Human Rights: June 2006 Archives
By Howard W. French | The New York Times
June 27, 2006
SHANWEI, China, June 20 — When the police raked a crowd of demonstrators with gunfire last December in the seaside village of Dongzhou, a few miles from this city, Chinese human rights advocates denounced the action as the bloodiest in the country since the killings at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in 1989.
Villagers said at the time that as many as 30 people had been killed, and that many others were missing. The authorities have said little or nothing about the episode, concentrating instead on preventing any accounts of it from circulating widely in the country. In the limited coverage that was allowed, officials blamed the unrest on the villagers.
Six months later, there has been no public investigation of the shootings. Instead, the government has quietly moved to close the matter, prosecuting 19 villagers earlier this month in a little-publicized trial. Seven were given long sentences after being convicted of disturbing the public order and of using explosives to attack the police. Nowhere in the verdict is there any mention of the loss of life.
Outside court, villagers say, the authorities have privately acknowledged the death of three residents during the protest. Many say they suspect that more were killed, citing a witness account of a pile of bodies, and details about people who remain missing, but they say they have been warned not to cite a higher figure.
Indeed, residents of the village, in Guangdong Province near Hong Kong, say they have been warned not to talk to outsiders at all. Given the fact that journalists, lawyers, human rights workers and other independent observers have been kept away from Dongzhou, a definitive death toll may never be established.
Whatever the lingering uncertainty, the handling of the protest and its aftermath stand out as a prominent example of how China deals with localized unrest, which has been rising in the countryside.
The protest erupted over plans for a wind-power plant that used village lands and required significant landfill in a bay where the people have for generations made a living fishing. Before that, nearby village land had been used for the construction of a coal-fired power plant.
But that is not the story that Beijing, which has a long tradition of establishing official histories, wants the world to hear. Dongzhou, it seems, has been consigned to the annals of forgettable minor incidents rather than the milestone it undoubtedly is in the wave of unrest over land issues that has swept the Chinese countryside.
Even six months after the deaths, pressure to deny the truth of the matter remains intense. In dozens of telephone conversations and in interviews with the handful of villagers who were willing to slip away from home and risk speaking with a foreign reporter here, residents of Dongzhou say their telephones are tapped and entry and exit from their village tightly controlled. One phrase, "We are scared to death," was repeated over and over.
By Feng Changle | The Epoch Times
June 22, 2006
Local family planning office carries out compulsory abortion on woman who lacked government permit to have a child
A 25-year-old unmarried woman was seven months pregnant when staff members from the local government family planning office forcibly took her to a clinic to give her an abortion.
Wang Liping lives in a suburb of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. She became pregnant in November 2004. Because her boyfriend could not afford a wedding, they did not get married right away. She is the oldest sibling in her family, and her parents were excited about having grandchildren. Without a marriage certificate, however, she could not receive a government permit to give birth.
At about 6 p.m. on May 31, 2005, Wang was stopped on the street by a group of people who identified themselves as staff members from the township family planning office. They forced her into their car and took her in turn to the town clinic, an air force hospital, and Tangli Clinic. All three institutions refused to abort her fetus. At about 11 p.m., they took her to Laoyachen Clinic.
Without her consent or any pre-operation tests, the staff from the family planning office and several doctors and nurses held her arms and pushed her to the ground. She screamed for help. They also beat her, stripped off her pants, and injected a syringe of drugs into her abdominal area. She was then taken to a patient room and tied to the bed.
Wang Liping said, "I was both shocked and scared, and lost all strength to fight back. My calls for help were unanswered. I could not believe such a brutal, horrid thing was happening to me."
She said that at about 3 a.m. on June 2, after violent pains, the infant was born. The infant cried for a few minutes and then became silent and motionless. At that time, no hospital staff was around to help her. Deeply fearful, she shouted for a while before a yawning nurse appeared.
The nurse asked, "What are you shouting about?"
The Laoyachen Clinic staff. (Photo provided by Wang Liping)Wang said, "Could you check on my baby?" The nurse walked over to the bed, looked at the baby, and said, "The baby is already dead." She then tossed the body aside.
Wang was so shocked by the news that she fainted. When she woke up in the morning, a doctor was standing by her bed and asked her to pay a fee to handle the baby's remains.
When Wang said that she had no money, the doctor put the body in a plastic bag, put it on her bed and said, "If you have no money, it's easy, just take the body and handle it yourself."
Wang was allowed to contact her family only after the baby had died. When her boyfriend and relatives went to the family planning office requesting to see the regulations that authorized such a late-term abortion, the staff ousted them out of the government offices. Meanwhile, Laoyachen Clinic sent them a bill again, asking them to pay a fee for "family planning."
Wang said, "The doctors and nurses have no sense of humanity or medical ethics. The staff at the family planning office has no conscience or understanding of basic legal concepts. I am almost at the point of a nervous breakdown. Where are our most fundamental human rights? Modern China is the only country in history that requires a government permit to have a child. How many families have suffered because of the family planning policy?"
Anguished, she said, "Since people are eating people now [see note below], I really want to kill these men-eating beasts with my own teeth!"
Note: According to articles circulating on some Chinese web sites, some restaurants cook aborted fetuses and sell them as a tonic.
By The Associated Press | The New York Times
June 22, 2006
The Falun Gong follower who heckled China's president, Hu Jintao, at a White House ceremony has reached a deal with prosecutors under which all charges against her will be dropped, her lawyer said.
The woman, Wang Wenyi, faced a misdemeanor charge of intimidating, coercing, threatening and harassing a foreign official for interrupting the April 20 event in which President Bush welcomed Mr. Hu to the White House. She could have faced six months in jail and a fine.
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
15 June 2006
A Chinese journalist found guilty of extortion after writing articles about official corruption was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison, his wife and lawyer said.
Yang Xiaoqing, a reporter for the state-run China Industrial Economy News, was sentenced at the Longhui No. 1 People's Court in Hunan province, his lawyer, Zhang Xingshui said.
Yang's wife, Gong Jie, said she would appeal the decision immediately.
"It's a terrible thing," Gong said. "He has not committed a single crime. He has not done one thing wrong. To sentence him to even one day of prison is the real crime."
She said hundreds of onlookers swarmed the court and blocked police cars to protest the sentence. Some carried signs reading: "Corrupt officials should not bully reporters and the people!"
Telephones rang unanswered at the Hunan court Thursday evening.
Yang was detained Jan. 22 after being accused by authorities of concocting reports in order to extort the equivalent of up to $100,000 from officials in Longhui county, human rights groups have said. Yang pleaded innocent and has insisted the evidence against him was fabricated.
Gong has said Yang was targeted after writing articles accusing Yang Jianxin, a local Communist Party official, of embezzling state assets.
Yang, who is not related to the reporter, since has moved to a new post at a government advisory body in nearby Shaoyang city. He has denied framing Yang Xiaoqing.
Reporters at China's state-run media pursuing sensitive stories often face violence and harassment, sometimes from local authorities, and often lose their jobs or are detained under unspecified charges.
BBC World News
June 16, 2006
The trial of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan has ended in Beijing, with no word on when a verdict will be reached.
Mr Zhao, who has been held by the Chinese authorities since September 2004, denied charges of fraud and leaking state secrets.
The trial took place behind closed doors because of its sensitive nature.
Mr Zhao, if convicted of "providing state secrets abroad", faces a minimum of 10 years in jail. Authorities have given no details of the alleged crime.
However Mr Zhao is thought to have been detained in connection with a New York Times report about plans by ex-President Jiang Zemin to retire from his top military post.
At the time, Mr Jiang's intention would have been a closely guarded secret, and any leak regarded as a serious offence.
Mr Zhao, 44, has spent nearly two years in detention, while the authorities decided whether to pursue the case against him.
The charges against him were dropped in March, weeks before President Hu Jintao visited the United States.
But Mr Zhao remained in detention, and the case was revived last month.
By David Lague | The New York Times - International Herald Tribune
June 15, 2006
BEIJING, June 14 — The trial of a researcher for The New York Times, which is to begin here on Friday, is evidence of China's increasing reliance on state secrecy laws to tighten control over information, experts in human rights and the legal system say.
The researcher, Zhao Yan, 44, who worked in the Beijing bureau of The Times, is charged with fraud and disclosing state secrets. Mr. Zhao denies the charges. The Times also denies that he disclosed state secrets.
Critics of the case against Mr. Zhao accuse the authorities of applying all-embracing secrecy laws to contain public debate, burgeoning Internet discussion and sometimes rebellious news media.
Even as China's headlong economic boom continues to deliver wider economic and personal freedom, the scope of these laws has been broadened over the last two decades to include almost all information related to the ruling Communist Party and the government.
"The system is actually expanding," said Nicolas Becquelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Basically, anything can be classified as a state secret."
Mr. Zhao has been in custody since his arrest in September 2004. If he is found guilty here in the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, he could face 10 years or more in prison.
The charges are linked to an article in The Times on Sept. 7, 2004, reporting that the former president, Jiang Zemin, had offered to resign as head of the military. The report proved to be accurate; Mr. Jiang retired less than two weeks later.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
June 14, 2006
BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese activist was struck by an assailant and left paralyzed after meeting with police to discuss an interview he gave on German television, a human rights group and a German broadcaster said Tuesday.
The attack on Fu Xiancai, a critic of the government's treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam project, highlighted the risks Chinese rights campaigners face.
In recent years, activists have increasingly complained about attacks by thugs who they and rights groups have sometimes charged were acting on orders from authorities.
In an interview aired by German TV network ARD on May 19, Fu said he had been threatened and beaten for complaining to the government about not getting compensation he was promised for relocating, according to a letter from a German broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
By The Associated Press | The New York Times
13 June 2006
BEIJING (AP) -- China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said a resolution by U.S. lawmakers condemning Beijing for allegedly stepping up religious persecution was a ''groundless accusation'' that interfered in China's internal affairs.
The House of Representatives on Monday approved the resolution condemning China for rising persecution of religious believers.
The resolution ''constitutes a gross interference in China's internal affairs,'' said Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. ''We express strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition.''
Jiang said the passing of the resolution was a ''groundless accusation and attack against China's religious and human rights.''
China maintains tight control over all religions. Those who practice Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement, or attend underground Protestant or Catholic churches routinely face detention, harassment and sometimes imprisonment.
''The Chinese government protects the freedom of religious beliefs in accordance with the law,'' Jiang said.
From REUTERS | The Los Angeles Times
June 09, 2006
WASHINGTON — U.S. labor groups urged the Bush administration Thursday to increase pressure on China to stop widespread labor abuses they said have cost millions of Americans their jobs in addition to harming Chinese workers.
The 9-million-member AFL-CIO labor federation filed a petition, for the second time since 2004, asking the U.S. trade representative's office to launch a one-year probe into whether China's "systematic repression" of worker rights is an unfair trade practice that warrants using U.S. sanctions to stop.
"In China, millions of child workers and forced laborers produce goods and services, many of them for export. Workers who protest or seek to form independent unions are fired, beaten and imprisoned," the AFL-CIO said.
More than 126,000 Chinese workers died from injuries or illnesses they got on the job in 2005, the labor groups said. Many corporations in China reap "huge profits" while paying their workers less than 50 cents an hour, the AFL-CIO said.
June 2006
Human Rights in China (HRIC) has launched a podcast series of interviews with participants of the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement. The podcasts, which can be downloaded as audio files from HRIC's Web site, include oral histories of the June 4th Tiananmen Square crackdown never previously made public. The interviews also explore the role of the democracy and independent labor movements in addressing challenges facing China.
Seventeen years after the violent crackdown in 1989, the Chinese government has yet to respond to demands for a full investigation and official accountability, compensation for the victims and their families and a reassessment of the crackdown. In the face of official Chinese propaganda and information control, HRIC aims to preserve a historical record as well as to support efforts promoting greater democracy and openness.
BBC World News
May 31, 2006
A prominent campaigner for the rights of China's Uighur minority says three of her children have been detained.
Rebiya Kadeer, who moved to the US after being freed from a Chinese prison in 2005, said two sons and a daughter were taken into custody on Monday.
She said they were detained to stop them speaking to a US Congressional team visiting Xinjiang, the region where most of China's Uighurs live.
"I demand the immediate release of my three children," she said.
Ms Kadeer was a successful businesswoman before she fell foul of China's authorities, who jailed her in 2000 for "leaking state secrets".
By REUTERS | The New York Times
June 01, 2006
BEIJING (Reuters) - A U.S.-based rights group on Thursday condemned China's closed-door conviction and jailing of 13 villagers for their roles in a protest that was quelled with riot police opening fire.
At least three people died and eight were wounded in Dongzhou, a village in the southern province of Guangdong, in December when police shot residents protesting against a lack of compensation for land lost to a wind power plant.
It was the most violent in a series of recent protests around the country being fueled by a growing gap between rich and poor, corruption and disputes over land rights.
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