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The Times of India

February 17, 2012

The Chinese government has detained several hundred Tibetans who returned from India after attending teaching sessions overseen by the Dalai Lama, and is forcing them to undergo political re-education, a human rights group said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it believed it was the first time since the late 1970s authorities had detained Tibetan laypeople in such large numbers, and comes as China frets about unrest in Tibetan parts of the country.

China allowed about 7,000 Tibetans to attend the sessions with exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Bihar in India between Dec. 31 and Jan. 10, in what the rights group said seemed to be a sign of a relaxation of policy towards Tibetans.

"However, that changed against a backdrop of unrest in the eastern Tibetan areas and apparent fears it might spread to Lhasa," it said in an emailed statement received on Friday, referring to Tibet's capital.

At least 15 Tibetans are believed to have died after setting themselves on fire since March in protests against Chinese rule, mostly in heavily Tibetan parts of China's Sichuan and Gansu provinces rather than in Tibet itself.

Tibetan advocacy groups say as many as seven Tibetans were shot dead and dozens wounded during protests in Sichuan in January. Chinese state media agency reported that police fired in self-defence on "mobs" that stormed police stations.

Activists say China violently stamps out Tibetan religious freedom and culture in Tibet, a vast, remote and largely mountainous region of western China in the Himalayas that has been under Chinese control since 1950.

China denies trampling on religious freedom and says its rule has bought much needed development.

Human Rights Watch said the detained Tibetans had travelled in and out of China on valid Chinese passports.

"There is no known regulation banning Tibetans from attending the teachings, and the returnees undergoing re-education have not been accused of any crime, such as carrying illicit documents or crossing the Chinese border without permission," it said.

"There are no reports so far that any of the estimated 700 ethnic Chinese from China who attended the Dalai Lama's teachings in Bihar have been detained on their return to China, suggesting that the detainees are being selected because of their ethnicity," the group added.

Calls to the Tibet government seeking comment were not answered.

Rights groups say that Tibetan parts of China have been put under even tighter security than normal ahead of Tibetan new year, which falls on Feb. 22.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

>> >>>> Original Source

By BBC World News

February 05, 2012

Three Tibetans have set fire to themselves in south-west China, reports say, in the latest apparent protest against rule from Beijing.

US-based Radio Free Asia said they had called for the return of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama during the protest in Sichuan province.

Exiled activists said one Tibetan died and the others had serious injuries.

If confirmed, the latest protest would mean 19 Tibetans had self-immolated in the past year and 13 of them had died.

Most of the protesters are Buddhist monks or nuns.

Western Sichuan is home to hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.

The BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing says the authorities have launched a heavy security crackdown, sealing off much of the area.

Telephone lines have been cut and checkpoints have been set up along main roads, he says.

Radio Free Asia quoted exiled sources saying the latest immolations took place in a village in Seda county on Friday.

The UK-based Free Tibet group issued a statement with a similar account of the incident.

However, an unnamed official at the local government told the Associated Press news agency on Sunday that "no such thing happened".

A Tibetan was shot dead by security forces in Seda town on 25 January, some 145km (90 miles) from the latest incident.

International media are denied access to the area, making it difficult to verify conflict accounts.

Beijing has described the self-immolators as terrorists.

Officials have also blamed outside forces, particularly the Dalai Lama, for encouraging these act of defiance.

He denies that and blames the heavy-handed treatment of Tibetans for causing discontent.

The Tibet Divide

    China says Tibet always part of its territory

>> Original Source

By Radio FREE Asia

30 January 2012

A year after calls for a Chinese 'Jasmine Revolution,' activists say they have been subjected to beatings and humiliation.

As Chinese activists mark the first anniversary of online calls for an Arab World-style "Jasmine Revolution" in China, authorities in the eastern province of Hangzhou announced they would try a prominent dissident for subversion.

The beginning of the Arab Spring in Tunisia last year sparked online calls for Chinese activists to begin their own Jasmine Revolution, prompting the detention and suveilance of hundreds of dissidents and rights defenders across the country.

Chinese activists say they were subjected to beatings, humiliation, and brainwashing techniques during the crackdown, which continues this week with the trial of Hangzhou-based pro-democracy activist Zhu Yufu for "incitement to subvert state power."

"The authorities used every kind of method to make people feel sub-human," said Beijing-based rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong. "This undermines a person's sense of themselves, and of their human dignity and values."

Guangzhou-based independent commentator Ye Du, who was himself detained for a period of time during the clampdown, was reluctant to discuss the experience.

"My treatment at that time was such that I can't bear to recollect it," Ye said.

Jiang said many of his friends and fellow activists felt similarly about their experiences at the hands of China's state security police.

While dozens of those detained by the authorities were eventually freed, many remain under close police surveillance. The Jasmine crackdown has also prompted a string of lengthy jail terms handed to prominent activists for subversion.

"They detained large numbers of people and eventually let them out again," said Wuhan-based rights activist Qin Yongmin.

"But just as everyone was thinking it was all behind us, and that they should let those remaining people go, they sentenced a whole string of people, Chen Xi, Li Tie, and Chen Wei, in the space of a month."

Leadership succession

Qin said he believed the jail sentences handed to the three activists were the result of nationwide preparations for a crucial leadership succession at the 18th Party Congress later this year.

"The authorities are hoping that nothing big will happen ahead of the 18th Congress," he said. "So they are showing political dissidents what they're made of."

Rights groups estimate that at least 40 activists were held under criminal detention in the two months that followed the calls for a Jasmine Revolution--proposed silent demonstrations in major Chinese cities--that, in the event, appeared to attract more police and journalists than protesters.

Authorities in Hangzhou meanwhile announced they would try Zhu Yufu, a founding member of the now-banned opposition China Democracy Party (CDP), for subversion on Tuesday, his wife said.

Zhu's trial would begin at th Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court at 9.00 a.m. local time, according to Jiang Hangli. Only two passes were issued for family to attend the proceedings, she said.

"Only close family members [can attend]," Jiang said, adding that she and the couple's daughter planned to attend the trial. "Even more distant relatives aren't allowed."

She said the case against her husband apparently hinged on a poem he posted online, titled "It is Time," calling on Chinese people to walk the streets in support of political change.

"I read the poem," Jiang said. "But my friends said they couldn't see anything in it ... The lawyer also said that he collected donations and asked about the families who had people in prison over Spring Festival."

"He also gave interviews to journalists; that's what the lawyer said."

'It Is Time'

Zhu was formally detained by Hangzhou police last March after he posted his poem, titled "It Is Time" online.

"It is time, people of China! It is time," the poem read. "The square belongs to us all; our feet are our own."

"It is time to use our feet to go to the square and to make a choice ... We should use our choices to decide the future of China," it said.

Zhu, 60, is a veteran activist who first caught the attention of the authorities during the Democracy Wall movement of 1978. He was sentenced in 1998 to a seven-year jail term for his involvement with an unprecedented attempt to register the Zhejiang provincial branch of the CDP as a civil organization with the authorities.

Prior to his most recent arrest, he had been under frequent surveillance by police.

Zhu's charge sheet mentioned his habit of giving interviews to foreign media, his publishing of "subversive" opinions, his propaganda on behalf of the CDP and his online promotion of calls for a Jasmine Revolution in China, according to fellow CDP activist Zou Wei.

Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Lin Ping for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source

By Edward Wong | The New York Times

January 06, 2012

President Hu Jintao has said China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the West's assault on the country's culture and ideology, according to an essay in a Communist Party policy magazine published this week. The publication of Mr. Hu's words signaled that a new major policy initiative announced in October would continue well into 2012.

The essay, which was signed by Mr. Hu and based on a speech he gave in October, drew a sharp line between the cultures of the West and China and effectively said the two sides were engaged in an escalating war. It was published in Seeking Truth, a magazine that evolved from a publication founded by Mao Zedong as a platform for establishing Communist Party principles.

"We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration," Mr. Hu said, according to a translation by The Associated Press.

"We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond," he added.

Those measures, Mr. Hu said, should be centered on developing cultural products that can draw the interest of the Chinese and meet the "growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people."

Chinese leaders have long lamented the fact that Western expressions of popular culture and art seem to overshadow those from China. The top-grossing films in China have been "Avatar" and "Transformers 3," and the music of Lady Gaga is as popular here as that of any Chinese pop singer. In October, at the sixth plenum of the party's Central Committee, where Mr. Hu gave his speech, officials discussed the need for bolstering the "cultural security" of China.

"The overall strength of Chinese culture and its international influence is not commensurate with China's international status," Mr. Hu said in his essay, according to another translation.

"The international culture of the West is strong while we are weak," he added.

Mr. Hu's words suggested that China would not lift anytime soon strict limits that it sets on imports of some cultural products. Each year, the agency in charge of regulating film allows only 20 foreign movies to potentially make a profit off their box office take here. Hollywood studios have long criticized that system and lobbied the United States government and international organizations to pressure China into scrapping or loosening the quota.

People involved in the arts here say the policy also means more government financing for Chinese companies to create cultural products, ranging from books to live musical productions. At the same time, officials have been encouraging many cultural industries to become more market driven and rely less on government subsidies.

Some investors might see the government's announcement of support for more creative works to be positive, but the policy also runs counter to market freedoms, emphasizing the need to censor cultural expressions that the government deems unacceptable.

In his essay, Mr. Hu did not address the widespread assertion by Chinese artists and intellectuals that state censorship is what prevents artists and their works from reaching their full potential. In late December, Han Han, a novelist and China's most popular blogger, discussed the issue in an online essay called "On Freedom."

"The restriction on cultural activities makes it impossible for China to influence literature and cinema on a global basis or for us culturati to raise our heads up proud," Han Han wrote.

The publication of Mr. Hu's essay and other articles in Seeking Truth about bolstering China's cultural power signaled that this would be a central initiative in 2012, which is a transition year for the Chinese leadership. Seven of the top nine party members, including Mr. Hu, will step down from the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Mr. Hu appeared keen to enshrine the culture drive as a final defining moment of his decade-long tenure at China's helm.

The Central Committee meeting in October established the ideological foundation for a tightening of the cultural sphere that is only now beginning to unfold. Right after the meeting, officials announced a sweeping new policy to wipe scores of so-called entertainment shows off the air. That took effect on Sunday, and Xinhua reported Tuesday that the number of prime-time entertainment shows was now at 38, down from 126.

Last month, officials in Beijing and other cities ordered Internet companies based there to ensure that people posting on microblogs had registered their accounts using their real names, though they could still post under an alias. Officials have been putting pressure on executives and editors running the microblog platforms to self-censor, and many microblog users say the microblogs have been getting less interesting.

At the same time, China has been making a push to increase its cultural influence abroad, or its "soft power." The government has opened up Confucius Institutes around the world to aid foreigners in learning Chinese. The state is also lavishing money on opening operations of large state-run news organizations, including Xinhua, the state news agency, and China Central Television, in cities around the world. Officials from those organizations say they hope their version of the world events becomes as common as those from Western news organizations.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia

December 27, 2011

The security checks are believed to be part of a 100-day 'strike hard' anti-terror campaign in Xinjiang.

Authorities in China's troubled northwestern Xinjiang region have stepped up security checks on citizens, an overseas rights group said on Tuesday, as at least five ethnic minority Uyghurs are detained for possession of material deemed subversive by Beijing.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said the tightened measures had begun last week in the regional capital Urumqi, but had also been reported in the south of the region, where police were carrying out house searches in the middle of the night.

"In the Aksu district there were some Uyghurs who were discovered in possession of photographs of [exiled Uyghur leader] Rebiya Kadeer and former U.S. president George W. Bush on their computers," Raxit said. "They were detained."

"In Yangtakexiehaier village, the police organized nearly 60 people to search more than 200 Uyghur households on Dec. 20," he added. "Some of the methods they used were violent."

He said police had confiscated computers from the home of at least one villager, Azmet Sadik, and had discovered "religious propaganda materials" at the home of another, Yifu Halili.

"They included books and disks explaining to people how to conduct [Islamic] prayers," Raxit said. "The two men are currently being held in the local police station."

The searches are believed to be part of a 100-day "strike hard"
anti-terror campaign in Xinjiang, begun by the Chinese authorities three weeks ago.

Four Uyghur men were detained recently in Urumqi for "taking part in illegal religious activities," while dozens were fined, Raxit said.

China's Muslim Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority that has long chafed under Beijing's rule, have their practice of Islam tightly regulated by the ruling Communist Party, which bans children from mosques and controls everything about their worship, from the wording of sermons to "approved" interpretations of the Quran.

According to the authorities, study of the Quran in an unauthorized location constitutes an "illegal religious activity."

'Huge operation'

Raxit said raids had also taken place in Urumqi, which was rocked by ethnic violence in July 2009 that left nearly 200 people dead, according to official figures.

"There was a huge operation in Urumqi on Saturday," he said. "This was mostly focused on the close-packed Uyghur districts on the outskirts of the city."

Xinjiang's regional ruling Communist Party secretary Zhang Chunxian, who was brought in as a hardline "new broom" following the 2009 violence, said last week that his government would be stepping up measures to "preserve social stability" during 2012, when the party holds its 18th Congress, and Urumqi will host another Eurasian Expo.

The Xinjiang Daily quoted Zhang as calling on regional officials to make a watchful security stance the norm rather than the exception.

"Officials at all levels must harden their stance on opposing splittism and stepping up their crackdown on extremist religious forces and their activities," Zhang told a meeting on stability and security at the weekend.

An Urumqi resident surnamed Zhang said the citizens' security brigades that were recruited from among the Han population in the wake of the 2009 unrest were still very much in evidence.

"There are still a lot of security personnel and employees wearing red armbands in the underground markets and malls," he said.

"Some are uniformed [private] security guards, while others are employees wearing red armbands."

Since the raids in Aksu last week, three more Uyghur men have been detained in continuing raids on Uyghur homes, Raxit said.

"They are accused of possessing reactionary, splittist reading materials," he said.

'Religious content'

A police officer who answered the phone at the village police station confirmed the raids had taken place.

"Yes, that's right," the officer said, when asked if police there had recently confiscated "illegal" religious recordings and DVDs. "Mostly it was religious content, but there was also some pornography, along with other things that have been banned now," the officer said.

Asked if the confiscated material included media of Rebiya Kadeer, he said: "Yes, there were pictures of Rebiya Kadeer, as well as audiovisual material, which basically means stuff on DVD. She is subversive and a splittist."

But he declined to confirm how many Uyghurs were being held. "I'm not very familiar with the details, because things change daily from shift to shift," he said.

He said Uyghurs found with such material would receive different treatment "depending on the circumstances."

"We would have to see what they had been found with, the things that we found, and also the things that the state security police found," he said. "The more serious cases [will get criminal detention]...then we get in touch with the religious affairs bureau and we work on some of the process together."

Official media say Beijing wants to turn Urumqi into an important exchange platform for leaders and businesses in China and its western and southern neighbors, including Russia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.

But some experts believe Beijing's rapid development of Xinjiang, which they say has created more opportunities for Han Chinese than for the local Uyghur population, is leading to additional ethnic tension in the region.

Last year, Beijing ramped up security before and during for the five-day China-Eurasia Expo trade fair in Urumqi. The added security measures came in the wake of separate attacks in the Silk Road cities of Kashgar and Hotan that killed more than 30 people in July.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service and Hai Nan for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source