Human Rights: August 2010 Archives

By Radio Free Asia
August 25, 2010

Police clear Beijing of dissidents ahead of a star-studded martial arts event.

Police in China's capital have removed a victim of the Tiananmen Square military crackdown from the city ahead of a high-profile martial arts event associated with Hollywood martial arts star Jackie Chan.

Qi Zhiyong, disabled due to injuries sustained when People's Liberation Army troops suppressed the student-led pro-democracy movement on the night of June 3-4, 1989, said he had been taken out of the city to an undisclosed location Tuesday by two regular police and two security guards.

"The police said that it was because of the SportAccord Combat Games," Qi said. "Also I sent an update on Twitter about [fellow dissident] Li Jinping who wanted to hold a demonstration."

"They said they thought I supported the demonstration, and they were putting me under house arrest--for a whole bunch of reasons at the same time."

"I'm in the police car now. They told me that I'd probably be set free at the beginning of September. They don't know the exact timing themselves," Qi said.

Chan's recent Hollywood blockbuster, The Karate Kid, is set in modern-day Beijing and shows an open, prosperous, and hi-tech China likely to find favor with both the ruling Communist Party and Chinese audiences.

Campaigners targeted

Li Jinping has campaigned for years to have disgraced late former premier Zhao Ziyang rehabilitated. Zhao was toppled from power for not taking a hard line with the 1989 student movement, and died under house arrest at his Beijing home in 2005.

Li said he and Qi have worked together to clear Zhao's name.

"The demonstration was to call for Zhao's rehabilitation, for a return to the [guarantees of China's] Constitution, and for returning political power to the people," Li said, after being held for several hours Tuesday at a Beijing police station.

Qi said he had seen messages online from a number of dissidents and activists in recent days, saying they are also under surveillance or house arrest.

He said they included activists Wang Xueqin, Hu Shigen, Gao Hongming, and Liu Shasha.

"What has the Combat Games got to do with me?" Qi said. "It's a boxing or martial arts exchange, I think. What does it have to do with people like us?"

"[The police] said it is an international event with a lot of foreign visitors, and that it is the first time it will be held in Beijing, and that they had to take security measures for it."

Another Beijing-based activist, Wu Tianli, said surveillance is now being used to keep watch on people the authorities fear as potential troublemakers, regardless of the size of the event.

"They are watching us now, whether it's a big event or a small one," Wu said. "Life is going to get tougher and tougher for us petitioners now."

"Before, they might watch you twice a year; now they watch us four times a year, or five. They'll watch you for anything," she said.

Preparation for Games

Chan was in Beijing earlier this week to record the official theme song for the Combat Games, and told reporters he would like to see Kung Fu practiced more internationally.

"I love Wushu [Kung Fu] a lot and I would love to see it included in future Olympic Games," Chan was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes Wushu as a sport but has not included it as an official event in the Games. By contrast, the Korean martial art Taekwondo and Japanese Judo are now well-known as international sporting events.

However, the IOC allowed China to organize an international Wushu tournament at the same time as the 2008 Beijing Games to showcase the sport--an event that was attended by Jet Li, another Hollywood actor and Kung Fu star.

The Combat Games run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4, and will feature some of the best athletes on the international martial arts circuit, as well as cultural events showcasing the history of martial arts.

The official theme song of the Games is a rousing anthem with traditional instruments and soaring backing vocals titled "Heaven."

Original reporting in Mandarin by Fang Yuan. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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By Matthew Little and Jason Loftus | The Epoch Times
August 18, 2010

The office of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has called on the Chinese embassy in Ottawa to return a Canadian journalist's passport, which he said was withheld when he refused to provide details about his personal life in Canada.

Zhang Zhaopei applied for a visa to visit China from the Chinese consulate in Toronto on Friday, submitting his Canadian passport as part of the process. But when he went to pick up his visa, he was given a blank sheet of paper and told to list extensive personal information about his work, family, and personal history.

Mr. Zhang refused, saying he would abandon his visa application. But Zhang says he was told he still wouldn't get his Canadian passport back if he didn't provide the requested details.

"I never thought they can do this thing," said Zhang, a reporter for New Tang Dynasty Television and a Falun Gong practitioner.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Minister Cannon said Canada had asked for the passport to be returned.

"We are aware that the individual in question had requested a visa on Friday to travel to China and that his passport has not been returned," spokesperson Melissa Lantsman told The Epoch Times.

"A Canadian passport is the property of the government of Canada. We have made a formal request to the Chinese embassy that the passport be returned into our possession."

Ms. Lantsman said her office had read Mr. Zhang's story earlier this week in The Epoch Times and that the coverage had brought "much needed attention" to his case.

Zhang was attempting to return to China to visit his family who he has been unable to see in nine years.

Zhang had tried to return to China from Singapore in 2002 and 2004, only to be sent packing once he landed in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. At that time, he was told it was because he practiced Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese meditation practice that became the target of persecution in China in 1999 and has since put up a spirited defence of human rights.

Mr. Zhang immigrated to Canada in 2005 and is now a citizen. He said he wasn't surprised he was denied a visa this time around, though having his passport withheld did come as a shock.

New Tang Dynasty Television has encountered interference from the Chinese authorities in the past. The regime previously pressured a European satellite carrier to drop the station's signal into China and has also attempted to exclude NTDTV from a press event inside Canada's Parliament Hill earlier this year.

NTDTV and The Epoch Times made headlines in the lead-up to the G-20 this June when a press conference with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese leader Hu Jintao failed to take place due to the regime's insistence that both media outlets be prohibited from attending, a request the Parliamentary Press Gallery refused to accommodate.

Zhang said the information the consulate requested would have made it easier for the consulate to interfere and monitor his daily activities--something he didn't want to facilitate.

"I think they just want to control everything of myself, including my work and everything ... They want to control everything," he said.

Zhang told the consulate worker handling his case that if they didn't return his passport, he would contact the police. A supervisor there told him to go ahead, he said.

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By Simon Romero for The New York Times
August 14, 2010

In its worldwide quest for commodities, China has scoured South America for everything from Brazilian soybeans to Guyanese timber and Venezuelan oil. But long before it made any of those forays, China put down stakes in this desolate mining town in Peru's southern desert.

The year was 1992. Chinese companies had begun to look abroad. One steelmaker, the Shougang Corporation of Beijing, set its sights on an iron ore mine here and bought it in a move that seemed particularly bold. At the time, Peru was still plagued by attacks by the Maoist guerrillas of the Shining Path.

But the hero's welcome for Shougang soon faded. Workers at the mine, which was founded by Americans in the 1950s and nationalized by leftist generals in the 1970s, began fomenting the unexpected: a revolt that has endured to this day, marked by repeated strikes, clashes with the police and even arson attacks against their nominally Communist bosses from China.

"We quickly realized that we were being exploited to help build the new China, but without seeing any of the rewards for doing so," said Honorato Quispe, 63, a longtime union official at the mine, where workers have held three strikes this year alone, including an 11-day stoppage last month.

The long-festering conflict with Shougang over wages, environmental pollution and Shougang's treatment of residents of this company town does not square well with China's celebratory vision of its rising profile in Latin America, in which everyone benefits and a "win-win" is "the consensus." Latin America, as this idea of so-called South-South cooperation goes, sells China raw materials like copper, oil or iron; in return, the region buys goods like cellphones, cars and cheap plastic toys.

The tension in Marcona, one of the most conflict-ridden towns in a country increasingly prone to conflict over mining and energy projects, suggests that China's engagement in the region -- like that of the United States, Britain and other powers that preceded it in Latin America -- is not without pitfalls.

While not the dominant theme in the region's relations with China, a wariness is crystallizing in some countries over the booming trade with China.

Reactions to this surge largely focus on cheap Chinese imports or on China's assertive efforts to win access to energy reserves. In both Brazil and Argentina, for instance, manufacturers accused Chinese companies of unfairly dumping Chinese products in their markets, prompting new tariffs against some Chinese imports.

But perhaps nowhere in the region has wariness and regret over Chinese investment coalesced as much as in Marcona. With about 15,000 residents, it still has the look of a mining town in the American Southwest, a legacy of its construction in the 1950s by engineers from the United States.

The Americans are long gone, but the Chinese managers now live in the same ranch-style houses built for their predecessors in a district called Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach). They drive sport utility vehicles and talk to subordinates through translators. They eat meals at their own cafeteria, avoiding mixing with Peruvians in town.

Workers here said the problems with Shougang began in the 1990s, when the company slashed the mine's work force to 1,700 from 3,000 and brought in some Chinese workers. Resistance in the form of strikes soon convinced the managers to return their workers to China.

Resentment also emerged when Shougang did not invest a promised $150 million in the mine and the town's infrastructure, opting instead to pay a $14 million fine for failing to do so, and left blocks of housing once occupied by workers vacant in a town with an acute housing shortage.

At a union building, workers spoke of low wages and company resistance to enacting government-mandated raises, and they claimed that Shougang had dumped chemical waste into the sea.

On the other side of Marcona from Playa Hermosa, some workers at the mine live in bleak company housing. Others rent squalid rooms in the town. A lower class of squatters subsists on Marcona's edge in a driftwood shantytown, Ruta del Sol.

"The Chinese see us as little more than slaves," said Hermilia Zamudio, 58, a resident of Ruta del Sol, whose husband was fired from the mine after working there for almost 30 years. "They deem it beneath them to talk to us, and when they need to address problems here, they do so with their thugs."

Clashes with private security guards and with the police, who receive a monthly stipend paid by Shougang, are common in Ruta del Sol, on land where Shougang says it has concessionary rights to exploit deposits of dolomite, a mineral it hopes to extract for smelting iron and steel.

At one clash last year, Wilber Huamanñahui, 21, a construction worker, was shot dead as he and dozens of others tried to take possession of land controlled by Shougang. The case remains unsolved. "I know there will never be justice for his killing," said his widow, Zoila Benites, 18.

Elected officials here still express dismay over the inability to punish those responsible for Mr. Huamanñahui's killing. "We think there's an effort by judicial authorities to delay the process for four or five years until the matter is forgotten," Joel Rosales, the mayor of San Juan de Marcona, said this month.

Shougang, which keeps its Chinese managers cloistered away from the news media, has generally responded to such statements with silence. An effort to approach Chinese executives at their private cafeteria here was met by a threat of forceful expulsion by a guard.

Raúl Vera la Torre, a Peruvian executive for Shougang who handles relations with the government and journalists, acknowledged in an interview in Lima that the company faced complaints over issues like the housing shortage, water scarcity and expulsions of squatters. He contended this month that Shougang had carried out projects to improve the quality of life in the town, like providing potable water to many residents.

Still, he said, "a company cannot take on duties that are those of a government."

For now, Shougang seems prepared to manage from crisis to crisis. The mine here has been the focus of one to four significant strikes annually in recent years, according to Evan Ellis, a specialist in Chinese-Latin American relations at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington.

Mr. Vera la Torre, Shougang's Peruvian executive, said he preferred to focus on Marcona's potential. Pointing to China's long-term view, he said Shougang planned to invest $1 billion to raise production to 18 million tons of iron ore by 2012 from 8 million tons today.

Geography blessed Marcona, he said, with a location at the end of a planned highway link to Brazil. Others are also eyeing Marcona's location, including an American fertilizer manufacturer that plans to build a $1 billion plant here. Large ships could easily dock in a nearby port, which Shougang also owns.

But Marcona's workers suggest that unlocking that potential could do little to ease tension here.

"After nearly two decades of this experiment, the answer is no," said Félix Díaz, 66, a senior union official. "When the Chinese arrived, they talked about things like solidarity and the equality of man. If this is the brotherhood they praise, then one day sooner or later, the Chinese must be made to leave."

Andrea Zárate contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.

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By Radio Free Asia
August 05, 2010

People previously allowed free movement are now having problems leaving China

Chinese lawyers, academics, and rights activists say that authorities are increasingly targeting them through immigration controls, with a growing number of people prevented from leaving the country in recent months to attend overseas events.

Earlier this week, authorities in the southeastern province of Fujian prevented Beijing-based writer Mo Zhixu from leaving the country, on grounds that he posed a "danger to state security."

"They told me very clearly that it might harm national security if I were to leave the country," Mo said from his Beijing home after being refused permission to board a flight for Hokkaido in Japan at an airport in the southeastern city of Xiamen.

"I had an inkling that something like this might happen because of [my involvement in] Charter '08," said Mo, referring to his signing of a document in December 2008 which called for sweeping political reforms in China.

Mo said he had been a vocal supporter of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, who helped to draft the Charter. Liu is currently serving an 11-year jail term for subversion.

Mo said he also took part in a discussion forum last year on the June 4, 1989 military crackdown on the student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

"They want to put on the pressure now," Mo said, noting that other Charter signatories and fellow activists had received similar treatment. "I thought that it might happen to me, as well."

"But I also thought that mostly I write commentaries, and I haven't actually done very much ... but in end they didn't let me go," he said.

Security concerns cited

Mo said he was prevented from leaving China under Section 1, Clause 8, of the Entry and Exit Management Law of the People's Republic of China, which states that a person whom the Chinese government believes to be threat to national security may be prevented from leaving the country.

However, the authorities did not confiscate his passport, Mo said.

Guo Yushan, director of the nongovernment Transition Institute, said he had been prevented from leaving China in July to attend a conference of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) run by the European Union.

"I have been prevented from leaving for two events," Guo said. "One was on my way to Poland, where I would have been the only Chinese person."

"At the other one, in Brussels, I knew that quite a few of us were going. [AIDS activist] Wan Yanhai went to that one."

Guo, whose group researches free-market economics, said officials gave no reason for the refusal to let him leave, and didn't retain his passport, either.

And in May, Beijing-based rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong was refused permission to leave China as he attempted to go through immigration controls at Beijing's international airport, on his way to attend an event in the United States.

A growing trend?

Jiang was detained in a small room and held while officials checked with their superiors, and then told him he wouldn't be allowed to leave, citing the same clause of China's immigration law that was applied in the case of Mo Zhixu.

"I'm not sure exactly about the timing, but we have discovered that a large group of people who had never run into problems before were being told they couldn't leave," Jiang said.

"[These are] all people who are fairly active in the public domain, and these measures are being used against them."

Fan Yafeng, former law professor at the prestigious China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said he sees the measures as part of a growing trend in national security enforcement.

He said ordinary citizens, rights activists, lawyers, and academics had been subjected to such controls recently, and that there is no way to appeal against the decisions, nor to pursue complaints against the officials responsible.

Original reporting in Cantonese by Hai Nan and in Mandarin by Ding Xiao. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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by Radio Free Asia
03 August 2010

A Chinese propaganda event in a religious space offends Uyghurs

Members of the Uyghur ethnic minority in northwest China have expressed anger and concern about controls over imams after a local Communist Party committee held a meeting in a place of worship.

The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Peyziwat County Committee held the meeting at the Second Village Mosque in Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture on July 24, according to the official Tianshan Net website.

"To hold communist activities in a mosque is a kind of ridicule to our religion and our humanity," said Abdurahman Kasim, a religious scholar from the county.

At the meeting, 35 imams attended a speech contest organized by the Unity and Friendship Department.

The topic of the speech contest was "Love the Country, Promote the Homeland."

Local people contacted religious figures to express their anger over the issue.

"So far, within a week I have received at least 100 calls from the public, all of them complaining about the issue. I understand that they cannot express their opinions to officials because of the political situation in our homeland," Abdurahman Kasim said.

"We did not say anything to the government about the issue, because we know what the cost of expression on this topic would be, especially these days. But officials should know that our silence does not mean we agree," he added.

A staff member from the Unity and Friendship Department of the CCP's Peyziwat Committee confirmed that the meeting was held in a mosque but refused comment on the issue.

Influence on imams

The meeting reflects the central government's strong concern for controlling religious leadership among Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in China with their home in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

One of the 19 participants in the speech contest, Abdurehimjan, a 41-year-old imam from a mosque in nearby Canbaz village, said, "I heard that people are blaming me as a traitor, but it is no secret to anyone what the rules for imams are in society now."

"We have to listen to officials, we have to obey regulations, we have to do many things against our will.  It's not only me--all the imams are paid by government to do that," he said.

Since 2006, the government has paid monthly salaries of 80, 120, or 230 yuan (U.S. $12, $18, or $34) per month to imams throughout the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to an official in Karamay city in charge of religious affairs.

In exchange, the government is asking imams to seek common ground between socialism and Islam and to guide the public to obey state regulations, he said.

"Patriotic education does not contradict Islam or our policy," an official from the CCP's Kashgar Prefectural Committee surnamed Zhang said.

"Stability is the main demand of our society, and unity is a major desire for the all the people who belong to various ethnic groups in the region," he added.

"Also, there was nothing wrong in terms of the location of the meeting, because we discussed it with imams before holding it there and they had agreed to allow it in the mosque."

Another staff member of the Unity and Friendship Department of Kashgar Prefecture, a Uyghur who did not wish to give his name, disagreed.

"I thought it was wrong that the activity was held in the mosque. We should respect some sensitive principles of religion, otherwise [some] activities will cause unexpected results that our government does not want to see," the staff member said.

"I think some local officials are just hoping to receive praise from higher-level authorities and they are neglecting the feelings of the local people."

Reactions overseas

Uyghur communities in the U.S. and Turkey have called for religious freedom in Xinjiang and said they are outraged by the lack of respect shown by the CCP towards places of worship.

President of the exiled World Uyghur Congress Rebiya Kadeer said she was shocked by the pictures of the meeting held in a mosque.

"At first, I could not believe my eyes. Actually I did not want to believe it was a mosque, but unfortunately it was," she said.

According to Kadeer, the central government's level of control over imams has increased over the last three decades, from watching over activities from the outside of mosques in the 1980s, to appointing and directing imams and arranging mosque activities in the 1990s.

"This is unique problem that Uyghurs are encountering. If they protest a problem, they will be punished. If they do not protest, China steps up attacks on their other rights," Rebiya Kadeer said.

In Turkey, religious activist Abdukadir Asim said, "It is a common principle among all religions that the privacy of the place of worship is fundamental. It is a strange and abhorrent event that communist propaganda was conducted in a mosque. I don't believe it has ever happened before, anywhere else in the world."

He also criticized general secretary of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmelledin Ihsanoglu, who visited China last month but neglected to draw attention to the issue of religious freedoms in Xinjiang.

"The action of holding a communist activity in a mosque ridicules not only Uyghurs but also the whole Islamic world. The international community should speak out about this event."

Kashgar is known among Uyghurs as the most religious place in Xinjiang. Kashgarians converted to Islam in the 10th century, 400 to 500 years earlier than Uyghurs in nearby cities.

Peyziwat is one of the largest counties in the prefecture, with 330,000 residents.

In June, authorities in Kashgar detained 30 women who had formed a Quran study group.

Authorities frequently require religious groups to submit texts for examination before they may be used for worship.

Regional regulations forbid mosque attendance for those under 18 years old.

Original reporting and translation by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

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By AFP - Agence France Presse (via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News)
August 04, 2010

China has defended its business dealings with Iran after a senior US official called on Beijing to follow UN sanctions against the Islamic republic to the letter.

The statement from a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman published in state media Thursday also came after a senior US lawmaker called for sanctions to be imposed on Beijing over its major investments in Tehran's energy sector.

"China's trade with Iran is normal business exchange, which will not harm the interests of other countries and the international community," the spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

"As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has always observed the council's resolutions."

In June, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear drive, which the West and Israel say is a covert weapons drive, and especially over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.

China, which wields a veto on the council, backed the UN measures, but it has since voiced opposition to further unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union, instead calling for more negotiations.

On Monday, Robert Einhorn, the US State Department's special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control, appealed to China to fully back sanctions on both Iran and North Korea, also suspected of developing nuclear weapons.

"We want China to be a responsible stakeholder in the international system," Einhorn said during a visit to Seoul.

"That means cooperating with the UN Security Council resolutions and it means not backfilling or not taking advantage of responsible self-restraint of other countries."

Einhorn is expected to make a stop in Beijing during his Asia tour.

Also on Monday, US lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- said investments by Chinese state-run firms in Iran's energy sector were "effectively bankrolling" its nuclear programme.

Ros-Lehtinen did not offer details, but US officials have noted that Chinese firms have been stepping in to fill the void left by companies leaving Iran because of UN and US sanctions.

"It's time to implement our sanctions laws and demonstrate to Russia and China that there are consequences for abetting Tehran and flouting US sanctions," she said in a statement.

"Russia and China appear determined to continue to facilitate Iran's dangerous policies. This must not be allowed to continue without serious repercussions."

China has emerged as Iran's closest trading partner and has major energy interests in the Islamic republic.

China is investing 40 billion dollars in Iran's oil and gas industry, the Islamic republic's deputy oil minister Hossein Noqrehkar Shirazi said Saturday. Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi is due in Beijing this week.

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