China Human Rights Briefing June 29-July 6, 2011

July 6, 2011       Comments Off on China Human Rights Briefing June 29-July 6, 2011

China Human Rights Briefing

June 29-July 6, 2011

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Highlights

• Guangxi Lawyer Yang Zaixin Arrested: Rights Defense Lawyer Yang Zaixin (杨在新), who has been held at the Beihai City Detention Center in Guangxi Province since June 14 on suspicion of “obstructing testimony,” was formally arrested in the morning of June 29. Three other lawyers who were detained at the same time were released on bail a day earlier.

• Thousands of Petitioners Detained Around CCP Anniversary: Several thousand petitioners in Beijing have reportedly been held at the Jiujingzhuang Black Jail and in other locations after being swept up around July 1, the 90^th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. CHRD also received information on the individual experiences of some petitioners.

Contents

Arbitrary Detention

• Updates on Detentions and Disappearances Related to the “Jasmine Revolution” Crackdown
• Guangxi Rights Defense Lawyer Yang Zaixin Arrested, Three Others Released on Bail
• Thousands of Petitioners Detained Around Chinese Communist Party Anniversary

Harassment of Activists’ Family Members

• Authorities Harass Wife of Missing Elections Expert Yao Lifa
• Parents of Xue Mingkai Beaten After Petitioning in Beijing

Enforced Disappearance

• Members of Guizhou Human Rights Forum Go Missing
• Beijing Lawyer Abducted from Beijing, Last Heard from in Hebei

Local NPC Election Watch

• Jiangxi Authorities Harass Independent Candidates, Lawyer Investigating Election Results

Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment

• Anhui Petitioner Subjected to Ongoing Abuse in RTL Facility

Arbitrary Detention

Updates on Detentions and Disappearances Related to the “Jasmine Revolution” Crackdown

CHRD has learned that Qian Jin (钱进), a pro-democracy activist from Bengbu City, Anhui Province who had been forcibly detained in a psychiatric hospital since February 26, was released on June 29. Qian’s release from Anhui Huaiyuan Rongguang Hospital came later than anticipated—Bengbu national security officers indicated weeks ago that his release was imminent—and after persistent efforts by Bengbu democracy activists to gain Qian his freedom. On the evening of June 30, activists welcomed Qian home with a celebratory dinner and found that his psychological state was excellent. Qian explained that although he had been ordered to take a pill every day while a doctor or nurse watched, he figured out how to dupe them. He would press the pill down under this tongue, take a few sips of water while they watched, then as soon as they turned away he would spit the pill out into his palm and shove it into his pants pocket.

Qian’s activism on behalf of ordinary Chinese citizens has long angered local authorities, who increased their monitoring of Qian during the “Jasmine Revolution” crackdown and took him away on February 25 when they suspected he was planning to go to Hefei City to participate in a “Jasmine Stroll.” The next day, he was detained in the psychiatric hospital. Bengbu democracy activists who sought Qian’s release were repeatedly threatened and summoned by police for questioning. (CHRD)[i]

Guangxi Rights Defense Lawyer Yang Zaixin Arrested, Three Others Released on Bail

Four Guangxi lawyers were recently detained in connection with their defense of individuals accused of a beating death in Beihai City, Guangxi Province. On June 29, the local procuratorate approved the arrest of rights defense lawyer Yang Zaixin (杨在新), who has been held at the Beihai City Detention Center since June 14 on suspicion of “obstructing testimony.” The three other lawyers—Luo Sifang (罗思方), Liang Wucheng (梁武诚), and Yang Zhonghan (杨忠汉)—were released on bail (取保候审) on the evening of June 28.

On June 28, two members of a group of lawyers who have come together to support Yang visited him at the detention center. When Shandong lawyer Chen Guangwu (陈光武) and Beijing-based lawyer Zhang Kai (张凯) met with Yang, he appeared distraught and said he hoped the Ministry of Justice and the All-China Lawyers’ Association would take interest in his case, and also safeguard the basic rights of China’s criminal lawyers to practice law. Other members of the lawyers’ group now working on Yang’s case include Zhu Mingyong (朱明勇), Wu Lei (伍雷), Wang Xing (王兴), and Yang Mingkua (杨名跨). (CHRD)[ii]

Thousands of Petitioners Detained Around Chinese Communist Party Anniversary

In the past week, several thousand petitioners in Beijing have reportedly been held at the Jiujingzhuang Black Jail and in other locations after being swept up to prevent them from disrupting the July 1 celebrations of the 90^th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Petitioners who were intercepted by police throughout the city were all transferred to Jiujingzhuang, a temporary detention facility where petitioners are registered and sorted before they are taken back to their hometowns by local officials. Among the thousands detained include more than 800 from Shanghai and 200 petitioners from Fujian Province. Having to deal with the enormous number of detainees, officials from various government Letter and Visits Offices who had set up office at Jiujingzhuang were not accepting petitioners’ written complaints but simply recording the origins of petitioners so that they could inform local authorities to come fetch them. While detained, many petitioners have been deprived of food and water and endured unusually overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, in some cases for days. (Human Rights Campaign in China)

CHRD has received information on petitioners recently detained in black jails in Beijing, including some who were sent back home after the wave of detentions:

• After 5 p.m. on June 29, officers from the Youanmen Police Station approached a group of petitioners near the Beijing South Railway Station and took away, among others, An Shaorong (安绍荣) of Guizhou City, Guangxi Province, and Hubei petitioner Liu Jiegang (刘介刚). On July 2, a petitioner received a phone call from An, who tearfully said she was being held in an underground room at the Beijing East Railway Station. A group of petitioners was able to find where An was being detained, but railway police officers would not let them see An, nor allow them to give her anything. As of July 4, there was no further information available about An, who could not be reached by phone.

• Around 3:30 p.m. on July 1, seven petitioners from Chengdu City, Sichuan Province were taken away by police officers before they were able to unfurl banners on Tiananmen Square. Six of them were held at Jiujingzhuang before being taken back to Chengdu in the early morning of July 2 in the company of five security guards. Though these six have returned home, one of them, Hu Jinqiong (胡金琼), was beaten on a street in Shuangliu County in the morning of July 6 by unidentified individuals. Police reportedly took no action even after Hu reported the incident.

The other petitioner in this group, Jiang Yuqiong (蒋玉琼), was taken to Tuoyue Hotel in Beijing on the evening of July 1 and, upon being escorted back to Chengdu, was held at the Yongning Police Station, where she was not given adequate food and felt a great amount of stress due to the situation, causing her to have problems with her blood pressure. She was subsequently taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The whereabouts of four more Chengdu petitioners who had gone to Beijing with the above individuals are still unknown. These petitioners—Wang Binru (王彬如), Shi Guangyun (帅光云), Zhang Xiufang (张秀芳), and Chen Guoping (陈国平)—were taken from Tiananmen Square by interceptors from the Wenjiang District government. Their phones have been off, and they also have not been in contact with their families.

• On the evening of July 2, police officers at Jiujingzhuang beat Meng Qingxiu (孟庆秀), from Sanhe City, Hebei Province, and then dragged her away to a police station after she became angry with police over their poor treatment of some older petitioners. Her whereabouts remain unknown at the time of writing. Meng had been detained in the black jail the previous day, but at 7:20 p.m. on July 2, Meng called her husband and informed him she was being held at a police station. Her family members then rushed to Beijing, but the black jail personnel refused to provide information about Meng.

• Five petitioners from Sanbozi Township, Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, have been detained in a black jail in their hometown after being intercepted in Beijing. The group was abducted around midnight on July 1 and forcibly taken back to Hebei by a large number of township cadres and public security officers. The petitioners were turned over to the county public security bureau and taken in the morning of July 2 to the local civilian militia’s compound, which has barbed wire along the walls, guards stationed at entrances, and bars covering the windows. (CHRD)

• Peng Qingguo (彭庆国) and Sun Qiong (孙琼), petitioners from Changsha City, Hunan Province, were held at Jiujingzhuang until July 2, when security guards from Changsha came to forcibly take them back home. During the one-day return trip to Changsha, they were only given one meal to eat, were not allowed to use a toilet, and had their cell phones confiscated. When Sun complained about this treatment, the guards beat Sun and, upon reaching Changsha, placed Sun in the custody of the Changsha County Traffic Police, who had not allowed Sun to go home at the time of writing.

• Yin Huimin (尹慧敏), from Changning District in Shanghai, arrived in Beijing on July 1 to petition, but was taken into custody by police officers near Tiananmen Square and sent to Jiujingzhuang. On July 3, after Yin had been forcibly returned to Shanghai, the Huayang Police Station in Changning punished her by giving her a seven-day administrative detention. Yin has indicated that she would go on a hunger strike while in detention. (Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch)[iii]

Harassment of Activists’ Family Members

Authorities Harass Wife of Missing Elections Expert Yao Lifa

Feng Ling (冯玲), the wife of Yao Lifa (姚立法), the democracy activist from Qianjiang City, Hubei Province who has been missing since June 20 for his advocacy related to local People’s Congress elections, has been subject to intense monitoring and harassment as she has continued to ask authorities about Yao’s disappearance. The electricity and water at their home have recently been cut off, and Feng has been unable to leave the residence, which is being monitored by more than ten surveillance personnel and a vehicle. At around 4 p.m. on July 5, Feng was forced under duress—with no electricity, food, and water for her and her two-year-old child—to allow two security guards from Yao’s school who had been charged with monitoring him to search the home. The previous day, Feng received a phone call from someone who threatened to break in, and some individuals pounded on her front door. A week earlier, Feng had gone to the Qianjiang City Letters and Visits Bureau and the Public Security Bureau to ask about the whereabouts of her husband. She was either told to go talk to the school where Yao is employed or threatened with “consequences” for creating a disturbance. (CHRD)[iv]

Parents of Xue Mingkai Beaten After Petitioning in Beijing

Wang Shuqing (王书清) and Xue Fushun (薛夫顺), the parents of Xue Mingkai (薛明凯), a pro-democracy activist from Qufu City, Shandong Province, were beaten in late June for trying to petition the government to complain about both their son’s criminal detention and also the beatings Wang endured during a stint in Re-education through Labor (RTL). On June 23, Wang and her husband went to petition at the High People’s Procuratorate in Beijing about their son’s recent detention in the “Jasmine Revolution” crackdown but were intercepted and handed over to personnel from the Liaison Office of Jining City, Shandong Province. On the morning of June 24, four or five employees came into a room at the office and beat Xue Fushun, and then put the couple in a vehicle to send them back to Shandong. Late that evening, Wang and Xue were dumped on the roadside in Dezhou City. Shortly thereafter, another vehicle came and five or six individuals got out and beat Xue with clubs. At this time, Xue is still unable to walk from the injuries he suffered. (Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch)[v]

Xue Mingkai was detained this past February and then formally arrested for “inciting subversion of state power” (煽动颠覆国家政权罪), and is being held at the Jining City Detention Center. In October 2010, Wang Shuqing was sent to one year of RTL by police in Jining for petitioning about her son’s previous imprisonment. Though given a one-year RTL penalty in October 2010, she was released from detention early this year after being subjected to severe beatings.

Enforced Disappearance

Members of Guizhou Human Rights Forum Go Missing

By the morning of July 1, most members of the Guizhou Human Rights Forum were missing and could not be contacted due to increased monitoring and harassment around the CCP anniversary. On the afternoon of June 30, Guiyang City National Security Officers took Tian Zuxiang (田祖湘) away to the Guiyang Public Security Bureau after he and other members of the Guizhou Human Rights Forum arranged to get together. Soon thereafter, Xu Guoqing (徐国庆) and several others were prohibited from going out, and Wu Yuqin (吴玉琴) and Mo Jiangang (莫建刚), who had arrived at the meeting place, were forcibly taken to the local police station. In addition, Yong Zhiming (雍志明) told CHRD that he would be forced to “take a trip.” When police arrived at the home of Chen Xi (陈西), he sent an online message to his friends warning them: “We’re going to go missing again, public security officers are at my door.” Messages sent back to him were not returned, but his computer was reportedly still online. Friends speculate that officers had entered his home and taken Chen away before he could shut down his computer. (CHRD)[vi]

Beijing Lawyer Abducted from Beijing, Last Heard from in Hebei

CHRD learned that lawyer Jin Guanghong (金光鸿) was abducted in Beijing and taken by car towards Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, and then abandoned along the highway at the Shanhaiguan service area in Hebei Province. Jin was able to make a brief call from the service area to a Mr. Lin, who then spoke with CHRD. Jin’s call was quickly cut off, and further attempts to reach him on his cell phone have been unsuccessful. At the time of writing, Jin’s whereabouts and situation are unknown. It is believed that he was likely abducted by Beijing “stability maintenance” enforcement personnel intent on restricting his freedom around the CCP anniversary. Back in April, Jin was detained for about 10 days in a detention center and then a psychiatric hospital, where he was beaten, tied to a bed, given injections of unknown substances, and forced to ingest unidentified medicine. (CHRD)[vii]

Local NPC Election Watch

Jiangxi Authorities Harass Independent Candidates, Lawyer Investigating Election Results

On July 4, Liu Ping (刘萍) and Li Sihua (李思华), two independent People’s Congress candidates from Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, and a lawyer from Wuhan surnamed Wu, went to the Xihe Management Office (in Xijiadu Village) to investigate the situation with the June 29 election held at the Tongzhou Subdistrict Office in Yushui District. After they arrived, one village cadre was extremely rude to them, and when Liu Ping attempted to photograph postings on the wall of election results, several staff members from the village committee rushed over and instigated a physical altercation with Liu and Wu. Liu’s cell phone was destroyed and his camera thrown onto a roof. Liu and Wu later went to the Baoshi Road Police Station to file a report on what had transpired. (Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch)[viii]

Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Anhui Petitioner Subjected to Ongoing Abuse in RTL Facility

CHRD has learned of the continuous physical abuse of Ding Meifang (丁美芳), a 54-year-old petitioner from Hefei City, Anhui Province, serving prison time in the Anhui Women’s Re-education through labor (RTL) facility. Ding was given a one-and-a-half-year sentence by the Hefei City People’s Court after climbing a tower in Beijing last November to bring attention to her grievance. During her detention, Ding’s legs have been permanently debilitated due to being forced to sit on a low stool for up to 17 or 18 hours a day and from beatings by public security officers. The RTL facility has not responded to Ding’s requests for medical treatment, and has denied her family’s appeal to release Ding on medical grounds. Ding has reportedly been subject to abuse because she did not agree with the court’s original decision and due to her “troublesome” attitude. Ding’s past petitioning involved seeking compensation for medical expenses and demanding a criminal investigation of her beating by police in Hefei in 2008. (CHRD)[ix]

Editors of this issue: Victor Clemens and Renee Xia

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