from visiting the cafes to play online games.
The text of the regulation was not available at the time of this writing.
For more information on China's imprisonment of online critics and censorship of the Internet in general, see "Internet Censorship" in Section II - Freedom of Expression, in the CECC's 2008 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-18 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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China-Dalai Lama Dialogue Round Ends: Party Restates Hard Line, Tibetans Begin Meeting
A senior Communist Party official told the Dalai Lama's representatives during the most recent round of formal dialogue on the Tibet issue that the Dalai Lama should "face reality" and "fundamentally change his political positions," according to a November 6, 2008, Xinhua report. Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen arrived in Beijing on October 30 for the eighth round of dialogue with Chinese officials since such contacts resumed in 2002, and returned to India on November 5 following official meetings in Beijing on November 4 and 5, according to a November 6 statement by Gyari (Tibetan Government-in-Exile, 6 November 08). Du Qinglin, Head of the Communist Party United Front Work Department (UFWD) and Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, reiterated to the envoys the "four no supports," a set of four new preconditions on the dialogue that he initially pressed upon the envoys in Beijing on July 1 and 2, 2008, during the seventh round of dialogue. UFWD Executive Deputy Head Zhu Weiqun and Deputy Head Sita (Sithar) also met with the envoys during the November meetings, according to Gyari's statement.
The Chinese government sought to impose these additional demands on the Dalai Lama following an unprecedented wave of Tibetan protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau in March and April. Tibetan rioting took place in 12 counties identified in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2008 Annual Report (p. 183), but generally peaceful Tibetan political protests took place in more than 40 additional county-level areas. Officials blamed the Dalai Lama and "the Dalai Clique" for the Tibetan protests and rioting, and did not acknowledge the role of rising Tibetan frustration with Chinese policies that deprive Tibetans of rights and freedoms nominally protected under China's Constitution and legal system. (See Section V-Tibet, in the CECC 2008 Annual Report for more information about factors underlying the Tibetan protests and their consequences.)
Chinese officials escorted the envoys to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region prior to the Beijing meetings. (The Hui are a Chinese-speaking, principally Muslim ethnic minority.) Later, academics in Beijing "briefed [the envoys] on the laws, policies and practices concerning China's regional ethnic autonomy system," according to the Xinhua report. Gyari said in his statement that the Tibetan delegation presented to the Chinese leadership a "memorandum . . . on genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people," but he provided no information about the contents of the memorandum. The CECC 2008 Annual Report identified weak implementation of China's Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law (REAL) as a factor that has exacerbated Tibetan frustration. Weak implementation of the REAL has prevented Tibetans from using lawful means to protect their culture, language and religion.
On October 25, the Dalai Lama said in a Tibetan-language speech delivered before Tibetans in India that the path Tibetans had followed "towards finding a mutually beneficial solution . . . has had no effect on our main objective, which is to improve the lives of Tibetans inside Tibet," according to an October 27 International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) translation of the speech. The Dalai Lama noted that Chinese authorities continued to blame him for "instigating the March protests inside Tibet," and observed, "[I]t seems as though I am a hindrance to finding a solution for Tibet." "I have not lost faith in the people of China," he said according to the translation, "but my faith in the present Chinese government is thinning and it's becoming very difficult."
The Dalai Lama referred in his speech to an unusual meeting of Tibetan political, religious, educational, cultural, and community leaders living outside of China in communities around the world that is scheduled to take place in India on November 17-22, 2008, (see list of participants, Tibetan government-in-exile, 29 September 08). The attendees will consider the status of discussions with the Chinese leadership and the current Tibetan approach to resolving the Tibet issue. The Dalai Lama's Middle Way Approach, which he adopted in 1979 and Tibetans living in exile approved in a 1997 poll according to an undated report on the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Web site, lists principal objectives that include:Without seeking independence for Tibet, the [Tibetan government-in-exile] strives for the creation of a political entity comprising the three traditional provinces of Tibet; Such an entity should enjoy a status of genuine national regional autonomy; This autonomy should be governed by the popularly-elected legislature and executive through a democratic process and should have an independent judicial system . . ." The Dalai Lama said in his October 25 speech, according to the ICT translation, that "there is no reason to stay the same course just because we are on it." He described the objective of the Tibetan meeting as "to understand, analyze and together think of long-term solutions based on the real, current situation." Special Envoy Lodi Gyari noted in his November 6 statement that the Dalai Lama had advised the envoys "not to make statements about our discussions before this [November] meeting." Xinhua, however, released a flurry of reports on November 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that emphasized Chinese rejection of the Dalai Lama's proposal. UFWD Executive Deputy Head Zhu Weiqun denounced the Middle Way Approach as "aimed at outright Tibetan independence," and declared, "We will never make a concession."
For more information, see "Status of Negotiations Between the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama or His Representatives" in Section V-Tibet, in the CECC 2008 Annual Report; "Status of Discussion Between China and the Dalai Lama" in Section IV-Tibet: Special Focus for 2007, in the CECC 2007 Annual Report; and "Status of Discussion Between China and the Dalai Lama" in Section VIII-Tibet, in the CECC 2006 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-18 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Authorities Restrict HIV/AIDS Activism While the Epidemic Spreads
Although the Chinese government has developed an anti-AIDS policy framework, civil society engagement remains a major challenge in the fight against the epidemic, according to an October 8 article written by the Executive Director of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) published in the state-run China Daily. As of October 2007, an estimated 700,000 new HIV infections reportedly had occurred in China since 2006, representing an 8-percent increase, according to Chinese and UN official statistics cited in the scientific journal Nature's new study (subscription required) released on October 2, 2008. Among those newly infected, the study reported that men who have sex with men and women in general had the highest rate of growth.
The Chinese government restricts HIV/AIDS activism through frequent harassment and crackdowns on HIV/AIDS advocates and non-governmental organization (NGO) Web sites. (See a previous Congressional-Executive Commission on China analysis for more information.) Even in cases where infections resulted from official malfeasance, local officials use extra-legal detention or reeducation through labor to prevent people living with HIV/AIDS from seeking government assistance or using official grievance procedures. (See Section II-Public Health and Section III-Access to Justice-Citizen Petitioning in the CECC's 2008 Annual Report for more information.)
An October 14 Aizhixing survey (subscription required) of 106 people living with HIV/AIDS included the following findings:
Almost all of those who sought some form of redress considered filing lawsuits against the hospitals from which they received HIV-infected blood, but only 73.6 percent actually did. Petitioners, those who used the official "Letters and Visits" (xinfang or shangfang) system, cited insufficient financial means, lack of confidence in the court system, or the court's refusal to accept their application to file lawsuit as reasons for not bringing suit.
Approximately 80 percent of the petitioners indicated that officials had intercepted their visits to authorities and either forced them to return to their homes, subjected them to extra-legal detention in hotels or police stations, or placed them under house arrest. Threats against petitioners or their families, blocking meetings with officials, and the imposition of reeducation through labor sentences were also reported.
Nearly one quarter of the petitioners who took their petitions to higher-level government offices through official grievance procedures reported receiving compensation.
HIV/AIDS patients who have faced government harassment for their seeking redress include, for example:
Li Xige, Henan province: Contracted HIV/AIDS through a blood transfusion when giving birth in 1995. Li's two daughters were also infected with HIV, one of whom died in 2004. Since 2005, the Henan government has detained or harassed Li for petitioning the government for compensation. According to an October 6 Radio Free Asia report, the government resumed 24-hour surveillance of Li in September.
Zhu Bingjin, Jilin province: Contracted HIV/AIDS while selling his blood during the early 1990s. Zhu organized others who were infected through selling blood to express their grievances and seek redress from the blood collection station. According to the survey, authorities have placed Zhu under house arrest twice since 2003, sentenced him to one year of "reeducation through labor," and placed him under administrative detention for 35 days for his petitioning activities.
For more information on the Chinese government's restrictions on HIV/AIDS activism, see the CECC's previous analysis, China Continues to Crack Down on HIV/AIDS Web Sites and Activists, and the CECC 2008 Annual Report, Section III-Civil Society and Section II-Public Health.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-10-23 / English) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Authorities Cancel Plans to Subject Uyghur Woman to Forced Abortion (Updated)
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) released from the hospital a Uyghur woman who is six months pregnant with her third child, after cancelling plans to subject her to a forced abortion for violating the region's population planning regulations, according to reports from Radio Free Asia (RFA). Unable to pay a 45,000 yuan (US$6,591) fine for exceeding the number of births permitted under the region's population planning system, Arzigul (Arzug¨¹l) Tursun, a villager from Ghulja county, initially fled home to avoid being forced to have an abortion in place of paying the fine, RFA reported on November 13. After pressuring Arzigul Tursun's family to locate her, authorities also coerced Arzigul Tursun's husband into signing papers to approve the abortion, RFA reported. After authorities took Arzigul Tursun to the hospital, hospital staff postponed the abortion from November 13 to November 17, according to RFA. Kept under guard, Arzigul Tursun fled the hospital on November 16 but was found the next day and taken to another hospital, RFA reported on November 17. Authorities later released her from the hospital without carrying out the abortion, according to a November 18 report from RFA. An official cited in the article said Arzigul was not healthy enough to undergo the abortion.
An official cited in the November 13 RFA report said Arzigul Tursun "should undergo an abortion" because she violated population planning requirements. Article 15 of the XUAR Regulation on Population and Family Planning permits urban ethnic minority couples to give birth to two children and rural couples to give birth to three. Where one member of the couple is an urban resident, urban birth limits apply. According to RFA, although Arzigul Tursun is a rural resident, her husband has urban residency status. Article 41 of the regulation requires those in violation of Article 15 to pay a fine equivalent to a multiple of a locality's average per capita income as a "social compensation fee." The regulation does not stipulate that pregnancies must be terminated if the fee cannot be paid, nor do separate procedures on paying the fees stipulate this. Item 6 of the procedures permits people facing economic hardship to apply to stagger payments of the fee. Article 39 of the national Population and Family Planning Law and Article 52 of the Xinjiang regulation provide sanctions for government officials who infringe on citizens' rights or abuse their power in carrying out population planning requirements.
As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008 Annual Report (via the Government Printing Office Web site), China's system of population planning, along with abuses like forced abortion engendered by the system, violate international human rights protections China is bound to uphold. For more information on China's population planning system, see section III--Population Planning in the 2008 CECC Annual Report. For information on conditions in Xinjiang, see Section-IV--Xinjiang. Advocacy on Arzigul Tursun's behalf by Members of the U.S. Congress has included, for example, a November 17 press release by Representative Joe Pitts and a November 13 press release by Representative Chris Smith.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-17 / English) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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State Council Issues New Foreign Journalist Regulations
The State Council on October 17, 2008, issued the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on News Covering Activities of the Permanent Offices of Foreign News Agencies and Foreign Journalists, which became effective immediately. The new regulations make permanent the less restrictive conditions introduced by the Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period (Olympic Regulations), which took effect on January 1, 2007, and expired on October 17, 2008, the day the new regulations became effective. Prior to the Olympics Regulations, rules from 1990 required foreign journalists to obtain the approval of a local foreign affairs office before reporting outside of Beijing, a process that sometimes took days. Like the Olympic Regulations, the new regulations allow journalists to travel to much of China for reporting without prior approval and, to interview individuals or organizations, require only the consent of the interviewee.
At an October 17 press conference Liu Jianchao, Director-General of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said foreign journalists would still be required to obtain government permission before traveling to the Tibetan Autonomous Region and other areas closed to foreigners, as provided for in other regulations. Liu said the restricted areas are "very few" and he was not authorized to provide the names of the areas.
Key Provisions of New Regulation
- 1990 Regulations Abolished (Article 23).
- Only Need Consent of Interviewee (Article 17). The 1990 regulations required foreign reporters to obtain permission from a local foreign affairs office to report in that area and required foreign reporters in China for six months or less to arrange their reporting activities through a Chinese host organization. The new regulations contain neither of these requirements. Article 17 requires only the consent of the unit (danwei) or individual to be interviewed. It also requires foreign journalists to carry and show their foreign journalist card or visa while reporting.
- Legal Obligations of Foreign Journalists (Article 4). In addition to following China's laws and regulations, foreign journalists must "observe journalistic ethics, objectively and fairly carry out news gathering and reporting, and not engage in activities incompatible with their status as a journalist or the nature of their organization." The 1990 regulations required journalists to "observe journalistic ethics," "not distort facts, fabricate rumors or carry out news coverage by foul means," and not to "endanger China's national security, unity or community and public interests."
- Punishment for Violations (Articles 20, 21). MFA may issue a warning to, stop or suspend the activities of, or revoke the journalist card or visa of journalists who violate the regulation's provisions. Public security officials may order foreigners who do not possess a valid foreign journalist card or visa issued by the Chinese government to stop reporting and may "handle" the situation "according to the relevant laws."
- Enforcement of Foreign Journalists' Rights. The new regulations do not include any provisions specifying how foreign reporters can ensure their right to interview consenting individuals and organizations free from government interference. See an earlier analysis for possible legal remedies for foreign journalists.
Foreign journalists in China welcomed the new regulations but expressed concern that local interviewees could be subject to greater harassment as a result. "The easing of controls for foreign journalists should not be achieved at the expense of putting more pressure on local sources," the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said in an October 17 press release. While the Olympic Regulations were in effect, authorities reportedly intimidated Chinese colleagues of foreign journalists and local interviewees. In January 2008, Beijing police prevented foreign reporters from interviewing Zeng Jinyan, rights activist and wife of imprisoned human rights activist Hu Jia. A Beijing court sentenced Hu to three and a half years in April in part for making "subversive" comments to foreign reporters. In the lead-up to the Olympics, Shanghai public security officials reportedly barred activists, petitioners, and other "controlled" people from speaking to foreign reporters.
At the October 17 press conference, Director-General Liu denied that any persons interviewed by foreign journalists had been threatened. "The Chinese Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech of Chinese citizens," he said. "In China, no one is subjected to so-called interference and intervention for engaging in regular speech." Liu added that no matter whether someone is a business person, scholar, expert, or government official, they would be free to decide whether to grant an interview to a foreign journalist.
Liu also said that officials would not abuse their power to limit the activities of foreign journalists during emergencies. This past year, Chinese officials have interpreted provisions allowing officials to impose restrictions on foreign journalists during public emergencies broadly. Following protests in Tibetan areas that began in March 2008, officials imposed a travel ban on foreign journalists that extended far beyond reported protest sites. After the May earthquake in Sichuan province, officials prevented foreign journalists from reporting as officials forcibly broke up a protest by grieving parents.
For more information on the Olympic Regulations, see previous Commission analysis comparing the Olympic Regulations with the 1990 rules and assessing implementation of the Olympic Regulations a year after it took effect.
The new regulations do not apply to Chinese journalists, who remain subject to a wide range of government and Party regulations, policies, directives, and pressures that encourage self-censorship and hinder their ability to report freely. For more information on these restrictions, see Section II--Freedom of Expression, in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's 2008 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-11-18 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Authorities Target Religious Leaders During, After Olympic Games
Chinese authorities have continued to target religious leaders for harassment, detention, and other abuses, in the midst and aftermath of the Olympic Games. China's preparations for the sporting event ushered in a period of heightened government scrutiny and control over communities including religious groups. Recently reported cases include: - Pastor Zhang Mingxuan. Public security officers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, detained house church leader Zhang Mingxuan on August 6, according to August 6 and August 29 press releases from the China Aid Association (CAA). Authorities released him on August 29, but barred him from returning to Beijing until after the Paralympics Games, which ended on September 17. Zhang arrived back in Beijing on September 21, CAA reported in an October 1 press release. After the religious affairs bureau intervened following harassment of Zhang by public security officials, Zhang was able to resume house church services the following Sunday, CAA reported. On October 16, however, public security officers beat two of Zhang's sons, one of whom was severely injured, and detained Zhang, Zhang's wife, and his sister-in-law with the apparent aim of blocking their attendance at a ceremony for the Chinese House Church Alliance, according to October 16, October 22, and November 6 press releases from CAA. After holding them in Nanyang, Henan province, authorities released them on October 27, the November 6 press release reported. As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Political Prisoner Database, earlier in July authorities had forcibly moved Zhang from Beijing. Zhang said police told him they wanted him out of the city during the Olympics to prevent him from speaking to foreigners. In June, Beijing public security officers detained Zhang for two days for attempting to meet with a European Union representative and placed him under house arrest following his meeting with two Members of the U.S. Congress.
- Imam Adil Qarim. Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region detained Adil Qarim, an imam at a mosque in Kucha county, Aqsu district, during a "security sweep" of Kucha in the aftermath of a reported series of bomb attacks in the county on August 10, according to a September 4 report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). An individual accused of involvement in the August 10 incident had attended the mosque. Adil Qarim denied having any links to the attack, the UHRP reported.
- Bishop Jia Zhiguo. Authorities detained Jia Zhiguo, the unregistered bishop of Zhengding diocese, Hebei province, on August 24, 2008, according to an August 25 press release from the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CFK). Authorities released him into residential surveillance on September 18, 2008, CFK reported in a September 19 press release. According to a September 19 AsiaNews report, some sources said authorities detained Jia to block his contact with media and representatives of organizations for the disabled during the Paralympic Games. As noted in the CECC Political Prisoner Database, Jia had earlier been imprisoned for approximately 20 years and since 2004 has been detained multiple times. Authorities had last detained Jia in August 2007 because he removed a sign authorities placed on his church, identifying it as affiliated with the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association. Authorities released him from detention on December 14, 2007, but placed him under confinement in his home.
For more information on religion in China and information on political prisoners, see the Political Prisoner Database and Section II, Freedom of Religion, in the CECC 2008 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-09-09 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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Authorities Increase Repression in Xinjiang in Lead-up to and During Olympics
Officials in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) called again in August for the use of harsh security measures to crack down against the government-designated "three forces" of terrorism, separatism, and extremism, according to reports from Chinese media. On August 13, Wang Lequan, XUAR Communist Party Chair, described the battle against the "three forces" as a "life or death struggle" and pledged to "strike hard" against their activities, according to an August 14 report from the Xinjiang Daily. XUAR Party Committee Standing Committee member Zhu Hailun reiterated the pledge to "strike hard" at an August 18 meeting, according to an August 19 report from the Xinjiang Daily. The announcements followed the release of limited information on terrorist and criminal activity in the region (see, e.g., Xinhua reports from August 4, 6, 10, and 12) and came amid a series of measures that increased repression in the region, including:- Wide-scale Detentions. Authorities have carried out wide-scale detentions as part of security campaigns in cities throughout the XUAR, according to a September 4 report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). Reported measures include "security sweeps" resulting in mass detentions in the Kashgar area and Kucha county, including blanket detentions in Kucha of young people who have been abroad; the detention of non-resident Uyghurs in Korla city; the forced return of Uyghur children studying religion in another province and their detention in the XUAR for engaging in "illegal religious activities;" and the detention of family members or associates of people suspected to be involved in terrorist activity.
- Restrictions on Uyghurs' Domestic and International Travel. Authorities reportedly continued to hold Uyghurs' passports over the summer, building off of a campaign in 2007 to confiscate Muslims' passports and prevent them from making overseas pilgrimages. Authorities also have coupled restrictions on overseas travel with reported measures to limit Uyghurs' travel within China. For more information on restrictions reported in recent months, see the UHRP report, a July 31 Agence France-Presse report (via Open Source Center, subscription required) and an August 8 report from the Telegraph. For more information on 2007 measures to confiscate passports, see the section on Religious Freedom for China's Muslims in the 2007 Congressional-Executive Commission on China Annual Report (via the Government Printing Office Web site).
- Controls Over Religion. XUAR officials have enforced a series of measures that ratchet up control over religious practice in the region. Authorities in Y¨¦ngisheher county in Kashgar district issued accountability measures on August 5 to hold local officials responsible for high-level surveillance of religious activity in the region, according to an August 14 report from Radio Free Asia (RFA). Authorities in Peyziwat county, Kashgar district, called for "enhancing management" of groups including religious figures as part of broader government and Party measures of "prevention" and "attack," according to an August 8 report on the Kashgar district government Web site. The previous month, authorities in Mongghulk¨¹re county, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, called for strengthening management of religious affairs; inspecting all mosques and venues for religious activity; curbing "illegal" recitations of scripture and non-government-approved pilgrimages; and "penetrating" groups of religious believers to understand their ways of thinking, according to July 16 reports (1, 2 (cached page)) on the Xinjiang Peace Net Web site. Authorities in Lop county, Hoten district, have been forcing women to remove head coverings in a stated effort to promote "women for the new era" according to the World Uyghur Congress, as cited in an August 27 report from RFA.
- Controls Over Free Expression. Authorities in the XUAR ordered some Uyghur Web sites to shut down their bulletin board services (BBS) during the Olympics, according to an August 14 RFA report. In a review of Uyghur Web sites carried out on August 18 and 19, Congressional-Executive Commission on China staff found that BBSs on the Web sites Diyarim, Orkhun, and Alkuyi had been suspended. The BBS Web page on Diyarim contained the message, "[L]et's protect stability with full strength and create a peaceful environment for the Olympic Games[!] Please visit other Diyarim pages[.]" The message on the BBS Web page on Orkhun stated, "Based on the requirements of the work units concerned, the Orkhun Uyghur history Web site has been closed until August 25 because of the Olympic Games."
- Inspections of Households in Ghulja. According to July 17 and July 23 reports from RFA, authorities in the predominantly ethnic minority city of Ghulja searched homes in the area in a campaign described by a Chinese official as aimed at rooting out "illegal activities" and finding residents living without proper documentation.
- Controls Over Uyghurs Outside the XUAR. Authorities in cities outside of the XUAR also increased controls over Uyghur residents and some other ethnic minority communities leading up to and during the Olympic Games, according to an August 13 report from the New York Times, an August 5 report from South China Morning Post (subscription required), and July 30 and July 27 reports from RFA. According to an August 18 report from Bloomberg, authorities pressed Uyghurs to leave Beijing.
The measures implemented in the run-up to and during the Olympics build off of earlier campaigns to tighten repression in the region, including measures to tighten control as the Olympic torch passed through the region in June.
For more information on conditions in the XUAR, see Section II--Ethnic Minority Rights, subsection on Rights Abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the 2007 CECC Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2008-08-26 ) |
Posted on: 2008-11-25 |
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