China Human Rights Briefing December 1 – 31, 2006

December 31, 2006 Comments Off

Table of Contents

Crackdown on mass protests exacerbating “social unrest”

1. End-of-year survey found social unrest the top concern for officials

2. CCP admits social unrest threatens its rule

3. Social unrest unabated as government clams down on protests

The Death Penalty: Executions sped up before Supreme Court review kicks in

1. Sichuan secretly executed man arrested for protesting forced relocation

2. Convicted murderer executed despite calls for psychiatric exam

3. China’s Supreme Court vows strict review of death sentences

Torture: Interrogation watch on the way

1. Highest prosecutor details procedures for filming police interrogations
2. Police settle tortured death to avoid lawsuit, officials closed case

Lawyers at risk

1. Lawyers injured from violent attack in Shandong

2. Beijing lawyer convicted to delayed imprisonment, released into house arrest

3. Xi’an lawyer forced to drop defense of detained land activist

Arrests, trails, Sentences, and Imprisonment

1. Nanhai farmers tried on trump-up charges, lawyers prevented to attend

2. Sociologist to face 20 years imprisonment for espionage

3. Update on Jailed Environmentalist Tan Kai

4. Blind prisoner of conscience retried, verdict unchanged

5. Independent scholar loses copyright appeal

6. Internet writer Li Hong charged with inciting sedition

7. Trial opened on couple arrested for self-immolation protesting forced eviction

8. Housing activists tried in secret or sentenced in Shanghai

9. Environmental activist detained on trump-up charge in Sichuan

Freedom of press, expression, and information

1. Released journalist fears for safety, officials ban on report and online discussion

2. Independent Journal Bai Xing editor dismissed

3. Well-timed relaxation of press restriction for Olympics

Rights to political participation

1. Civil resistance to officially manipulated elections

2. Veteran delegate lost election due to official manipulation

Health rights

1. Thousands Signed Petition on Hepatitis B Discrimination

2. HIV/AIDS victims win compensation

Religious Freedom
1. Christian house church leaders arrested, put on trial, services disrupted

Social rights

1. Government promises farmers basic social security within a year

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Crackdown on mass protests exacerbating “social unrest”

1. End-of-year survey found social unrest the top concern for officials

The Central Communist Party School polled its students – officials from all ranks – about their gravest concerns on social problems for 2006-07. The survey found concern for “social unrest” at the top (36.6%), followed by “income disparity” (23.2%) and “corruption”(8.0%).

2. CCP admits social unrest threatens its rule

A Chinese Communist Party Document acknowledges rising public discontent and stresses the seriousness of the problem. Official data showed that, in 2005, there was on average one protest, or “mass incident”, every six minutes; in 2004, there were 74,000 reported demonstrations in the country. In comparison, there were 10,000 reported “mass incidents” in 1994. 3.8 million participated in mass protests in 2004, while 730,000 participants were documented for the year 1994.

The annual Party plenary session in October made the decision to look for ways to prevent mass incidents, according to a Xinhua news agency report on December 9.

The report called “the huge number and broad scope of mass incidents” “the most outstanding problem that seriously impacts social stability.” Xinhua said, “Whether we can actively prevent and properly deal with mass incidents is a significant test of the party’s ability to govern.” But it warned “hostile forces and elements inside and outside” not to “intervene in and take advantage of the mass incidents in an attempt to instigate and create turbulence.”

3. Social unrest unabated as government clams down on protests

Workers face wide spread problems with unpaid wages or pension. Two thousand retired workers marched to Hangzhou city hall demanding unpaid retirement funds and medical care reimbursement on December 4. Police arrested 15 and kept 2 for a 15-day detention. Also in Hangzhou, garment workers blocked a street in protesting unpaid wages on December 23. Police used tear gas to break the stand-off and arrested 6, who were released later. 3 were injured during the clash. Transportation workers protested unpaid salaries in Qingyang, Gansu, on December 10, after officials’ refusal to negotiate.

Rural protests concern mostly land appropriation and corruption. On December 28, villagers in Baiyun district, Guangdong, formed a human wall to block traffic for hours in protest against charges for water use by officials without consultation with villagers. The protest came after local government ignored petition for adjudication. Villagers clashed with police resulting in several injuries. Also in Guangdong, Foushan farmers have continued their protest against land grabbing since November. They set up temporary shelters near the construction sites on their land and have battled police each time after the shelter was demolished. The latest clash took place on December 18, during which several villagers were injured. On the 28th, more than 700 farmers from Dongfeng village in Chaoyang District marched to Beijing city government to petition land appropriation without fair compensation. They were intersected by police, who forced them on trucks and took them back to the village. In Hunan, farmers in Zhangjiajie trying to stop construction on annexed land on December 15, which they said was taken from them without proper compensation, clashed with armed police, resulting in injuries of dozens and three arrests. Farmers from Sanhe Township in Chengdu, Sichuan, marched on December 10 with their children into the city to protest forced eviction from land, demolition of their residences, and confiscation of winter clothes by authorities in exchange for farmers’ signing sales agreements. Protesters clashed with police in the streets. 1 was arrested, 13 were arrested later after they had returned home. On the 18^th, Zhenronghe villagers in Suizhou, Hubei, marched to township government building to demand land compensation on December 18. They were intercepted and blocked along the way by police and officials in vehicles. Only 20-30 people made it to the township city hall and presented their petition paper.

Waves of Shanghai petitioners demanding redress for lost housing property or forced eviction continued to confront police. This month, several groups tried to reach Beijing to petition the central government. They were intercepted on the train or at the train station by Shanghai police, who used violence to force them to return or constrain them. Police also detained Du Huimin, on petitioner, citing injury suffered by a policeman in the clash. Several petitioners said they were beaten or physically abused.

The Death Penalty: Executions sped up before Supreme Court review kicks in

1. Sichuan secretly executed man arrested for protesting forced relocation

A Sichuan farmer Chen Tao had been executed without notifying family and lawyer after an appeal court ruled to uphold his death sentence in November. Chen was arrested for taking part in a protest in 2004. Thousands of people protested against a hydropower plant project, which would force 100,000 people to relocate from homes. The protesters clashed with police. Three other protesters were also arrested. The court had sentenced the defendants in June 2006 behind closed doors. Lawyers only learnt about the sentences in December. They were not allowed to defend their clients in court. One co-defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison, another got 15, and the third got life sentence. Chen was accused of “deliberately killing” a riot-control policeman during the protest.

On November 20, Chen’s father Chen Yongzhong received a court notice asking him to claim the ashes of Chen and bring 50 yuan to pay for the bullet. He said he wouldn’t be sure whether the ashes were his son’s and did not go. On December 5, one co-defendant’s father went to the detention center to visit his son; he was told by his son that the prison guard had said that Chen Tao had been executed. Ran Tong, the defense lawyer for one co-defendant, also found out about the execution and his client’s verdict on December 4, when he received the sentence sheet containing the co-defendants’ names and sentences.

2. Convicted murderer executed despite calls for psychiatric exam

A man convicted of mass murder, Qiu Xinghua, was executed in public on December 28 in Ankang, Shaanxi, just three days before the Chinese Supreme Court takes back review power of all death sentences. Qiu, a farmer from Shiquan County had been convicted of killing 11 people in July 06 and was sentenced to death in October by the Ankang Intermediate People’s Court. Legal experts had argued that he should undergo psychiatric testing due to his behavior and family history. But authorities carried out the execution about 50 minutes after the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People’s Court ruled to uphold the verdict and oppose the test. Qiu went on a murder spread because he believed his wife had been unfaithful. His wife He Ranfeng denied the claim.

Zhang Hua, Qiu’s lawyer, said the court was afraid that a test would confirm mental illness and reverse the verdict on such a basis would face social pressure. In China, only the police, prosecutors and judges have the power to initiate a test. Psychiatrist and legal experts (including law professors from Beijing’s top universities) sent out an open letter on December 10 to ask the court to grant a psychiatric test. The execution may have been carried out quickly to avoid a Supreme Court review in the new year.

Qiu’s family was not able to see Qiu before the execution because family had not been told about the appeal court hearing. The wife had submitted to the provincial higher court a request for a psychiatric test for her husband on November 14. She said the court never informed her of her husband’s conditions in prison. She was denied access to the appeal’s first session on December 8 and had not been allowed to visit her husband.

3. China’s Supreme Court vows strict review of death sentences

A Supreme People’s Court spokesman on December 28 reiterated China’s intentions to exert strict controls over the application of the death penalty. The court takes back the power of reviewing and approving death sentences on January 1, 2007. “Maintaining the death penalty but using it strictly is China’s consistent principle,” said the spokesman. “China’s courts will adhere to this principle, hand out the death penalty with great caution and try and minimize its use to ensure capital punishment is only given to a handful of criminals who commit extremely notorious crimes,” the spokesman said. He said the defendant’s rights must be fully safeguarded and any testimony extracted through illegal means must be declared invalid. (Xinhua news agency, December 28, 2006)

Torture: Interrogation watch on the way

1. Highest prosecutor details procedures for filming police interrogations
Official Xinhua news agency reported on 20 December that China's highest criminal prosecution body, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) issued
new regulations detailing procedures for recording and videotaping
interrogations of crime suspects.

According to the regulations, interrogations should be recorded and filmed live and
in whole. The recording should begin when the suspect enters the room for questioning,
and end after the suspect has checked the confession transcript, signed his
or her name and put a thumbprint on the document. The suspect should be seen front on and occupy the centre of the main video picture so that his or her posture and expression can be seen, etc. The regulations also specify the procedure for the authorization, storage,
copying, transfer and reception of recording and videotape materials.

These regulations, however, were said to apply to investigations of white-collar crimes such as corruption, bribery and dereliction of duty. The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced in March 2006 that synchronous video and audio recordings shall be adopted during interrogations in major cases, murder and gang crimes for instance, by procuratorates at all levels. As of October 1, 2007, procurators will make real-time videos of all interrogations concerning job-related crimes.

2. Police settle tortured death to avoid lawsuit, officials closed case
Police settled a potential torture/death case in Cangzhou, Hebei. They paid 300,000 Yuan to the family of a farmer who died in custody in November on the condition that his family does not sue the police officers. The farmer He Yujiang was taken to the Xiaowangzhuang PSB station for questioning on November 22 over suspected theft. Two days later, the 47-year-old was found dead at the station. Police would not explain his death. The family suspects he was tortured. His wife had been so shocked after she saw the body such that she was hospitalized under sedation for two weeks.
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In mid-December, in return for the payment, the family signed an agreement with the Xiaowangzhuang police station and the Cangzhou Public Security Bureau’s Yunhe branch, promising not to take the police officers to court. He’s brother told journalists that the family felt it had no way to find out an explanation for Mr. He’s death.

Lawyers at risk

1. Lawyers injured from violent attack in Shandong

Unidentified hit-men violently attacked lawyers for Chen Guangcheng, the blind prisoner of conscience, who is serving a 4-year and 3-month sentence in China’s northeastern province Shandong. The attack took place on the highway in Linyi, Shandong, in the early morning, around 4:30am, on December 27, 2006.

According to information CRD obtained, Chen Guangcheng’s lawyers, Li Fangping and Li Jinsong, who were traveling in a bus with two other lawyers, Huang Kaiguo and Cheng Hai, who represent the villager Chen Guang-he, a detained witness in the Chen Guangcheng case, were attacked by unidentified men who pulled the bus over. Lawyer Li Fangping was hit in the head by metal sticks, lawyer Li Jinsong had swollen bruises on his left eye and left arm. Li Fangping received emergency care in local hospital. Initial diagnosis showed that he suffered from a 3cm-long wound on his head, but x-ray did not show any fracture on the skull.

The lawyers believe that the attack was organized and coordinated by local authorities in an effort to intimidate them and retaliate against them for suing the Linyi police bureau for illegal handling the Chen Guangcheng case.

The lawyers went back to Beijing and were checked into a hospital. They would not return to Yinan without police escort. Mr. Chen Guangcheng’s appeal hearing could be scheduled soon. His lawyer had handed in the appeal paper to the Linyi Municipal Court on December 8. On December 6, the lawyers had filed administrative lawsuits and civil lawsuits against the Linyi Municipal Public Security Bureau including its chief Liu Jie and other government bodies. The lawsuits against local authorities may be the direct motive behind the attack.

2. Beijing lawyer convicted to delayed imprisonment, released into house arrest

The No. 1 Beijing Intermediate People’s Court secretly tried the human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, on charges for “inciting sedition against the state” on December 12. The official Xinhua news agency later announced that Gao was sentenced to three years with a delayed imprisonment for five years. He was released but barred from speaking to anybody outside the family. Police stepped up surveillance outside his apartment building. There are also unconfirmed reports that police may have deported the family to Gao’s home province Shaanxi to prevent press interviews by foreign journalists as new rule allowing interviews without pre-authorization goes into effect on Jan.1.

Gao’s family and family-authorized lawyers did not receive any advanced notice of the trial. The court appointed two lawyers to appear at the closed-door trial. Mo Shaoping and Ding Xikui, the lawyers appointed to represent Gao by family, confirmed that they had not received prior notice of the trial and was not permitted to visit him or handle the case. But the lawyers were given information after the trial that Gao had been tried in an “open” hearing by the court. The court also said that Mr. Gao has confessed to inciting subversion charges against him and cooperated with authorities in providing testimonies vital for breaking “important criminal cases.” The court also warned that reporting Gao’s case in international media may adversely affect his sentence.

The Beijing public security officials barred Gao from meeting with his lawyers during the investigative phase of the case because it “involved state secrets.” A judge had told the lawyer Ding Xikui that Gao refused to have any legal representation.

These claims cannot be verified since independent lawyers were unable to meet with Gao Zhisheng or attend the trial. The lawyers had not seen the written indictment or any evidence presented by the prosecution regarding “subversion.”

For background information, see

CRD case file, “Gao Zhisheng:” https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=2644, CRD communiqué to the UN: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=2645

and CRD statement on the trial of Gao Zhisheng: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=2925

3. Xi’an lawyer forced to drop defense of detained land activist

Lawyer Zhang Jiankang was intimidated and eventually prevented by police when he tried to travel to Guangdong Province to defend one of the farmers charged in the Nanhai case (see below). Lawyer for the other farmer was also pressured and was unable to attend the trial. The local Nanhai court had previously cancelled the trial twice after finding out that the villagers had hired these lawyers and that the lawyers would be present in court. Lawyers, Mr. Wang from Shandong and Mr. Zhang from Shaanxi, who represent Cui Yongfa and Liu Dehuo, were previously allowed to meet with their clients twice. Government authorities in Guangdong, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces have put pressure on the lawfirms to pull the lawyers out of the cases. Without lawyers, the detained farmers’ rights to independent legal council and fair trial have been infringed upon. It is unclear whether the 5 others charged with the same crime in this case have any lawyers.

Arrests, trails, Sentences, and Imprisonment

1. Nanhai farmers tried on trump-up charges

Charges were filed against two farmers, Zhao and Chen Zhujia, both local organizers of land rights protests in Nanhai, Guangdong Province. They were both charged with “suspicion for extortion.” Lawyers for the two, out of the seven detained farmers, met with their clients, but they were followed and intimidated by local police and eventually prevented to travel by police in their own home cities. Trial was set for December 19. The court said it would not hold public hearing.

Nanhai farmers sought administrative and legal actions against land appropriation without fair compensation since summer 2005. Local officials responded with threats and arrests. On June 8, 2006, local PSB arrested and charged seven farmers “extortion” in an unrelated traffic incident and an action to block an illegal construction, which had both been settled out of court between the farmers and the driver/construction worker, where money changed hands. (For more information, visit CRD website “Individual Cases” in Chinese: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Class.asp?ClassID=67)

2. Sociologist to face 20 years imprisonment for espionage
On December 18, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced the sociologist Lu Jianhua for 20 years for leaking state secrets. Lu Jianhua, 46, an employee of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government research body, was charged in connection to Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore’s Straits Times whose five-year sentence was upheld this month for spying for Taiwan.

Lu’s wife, Qu Liqiu, a journalist, could neither confirm nor deny the report as the court had not informed her of the verdict. She has been denied access to her husband since he was taken into custody in May 2005. The Hong Kong based China Democracy and Human Rights Information Center reported the verdict. State media has made no mention of the case. The HK centre said the court assigned Lu a lawyer on the eve of his trial. The trial was conducted behind closed doors in August. Authorities denied a request by his family to hire a lawyer.

Lu wrote about many essays for the Straits Times and officials blamed four of these essays in May 2004 for leaking state secrets. He co-edited a series published annually by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on the country’s social-political situation.

3. Update on Jailed Environmentalist Tan Kai

Green activist Tan Kai, male, 33, is jailed at the West Lake detention centre, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. According to his lawyer Li Heping, Tan is being put to work – making umbrellas – and is not allowed to read newspapers and other materials, nor is he allowed to communicate with the outside world. His lawyer met him only once, on the day before his trial in May. Tan is serving an 18-month sentence for stealing “state secrets.”

Tan Kai organized the Green Watch Salon in Hangzhou to discuss environmental and political problems. Authorities were alarmed when Tan opened a bank account for Green Watch Salon with 500 Yuan. The Salon was unregistered, therefore illegal. It was banned in the fall of 2005. Mr. Tan worked at a computer repair shop in Hangzhou. He also got involved in environmental protests, such as the one in Huashui village in Zhejiang Province in April 2005.

In October 2005, police detained Tan, raiding his shop and confiscating his computer. He pleaded not guilty and filed an appeal after the verdict. The appeal hearing was held behind closed doors at the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, sometime in October. The court has not officially notified the lawyer of the verdict, but the lawyer believes that the court upheld the sentence. (For more information, please visit CRD website “Individual Cases” in Chinese: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Class.asp?ClassID=56)

4. Blind prisoner of conscience retried, verdict unchanged

On November 27, the Yinan County Court tried Chen Guangcheng after the court’s verdict was overturned by a higher court. The court announced its verdict on December 1: Chen Guangcheng is convicted again for the same crimes, “intentional obstruction of traffic” and “inciting destruction of property,” and he is sentenced to 4 years and 3 months, exactly the same term as the overturned verdict.

Yinan court authorities did little to correct the procedural missteps that marred the initial trial, though they did allow Mr. Chen’s own lawyers, his wife and mother to attend the trial on Nov. 27. However, in the days leading up to the trial, local police intimidated, detained, or made disappear key witnesses, some of them had been tortured into signing incriminating testimony against Mr. Chen; police interfered in lawyers’ independence in doing their job; detained and abused a member of the defense team in order to intimidate and keep him out of the courtroom; the court failed to consider new evidences and re-examine old evidence – confessions extracted through torture; the trial was closed to the public; police detained Mr. Chen’s wife, a key witness. Ms. Yuan was detained by more than 30 policemen in the hospital where she was recovering from trauma caused by police abuses during detention. Chen Guangcheng’s mother was stopped outside the courtroom on December 1 by police, who cited her role as a witness. Only Mr. Chen’s older brother Chen Guangfu was present when the court announced the verdict.

Chen Guangcheng filed an appeal for his sentence to the Linyi City Intermediate Court.

(For more information, see CRD “Case file:” https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=1361

5. Independent scholar loses copyright appeal

Independent scholar Wang Tiancheng lost his appeal to the Beijing Higher People’s Court over his allegations of plagiarism against a law professor Zhou Yezhong in Wuhan on December 21. The Beijing Higher Court upheld the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court’s decision in July to reject Wang’s demand for an apology and 60,000 Yuan from Zhou, his student and co-writer Dai Jitao, and the People’s Publishing House over the publication of a book on constitutional law in 2005. Mr. Wang claimed that Zhou deliberately copied more than 5,000 words in the book from Wang’s published papers without attribution. Wang is a former Peking University Law School lecturer who spent five years in jail from 1992 for his dissident activities. Represented by Beijing lawyers Zhang Sizhi and Pu Zhiqiang, Wang appealed to the higher court and an open hearing was held in October. His lawyer Pu Zhiqiang argued that the court’s decision was “politically motivated” because the facts were very simple and clear. He will appeal to the Supreme People’s Court and the decision was made by the court’s committee – which includes court officials – rather than the three judges who heard the case. He said that the judges and lawyers work in a very difficult environment and judges “were not able to reach their own independent decision.”

6. Internet writer Li Hong charged with inciting sedition

Li Hong met his lawyer Li Jianqiang, who informed Li the charges, at the Ningbo detention center, Zhejiang, on December 20. The lawyer learnt that the charges were based on 63 articles Li wrote and posted online. These articles talked about organ harvest of Falun Gong members and hunger strikes organized by the Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Li Hong has been detained for 4 months. His trial may open in January.

7. Trial opened on couple arrested for self-immolation protesting forced eviction

On December 19, the trial of the husband Zhang Yaolong and wife Gu Fengfang opened at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court. The couple set themselves on fire after they protested forced eviction and their negotiation with officials broke down at the office of the village chief in December 2005. The fire injured both the wife and the village chief. No verdict was announced after the trial.

8. Housing activists tried in secret or sentenced in Shanghai

Around mid-December, the housing activist Chen Xiaoming was put on trial behind closed doors. His lawyer and family never received any advanced notice of the trial. Chen’s father was later informed but declined to disclose any information for he was threatened by authorities not to speak up about his son’s case. Mr. Chen was apprehended on his way to meet American consulate officials to talk about forced eviction on February 15, 2006. Shanghai police locked him up in solitary confinement. There has been no information about his conditions in detention. On December 18, three other housing activists Tian Baocheng, Du Yangming, and Wang Shuizhen were sentenced to, respectively, two years and six month in jail for Tian and Du, one year for Wang. They were convicted for “picking fights and generating troubles” by the Shanghai Zhabai District Court on November 8-9. Tian’s wife Zhang Cuiping had been sentenced to one year and a half “re-education through labor” early. They were all arrested after they tried to draw attention to housing grievances at the “Six-Country Summit” in June 06.

9. Environmental activist detained on trump-up charge in Sichuan

Zeng Jianyu, the environmental activist, former elected deputy to local People’s Congress in Luzhou, Sichuan, was arrested on December 12 and put under criminal detention on suspicion for fraud on the 13th. Police raided his house and confiscated receipts, phone books, and other personal belongings. His wife believes that the charge was politically motivated. Mr. Zeng was elected to the Luzhou city legislative body in 1992 and re-elected in 1997. In 2001, he was convicted for fraud charges. After he served the one-year jail time, he returned to environmental issues. Last year, he investigated and publicized land grabbing and pollution by a local power plant. The same power plant was listed as one of the fifteen top polluters in the country by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in December 06. His activism has apparently offended local establishment.

Freedom of press, expression, and information

1. Released journalist fears for safety, officials ban on report and online discussion
After serving eight years in jail on trumped-up charges, the released journalist Gao Qinrong, 46, said he would keep on exposing corruption, fighting for justice. Gao was a reporter with the Shanxi Youth Daily in the late 1980s when he began to write reports on corruption. In 1998, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for pimping, fraud, and bribery. He was released from Jinzhong prison in early December after his sentence was reduced by four years for good behavior.

Gao fears for his safety. He cited a case where, in 2003, the man jailed for tipping off Gao about a corruption case was left a paraplegic after he was attacked following his release from prison. Gao was escorted home in a police car. The government banned any media reports on his release. Web pages reporting or discussing Gao’s case were blocked.
An online discussion with him at Sohu.com was taken offline.

2. Independent Journal Bai Xing editor dismissed

On December 30, Huang Liangtian, the chief editor of the influential Beijing monthly Bai Xing (The Common Folks) was removed from his post. The journal’s website has been ordered to shut down four times in the last two years for its independent reporting on “mass incidents” and outspokenness about problems such as forced land eviction. The journal has a monthly distribution of about 50,000 copies. The editor was transferred to a different media post. Other reporters are also leaving the monthly due to pressure from authorities. As a result, there is concern that Bai Xing’s news-covering guideline of “keeping a true record of a changing China” may alter. The higher authorities attributed the editor’s removal to a regulation of the central government on regular job rotations.

3. Well-timed relaxation of press restriction for Olympics

On December 1, China suspended its restrictions on travel and interview by foreign journalists between January 1, 2007 and October 17, 2008, prior to and during the 2008 Olympic Games. The new regulations allow foreign reporters to travel throughout the country and to interview people without advanced official permission. The government tries to show that it is taking steps to keep its promise to the International Olympic Committee that it would permit free reporting prior to and during the 2008 games.

Other press restrictions remain, including the recent rule banning Chinese and foreign journalists from reporting on disasters such as an outbreak of disease, a terrorist attack, or an environmental catastrophe before any official statement on the incident, and the September 2006 ordinance that only the official Xinhua news agency could distribute international financial information, news, and photographs.

Meanwhile, China’s Public Security Bureau University and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau published an official police language training manual, “Olympic Security English.” The manual contains a practice dialogue entitled, “How to Stop Illegal News Coverage.” It teaches policemen the English phrases they would need to detain a foreign reporter found talking to a Chinese about Falun Gong. The manual is being used to teach police in Beijing the English phrases they might need when they handle any visitors, including journalists, during the Games. Beijing policemen are given the manual for home study.

Rights to Political Participation

1. Civil resistance to officially manipulated elections

A quiet campaign calling itself “non-violence, un-cooperative renouncement of votes,” started by political activists, has spread to 25 provinces, with 186 participants. Sponsors say the purpose is to expose the hypocrisy of China’s elections of people’s deputies to local legislative bodies, which take place in 2006-07. Participant pays 0.80 yuan postage to inform officials of his or her decision not to vote. Participants have encountered official pressure. On December 30, one volunteer, Chen Xiaoming, of Jiangxi had to resign under pressure. Authorities threatened him with being kicked out of school if he did not resign.

2. Veteran delegate lost election due to official manipulation

On the election day for delegates to local People’s Congress on December 9, in Baoyueshi Township, Zhijiang city, Hubei, Mr. Xu Banglie, who had been elected several times in the past, was stopped by police on his way to vote. Police forced him into a car and forced him into a hospital for medical check-up of injuries which he had suffered from police beatings on his campaign trail. Police then forced him to have lunch with them and detained him for conversation until voting was over. Meanwhile, officials fanned out to all voting booths to give out flyers and sign up people to vote for other candidates. They also threatened people if they would vote for Mr. Xu. In the end, many voters boycotted and Mr. Xu lost the election. Mr. Xu is an outspoken critic of local government and has turned into an expert on rural elections, giving workshops and producing voter education materials. He had been harassed and even beaten by police when he supported Taishi villagers’ action to remove a corrupt chief.

(For more information on the elections of local legislators, see CRD “Citizens Right to Vote Watch” webpage in Chinese: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Class.asp?ClassID=55)

Health Rights

1. Thousands Signed Petition on Hepatitis B Discrimination

The petition, signed by 2,150 Chinese citizens, was sent on December 28 to the Ministry of Health, asking for clarification of the forced drop-out from a middle school in Xinjiang of 19 students who are tested positive for hepatitis B in the fall of 2006. The public health NGO, “Xue Lian Hua”(Snow Lotus), exposed the incident of official discrimination against hepatitis B carriers and the group was subsequently banned. Meanwhile, the education department of Xinjiang government help press conference putting out false information about the contagiousness and risks of hepatitis B for other school children.

2. HIV/AIDS victims win compensation

18 people infected with HIV/AIDS from blood transfusion at a state hospital will receive 20 million yuan in compensation, according to a China Daily report on December 5. A state hospital in Heilongjiang province, responsible for transmitting HIV by giving patients tainted blood, is ordered to compensate the victims or their families. The hospital will also compensate each victim a 3,000 Yuan in monthly payment and cover all their medical costs. Relatives of another victim died from the infection would receive more than 300,000 Yuan from the hospital.

Fifteen of the victims contracted HIV in 2004 after receiving contaminated blood that the hospital had bought from illegal blood suppliers. Three of them then passed the virus onto their spouses. One mother infected her five-year-old child. Three employees at the hospital have been sentenced to 2 to 10 years in jail.

Religious Freedom

1. Christian house church leaders arrested, put on trial, services disrupted

Wang Mingwei, male, a priest from a house church in Shanghai’s Changqiao district, was taken to a police station on December 16. Police also took with them some church belongings after they raided the place, according to the US-based Christian group China Aid Association.

On December 7, Beijing police broke up a service at the house of Ms. Xiu Libin, a missionary at a house church, damaging furniture. Police did not produce any warrants. They beat up worshipers and took away a dozen of Christians from Heilongjiang and subsequently forced them to return to their home province. On December 24, Christians from Beijing Qingcaodi church holding Christmas activities in Haidian district were asked to stop by police and officials from Religious Regulation Bureau. They said they had been called by people who reported disturbance. Police checked identifications and wrote down the numbers. They took away an organizer for questioning.

In Zhejiang province, the Xiaoshan No. 10 District Intermediate People’s Court, put eight Christian activists, 7 male, 1 female, on trial behind doors on December 22. They are accused of “inciting violence” and “resisting implementation of law” for organizing a protest against the forced demolition of their half-built church in Xiaoshan district in July, when about 3000 protesters clashed with 500 policemen. A dozen of people were injured in the clash and more 70 arrested afterwards. Three lawyers, Li Baiguang, Fan Yafeng, and Zhang Xingshui, chosen by the defendants to represent them, were ordered not to leave Beijing. On December 23, the court sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 1 to 3 and half years. 6 of the 8 Christians had been held in a local detention centre for more than four months, while two were out on bail.

Meanwhile, Zan Aizong, a Christian and an outspoken journalist, who reported on forced demolition of the Xiaoshan church on his blog and was subsequently detained by police for 7 days and then fired in August by his employer, the Hangzhou bureau of the China Ocean News, brought a lawsuit against Hangzhou Public Security Bureau’s Internet Security Surveillance Office for illegally detaining him for “spreading rumors to disturb the public.” A hearing was scheduled for December 19 in the Shangcheng District No. 9 People’s Court in Hangzhou. But Zan was taken away by police before the hearing. The trial went ahead on the 19^th, but no verdict was announced. The conviction of the 8 Christians seems to exonerate Mr. Zan since the conviction confirmed that there was indeed a violent protest in Xiaoshan and Zan did not “spread rumor.” Zan’s Beijing lawyers Li Baiguang and others were prevented by police to attend the trial. Mr. Li publicized his defense argument (in Chinese) online: https://www.nchrd.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=2981

Social rights

1. Government promises farmers basic social security within a year

Xinhua reported on December 25 that social security will reach China’s more than 800 million farmers, or 70% of the country’s population by the end of 2007.

This plan was laid out at the annual Central Government Rural Work Conference in Beijing. According to official statistics, only 9.85 million farmers in China’s wealthier provinces are covered by a provision of subsistence allowances for farmers to maintain a minimum living standard. In 2006, official data shows that there are 23.65 million rural people living below poverty, with an annual per capita income below 683 Yuan. The government promises that more funds will be set aside for farmers, especially in public services, in 2007. This includes promise of free education for the country’s 148 million rural children. Rule students will enjoy tuition weaver and free text books. Officials also promise to expand the medical care system to cover 80% of rural areas in 2007. Currently, only 40%, or 200 million farmers, are covered by the co-operative health-care system, to which farmers, local governments and the central government all contribute.

Editors: Renee Xia, Su Hui, Zhong Yan