Recently in Corruption Category

By BBC World News

February 17, 2012

Several villagers in eastern China have been detained following protests against alleged land grabs by local officials, state media report.

At least 200 people in Panhe village, in Zhejiang province, had staged three protests over land disputes this month, the Global Times newspaper reported.

An agreement with the authorities has now been reportedly reached.

Land seizures are a frequent source of friction between villagers and local officials across China.

According to the Global Times, the protests in Panhe stopped "after several more people were detained by security forces".

Villagers interviewed by AFP news agency said the issue was now resolved.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says these protests are the latest reminder of the simmering unrest in China's countryside.

He says comparisons have been made with a rebellion in Wukan in Guangdong province in December, when people openly revolted against land seizures.

The villagers' key demands - including removing two local officials - were granted amid considerable public support.

A Dutch and a German journalist trying to cover the latest protests were attacked by men who appeared to be plainclothes policemen, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said.

>> Original Source

By Radio FREE Asia

February 09, 2012

Authorities in southern China try an independent candidate who hoped to stand for local parliamentary elections.

A court in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong is trying an independent parliamentary election candidate this week for violating electoral law, her lawyer said.

Last October, hundreds of Li Biyun's supporters turned out in her home district of Rongli, in Guangdong's Foshan city, to protest her detention.

But her trial went ahead this week at the Shunde district People's Court in Foshan, according to her legal representative Wang Jinping.

"Li Biyun was charged because she protested against illegal election practices," Wang said, adding that Li had scant chance of a fair trial.

"The elections were organized by the local National People's Congress (NPC), and now the public prosecutors and the judges are all people who were appointed by them," he said.

"There are also clashes of interests in the mix. We asked for the judge to be withdrawn, which is a very reasonable request, but it was refused."

Rongli residents wrote an open letter to the to the Shunde electoral committee in October which garnered around 900 signatures, calling on them to declare the election results null and void because of "illegalities," one of which was the detention of Li.

Independent candidates

Dozens of political activists across China have joined the campaign to file applications to stand for the elections, in spite of official warnings that there is "no such thing" as an independent candidate.

Official media have said that anyone hoping to stand for elections this year to the district-level congresses will first have to clear "due legal procedures," the official Xinhua news agency reported.

However, activists are hoping to use a clause in the election rules which allows anyone with the endorsement of at least 10 constituents to seek nomination.

Some of the candidates, like Li, come from the least privileged groups in society, including those who have been forcibly evicted from their homes, or who have long campaigned for their legal rights.

Li's trial

Li's sister Li Caiyun said her sister appeared drawn and pale as she stood in the dock, wearing manacles that weren't removed even after she fainted.

"She had manacles on her hands and feet," Li Caiyun said. "My sister's health isn't very good; she's quite ill, and she couldn't stand very easily."

"It's not like she's a murderer; why did they have to put manacles on her, it was too cruel for words."

Several hundred of Li's supporters showed up outside the courtroom on Wednesday and Thursday to support the activist during her trial, but only a dozen were admitted.

One supporter surnamed Li said he had been approached as he left home on Wednesday morning by local police, who warned him not to try to attend the trial.

"Sister Li fought for the rights of the villagers and protested against violations of electoral law, and she led the villagers in the fight against corruption," he said. "She has never committed any crime."

He said the local authorities were making an example of Li. "They are just trying to terrorize us," he said. "They don't want the villagers to fight for their rights."

Repeated calls to the Shunde District People's Court went unanswered during office hours on Wednesday. Li's trial continues on Thursday.

Assault claim

Jiangxi-based political activist Li Sihua, who has himself tried to stand as an independent candidate for local NPC elections, said the case against Li hinged on the fact that she had accidentally injured someone with a pair of scissors.

"The person's injury was very light, and they said themselves that they didn't wish to press charges," he said. "Such a case, even if it was brought, should be a civil claim for injury and not a criminal case."

"If she did disrupt an election, then she only disrupted an illegal election in protest at its illegality," Li Sihua said.

Apart from a token group of "democratic parties" which never oppose or criticize the ruling Communist Party, opposition political parties are banned in China, and those who set them up are frequently handed lengthy jail terms.

More than two million lawmakers at the county and township levels will be elected during nationwide elections, held every five years, in more than 2,000 counties and 30,000 townships from May 7 through December of next year.

Reported by Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin service and by Fung Yat-yiu for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source

By Jonathan Watts | The Guardian (United Kingdom)

January 25, 2012

Chinese relations with Norway have been frosty since Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that dissident Liu Xiaobo would be peace laureate.

Norway could shut China out of the Arctic Council if Beijing does not stop a campaign of diplomatic snubs imposed after the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Norwegian newspaper has reported.

If confirmed, Oslo's move would mark a bold confrontation with the world's fastest rising economic power and highlight the growing importance of the Arctic, which is opening up for navigation and mineral exploitation as it melts due to global warming.

China's relations with Norway have been frosty since October 2010, when the Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that Liu, an imprisoned Chinese democracy activist, would be the next peace laureate.

Although the Norwegian government has stressed that the Nobel committee is independent, Beijing has punished its host nation by cutting political and human rights dialogues.

Until now, Norway has tried to use quiet diplomacy to ease the situation but, with little sign of progress, the Aftenposten, Norway's best selling newspaper, claims the government is preparing to up the stakes.

Citing an unnamed high-level diplomatic source, the paper said Norway would find it difficult to agree to China's application to be a permanent observer on the Arctic Council while the current situation persisted.

The Arctic Council is a forum for political discussions on the far north. It was established in 1989, originally to discuss measures to protect the Arctic environment, but has since expanded to work on scientific research, sustainable development and responses to emergencies.

Officially, the two governments have yet to comment on the issue.

"I can neither confirm nor deny this story, but I can say bilateral contacts between Norway and China are at a low level," Karsten Klepsvik, the senior Arctic official at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

He said no decision had been reached about Norway's position on applications from several nations to join the Arctic Council, adding: "As of today, we have not had inter-agency consultation on applications, but we will have to do that in the near future."

China makes no secret of its interests in the Arctic. The country has had a permanent research base in Norway since 2004 and conducted four expeditions of the region, according to the website of the government's Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

It has also announced plans to build a new 8,000-tonne icebreaker by 2013 to join its current vessel, the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, on some of the other three expeditions planned by 2015.

The potential is enormous. If the ice clears sufficiently for reliable summer navigation, ships could drastically cut the time needed to carry goods from China to Europe, and Chinese academics believe the Arctic could become the most important trade route in the world.

The region also has abundant resources, including fisheries, minerals, more than 10% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of its undiscovered gas reserves.

Although much of this is within territory that has already been claimed, emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil seek influence over these opportunities through observers seats at the Arctic Council, which currently has eight full members - Norway, Canada, Russia, the US, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark.

Until now, it had been thought that Russia and Canada were the strongest opponents of expansion, while Denmark has been the most supportive of a greater role for China in the development of the Arctic.

The Danish ambassador to Beijing, Friis Arne Peterson, said in October that China has "natural and legitimate economic and scientific interests in the Arctic".

Denmark hopes to benefit from the shrinkage of Greenland ice with the extraction of major deposits of rare earths, uranium, iron ore, lead, oil and gems. China is likely to be a key customer for these resources.

>> Original Source

By BBC World News

January 17, 2012

A veteran Chinese dissident, Zhu Yufu, has been charged with subversion for writing and publishing a poem on the internet, according to his lawyer.

The poem, entitled It's Time, urged people to gather in support of freedom.

Mr Zhu's lawyer said no date had been set for the trial. Chinese officials have not commented on the reported charge.

Mr Zhu was formally arrested last April as China began a wide-ranging clampdown on dissent.

The lawyer, Li Dunyong, said he had collected the indictment on Monday from a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

He told Reuters news agency he had met Mr Zhu, who he said was "in a good condition".

Jailed twice

Zhu Yufu, who is from Hangzhou, is a veteran activist who was involved in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, which pressed for a quicker pace of change in China.

He has been jailed twice before for his activism - in 1999 for seven years and in 2007 for two years.

The Chinese authorities formally arrested Mr Zhu in April 2011 for inciting subversion of state power - a charge often used against critics of the Communist Party.

A verse of his poem reads: "It's time, Chinese people! / The square belongs to everyone / the feet are yours / it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice."

But Li Dunyong said Mr Zhu was not connected with internet appeals for rallies inspired by uprisings in Arab countries.

Chinese police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to those calls; but the rallies themselves were tiny, with participants outnumbered by security officials.

China's Communist leaders have been stressing the need for stability ahead of a leadership change later in 2012.

The authorities have continued to detain and question large numbers of activists and lawyers.

In December 2011 the prominent Sichuan writer and political activist, Chen Wei, was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.

Days later, the veteran Guizhou dissident, Chen Xi, received a 10-year sentence on the same charge.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia

January 13, 2012

Entire Chinese village raises complaint to the government over a land grab.

Authorities in the southeastern province of Fujian detained about half a dozen people following demonstrations at an ethnic minority Muslim village over a government land grab inspired by last year's protests in the Guangdong rebel village of Wukan.

"That's right, they were probably detained on Thursday afternoon," said a resident of Fujian's Xibian Hui Minority Village, near Chendai township. "The whole village went to the township government to complain."

She said the majority of Xibian villagers were Hui minority Muslims. "Only reporters from Hong Kong dare to report this," she added. "Journalists here don't dare to report it."

Protests have continued in the village since Dec. 27, when villagers took to the streets carrying banners which read, "We must learn from Wukan," and "We strongly demand our land back."

In a case they say is similar to land grabs in Wukan, where protesters won major concessions from officials after several days of pitched battles with riot police, Xibian villagers accuse local officials of secretly appropriating more than 900 mu (60 hectares) of local land.

The villagers were detained by police after around several hundred villagers marched to the government office building on Thursday, local residents said.

"About 500 to 600 people went on the march yesterday," said a villager surnamed Ding. "There were hundreds of police there, and they snatched away people's flags and banners and threw them away like rubbish."

"There are still a few people locked up," he said. "There was one guy who tried to go to the district-level parliament to complain, but they wouldn't let him in, and they locked him up too."

Photos

Photos of the protest posted online showed an elderly villager in a wheelchair waving a flag, and heading towards the ranks of assembled policemen. They also showed a banner which read, "We welcome China's central government leaders and the overseas media to come and investigate the truth."

An official who answered the phone at the Xibian village committee office denied that any demonstration had taken place.

"No, there wasn't," the official said. "I don't know [what the situation is]."

According to online posts, protests began in September amid allegations that the relatives of the village ruling Communist Party secretary had appropriated hundreds of millions of yuan in village funds from the sale of local farmland.

"In other villages they divide up the proceeds [of land sales] among each individual," said another Xibian resident. "We got nothing here in our village. I don't understand it."

An employee who answered the phone at the Chendai police station declined to comment on the protests.

"I don't really know," the employee said.

Clashes between farming communities and police are becoming more and more widespread as local residents increasingly challenge lucrative property deals involving communal land by local officials.

Last week, activists in the southwestern province of Sichuan said they were spurred on by the concessions won by Wukan villagers amid strikes at a major state-owned steel works in Chengdu.

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

>> Original Report