September 2005 Archives
from BBC News
China's treatment of Uighurs living in its western region of Xinjiang risks turning the area into a "time bomb", an exiled Uighur group has said.
The World Uighur Congress (WUC) issued the warning as China prepared to celebrate 50 years of rule in Xinjiang.
A separate video, allegedly made by the East Turkestan Liberation Organisation, said it would use all means possible to launch an armed struggle against China.
China brands such groups terrorists and has vowed to crack down on separatists.
Concern over the situation in Xinjiang prompted the US to issue a statement on Friday warning American travellers in the region to be vigilant against an attack there, saying: "terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets".
By JOSEPH KAHN - The New York Times
BEIJING, Sept. 25 - China on Sunday imposed more restrictions intended to limit the news and other information available to Internet users, and it sharply restricted the scope of content permitted on Web sites.
The rules are part of a broader effort to roll back what the Communist Party views as a threatening trend toward liberalization in the news media. Taken together, the measures amount to a stepped-up effort to police the Internet, which has become a dominant source of news and information for millions of urban Chinese.
Major search engines and portals like Sina.com and Sohu.com, used by millions of Chinese each day, must stop posting their own commentary articles and instead make available only opinion pieces generated by government-controlled newspapers and news agencies, the regulations stipulate.
The rules also state that private individuals or groups must register as "news organizations" before they can operate e-mail distribution lists that spread news or commentary. Few individuals or private organizations are likely to be allowed to register as news organizations, meaning they can no longer legally distribute information by e-mail.
Existing online news sites, like those run by newspapers or magazines, must "give priority" to news and commentary pieces distributed by the leading national and provincial news organs.
By KEITH BRADSHER - The New York Times
HONG KONG, Sept. 25 - Hong Kong's chief executive led all but one member of the city's legislature across the border to mainland China today, starting a two-day trip that marks the first time Beijing authorities have let in prominent Hong Kong advocates of democracy since the Tiananmen Square killings on June 4, 1989.
The lawmakers' trip marks the latest in a series of steps by the Chinese government to placate critics here who want greater democracy. Democracy advocates have long criticized Beijing, but agreed to the trip here without conditions.
The visit produced a heated discussion late this evening in Guangzhou over events in Tiananmen Square at a closed-door meeting between Hong Kong lawmakers and a powerful member of China's Politburo, said Ronny Tong, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association who is now a pro-democracy lawmaker and attended the meeting.
The lawmakers met Zhang Dejiang, one of the 23 members of the Chinese Communist Party's ruling Politburo and the party secretary for Guangdong province, which abuts Hong Kong and includes some of China's wealthiest cities.
"The last hour was questions; at least four democrats stood up and asked quite pointed questions, and there was a fiery exchange," said Mr. Tong, a member of the Article 45 Concern Group in the legislature. "The government officials steadfastly refused that there would be a revision on June 4."
By JOSEPH KAHN - The New York Times
ANYANG, China - For three days and three nights, the police wrenched Qin Yanhong's arms high above his back, jammed his knees into a sharp metal frame, and kicked his gut whenever he fell asleep. The pain was so intense that he watched sweat pour off his face and form puddles on the floor.
On the fourth day, he broke down. "What color were her pants?" they demanded. "Black," he gasped, and felt a whack on the back of his head. "Red," he cried, and got another punch. "Blue," he ventured. The beating stopped.
This is how Mr. Qin, a 35-year-old steel mill worker in Henan Province in central China, recalled groping in the darkness of a interrogation room to deduce the "correct" details of a rape and murder, end his torture and give the police the confession they required to close a nettlesome case.
On the strength of his coerced confession alone, prosecutors indicted Mr. Qin. A panel of judges then convicted him and sentenced him to death. He is alive today only because of a rare twist of fate that proved his innocence and forced the authorities to let him go, though not before a final push to have him executed anyway.
Justice in China is swift but not sure. Criminal investigations nearly always end in guilty pleas. Prosecutors almost never lose cases brought to trial. But recent disclosures of wrongful convictions like Mr. Qin's have exposed deep flaws in a judicial system that often answers more to political leaders than the law.
Appearing to promote peace and development while generals talk war
By Matt Gnaizda
NEW YORK - Chinese top leader Hu Jintao delivered two speeches to the United Nations General Assembly last week, the first addressing aid for developing countries, and the second—to the suspicion of some analysts—focusing on peace, fair trade, and global responsibility.
Hu’s first speech outlined five new measures for China to provide aid to developing nations, especially in Africa. The measures include medicine, direct aid, and $10 billion in loans. All five aid offers excluded countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which Beijing refuses to recognize as a sovereign state.
Many China-watchers believe that Beijing’s support of African countries is intended to influence their U.N. votes. In his comments on development, Hu made no mention of the hundreds of millions of peasants that live in abject poverty in his own country.
How local officials in China launched a brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations
By HANNAH BEECH/SHANDONG - TIME magazine
The men with the poison-filled syringe arrived two days before Li Juan's due date. They pinned her down on a bed in a local clinic, she says, and drove the needle into her abdomen until it entered the 9-month-old fetus. "At first, I could feel my child kicking a lot," says the 23-year-old. "Then, after a while, I couldn't feel her moving anymore." Ten hours later, Li delivered the girl she had intended to name Shuang (Bright). The baby was dead. To be absolutely sure, says Li, the officials--from the Linyi region, where she lives, in China's eastern Shandong province--dunked the infant's body for several minutes in a bucket of water beside the bed. All she could think about on that day last spring, recalls Li, was how she would hire a gang of thugs to take revenge on the people who killed her baby because the birth, they said, would have violated China's family-planning scheme.
from BBC News
China will no longer treat death tolls in natural disasters as a state secret, the Xinhua news agency reports.
The move is a bid to make government more transparent, a spokesman for the official body for state secrets said.
The declassification of such figures would help disaster prevention and relief work, he added.
Death tolls from natural disasters have been closely guarded secrets in China for decades. Unauthorised attempts to obtain figures have led to jail terms.
By HOWARD W. FRENCH - The New York Times
GOLMUD, China, Sept. 3 - By the time the great railroad reaches this town from the east, it will already have traversed more than half of China, past the high desert of Qinghai, around one of the world's great salt lakes, through the arid fastness of Gansu and over and around mountain ranges arrayed like endless sets of waves all the way to Beijing.
The biggest challenges, however, lie in another direction altogether, when the line heads south for a 685-mile run to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, over what is often called the roof of the world. For long stretches the railway, which is fast nearing completion, will operate at altitudes higher than many small planes can fly, huffing and puffing far above the fragrant mists that roll down the Himalayan slopes. Indeed, the train, whose engines will need turbochargers just to get enough oxygen to run, will often soar above the clouds.
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Parliament urged China on Thursday to stop persecuting Christian clergy and lay people, spotlighting Beijing's poor human rights record despite their closer economic ties.
The European Union and China reached a textile trade deal to control the Asian giant's surging exports at a summit this week. Beijing said it would buy European Airbus planes while the EU said it would give Beijing technology to curb global warming.
Every case is a bloody debt incurred by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to the most recent statistics from Minghui.org, 61 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed to be tortured to death in mainland China during the month of August. Each of the 61 cases has been verified through non-government channels. Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, 2800 practitioners have been tortured to death in camps and detention centers that have been set up throughout China as part of the CCPs overarching plan to eradicate Falun Gong from the country.
from BBC News
The United Nation's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, has said she is "guardedly optimistic" that China is making progress on human rights.
But she questioned Beijing's widespread use of the death penalty, warning that some of those being executed might be victims of discrimination.
Ms Arbour was speaking at the end of a five day visit to Beijing.
During her trip an agreement was signed to bring China closer to ratifying a covenant on civil and political rights.
She also raised a number of cases of specific concern to the UN - including cases of detained journalists, labour activists and ethnic minorities - as well as highlighting treatment of Tibetans and the Muslim Uighur minority in the restive region of Xinjiang.
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