[CHRB] Police Detain Online Whistleblowers as Judicial Interpretation Takes Effect (9/20-25, 2013)

September 26, 2013       Comments Off on [CHRB] Police Detain Online Whistleblowers as Judicial Interpretation Takes Effect (9/20-25, 2013)

China Human Rights Briefing

September 20-25, 2013

Contents

Arbitrary Detention

• Update on Crackdown on Peaceful Assembly & Association

Beijing Police Detain Associate of Open Constitution Initiative

 

Enforced Disappearance

• Activist Cao Shunli Still Missing Since 9/14, When Authorities Blocked Her From Going to Human Rights Training in Geneva

 

Freedom of Expression

• Two Detained for Online Expression as New Judicial Interpretation Takes Effect

• Anti-Corruption Crusader Detained for Disclosing Officials’ Scandals Online

 

Arbitrary Detention

Update on Crackdown on Peaceful Assembly & Association

Beijing Police Detain Associate of Open Constitution Initiative

Beijing activist Lin Zheng (林峥), an associate of the banned NGO “Open Constitution Initiative” (Gongmeng), was put under criminal detention on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” on September 16. Lin has participated in the New Citizens’ Movement, a grouping of activists led by Gongmeng founder and legal advocate Xu Zhiyong (许志永). The movement has been targeted in the clampdown on assembly and association since March. Lin has been involved in efforts to rescue detained petitioners in “black jails,” expose child slave labor, and protest discrimination against migrant laborers’ children deprived of their education rights. Lin Zheng is being detained at Beijing No. 3 Detention Center, like more than a dozen others with ties to the New Citizens’ Movement.[1]

CHRD has confirmed the criminal detentions or disappearances of 58 individuals in China who have been seized in the ongoing crackdown, half of whom have been formally arrested.

 

Enforced Disappearance

Activist Cao Shunli Still Missing Since 9/14, When Authorities Blocked Her From Going to Human Rights Training in Geneva

Beijing-based activist Cao Shunli (曹顺利) remains missing since she was abducted at the Beijing Capital International Airport on September 14, when she was to take a flight to Geneva to attend a training on UN human rights mechanisms (see CHRD’s recent alert). Since 2008, Cao has persistently advocated for civil society participation in China’s preparation for Universal Periodic Review (UPR), particularly in the drafting of the national human rights reports. She has been detained several times by police in retaliation against her campaign.

Another activist invited to the training, Chen Jianfang (陈建芳) of Shanghai, was intercepted by airport security agents at the Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou. Chen was taken away for questioning for 10 hours when she returned to Shanghai. Anhui activist Zhou Weilin (周维林) was criminally detained one week before he was to travel to attend the same program. Chinese authorities also rejected applications for passports by other invitees, and warned others about serious consequences if they went to the training program. With these actions, the government went further than in past years to block activists from attending the same program, indicating authorities are on high alert with the UN Human Rights Council’s UPR on China set for October 22, and as China seeks election to the Human Rights Council in November.[2]

 

Freedom of Expression

Two Detained for Online Expression as New Judicial Interpretation Takes Effect

Two individuals, including a high school student, were recently detained for using social media to question police handling of a man’s death. The detentions are the first known applied instances of a judicial interpretation on “spreading rumors” and “defamation” online that took effect on September 10 (see the interpretation, issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in Chinese and English translation).

On September 17, police put 16-year old Yang Hui (杨辉) under criminal detention in Gansu Province on a charge of “creating a disturbance” after he disclosed doubts about how a local man died; police declared the death a suicide, while the man’s family believe he was beaten to death. On September 16, Sha Xiaolong (沙小龙), a migrant laborer, was taken into custody and given a 10-day detention for sharing information online about the same case. According to state media, police said that Yang’s posts spread false information that “disrupted public order,” and that it had also been re-posted online by others more than 500 times—a standard specified in the new interpretation for punishing authors of online posts. Yang Hui was eventually freed after serving a seven-day administrative detention in Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County. Besides these two detentions, five other individuals were ordered to pay fines by police for being associated with posts about the “suicide.”[3]

 

Anti-Corruption Crusader Detained for Disclosing Officials’ Scandals Online

Police in Hunan Province have criminally detained Duan Xiaowen (段小文), a netizen known by the screen name “Uncle Anti-Corruption” (反腐大叔观音土), on suspicion of “creating a disturbance.” Duan has used the Internet to disclose corruption of officials in Lengshuijiang City in cases involving an appointment to a government post, evictions and demolitions, and other issues. Police seized Duan on September 22, searched his home, and confiscated his computer. Duan was put under criminal detention the next day and is being held at Lengshuijiang City Detention Center.[4]