China Human Rights Briefing September 30 – October 4, 2010
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September 30 – October 4, 2010
To download this week’s CHRB in a .pdf file, please click here
Highlights
- Detentions and Harassment Related to National Day Continue through Holiday: With the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China taking place this week, police in Beijing and around China kept up their concerted efforts, chronicled in last week’s CHRB, to detain petitioners and activists during the holiday. CHRD documented additional cases of petitioners and activists who were harassed or taken into detention by police this week.
- CHRD Issues Statement on Government’s Human Rights White Paper: In response to the State Council’s white paper on “Human Rights Developments in China in 2009,” CHRD accused the government this week of “ignoring facts” and producing a document which is “seriously inconsistent with the human rights reality in China.” CHRD’s statement, which is available online (in Chinese), includes five concrete recommendations for the government to begin addressing areas of concern.
Contents
Arbitrary Detention
Police Detain Petitioners and Activists Ahead of and During National Day
Forced Eviction and Demolition
Victims Seized for Resisting Forced Eviction
Freedom of Assembly
Hunan Activist Xiao Yong Forcibly Expelled from Guangzhou Following Detention for Protesting
Citizens’ Actions
Activists Set Up “Chen Guangcheng Concern Group”
Law and Policy Watch
CHRD Issues Statement on Government’s Human Rights White Paper
Revised State Secrets Law Comes into Effect; Internet Companies Given Responsibility to Prevent Leakage of Secrets
Opinion on Standardizing Sentences Comes into Effect on October 1
Arbitrary Detention
Police Detain Petitioners and Activists Ahead of and During National Day
- On October 1, several hundred petitioners gathered outside the office buildings of the United Nations in Beijing. They were seized by the waiting Beijing police, stuffed into buses and subsequently taken away. (CHRD)[i]
- On October 1, Hangzhou dissident Zhu Yufu (朱虞夫) was under house arrest by half a dozen policemen from the Hangzhou City Public Security Bureau (PSB). Reportedly, Hangzhou police also had “chats” with activists Zou Wei (邹巍) and Gao Haibing (高海兵) to warn them against making trouble on October 1. (CHRD)[ii]
- On October 1, Shanghai activist Shen Peilan (沈佩兰) was seized at her home by officials from Maqiao Town Letters and Visits Office. It is unclear whether Shen has been released. Shen was warned the day before by the assistant director of the office that she must not venture out of her home during the National Day holidays. (CRLW)[iii]
- On September 30, more than 30 petitioners from Guangxi Province were seized by the Beijing police while taking a walk near the Tiananmen Square. They were first sent to a nearby police station, then to Jiujingzhuang, a centralized black jail where they saw hundreds of other petitioners detained. More than half of the Guangxi petitioners were forcibly sent back to Nanning City, capital of Guangxi Province, on October 1. The fate of the rest of the petitioners is currently unclear. The petitioners were women who complain that they and their children have been denied benefits handed out by their villages because they married men from outside the villages. (CHRD)[iv]
- CHRD learned on September 29 that anti-corruption activist Zhang Jianzhong (张建中) has been put under house arrest in his Tianjin home. Between four and six Tianjin policemen have stationed outside his home since September 25. It is believed that Zhang has been held to prevent him from traveling to Beijing to visit friends and to petition the government during the National Day holidays. Zhang started a blog where he documents the plight of petitioners and victims of forced evictions in Tianjin after he was retaliated against after exposing corruption of cadres in the company where he worked. (CHRD)[v]
- On September 27, petitioner Zhu Guiqin (朱桂琴), of Liaoning Province, was seized by police outside of Beijing’s South Railway Station. The officers handed her off to interceptors from Liaoning, who forcibly returned her to Luotaishan Village. Zhu was briefly detained in a black jail there before she was able to escape with the assistance of relatives. She is currently in hiding. (CHRD)[vi]
Forced Eviction and Demolition
Victims Seized for Resisting Forced Eviction
About 6am on September 29, while villagers of Gaotan Village in Renshou County, Sichuan Province were still sleeping, between 500 and 600 unidentified men entered the village and dragged out of their homes six families who have refused to agree to the demolition of their homes. The men then proceeded to demolish their houses. When the families resisted, three of them were taken into custody by the town police present at the scene. One of them has been released, but Peng Qunying (彭群英) and Liao Yuehua (廖月华) have been subjected to ten days of administrative detention. Gaotan Village is being demolished to make way for an administrative building for Renshou County government, and some of the villagers have refused to move due to inadequate compensation. (CHRD)[vii]
Freedom of Assembly
Hunan Activist Xiao Yong Forcibly Expelled from Guangzhou Following Detention for Protesting
On October 3, activist Xiao Yong (肖勇) was released following fifteen days of detention for “inciting an illegal demonstration” in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, and forcibly returned to his hometown of Wugang City, Hunan Province. Xiao was originally detained on September 18, shortly after arriving in Guangzhou; police had interrogated him for approximately 18 hours about Twitter messages he had written as well as his participation in a late July rally in Guangzhou in support of the Cantonese language. Xiao was threatened with detention if he returns to Guangzhou during the upcoming Asian Games, and police also pressured his relatives into ensuring that Xiao would not attempt to travel to the city during the competition. As the Asian Games approach, police in Guangzhou have quietly begun rounding up and sending away other dissidents and activists who are not from the city, including Tang Jingling (唐荆陵) and Zheng Chuantian (郑创添). (CHRD)[viii]
Citizens’ Actions
Activists Set Up “Chen Guangcheng Concern Group”
A group of 13 Beijing activists have established the Chen Guangcheng Concern Group on September 29 to demand an end to the activist’s house arrest by the authorities in Linyi City, Shandong Province. Since Chen was released from prison on September 9, he and his wife have been subjected to house arrest at home and barred from accessing medical treatment. Members of the group, wearing “Free Chen Guangcheng” t-shirts, went to the Beijing Liaison Office of Shandong Province on September 30 to protest his continued detention. The group vows to gather outside the liaison office once a week. (CHRD)[ix]
Law and Policy Watch
CHRD Issues Statement on Government’s Human Rights White Paper
On September 29, CHRD issued a statement in Chinese on State Council’s white paper on “Human Rights Developments in China in 2009” published on September 26. CHRD’s statement criticizes the white paper for “ignoring facts and deliberately whitewashing the situation,” and “is seriously inconsistent with the human rights reality in China.” The statement then describes in greater details serious human rights violations that were ignored by the white paper in the following areas: the rule of law, economic development, freedom of expression, the right to monitor the government, the right to legal remedies and international cooperation on human rights matters. At the end of the statement, CHRD proposes five concrete recommendations to the Chinese government. (CHRD)[x]
Revised State Secrets Law Comes into Effect; Internet Companies Given Responsibility to Prevent Leakage of Secrets
The revised State Secrets Law came into effect on October 1. An article published on Xinhua Net stresses the responsibility of providers of telecommunications services, especially internet companies, to “stop the leaking of state secrets on the internet in a timely fashion.” According to the revised law, internet companies must cooperate with investigations of suspected leakages of state secrets; that they must stop the transmission of such information once discovered and report the crime to the authorities; and that they must comply with the authorities’ orders when told to delete such information from their websites. Internet companies which fail to comply with the revised law will be punished by the relevant departments such as the police and the Ministry of the State Secrets. (Xinhua)[xi]
For CHRD’s views on the revised State Secrets Law, please see p.3 of our latest report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture.
Opinion on Standardizing Sentences Comes into Effect on October 1
The Trial Opinion on the Issues of the Process of Standardizing Sentences issued by 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 came into effect on October 1. The Trial Opinion is a new document giving procurators and judges across China guidelines on the issue of sentencing. It aims to minimize differences in sentencing across the country and improve the transparency and openness of the sentencing process. (Beijing Morning Post)[xii]
Editors: David Smalls and Lin Sang
News updates from CHRD
Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)
[i] “Large Groups o Petitioners District Leaflets and Complain to Foreigners, Several Hundreds of Hubei Petitioners Seized (国庆大批访民撒传单告“洋状” 湖北数十访民被抓),” October 1, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010011737.shtml
[ii] “Hangzhou Dissident Zhu Yufu Had His Freedom Restricted (杭州异议人士朱虞夫被限制人身自由),” October 1, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010011512.shtml
[iii] “(上海维权人士沈佩兰国庆节被抓走),” October 1, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010011302.shtml
[iv] “Many Petitioners from Guangxi Held in Jiujingzhuang, a ‘Black Jail’ in Beijing (广西多名访民被关进北京久敬庄“黑监狱”),” September 30, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009302158.shtml; “Guangxi Petitioners Held in Beijing Black Jail Forcibly Returned Today (被关北京黑监狱的广西访民今日遣返),” October 1, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010011405.shtml
[v] CHRD, “Tianjin Anti-Corruption Activist Zhang Jianzhong Subjected to Soft Detention (天津反腐维权人士张建中被软禁),” September 29, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009291336.shtml
[vi] See, for example: “Beijing Public Bus Inspected, Approximately 100 Detained at Jiujingzhuang” (北京公交车遭遇大检查，100余人被押往久敬庄), September 27, 2010, http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009271454.shtml; “Changsha, Hunan Victims of Forced Eviction Detained in Beijing for Petitioning” (湖南长沙拆迁受害人在京上访被带走), September 27, 2010, http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009271713.shtml; “Liaoning Petitioner Zhu Guiqin Detained in Black Jail” (辽宁访民朱桂琴被关黑监狱), October 2, 2010, http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010020952.shtml
[vii] CHRD, “Sichuan’s Renshou County Mobilizes Large Number of Personnel to Forcibly Demolish Citizens’ Homes; Several Arrested (四川省仁寿县出动大批人员强拆民房抓捕数人),” September 29, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009291743.shtml
[viii] “Hunan Activist Xiao Yong Forcibly Returned to Hometown from Guangzhou after Release from Detention” (湖南维权人士肖勇在广州被拘留获释后又被遣送回老家), October 4, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010041310.shtml
[ix] CHRD, “Chen Guangcheng Concern Group’s First Action: to Take a Walk outside of the Beijing Liaison Office of Shandong Province (陈光诚关注团首次行动：到山东省驻京办散步),” September 30, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009302200.shtml; CHRD, “Chen Guangcheng Concern Group is Established (陈光诚关注团成立),” September 29, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009292327.shtml
[x] CHRD, “CHRD: a Commentary on the White Paper on ‘Human Rights Developments in China in 2009’ (维权网：点评《2009年中国人权事业的进展》白皮书),” September 29, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/09/201009291208.shtml
[xi] “Companies Involved in Providing Public Information Networks Have to Stop the Behavior of Using the Internet to Leak State Secrets in a Timely Fashion (公共信息网络运营商要及时制止利用网络泄露国家秘密的行为),” October 1, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010011915.shtml
[xii] “Courts across the Country will Test Out the Standardization of Sentencing, Same Cases Would be Given Same Sentences (全国法院将试行量刑规范化 同案趋于同判),” October 2, 2010, http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/10/201010020827.shtml