Human Rights: May 2007 Archives
By Steven Edwards CanWest News Service | canada.com
May 30, 2007
China emerged Tuesday as the main obstacle to ratcheting up international pressure on Sudan over Darfur, brushing off new efforts by the United States and other Western countries to end the violence in the western Sudanese province.
Officials in Beijing spoke out against Washington's plan to tighten U.S. sanctions against the Arab-led government in Khartoum even before President George W. Bush unveiled it.
They also criticized a U.S. and British pledge to ask the United Nations Security Council to add to earlier global sanctions aimed at forcing Khartoum to allow UN peacekeeping troops to enter Darfur and join an overwhelmed African Union force.
China, which has extensive investments in Sudan's oil industry, said "pressure and sanctions" would not help resolve problems - but trade would.
Human rights groups have campaigned vigorously for increased pressure on Khartoum, which they and Western governments say is behind much of the killing, rape and displacement of black Dafuris.
But the Chinese position threatens to scuttle any new Security Council action because China is one of the body's permanent five veto-bearing members.
Bush said he is ordering new U.S. action because Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to use the Sudanese military and government-aligned Arab militias to attack black Sudanese rebels and civilians in a battle for land in Darfur.
He added the Sudanese leader also blocked international peacemaking efforts despite promising to help end the violence, which Western officials say has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths over four years.
"I held off implementing these steps because the United Nations believed that President Bashir could meet his obligations to stop the killing," Bush said. "Unfortunately... President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction."
The Sudanese government called the new U.S. sanctions "unfair and untimely," pointing out it has "agreed" to allow 3,000 UN troops to join the African force - although none of them have been deployed.
"These American measures come at a time when Sudan is actively discussing peace in Darfur," said Ali Sadiq, a foreign ministry spokesman in Khartoum.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon also said he'd prefer to give the Sudanese more time.
"As far as I am concerned, I have just begun consultations," he said.
Canada implemented the earlier UN sanctions, which target Sudanese officials believed to be driving the violence through travel bans and asset freezes.
The new U.S. measures bar 30 Sudanese government firms - most of them in the oil business - from the U.S. banking system. Another company suspected of shipping arms to Sudan is subject to the same exclusion, as are three new individuals, including a rebel leader.
Bush outlined U.S. proposals for a new UN resolution.
"It will impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to the government of Sudan. It will prohibit the Sudanese government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any violations," he said.
The current resolution calls on Sudan to end military flights deemed "offensive," but banning them suggests enforcement measures would be taken.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday the 27-member bloc was "open to consider" both an increased sanctions package and a French proposal to create a "humanitarian corridor" into Darfur from neighbouring Chad.
Canada has called on the Security Council to fulfill the terms of the current resolution and, though not a Council member, is expected to back efforts for a new one when the matter is discussed Wednesday at a Group of Eight diplomatic meeting outside Berlin.
In Beijing, China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, stopped short of threatening to use China's Security Council veto to short-circuit a new resolution.
"It's still too early to speak of," he said.
But he added that "expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve."
Canada did about $160 million worth of trade with Sudan in 2006, according to Statistics Canada, importing mainly precious stones, and exporting mainly grains and machinery. But while Canada's Talisman Energy Inc. withdrew its investments in the Sudanese oil patch in 2003, China has maintained its involvement -- leading to charges China's support for Sudan is a direct result of its quest for energy to feed its fast growing economy.
By Daniel Schearf | Voice of America
May 29, 2007
China has rejected U.S. plans for more sanctions against Sudan and has called for more patience to resolve the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. China also defended its investments in Sudan as helping to bring about peace. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.
China's chief diplomat on African affairs, Liu Guijin, says new pressure or sanctions against Khartoum for its actions in Darfur would only complicate the conflict and make it more difficult to resolve.
President Bush has announced sanctions against Sudanese companies and officials to try to stop the killing in Darfur, which the United States has called genocide against ethnic minority groups.
The United States, along with Britain, is also considering drafting a U.N. resolution that would increase the number of Sudanese officials subject to sanctions and extend an arms embargo to all of Sudan instead of just Darfur.
Liu, who returned to Beijing last week after a five-day trip to Sudan and Darfur, questioned the need for new sanctions. He said the Sudanese government has recently shown signs of flexibility and is willing to hold talks with rebel groups.
"In this situation, why can't the international community give the peaceful resolution of Sudan's Darfur issue a little more time? Why can't they give the resolution a few more opportunities? Why can't they use a little more patience?" Liu asks.
Sudan has agreed to a U.N. plan to bring thousands of peacekeepers into Darfur to aid overwhelmed African Union forces already there. But, Khartoum has stalled on letting the peacekeepers in.
China is a major buyer of Khartoum's oil and it supplies arms to the country. Beijing has been accused of ignoring the bloodshed and protecting Khartoum against U.N. sanctions to maintain access to Sudan's oil.
Liu defended Beijing's investments in Sudan's oil industry. He said poverty and lack of resources were the major causes of conflict in Sudan and the Chinese investments would lead to peace.
"China and Sudan oil cooperation is beneficial in helping Sudan's economic development and is fundamentally beneficial in resolving Sudan's wars and conflicts," Liu says.
The Sudanese government has been accused of backing militias responsible for mass killings and rapes among ethnic-minority communities in Darfur.
The United Nations estimates 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million run out of their homes in the four years of conflict.
By RADIO FREE ASIA
May 26, 2008
HONG KONG—Thousands of villagers have clashed with police in recent days in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi over harsh measures they say are being used by local family planning officials keen to keep births down, villagers said.
An employee of Guangxi Family Planning Committee confirmed the riots. “There are indeed riots, but we are not authorized to make any public announcement,” the official told RFA’s Mandarin service. “It's hard to say who's to blame for what happened. The incidents are still under investigation.”
Tensions rose in Ziliang township, Rong county, after police raided households that had given birth to an additional child without permission, detaining elderly family members and confiscating all their possessions, villagers told RFA's Cantonese service.
Residents of Shabei village gathered outside the government buildings in Ziliang, sparking clashes with riot squads from the People's Armed Police sent in to control them. “Around 10 people were detained for disturbing public order, and at least 10 people were injured,” a villager surnamed Yuen said.
Yuen said the raid took place after a concerted attempt by villagers from Shabei, Wangmao, Shuiming, and Nabo to send representatives to Beijing to lodge an official complaint against their local family planning department. But he said all the villages were under guard by riot police, with police stopping people at all public transport stations, asking questions.
By Robert J. Saiget | AFP | Middle East Times
27 May 2007
Riots over China's controversial family planning policies have exposed an underside of criminal activities linked to how the radical population control strategy is implemented.
Baby trafficking in particular has emerged as a lucrative new business for those willing to exploit the profits that can be made in the southern region whose people are often desperately poor.
Nicholas Becquelin, the Hong Kong-based research director of Human Rights Watch, said the one-child policy was a key factor.
Under that policy, aimed at controlling the world's largest population of 1.3 billion, people who live in urban areas are generally allowed one child, while rural families can have two if the first is a girl.
But most couples want a boy to carry on the family line, and if successful the first time have no more children, while others use sex-selective abortions to get rid of unwanted daughters.
It has led to China now having nearly 40 million more men than women since it was introduced in the late 1970s.
Becquelin said the family planning restriction "is one of the main factors in trafficking because the gender imbalance at birth has led to a shortage of women."
In July 2004, 54 people from Yulin city in Guangxi region were convicted of trafficking 117 girls between 2001 and 2003.
The case broke when police found 28 drugged and tied-up baby girls - none over three months old - in bags on board a bus bound for northern cities.
Two people from Yulin were sentenced to death over that case and more than 100 outside Guangxi were convicted, of whom at least one was executed, state press reports at the time said.
Hospitals, medical clinics, doctors, and nurses were all implicated.
Yulin's administration covers Bobai county, where at least seven townships erupted in riots in the last 10 days after heavy-handed government efforts to implement the one-child policy, locals and state press said.
By Reuters - by Benjamin Kang Lim
via (uncensored) yahoo!news INDIA | May 22, 2007
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top official in Tibet has vowed to tighten security ahead of a Communist Party meeting in the autumn and the 2008 Beijing Olympics to ensure the Himalayan region remains firmly under Communist control.
In a speech to about 600 party members in regional capital Lhasa on Friday, Zhang Qingli, Tibet's Communist Party secretary, claimed a "transitional victory" over the influence of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
"We must have a more vigorous will to fight, a more tenacious style and do a more solid job of uniting and leading the region's various ethnic groups and throwing ourselves into the struggle against splittism," the official Tibet Daily on Monday quoted Zhang as saying.
"From beginning to end... we must deepen patriotic education at temples, comprehensively expose and denounce the Dalai Lama clique's political reactionary nature and religious hypocrisy," Zhang said in a speech carried by Xinhuanet and other Web sites.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule, says he wants greater autonomy, not independence, for his predominantly Buddhist homeland.
China and the Dalai Lama's envoys have been engaged in painfully slow dialogue since 2002, which analysts say is partly driven by fears that if the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize dies in exile, it could lead to radicalisation of Tibetan youth and trouble in his homeland.
But hawks like Zhang appear convinced they have the upper hand and regularly denounce the Dalai Lama for trying to split Tibet from the Chinese "motherland".
Zhang pledged to maintain stability to ensure the success of the 17th Communist Party Congress later this year and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
May 22, 2007
Thousands of farmers in southwest China rioted at a government office after authorities imposed heavy fines on families that had more children than allowed under the country's family planning policy, a newspaper and a villager said Monday.
Anti-riot police were called in after villagers set fires and smashed cars Saturday at the Shapo township government office in the Guangxi region, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News said.
One person was injured as villagers and government officials hurled stones at each other, the newspaper reported. The demonstrators also knocked down a wall and damaged offices at the building, it said.
Lu Wenhua, a town resident, did not participate in Saturday's demonstration but said he had heard about the riot from other villagers. Lu, 23, said protesters were angry because the government had levied fines of more than $1,300 on families that had too many children.
''The fine is too heavy because the annual income of the villagers was only 1,000 yuan (about $130). It is too much for people to bear,'' he said in a telephone interview.
It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the riot, how long the fines had been imposed or how many families had been involved. A woman who answered the phone Monday at the Shapo township government said she had no comment and refused to give her name.
China's family planning policy -- implemented in the late 1970s -- limits most urban couples to one child and families in some rural areas to two in an attempt to control population growth and conserve natural resources.
Critics say China's family planning policy has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys.
By Joseph Kahn | The New York Times
May 19, 2007
A young Chinese couple who have promoted a variety of delicate social and political causes were barred from leaving the country on Friday and placed under house arrest, the couple said.
The police barred Hu Jia, 33, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, 23, from departing from Beijing on a trip to Hong Kong and several European countries, Mr. Hu said. The couple had planned to call attention to what they described as a neglect of AIDS patients and to defend other Chinese campaigners for human rights who had been prosecuted in recent months.
Mr. Hu said the police told him that he and Ms. Zeng were suspected of “endangering national security” and would be required to stay in their home under police watch for an indefinite period.
“Officials are worried that we would set off opposition to Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics,” Mr. Hu said. State security officials almost never offer any information about their activities, but the city is the venue for the 2008 Summer Games and intends to use the event to present China as a sophisticated, modern country that is open to the outside world.
In another indication of the sensitivity of the Games to China, Yang Jiechi, the country’s new foreign minister, on Friday denounced efforts in the United States to link support for Beijing’s serving as host of the Olympics to its policies in Sudan.
China has been criticized for giving strong financial and diplomatic backing to the government of Sudan, which the Bush administration and critics worldwide say has practiced genocide in its southern Darfur region while waging a war against secessionists there. “There is a handful of people who are trying to politicize the Olympic Games,” Mr. Yang told reporters. “This is against the spirit of the Games. It also runs counter to the aspirations of all the people in the world.”
A group of 108 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the Chinese government last week warning that China must use its influence with Sudan’s government to improve the situation in Darfur or face a possible backlash against its serving as host of the Games. Leading Hollywood personalities have also warned China that it could face a boycott of the Games unless it puts more pressure on Sudan.
By Jonathan Watts | The Guardian
May 18, 2007
One of China's most prominent human rights activists has been blocked from travelling to the UK, just a day after the foreign secretary Margaret Beckett called on Beijing to allow more freedom of expression during her visit to the country.
Police detained Hu Jia, a pro-democracy campaigner and HIV-Aids activist, as he prepared to catch a flight to Europe via Hong Kong. Organisations in several European countries had invited him to speak about human rights violations in China.
Domestic security officials told him he was forbidden from leaving the country. He and his wife Zheng Jinyang were taken away for interrogation and told they were suspected of threatening state security.
In previous cases, dissidents accused of state security crimes have been arrested, charged and imprisoned.
"I will try again to change my flight. But now there are six police downstairs," Mr Hu said by telephone from his home. "The government has stopped us from going so that we would not disclose negative information about China ahead of the Olympics ... but this kind of action itself shows the dark side of the government."
Mr Hu said police asked him about critical comments he made to the media during a visit to Hong Kong earlier this year. On that trip, he showed a video of his house arrest and expressed support for other Chinese activists in jail or under house arrest.
In recent years, the public security bureau has kept him under close scrutiny. In 2006, he was kept under house arrest for 168 days and abducted for interrogation for 41 days.
He has remained defiant. Three years ago, he was detained as he attempted to lay a wreath on Tiananmen square in memory of the victims of the 1989 massacre. In Henan province, he helped to expose the blood-selling scandal that left tens - possibly hundreds - of thousands of villagers with HIV/Aids.
He is an unabashed admirer of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing accuses of "splittism". Last year, he joined a hunger-strike relay by Chinese rights activists that was the first nationally coordinated protest since 1989.
His detention came hours after Margaret Beckett gave a speech to communist cadres in Beijing in which she called for more freedom of information.
"Any healthy economy needs journalists and individuals who are free to point out problems without fear of reprisal," Ms Beckett said.
Amnesty International said Mr Hu had been stopped because he planned to speak out about human rights violations ahead of the Olympics, which the authorities fear would tarnish China's reputation.
"This is the latest example in a growing pattern of arbitrary detention and growing surveillance of human rights activists in the run up to the Olympics. China should lift the restrictions on Hu Jia and Zheng Jinyang immediately so they can continue with their peaceful human rights activities," said spokesman Mark Allison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk
By Benjamin Kang Lim | REUTERS | via (uncensored) yahoo!news
May 18, 2007
China barred a prominent AIDS and environmental activist and his wife from leaving the country on Friday, accusing them of endangering national security, the pair said.
Both have been placed under house arrest.
Plainclothes police took Hu Jia, 33, away from his Beijing home for questioning hours before he and his wife and fellow AIDS campaigner Zeng Jinyan were to board a plane bound for Hong Kong en route to nine European countries, Zeng said.
The activist was released after about five hours of questioning and told that he and his wife were suspected of "endangering national security" and barred from leaving the country, Hu said, adding that they would be under house arrest for an indefinite period.
"The authorities are worried what we say during our European tour would ignite international opposition to Beijing hosting the Olympics," Hu told Reuters. The city is hosting the 2008 Summer Games.
Hu's activism has set him on a collision course with the Communist Party, which has stepped up curbs on NGOs, the media, the Internet, lawyers, academics and civil rights campaigners to maintain its grip on power.
In Shanghai, a court on Friday jailed three hemophiliacs who say they contracted AIDS through tainted blood transfusions. The three were jailed for up to a year after they clashed with police while petitioning for better treatment, their lawyer said.
Zeng, 22, who is three months' pregnant, was recently named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. Hu said he was questioned about whom he and his wife met, what they did and said when they visited Hong Kong in February and March this year.
"It's laughable. They see freedom of expression as endangering national security," Hu said.
Hu said he was also interrogated about a 20-minute film he and his wife made which showed the couple under surveillance by plainclothes police.
"The film exposed human rights abuses by police with Chinese characteristics," Hu said, adding that house arrest was "illegal detention and a crime."
Hu has been a thorn in the government's side and was put under house arrest for 214 days last year.
During that time, Hu followed closely the trials of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and blind civil rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng and tipped off foreign reporters about the latest developments.
In a rare display of official tolerance, Gao was given a suspended three-year jail sentence for subversion last December.
Chen, known as a self-taught "barefoot lawyer" for providing legal advice to peasants, was jailed for four years and three months last year after exposing forced late-term abortions and other coercive birth control measures in his home province.
Hu also championed the cause of fellow AIDS activist Gao Yaojie, who was barred from leaving for the United States to receive an award until U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and Chinese President Hu Jintao intervened.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman's office, reached by telephone, had no immediate comment on Hu's house arrest.
By Zachary Coile | The San Francisco Chronicle
May 17, 2007
China's carefully planned coming-out party as a world superpower at the 2008 Summer Olympics could be clouded by Beijing's close ties with the Sudanese government and its failure to halt the genocide in Darfur.
Congress is increasing the pressure on the Chinese government to end arms shipments to the region and use its leverage as Sudan's top investor and trading partner to resolve a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions more displaced.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced resolutions Wednesday urging China to pressure the regime in Khartoum to allow peacekeeping troops into Darfur and comply with U.N. resolutions. If the killing of civilians continues, the measures call on China to join other nations in supporting sanctions against Sudan.
"It's very important that we ask China, finally, to join the world community and acknowledge that genocide is taking place," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, a co-sponsor of the House resolution, who has visited the region three times and urged a tougher response. "With the Olympics coming, China is now in the international spotlight. ... They need to, in many ways, stop supporting the genocide that is taking place in Darfur."
While Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for "a dialogue" to end the conflict in Darfur, China's investments have provided a lifeline that has kept the Sudanese regime afloat.
China buys more than 400,000 barrels of oil a day from Sudan -- more than 70 percent of the country's exports -- and helped build an oil pipeline. China has also reportedly canceled $100 million in debt owed by the Khartoum government and offered $20 million in no-interest loans to erect a new presidential palace.
China also has used its veto at the U.N. Security Council to block efforts to impose sanctions on Sudan. An Amnesty International report said China and Russia were supplying weapons to the Arab militias, backed by President Omar el-Bashir's government, which have carried out the attacks in Darfur.
China's close ties with Sudan present a major public relations problem for Beijing. With the Olympic Games little more than a year away, some activists are urging a boycott of the Games if China doesn't help end the bloodshed.
NTDTV
May 12, 2007
On April 27, Falun Gong practitioner Wang Bo, sentenced to a five-year prison term without legal justification, was joined by six Beijing defense attorneys and her parents at the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court in Hebei Province. The defense argued on behalf of her freedom of belief and human rights.
Falun Gong spokesperson Zhang Erping, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) commentator Yang Jingduan, and New York and Washington D.C. based attorney Ye Ning, discussed the importance of this case on NTDTV's program "Hot Topic."
One of Wang's defense attorneys, Teng Biao, joined the discussion online, briefing the panel on the background of the case. Teng is the defense lawyer for Wang's mother, Liu Shuqin.
The following is a transcript of the discussion.
Teng Biao: Here is a summary of Wang Bo's case: Wang Bo was sent to a labor camp for holding a Falun Gong banner on Tiananmen Square in 2001. In 2002, CCTV—the Chinese Communist Party's official television station—broadcast an influential episode of their "Focal Point" program claiming that Wang Bo was convinced to give up her practice.
In 2005, Wang posted an online video she made documenting her forced brainwashing experiences. Due to this posting, as well as various Falun Gong related materials found at her house, the Changan People's Court sentenced her and her parents to four and five years imprisonment respectively.
During that initial trial, the family was unable to find any lawyers who dared to defend them. With the second trial, six lawyers, including myself, took on this case.
Host: There are very few lawyers in mainland China who defend Falun Gong practitioners. Attorneys Guo Guoting, Yang Zaiyin and Gao Zhisheng were all persecuted. They were fired from their respective firms, or had their firms closed down, they lost their license, or were even exiled.
Why do you and these other five attorneys dare to stand up for and defend this Falun Gong practitioner?
Teng: I think Falun Gong practitioners have fundamental rights. The constitution also acknowledges freedom of belief. So I feel that they have the right to obtain legal counsel. I think suppressing freedom of speech and freedom of belief is a very serious problem.
The long-term suppression and persecution of Falun Gong, which has continued to escalate since it began in 1999, has now hit a critical point, falling far below the line of fundamental humanity.
In the face of this persecution, intellectuals and attorneys in mainland China remain silent for various reasons. This kind of silence is unconscionable, and that is why we're here to defend Wang Bo.
Host: Thank you, Mr. Teng. Could you please tell us about the situation in court?
Teng: First of all, this is the second hearing being held on this case, which is a bit abnormal. In China, whether it's Falun Gong or another criminal case, a second hearing is very rare.
During the hearing, the judge often interrupted the attorneys' remarks. At one point, the judge interrupted every sentence the attorneys made.
What's even more interesting is that one of the prosecutors even threatened the defending counsel, condemning the idea that practicing Falun Gong is a legal right and freedom. The prosecutor went on to condemn the belief in Falun Gong.
This proves that the court failed to maintain a neutral position, showing an obvious bias towards the prosecution. In fact, the court stands with the prosecution side.
Host: As the attorney for Wang Bo's mother, Liu Shuqin, I would assume that you know her pretty well. Could you tell me a little bit about her and describe the physical torture she endured in the prison?
Teng: As for the charge on Liu, the evidence against her is very ridiculous. It includes a photo saved on her camera and a letter wrote to a neighbor a few years ago. This evidence is simply invalid.
When I first met her at the detention center this March, she told me about the physical torture she endured in prison. Alone in a room, her hands and feet were tied to two iron columns and she was not allowed basic hygiene or use of the restroom.
The day before the court hearing when I went to see her again, she told me that from March 19 to April 9—over 20 days—she remained tied to the wall, hanging on these iron columns. Because of this inhumane treatment, she went on a hunger strike to protest. On April 9, they untied her.
Host: Thank you, Attorney Teng. Attorney Ye, Teng has just given us a brief introduction of this case. As a lawyer having worked both in China and in the States, what are your thoughts on this?
Ye Ning: First of all, I'm proud of my colleagues. I think they finally stood up and have set an example for other lawyers to follow. They have embodied the ethics and courage so important in this profession.
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power, it has unceasingly suppressed various dissident and religious groups. Such persecution has precedents, but Falun Gong practitioners' unbreakable spirit of resistance since the persecution against them has no precedent in China's history.
Hence, I feel it is a remarkable beginning that these six attorneys are able to bravely step forward under the CCP's severe persecution.
Host: I would like to ask Mr. Yang Jingduan, is Wang Bo's case typical among Falun Gong persecution cases?
Yang Jingduan: I think the case of Wang's family is a typical one. Before the persecution started, they had a very happy family. The practice of Falun Gong brought harmony to their family and helped Wang Bo improve in both her study and morality.
However, when the persecution began, their family suffered like so many other Falun Gong practitioners. They initially appealed to the government out of trust, only to be arrested, beaten, stripped of their CCP membership and dismissed from work. Especially for Wang Bo, who was only 19 at the time, she was deprived of sleep for 15 days and nights, forced to wear prisoners' uniform and forcefully brainwashed.
In addition to the brutal mental torture they endured in prison, the government produced a deceptive episode of "Focal Point" alleging that the family had been transformed through the government program.
In fact, typical in many of these cases, the family actually managed to break away from this forced suggestion, holding firm to their belief, and bravely exposing to the world the torture they had suffered.
Host: Thank you. Let's check in with our audience for questions and comments. We have Mr. Yang on the line from New York. Mr. Yang, please go ahead.
Yang: Hello everyone. First I would like to thank NTDTV for hosting a program that discusses such important issues. And allow me to express my highest admiration for Wang Bo, her family and the their six attorneys.
I think Falun Gong practitioners have borne too much in the last eight years, please allow me to pay my respect to all Falun Gong practitioners.
I am happy to see that there are many people calling for morality, especially Attorney Gao. When he said, "The weapon we use is not a gun or a knife, but morality," I felt this was a critical moment in history.
Host: We now have an audience member from Mainland China on the line. Mr. Wang, please go ahead.
Mr. Wang: I am not a Falun Gong practitioner and I have never practiced Falun Gong or seen anybody who practices before. But after watching this I would like to say that although the Chinese government has labeled them a cult, the CCP itself is in fact the biggest cult. Ok, bye.
Host: Let us take Ms. Yang's call from New York. Ms. Yang, please go ahead.
Ms. Yang: Hello everybody. First, I would like to salute the six Beijing attorneys and attorney Gao Zhisheng. I think they are truly remarkable. They dare to risk their own lives to defend people.
I am not a Falun Gong practitioner, but I have witnessed the persecution taking place. Alas, I feel so sad when I see these practitioners being persecuted.
I hope all lawyers, men of insight, and people of conscience around the world can step forward to expose this crime and put an end to the CCP. Thank you.
By Neue Zuercher Zeitung (Switzerland) - NZZonline
May 05, 2007
The Swiss section of Amnesty International has launched a campaign for better respect for human rights in China, ahead of next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
At a congress on Saturday in Locarno in southern Switzerland, Amnesty started collecting signatures for a petition to be handed in to the Chinese embassy in Bern six months before the event.
The campaign, which runs under the slogan: "Human Rights on the Podium", has four demands: the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of re-education camps, the lifting of internet censorship and a halt to reprisals against defenders of human rights.
"The Chinese committee that bid for the event promised that the Olympic Games in Beijing would contribute to the development of human rights," campaign coordinator Christine Heller told a news conference in Locarno.
She added that nothing concrete had yet come from the promises made.
According to Amnesty, hundreds of thousands of people are detained in so-called re-education centres.
"Cleaning up"
It says the Chinese authorities have been "cleaning up" Beijing for months. The homeless, beggars and street hawkers are being detained and can face up to three years in re-education camps without being charged.
"Four years ago I still believed that the internet would bring democracy to China," commented 52-year-old philosophy professor and Chinese government critic Cai Chongguo, who fled the country in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre and now lives in Paris.
By CNN World News | cnn.com
May 2, 2007
U.S. Congress members rebuked China on a range of issues, criticizing Beijing's test of an anti-satellite weapon, its military buildup, its policy of forced abortion, its support of ruthless regimes, and its repatriation of North Korean refugees in violation of international law.
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers repeatedly expressed concern over China's suitability to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
"If ever there was a time for China to get its house in order, this is it," said committee chairman Tom Lantos, a Democrat.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican and long a strident critic of China, noted that the United States has played a significant role giving China the wherewithal to become a military power because of China's robust U.S.-bound exports.
"We have built up a Frankenstein that now threatens us," Rohrabacher said.
In a similar vein, Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, a Republican, noted that China is planning a 17.8 percent increase in its military budget for the next financial year.
"Who's the target?" she asked.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified that the motives behind China's military buildup are unclear and are a matter of concern to both United States and China's neighbors.
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