Beijing 2008: December 2007 Archives
By Daniel Griffiths | BBC News
29 December 2007
China is organising classes in cheering aimed at preparing Chinese sports fans for the Olympic Games next year.
For the Chinese government, the Beijing Olympics are a big part of the country's emergence onto the international stage.
It wants the games to be perfect - right down to the applause.
By RADIO FREE ASIA
December 30, 2007
As the city gears up to host the Olympic Games in 2008, authorities in Beijing have detained a prominent civil rights activist on charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and have demolished the last of a shanty town housing people lodging complaints against the government.
Chinese rights activist Hu Jia, best known for his advocacy work on behalf of those living with HIV/AIDS, has been detained by national security police in Beijing on charges of "incitement to subvert state power," a fellow activist said.
Hu was detained while in the middle of an exchange of instant messages via Skype with another rights activist, Qi Zhiyong, Qi told RFA's Cantonese service.
"I was chatting on Skype with Hu Jia, and it was right in the middle of that conversation that he was detained. The charge was incitement to subvert state power," Qi said.
"Hu's wife Zeng Jinyan, and their child and his mother-in-law are now under surveillance."
Shanty Town Cleared
"They have cut off all their means of communication with the outside world, and confiscated all their communications devices," Qi said.
Meanwhile, bulldozers cleared away the last shacks in "Petitioner village" near the southern railway station in the capital, petitioners say.
Beijing-based petitioner Zhao Shuling said: "It's because of the Olympic Games. The area around the southern railway station will become an international railway terminus, which will be huge, with three levels underground."
"Around the time of the Olympics, a lot of foreigners will come to Beijing, and the petitioner village will spoil the look of the city. That's why the authorities have demolished it."
Asked where the petitioners were going to live, Zhao replied, "Of course there's nowhere for them to go."
By Donald Greenlees and Keith Bradsher | The New York Times
December 30, 2007
Chinese officials announced Saturday that Hong Kong would have to wait at least another decade for democratic elections to select its leader, and for more than 12 years to have the right to directly elect the entire legislature.
The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the democracy aspirations of Hong Kong residents, and another sign that Beijing's current leaders have scant appetite for experimenting with greater public participation in political decision-making.
The Basic Law, the mini-Constitution imposed by China on Hong Kong after Britain returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997, raises the prospect of choosing Hong Kong leaders starting in 2007 by the principle of one person, one vote. But having already decided in 2004 to postpone universal suffrage until at least 2012, Beijing's leaders took the next step on Saturday of postponing action for at least five years after that.
Donald Tsang, the current chief executive who is Hong Kong's leader, plans to retire in 2012.
That has raised the prospect of a struggle among pro-Beijing political groups at that time over who might succeed him.
Pushing back even the possibility of universal suffrage until 2017 means that whoever succeeds Mr. Tsang would probably be running for re-election and would have all the advantages of an incumbent.
Delaying action until 2017 also means that Beijing's current leaders would leave the problem of how to handle Hong Kong to their successors, which will be chosen in 2012, as President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao are both expected to retire in early 2013.
The Chinese government's timetable for democratic reform in Hong Kong follows a decision by the Standing Committee of China's Parliament, the National People's Congress, to reject universal suffrage there in 2012, a timetable that opinion polls suggested is favored by a majority of the people of Hong Kong.
The earliest voters would be entitled to elect the chief executive by popular vote is now 2017. They must wait until 2020 before possibly having the opportunity to vote for the entire 60-seat Legislative Council.
By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
28 December 2007
Every day, monitoring stations across the city measure air pollution to determine if the skies above this national capital can officially be designated blue. It is not an act of whimsy: with Beijing preparing to play host to the 2008 Olympic Games, the official Blue Sky ratings are the city's own measuring stick for how well it is cleaning up its polluted air.
Thursday did not bring good news. The gray, acrid skies rated an eye-reddening 421 on a scale of 500, with 500 being the worst. Friday rated 500. Both days far exceeded pollution levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization. In Beijing, officials warned residents to stay indoors until Saturday, but residents here are accustomed to breathing foul air. One man flew a kite in Tiananmen Square.
For Beijing officials, Thursday was especially depressing because the city was hoping to celebrate an environmental victory. In recent years, Beijing has steadily increased its Blue Sky days. The city needs one more, defined as scoring below 101, to reach its goal of 245 Blue Sky days this year. These improving ratings are how Beijing hopes to reassure the world that Olympic athletes will not be gasping for breath next August.
"We're definitely hoping for the best," said Jon Kolb, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee, "but preparing for the worst."
For the world's Olympians, Beijing's air is a performance issue. The concern is that respiratory problems could impede athletic performance and prevent records from being broken. For the city's estimated 12 million residents, pollution is an inescapable health and quality-of-life issue. Skepticism about the validity of the Blue Sky ratings is common. Moreover, the concern is whether the city can clean itself up long after the Games are over.
Beijing has long ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities. To win the Games, Beijing promised a "Green Olympics" and undertook environmental initiatives now considered models for the rest of the country. But greening Beijing has not meant slowing it down. Officials also have encouraged an astonishing urbanization boom that has made environmental gains seem modest, if not illusory.
Beijing is like an athlete trying to get into shape by walking on a treadmill yet eating double cheeseburgers at the same time. Polluting factories have been moved or closed. But auto emissions are rising as the city adds up to 1,200 new cars and trucks every day. Dirty, coal-burning furnaces have been replaced, lowering the city's sulfur dioxide emissions. But fine-particle pollution has been exacerbated by a staggering citywide construction binge that shows no signs of letting up.
China's unsolved riddle is how to reconcile fast economic growth with environmental protection. But Beijing's Olympic deadline means the city needs an immediate answer. The ruling Communist Party envisions the Games as a public relations showcase and is leaving no detail untended. Scientists are cross-breeding chrysanthemums to ensure that flowers bloom in August.
By William Foreman - Associated Press - via Yahoo Malaysia! News
December 26, 2007
DONGZHOU, China - Trucks with loudspeakers drove through a fishing village in southern China on Wednesday, warning residents against protesting over a power plant they claim was built on unfairly seized land. Police briefly detained a foreign reporter before escorting him away from the village.
Scores of security forces, including military police riding on trucks, were guarding the road to the power station in Dongzhou, where three men were shot dead two years ago when police cracked down on a protest against the facility. Residents say the government gave them little or no compensation for the land used by the plant.
The long-simmering dispute began boiling again early this month when protesters blocked an electricity pylon that wasn't fully operational. Last week, Radio Free Asia _ a private broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress _ reported that about 1,000 riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Dongzhou.
One resident, who declined to give his name fearing arrest, confirmed the details of the Radio Free Asia report.
"They're telling us not to march in the streets anymore," the man whispered as one of the loudspeaker trucks cruised by in the center of the village. "It's still tense. There are about 1,000 security officers here. They've arrested some of the protest leaders in the past few days."
Other residents said the same thing, but they were reluctant to chat much about the protests in Dongzhou, on the southeastern coast of Guangdong _ one of China's most prosperous provinces.
The grievance is just one in a series of increasingly frequent confrontations across China between police and villagers angry over land seizures for construction of factories, shopping malls and other projects.
by CNN International | Source: The Associated Press
December 20, 2007
An online commentator who said next year's Beijing Olympics would force ordinary Chinese to live "like pigs and dogs" has been detained for nearly a week on a charge of subversion, his wife said Wednesday.
Though Beijing encourages Internet use for business and education, it tightly controls Web content, censoring anything it considers critical of -- or a threat to -- the Communist Party. Press freedom and human rights groups say China has jailed dozens of people for writings posted online.
Wang Dejia, who uses the pen name Jing Chu, has written numerous online articles about sensitive topics in China -- for example, backing Taiwan's bid for U.N. membership and criticizing Beijing for human rights abuses against journalists and dissidents.
Wang was taken from his home in Quanzhou County, part of southern China's Guilin city, early Friday on a charge of "subverting state authority," said his wife Wen Zhenyan. Officers confiscated his computer, memory cards, books and banking documents.
"The public security bureau said he was anti-communist," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Family members were told they were not allowed to visit Wang, who had often been under surveillance but never previously detained, his wife said.
In July, he told the Epoch Times, a newspaper linked to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, that China's central government was ignoring the needs of common Chinese in the lead-up to the Olympics. Instead, he said, the Communist Party was most concerned about cracking down on dissidents and building new venues.
"Let the people live like pigs and dogs, I think that's how it will achieve its goal of a harmonious society," he said in the interview.
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that Wang met with U.S. officials in October to discuss human rights issues. Wen said her husband did meet with a consular representative, but she didn't know what they talked about.
USA Today
December 11, 2007
The Olympics, to be held next summer in Beijing, are a source of immense national pride. China's communist government is presenting the Games as one huge coming out party, proof that it's a respected international power. To get the Olympics, it made promises on improving human rights in general and press freedom in particular.
Those promises, however, are looking increasingly empty.
In the past few months, at least 60 foreign journalists have been obstructed or detained by Chinese police -- this after China agreed in January to relax restrictions on foreign reporters, allowing them to travel more freely.
Swiss TV correspondent Barbara Luthi, for example, was recently hit and detained by authorities in Shenyou, a village near Beijing where unrest led to the deaths of several people two years ago. Two more Swiss journalists were detained as they reported on villagers who had been threatened in connection with a land dispute.
China also plans to conduct ID checks on 20,000 or more journalists covering the Games. The checks could be used to bar those who want to report on sensitive issues. "If they do not pass the tests, their accreditation requests will be refused," said Chinese official Yang Minghui, according to the press watch group Reporters Without Borders.
That China is hugely sensitive to criticism now is plain. Complaints by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) led to the easing of rules on foreign journalists. And when Hollywood stars threatened to call the Summer Games the "Genocide Olympics," Beijing belatedly pressured Sudan, where it buys oil, over Darfur. With pressure off on both those issues, the Chinese authorities are backsliding. This is no time to let up.
China has changed rapidly over the past quarter-century, but political freedoms haven't kept up with economic ones. Reporters Without Borders has documented about 100 Chinese journalists, cyberdissidents and free-speech activists jailed for "subversion" or "disseminating state secrets" -- often for revealing things the authorities want to hide, such as environmental dangers.
This moment, when the Chinese are susceptible to pressure, is a unique opportunity for the IOC to promote the cause of press freedoms. The more China opens up before the Games, the harder it will be to shut back down once the torch moves on.
By The Associated Press | The New York Times
05 December 2007
(Geneva, Switzerland): China continues to evict 13,000 people each month in preparation for the Beijing Olympics, despite worldwide attention and increased scrutiny, a housing rights group said Wednesday.
The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions said a recent trip to the Chinese capital confirmed an estimate it made earlier this year that 1.5 million people would be displaced by the time the 2008 Games are held.
Beijing says the group is grossly inflating the number of people being relocated as a result of the Olympic preparations, and that residents are content with the compensation they have received.
''Despite courageous protests inside China, and condemnation by many international human rights organizations, the Beijing municipality and Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games have persisted with these evictions and displacements,'' said Jean du Plessis, the Geneva-based COHRE's deputy director.
The group -- which claimed in June that 1.25 million had already been displaced -- said it returned to Beijing in August and found that forced evictions were continuing unabated.
In September, the Beijing municipality demolished several buildings in a run-down neighborhood called the ''petitioners' village'' in Fengtai District, which provided housing for thousands from all over China who came to complain to the central government about land seizures, forced evictions and corruption, COHRE said.
''Evictions in Beijing often involve the complete demolition of poor peoples' houses,'' the group said. ''The inhabitants are then forced to relocate far from their communities and workplaces, with higher transportation costs driving them further into poverty.
''In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterized by arbitrariness and lack of due process. In many cases, tenants are given little or no notice of their eviction and do not receive the promised compensation.''
The New York Times | Editorial
December 2nd, 2007
For a company that ostensibly believes in the Internet's liberating power, Yahoo has a gallingly backward understanding of the value of free expression.
The company helped Beijing's state police uncover the Internet identities of two Chinese journalists, who were handed 10 years in prison for disseminating pro-democracy writings. Testifying before Congress last year about one case, Yahoo's legal counsel said the company was unaware of the nature of the investigation. Did he miss the language about providing "state secrets to foreign entities" -- a red flag for a political prosecution?
Last month, Yahoo settled a suit by the families of the jailed journalists but it did not admit doing wrong and is refusing to change its procedures to avoid becoming a stool pigeon for China's police state again.
Yahoo's collaboration is appalling, and Yahoo is not the only American company helping the Chinese government repress its people. Microsoft shut down a blogger at Beijing's request. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft censor searches in China. Cisco Systems provided hardware used by Beijing to censor and monitor the Internet.
These companies argue that it is better for the Chinese people to have a censored Internet than no Internet. They say that they must abide by the laws of the countries they operate in. But the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the press, association and assembly. Those guarantees may be purely symbolic, but these companies -- which loudly protest Chinese piracy of their intellectual property -- have not tried to resist. What they are resisting are efforts in Congress that could help them stand against repressive governments.
Last January, Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey reintroduced the Global Online Freedom Act in the House. It would fine American companies that hand over information about their customers to foreign governments that suppress online dissent. The bill would at least give American companies a solid reason to decline requests for data, but the big Internet companies do not support it. That shows how much they care about the power of information to liberate the world.
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