China Human Rights Briefing June 16-21, 2011
Comments Off on China Human Rights Briefing June 16-21, 2011China Human Rights Briefing
June 16-21, 2011
To download this week’s CHRB as a .pdf file, please click here
Highlights
- Activist Yao Lifa Goes Missing After Increased Harassment: CHRD has learned that democracy activist Yao Lifa (姚立法), from Qianjiang City, Hubei Province, went missing on June 20. Yao, who has been advising voters and independent candidates as the country conducts local People’s Congress elections, has been under residential surveillance since February 20. Harassment and limitations on his freedom were ramped up just days before he disappeared.
- Jiangxi Woman Forcibly Sterilized After Exposing Illegal Land Requisition: CHRD has learned that Zhang Julan (张菊兰), a villager from Jiangxi Province, has been hospitalized since mid-May following a brutal assault by local police and forced tubal ligation. After the procedure, Zhang refused to consent to authorities’ demands, which included signing an agreement to demolish her house and also saying she retroactively agreed to the ligation.
Contents
Arbitrary Detention
- Updates on Detentions and Disappearances Related to the “Jasmine Revolution” Crackdown
- Beijing Activist Wang Yuqin Given 14 Days of Administrative Detention
Enforced Disappearance
- Democracy Activist Yao Lifa Missing After Recent Period of Increased Harassment
- Xinjiang Petitioner Representing Hundreds of Households Kidnapped in Beijing
Harassment of Activists’ Family Members
- Police Monitor Zeng Jinyan, Wife of Hu Jia, Ahead of His Release
- Police Assault Wife of Democracy Activist Xu Wanping as She Tries to Visit Him in Prison
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment
- Jiangxi Woman Forcibly Sterilized as Punishment for Exposing Illegal Land Requisition
Arbitrary Detention
Updates on Detentions and Disappearances Related to the “Jasmine Revolution” Crackdown
On the morning of Friday, June 17, Chongqing human rights lawyer Zheng Jianwei (郑建伟) was again prohibited by procuratorial authorities in Suining City, Sichuan Province, from visiting imprisoned activist Chen Wei (陈卫). Zheng went to the Suining Procuratorate that day with Chen’s wife, Wang Xiaoyan (王晓燕), but after Zheng submitted case materials, procuratorial staff said that his attorney’s license was invalid and they refused to allow him to see Chen. Zheng argued with the staff but was ultimately unable to meet his client. Back in April, Suining police and other officers handling the case also prevented Zheng from seeing Chen, making the recent incident the second time authorities have obstructed the process of providing Chen the legal counsel necessary to ensure his right to a fair trial. Chen was formally detained on February 21 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” (煽动颠覆国家政权罪), and his case was submitted for prosecution on May 26. (CHRD)[i]
Beijing Activist Wang Yuqin Given 14 Days of Administrative Detention
Wang Yuqin (王玉琴), a Beijing activist, was given 14 days of administrative detention for petitioning and other actions taken on behalf of her husband, Yang Qiuyu (杨秋雨), who is serving two years of Re-education through Labor (RTL) as part of the “Jasmine Revolution” crackdown. Wang, who suffers from high blood pressure, was taken into custody in the afternoon of June 16 by police officers from the Dongcheng branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) and then taken to the Jingshan Police Station. Later that evening, Wang was informed she would be sent to administrative detention. It is believed that police may also have detained her in connection with the run-up to the “sensitive” occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1.
Wang’s husband, Yang, was taken into custody on March 6 and criminally detained on March 7 on suspicion of “creating a disturbance” (寻衅滋事). On April 14, Wang received notice from the Dongcheng PSB branch that Yang had been sent to RTL. (Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch) [ii]
Enforced Disappearance
Democracy Activist Yao Lifa Missing After Recent Period of Increased Harassment
CHRD has learned that, on June 20, democracy activist Yao Lifa (姚立法), from Qianjiang City, Hubei Province, went missing. According to Yao’s wife, he did not come home that afternoon after getting off work at the school where he teaches. He cannot be reached through his mobile telephone, and various efforts to contact him have failed. Yao, who has been increasingly harassed of late and under residential surveillance since February 20, has usually been taken home after work around 6 p.m. by individuals assigned to monitor him. Both public security and school authorities have limited his freedom due to concerns over his advising of voters and independent candidates as the country conducts local People’s Congress elections. It is possible that authorities have ramped up harassment of Yao because of a recent phone call he received from a U.S. Embassy employee who wished to set up a meeting with him, and since some electoral candidates may try to seek him out. The most recent restrictions placed on Yao involve his workplace, where since June 16 he had been prohibited from answering his phone, sending text messages, and talking to others in his office. In addition, several windows in Yao’s home were smashed in the middle of the night by unknown persons on June 18. (CHRD)[iii]
Xinjiang Petitioner Representing Hundreds of Households Kidnapped in Beijing
Xinjiang petitioner Chen Zhixin (陈志新) has been missing since June 10, when he was knocked unconscious and abducted by police officers who had been tailing him in Beijing. Chen and 16 other citizens had gone to the capital as representatives of 398 households of Happiness Garden apartment complex in Shihezi City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They were demanding central authorities resolve problems of real estate collusion and fraud by Party officials and land developers that had resulted in cheating residents out of their housing property rights.
According to group representatives, Shihezi officers had tracked them to Beijing in early June. On June 7, representatives Chen Zhixin, Gao Keyuan (高克远), Shi Hongmei (师红梅), Hou Baoshan (候保善), and Sun Lanying (孙兰英) were waiting for a meeting at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—charged with rooting out corruption and malfeasance among Party cadres—when more than 10 individuals appeared and tried to abduct some of them, and pressured them to drop their efforts. They were able to escape, but on the afternoon of June 10, Chen went with the group to the State Bureau for Letters and Visits and then went off alone to fetch materials, and he has been out of contact ever since. Witnesses have reported seeing plainclothes police surrounding Chen on that day, and that police knocked him unconscious, blindfolded him, and drove him away. (Human Rights Campaign in China)[iv]
Harassment of Activists’ Family Members
Police Monitor Zeng Jinyan, Wife of Hu Jia, Ahead of His Release
On June 20, Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕) indicated via Twitter that eight individuals had escorted her away the previous day from the Beijing airport after she arrived from Shenzhen, temporarily putting her out of contact. She also wrote that she was able to meet Hu Jia (胡佳) in prison. CHRD believes that she was met at the airport by public security police and taken to the Beijing Municipal Prison to see Hu before being sent home, where she was probably put under surveillance. So that her 3-year-old daughter will be spared residential surveillance—which Hu Jia is very likely to be placed under when he gets out of prison—Zeng has told friends that she intends to leave the child with her family in Shenzhen. In her Twitter messages, Zeng remarked that the incident at the airport may portend what her life will normally be like from now on. She also wrote that, during her visit with Hu, she encouraged him to take care of himself as his sentence nears its scheduled completion on June 26, when Zeng plans to go to the prison to meet him. (CHRD)
Police Assault Wife of Democracy Activist Xu Wanping as She Tries to Visit Him in Prison
CHRD has learned from Chen Xianying (陈贤英), the wife of Chongqing dissident Xu Wanping (许万平), that she was beaten and kicked by prison police officers on June 16 when she and their child went to visit Xu at Yuzhou Prison in Chongqing Municipality. In order to escape from the sun, the child sought a shady area on the prison grounds to rest. Personnel from prison management appeared and told Chen that their presence was affecting their work, and for the next two hours kept Chen and the child at the prison gate in the strong midday sun. They were then taken to a police pavilion next to the prison gate and about half-an-hour later, five or six uniformed and plainclothes police officers entered, and they began to insult Chen and the child. Chen tried in vain to explain the situation and begged them to stop their abuse. The officers then beat and kicked her; when they paused for a moment, she was able to call for an ambulance. The officers were preparing to beat her again when the ambulance arrived. Chen spoke with CHRD en route to the hospital, and said that her whole body was in pain, she felt weak and dizzy, and her chest was tight. (CHRD)[v]
Xu Wanping was a worker activist in Chongqing during the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, and has spent much of the past two decades in prison, mostly due to his efforts to establish the China Action Party and a local branch of the China Democracy Party. He is now serving a 12-year sentence for “subversion of state power” (颠覆国家政权罪).
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment
Jiangxi Woman Forcibly Sterilized as Punishment for Exposing Illegal Land Requisition
Zhang Julan (张菊兰), from Pingchuan Village, Hexia Town, in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, was violently beaten and then forced to undergo tubal ligation in May after exposing illegal land requisition by local officials. The 45-year-old Zhang reportedly is still in a hospital trying to recover from her physical ordeal. At 3 p.m. on May 17, Zhang was among 10 villagers who went to the town government building to look for the mayor and discuss the use of illegally requisitioned land. Government staff then brought over more than 10 individuals, including staff from the Hexia Family Planning Station and some thugs, who stormed the mayor’s office. They violently struck and kicked Zhang and took her away to the family planning station, where tubal ligation surgery was forcibly performed on her after she refused to give consent. On the night after the surgery, the mayor, Hu Xiaoyang (胡小阳), and family planning officers tried to force Zhang to sign an agreement to demolish her house, admit that a birth certificate listing her two children (twins) had been falsified, and to say that she had retroactively agreed to the ligation. Zhang refused all these demands. Since May 19, she has been hospitalized for medical treatment for injuries she sustained, including numbness in her arms and legs, bouts of unconsciousness, headaches, back pain, and painful wounds. (CHRD)[vi]
Editors of this issue: Victor Clemens and Renee Xia
Follow us on Twitter: @CHRDnet
[i] “Chen Wei Case Submitted to Procuratorate, Attorney Again Prevented from Meeting Him,” (四川陈卫案已移交检察 院，律师前往会见再次遇阻), June 17, 2011,
http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_8874.html; “News Flash: Suining, Sichuan Rights Activist Chen Wei Criminally Detained” (快讯：四川遂宁维权人士陈卫被刑事拘 留), February 22, 2011, http://boxun.com/hero/201102/chrd/9_1.shtml
[ii] “Beijing Rights Defense Activist Wang Yuqin Given 14 Days’ Administrative Detention,” (北京维权人士王玉琴被行政拘留十四天), June 16, 2011,
http://www.msguancha.com/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=14344; Individuals Affected by the Crackdown Following Call for “Jasmine Revolution,” June 17, 2011 (updated), https://www.nchrd.org/2011/04/15/jasmine_crackdown/,
[iii] “Chinese Elections Expert Yao Lifa Goes Missing,” (中国选举专家姚立法先生失踪), June 20, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_8197.html;
“Several Windows Smashed Overnight at Home of Elections Expert Yao Lifa,” (选举专家姚立法家中深夜被数次砸破窗户), June 18, 2011,
http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_4437.html; “Qianjiang Group Prohibits Yao Lifa from Using Phone, Talking With Others,” (潜江小组会议禁止姚立法接打电话及与人交谈), June 16, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_7846.html; “Elections Expert Yao Lifa Subjected to Restrictions on Personal Liberty After Call from U.S. Embassy,” (选举专家姚立法接美国使馆电话后被限 制人身自由), June 12, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_12.html
[iv] Xinjiang Rights Defense Activist Chen Zhixin Kidnapped in Beijing, Fate Unknown,” (新疆维权人士陈志新在京遇袭劫持生死 不明), June 15, 2011,
http://rightscampaign.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_2303.html
[v] “Wife of Xu Wanping Beaten When Visiting Prison,” (许万平妻子探监遭到殴打), June 16, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_8088.html
[vi] “Xinyu Village, Jiangxi Woman Undergoes Forced Tubal Ligation for Exposing Illegal Land Requisition,” (江西新余村妇因揭露违规征地被强制结扎), June 19, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_9318.html