Human Rights: January 2010 Archives

克林顿国务卿关于互联网自由的讲话

>> Click here for the original English transcript

希拉里·克林顿（Hillary Rodham Clinton）国务卿

华盛顿哥伦比亚特区新闻博物馆（Newseum）
2009 年1 月21 日（星期四）

非常感谢，艾伯托（Alberto）。不仅要感谢你的赞誉和介绍，而且要感谢你和你的同事们在这个重要机构中发挥的领导作用。很高兴来到新闻博物馆。这个博物馆是一座纪念碑，见证了我们最珍视的一些自由。我十分感谢能有此机会谈谈如何运用这些自由应对二十一世纪的各项挑战。

虽然我并不能看到你们所有的人----因为在这样的场合灯光照射我的眼睛，而你们都在背光处----但我知道在座的有很多朋友和老同事。我要感谢自由论坛（Freedom Forum）的首席执行官查尔斯·奥弗比（Charles Overby）光临新闻博物馆，以及我在参议院时的老同事理查德·卢格（Richard Lugar）和乔·利伯曼 (Joe Lieberman) 两位参议员，他们两位都为《表达法》（Voice Act）的通过作出了努力。这项立法表明，美国国会和美国人民不分党派，不分政府部门，坚定地支持互联网自由。

我听说在场的还有参议员萨姆·布朗巴克（Sam Brownback）、参议员特德·考夫曼（Ted Kaufman）、众议员洛雷塔·桑切斯（Loretta Sanchez）、许多大使、临时代办和外交使团的其他代表、以及从中国、哥伦比亚、伊朗、黎巴嫩和摩尔多瓦等国前来参加我们关于互联网自由的"国际访问者领袖计划"（International Visitor Leadership Program）的人士。我还要提到最近被任命为广播理事会（Broadcasting Board of Govenors）理事的阿斯彭研究所（Aspen Institute）所长沃尔特·艾萨克森（Walter Isaacson）。毫无疑问，他在阿斯彭研究所从事的支持互联网自由的工作中发挥了重要作用。

这是关于一个非常重要的议题的一个重要讲话。但在开始谈这个议题前，我想简要介绍一下海地的情况。过去八天来，海地人民和世界人民携手应对一场巨大的灾难。我们这个半球曾历经磨难，但我们目前在太子港面临的困境鲜有先例。通讯网络在我们抗击这场灾难的过程中发挥了极其重要的作用。不用说，当地的通讯网络遭受了重创，在很多地方被彻底摧毁。地震发生后仅几个小时，我们就与民营部门的伙伴发起"海地"（HAITI）短信捐款活动，使美国的移动电话使用者能通过发短信向救灾工作捐款。这项活动充分展示了美国人民的慷慨。迄今，该活动已为海地的抗震救灾筹集了2500 多万美元。

By Radio Free Asia
January 06, 2010

The documentary 'Leaving Fear Behind' gets its producer a six-year prison term.

Authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai have handed a six-year jail sentence to a Tibetan filmmaker who returned from exile to make a documentary about his homeland, Tibetan sources say.

The Xining Intermediate People's Court handed the sentence to Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of the documentary "Leaving Fear Behind," in a secret trial that found him guilty of "splitting the motherland," the sources said.

"Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of 'Leaving Fear Behind,' was sentenced six years to prison," a Tibetan from the Amdo region identified as Thardrub said.

"We were checking around about it...later, we were able to confirm that he was sentenced secretly by Xining Intermediate People's Court in Qinghai on Dec. 28, 2009."

Dhondup Wangchen's relatives were given no information about his trial or sentencing, he added.

"They were not informed about the sentencing," Thardrub said. "The relatives argue that he is innocent and he did not commit any crime...They are planning to appeal his sentence in the higher courts."

Jamyang Tsultrim, a relative of Dhondup Wangchen now living in Switzerland, said the sentencing of Dhondup Wangchen was a clear indication of how Tibetans were deprived of freedom of expression in China.

"His relatives made arrangements for a lawyer to represent him, but the lawyers were not allowed to represent him," Jamyang Tsultrim said.

"He was also suffering from liver problems and was denied any kind of medical treatment," he added.

Short documentary

Jamyang Tsultrim also said Dhondup Wangchen's relatives weren't informed about his detention, his health problems, or his sentencing.

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ran a petition campaign following Dhondup Wangchen's detention on March 23, 2008, calling him "a courageous man who took the risk of returning to his country to interview other Tibetans."

Dhondup Wangchen's film, "Leaving Fear Behind" (www.leavingfearbehind.com), is a 25-minute documentary including interviews with Tibetans in the Amdo region expressing their views on Tibet's exiled leader the Dalai Lama, the Beijing Olympics, and Chinese laws.

The authorities also detained Jigme Gyatso, a monk from the Kham region, at the same time, but released him on Oct. 15. He later said he was tortured in detention.

"Leaving Fear Behind" was produced outside China after Dhondup Wangchen managed to send footage out of Tibet before the authorities caught up with him.

It was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing during the Olympic Games.

Protest turned violent in 2008

Many Tibetans have chafed for years under Chinese rule.

Rioting rocked the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in March 2008 and spread to Tibetan-populated regions of western China, causing official embarrassment ahead of the August 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Chinese officials say 21 people--including three Tibetan protesters--died in the violence.

The India-based Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 220 Tibetans were killed and 7,000 were detained in a subsequent region-wide crackdown.

Original reporting by Dorjee Tso for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original source

By Radio Free Asia
January 05, 2010

Villagers in southern China say authorities are trying to hide the effects of lead poisoning on their children.

More than 100 children in a village in southern China have tested positive for elevated lead levels, but local authorities are attempting to cover up the evidence, villagers said Tuesday.

Residents of Hekou village in Jiangsu province said their children became sick as a result of heavy lead pollution from a battery factory located in nearby Yancheng city's Dafeng Economic Development Zone.

According to local newspaper Xiandai Kuaibao (Modern Express), chief law enforcement officer of the economic zone Zhu Jining said Tuesday that only 51 of the 110 Hekou children had tested positive for elevated lead levels.

A Hekou villager surnamed Zhang, said he is infuriated by Zhu's statement.

"The number is absolutely wrong ... There are more than 100 sick children, and some are still in hospitals. The officials are hiding the truth, and we have no way to deal with them because there is no one listening to us," Zhang said.

Villagers said that their children began to show symptoms of lead poisoning last August, including vomiting, lack of appetite, and incessant crying. The concerned parents decided to bring their sick children to Shanghai for medical tests.

"My daughter went to a hospital in Shanghai last November, where she tested positive for high lead levels in her blood. It turned out that in our village, some children have blood lead levels of 200 or 300 micrograms, much higher than the normal volume of 100 micrograms," Zhang said.

"We all got our tests done in Shanghai because local hospitals were too slow to respond," Zhang added.

Officials 'shirking duties'

Zhang said adults also tested positive for high lead levels, but village cadres responded by saying that a higher level government branch would investigate the situation.

"I haven't seen any investigators coming from above until today," Zhang said.

Another villager, surnamed Cao, also blasted village officials for shirking their duties.

"I found my child's vision had deteriorated due to the lead pollution, but village cadres didn't provide any solutions to our problems."

Wang Ke is a three-year-old girl among the six children most seriously poisoned by lead. Her father said there are at least 100 sick children in the village.

"There are at least 100 children who have tested positive for elevated lead levels. My daughter has a blood lead level of 399 micrograms, and she is one of the six sickest children," Wang said.   
   
Villagers said the lead pollution, which has been transmitted through the air, is caused by a battery maker called Shengyuan Electronics Ltd., which began operations in 2007.

Last November, angry villagers blocked the main gate of the factory to protest the pollution and to request compensation for their children's medical bills.

Following the protest, the Dafeng Economic Development Zone penalized the company by reducing the amount of electricity supplied to the factory. But after only 20 days, production resumed without Shengyuan Electronics making any changes to its manufacturing process.

On Jan. 3, economic zone officials reportedly ordered the battery factory to shut down operations and relocate.

Lead poisoning common

Recent lead poisoning cases highlight serious problems of governance in China as authorities struggle to protect citizens and enforce environmental rules, experts say.

>> Read complete report

By WEI JINGSHENG - Op-Ed Contributor - The New York Times
December 30, 2009

Last week, a moderate reformist in China, Liu Xiaobo, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Chinese government for the mere act of organizing and signing a petition, Charter 08, calling for political reform and the basic human rights much of the world already enjoys.

The message was clear for all those who sought restraint from a newly powerful China that now sits prominently at the tables of global governance: Since you made a fuss about releasing Mr. Liu after his arrest, we will punish him even more severely. In no uncertain terms, that will let you know that not only don't we care what you think, but we don't have to.

Though diplomats from Germany and Australia were among the two dozen people allowed to observe the "public trial," the fact that no one from the American Embassy was admitted should be read as a particularly clear and open challenge to the United States.

We Chinese are intimately acquainted with this authoritarian arrogance.

During the eras of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, when I was jailed for 15 years for the "heinous crime" of putting up a wall poster, the Chinese government regarded international public opinion with this same attitude. If the Chinese people saw how the government blithely dismissed the concerns of powerful foreigners, the Communist Party rulers reasoned, they would also see they had no alternative but to submit to the overbearing authority of the government.

During Jiang Zemin's time there were some changes. In an effort to reduce international pressure and develop the economy under favorable trade conditions from the United States, the Chinese regime yielded. Among other actions, I was released from jail and deported to the United States. That resulted in a strong backlash from the hard-liners inside of the Communist Party despite the fact that, over the years, America's huge trade deficit is what largely fueled China's rapid growth.

Now that China's leaders believe their prospering nation has emerged as a player in world history just as America's prestige has been weakened by the Iraq war and the recent financial meltdown, the hard-liners have been able to wrest the upper hand once again.

No doubt there is some truth in the notion that their revived arrogance is inspired by China's role as America's largest creditor. Surely this is one reason China's leadership feels free to insult President Barack Obama, as it did during his visit to China, when they blocked broad news coverage of his public speech, and when they sent lower-level officials to negotiate with him at the Copenhagen climate talks until the last minute when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao finally granted him an audience.

Their humiliation of President Obama was not personal. It served to mark China's power on the world stage. But more importantly, as under Mao and Deng, standing up to the American superpower is meant to stem growing internal opposition and cow China's restless people into subservience under a one-party dictatorship. This is particularly critical as greater democracy in China would expose its own economic problems.

How President Obama responds to this challenge is not just a matter of his own honor and position; it is a matter of defending the democratic value system of the West against a challenge for ideological leadership in the 21st century.

The case of Liu Xiaobo presents an opportunity for President Obama to save face and stand up to the hard-liners' untoward arrogance. As Mr. Liu's case is appealed to a higher court, the United States and the rest of the West should insist that his sentence be suspended. Such a strong stance will weaken the hard-liners while strengthening the voices of peaceful reform within China.

If the United States doesn't push back, the hard-liners will push on, with negative consequences across the whole spectrum of issues, from trade and currency valuations to global security and climate change.

The United States may owe a great deal of debt to China, but it owes a greater debt to its founding principles of freedom and human rights. If the West, led by the United States, does not counterbalance China's new might in the world order, who will?

>> Original Source