Recently in Human Rights Category

By Radio Free Asia
March 17, 2010

But one year later, Gao Zhisheng remains missing.

China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi has referred to a "sentencing for subversion" in the case of rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been missing for more than a year, but the minister was still tight-lipped about his exact whereabouts.

"Gao Zhisheng has been sentenced for committing the crime of subverting state power," Yang told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Beijing. U.S. President Barack Obama has also raised Gao's case.

He didn't say whether the sentencing referred to a suspended sentence handed down at a one-day secret trial in 2006, or to a new charge against Gao--once a top defense lawyer lauded by the ruling Communist Party for his work on behalf of the least privileged in Chinese society.

Gao's wife, Geng He, was granted political asylum in the United States recently, along with the couple's two children. His relatives back in China said Yang's statement wasn't good news.

"We are waiting to see what happens," said Gao's Shaanxi-based older brother, Gao Zhiyi.

Back in prison

"We'll wait until there is some fresh news. If it's true about the sentencing, that wouldn't be a good result."

Gao's nephew said he had heard rumors that Gao has been seen in Beijing in the past three months.

On Wednesday, the BBC quoted Gao Zhiyi as nervously saying he had spoken to his brother on the telephone within the last three weeks and that "I know that he's fine."

"He [Gao Zhisheng] said he's quite well, everything's fine, and told the family not to worry," his brother was quoted as telling a visiting BBC crew. "Please go home soon, don't stay for too long. Because if the local authority finds out, it won't be nice."

Fan Yafeng, a legal scholar at the official China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the government's handling of enquiries about Gao has been very messy, ever since the lawyer's disappearance .

"I think it's most probably to do with the original conviction in 2006, and they've done a bit more paperwork on that, and put him back in prison again," Fan said.

But in another case, Beijing-based lawyer Li Dunyong is currently under suspended sentence, and any form of further criminal activity would lead to further charges and require a legal process including a trial.

"If they want to cancel the suspended sentence they have to do it through a court," Li said.

"They wouldn't necessarily inform the family. A lot of courts are now passing sentences without informing the person's relatives," he said.

Foreign minister Yang denied allegations that Gao had been tortured, as feared by his family, supporters and fellow activists.

"His relevant rights based on this law have been protected, so the question of torture does not exist," Yang said.

Fears of torture

A torture investigator at the United Nations said last week he was very concerned about Gao's fate, while an international group of lawyers has called on the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to declare Gao's disappearance a violation of international law.

Hong Kong Democratic legislator Albert Ho, who has led a campaign of lawyers calling for Gao's release, signed a petition from a global legal team last week, calling on the United Nations to condemn Gao's detention as a violation of international law.

"At the very least they will look into this matter, because China is a member of the United Nations," Ho said.

"They can't just ignore it, especially as China has already said that Gao Zhisheng is in such-and-such a place."

"This shows that the authorities have him under detention. The Chinese government hasn't been able to shirk responsibility for him since his disappearance on Feb. 4 last year."

A U.N. spokesman on human rights said that a number of human rights departments handle complaints, and that they receive a great many petitions and letters, so any response would take time.

Gao's case has drawn international attention for the unusual length of his disappearance and for his own earlier graphic reports of the torture he said he endured in detention.

Born in poverty, Gao became a member of the Communist Party and was named by the government a decade ago as one of the 10 best lawyers in China.

He then ran afoul of the authorities by taking on cases related to corruption, religious freedom, and how the government has treated the Falun Gong movement--which Beijing has labeled a dangerous cult.

His law license was taken away, and in 2005 he resigned his Party membership.

He was convicted of inciting subversion in a secret trial, given a suspended sentence, and released in 2006. Gao gave a graphic account of torture he said he suffered during another detention in 2007.

Civil rights lawyers and international rights advocates say the entire Chinese legal profession is under increasing strain, with many law firms losing their licenses--or being threatened that they will have their licenses revoked--should they choose to take on sensitive cases.

Original reporting in Cantonese by Hai Nan and in Mandarin by Ding Xiao. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated from the Chinese and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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By Radio Free Asia
March 15, 2010

A suspicious death in detention sparks questions.

A taxi driver in southern China has died while serving a short detention as punishment for a traffic violation, according to the man's wife.
 
Liu Zhengguo, a driver in the Conghua city suburb of Guangzhou, in south China's Guangdong province, died as the result of a "brain tumor," according to police who had overseen his custody.
 
But according to Liu's wife, his body was covered with bruises that were inconsistent with the cause of death offered by authorities.
 
"My husband has never suffered from any illness before. Absolutely not," she said.
 
"But now his body is full of wounds and black-and-blue marks. His head was swollen. The police are so cruel."
 
Liu's wife said she became suspicious as a result of an uncharacteristically considerate attitude shown by the police following his death.
 
"They paid for our food and lodging when we were called to Guangzhou. They prepaid the medical expenses for my husband, saying they had done it out of humanitarian concern," she said.
 
"Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no earthquake in our home--why should we need their 'humanitarian concern?'"
 
Liu's wife said she felt certain that her husband had been beaten by his captors.
 
"The facts are clear. My husband was beaten to near-death by the police, but it took six days for him to die."
 
Traffic violation
 
Liu Zhengguo was arrested March 5 after clashing with traffic control personnel over a traffic violation and was subsequently given a 10-day detention as punishment.
 
Last Thursday, while in police custody, Liu suddenly collapsed from dizziness.

By the time he was rushed to a hospital he was already in critical condition.

Liu died Sunday in the same police-managed hospital that announced his cause of death as the result of a brain tumor.
 
News of Liu's death in detention prompted several hundred of his friends and colleagues to surround the Traffic Management Office in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou, protesting police violence.
 
But local authorities refused to answer questions.
 
An officer contacted by telephone Monday at the Linhe police station, which first detained Liu, referred the call to upper-level management.
 
At the Traffic Management Committee of Guangzhou, the managing body that oversees city traffic, a female officer who answered the phone declined to provide any details on the case, adding that all inquiries from foreign media had to go through the city's foreign affairs office.
 
But the officer said local newspapers had already reported the story and that police are now focusing on calming down Liu's family members.
 
The Information Times, a newspaper in Guangzhou, reported that "there were no wounds or blood extravasations on [Liu's] scalp," citing sources within the hospital where Liu died.
 
Meanwhile, Liu Zhengguo's death has attracted the attention of netizens all over China, who joke that the official excuse of a "brain tumor" is the newest invention by Chinese authorities hoping to avoid prosecution for police brutality.
 
Negotiations under way
 
Liu's uncle, Liu Jianguo, said the family is in negotiations with officials.
 
"Various government offices are now negotiating with us but they refused to admit any wrongdoing--they are only talking about reconciling the case. If they truly didn't make any mistakes, they wouldn't need to negotiate with us," he said.
 
Liu's wife said her husband was the family's main source of income and making ends meet would be difficult without his help.
 
"We have two daughters. One is 16 and the other is seven. My 70-year-old mother-in-law is living with us and she is blind," she said.
 
"The whole family relied on my husband to survive."
 
Original reporting by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Ping Chen. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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By Associated Press | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
March 11, 2010

China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that includes training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they hadn't been properly trained. She didn't give any specific examples.

Similar comments by Li were posted on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency.

Li told Xinhua on Monday that the new qualification system would ensure all journalists learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.

"Comrades who are going to be working on journalism's front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx's view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda," Li was quoted as saying.

Communist theories of journalism say media should serve the communist leadership and not undermine its initiatives. Many democracies embrace a model where reporters serve a watchdog role independent of the government.

Chinese media have become more freewheeling since newspapers and broadcasters began relying increasingly on advertising instead of just Communist Party patronage for their survival. There have been problems with reporters demanding payment for positive news coverage or to bury a story, and instances of reporters fabricating news.

Others have run afoul of the government for reporting accurately on stories that officials didn't want publicized. Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive or destabilizing.

A senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration system, saying it discriminated against the poor.

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By Radio Free Asia
March 08, 2010

China's premier promises a more open society, but his speech to parliament meets with skepticism.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for greater oversight of government by ordinary citizens and media, but analysts and netizens have voiced skepticism that real change is on the way.

During his annual work report to the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on Friday, Wen called on China's leadership to create an environment in which it is possible for people to criticize and supervise the government.

"We must create the conditions under which people are allowed to criticize the government, to supervise the government," Wen told delegates to the country's parliament.

"At the same time, we must bring out the ability of the media to exercise a supervisory role, so that power is exercised in broad daylight."

As he spoke, Beijing police held the capital under a tight security clampdown, ensuring that anyone with a grievance against the government was kept well away from the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

Netizens joked online that Wen's promises sounded like the self-development promises made by primary school children in China: "These things are only ever a goal," one quipped.

Wen called on members of the ruling Communist Party to be scrupulous over their use of public money, following a number of high-profile online exposes of the lifestyles of high-ranking officials.

Call for official discipline

"All of the leadership, especially high-ranking officials, must resolutely implement guidelines delivered by central government regarding personal finances and property of the individual," said Wen.

"This includes their income, housing, investments, and the careers taken up by their spouses, sons, and daughters."

Wen also promised to strengthen channels for consultation with Chinese citizens, who should be given the opportunity to oversee the government's activities.

China's army of petitioners say they have repeatedly been stonewalled, detained in "black jails," beaten, and harrassed by the authorities if they try to take a complaint against local government actions to a higher level of government.

"Does central government have any measures to ensure that people who report local officials online aren't hounded and detained, or pursued by local mafia?" wrote one petitioner from the eastern city of Ningbo.

Press freedom lacking

Another wrote from Chengdu that the government should first guarantee the media's right to carry out normal reporting and newsgathering activities.

"Officials involved in a situation have the responsibility to answer questions from journalists. Those who refuse to do so should be subjected to harsh punishment: at the very least a demotion or a pay cut for failing to carry out administrative orders."

But Hong Kong media reports said Chinese media have already been forbidden to report on any negative news from Beijing during the annual parliamentary sessions.

According to the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, petitions from retired members of the People's Liberation Army, from workers in certain industries, and from evictees in Beijing are forbidden topics.

And the difficulties faced by migrant workers in getting schooling for their children in Beijing were also struck off the list of permissible news items for traditional media and online news providers.

Beijing University economics professor Xia Yeliang said that Wen's promises of greater academic freedom in China's universities have also been heard before, and remain undelivered.

Twitter police

"They have been talking about reforming China's education system for many years now," Xia said.

"Now, they are saying once again that they want to turn the universities into top-flight universities [with no Party presence and academic freedom], but they haven't said when they will achieve this by."

One Beijing-based blogger, known online by the nickname Zhang Shuji, said China's Internet police regularly patrol micro-blogging services like Twitter.

"They won't necessarily take part in the discussion. They just keep a record," he said.

"It's a bit like using [the popular chat service] QQ. The Web police just make a back-up copy of all the chats. Then, if they get a subpoena, they just print it off for evidence that the person concerned was expressing opinions tantamount to incitement."

China had more than 40,000 active Twitter users as of last week, with more than 200,000 people registered on the service. More than half of Twitter's most-followed users are civil rights and pro-democracy activists from China.

Editors cautioned

An official report at the end of last year identified microblogging as one of the most powerful drivers of public opinion in China.

Sina's home-based microblogging service employs a team of more than 300 people, not just to monitor what is being posted, but to set up blocks and filters.

One of the coordinators of the community Internet blog Kenengba, A Chan, wrote: "Sina's microblogging service used to take down my posts without notifying me. Later on, they started watching everything I wrote, but they still didn't notify me."

In recent days, editors from 13 different regional state-run newspapers have been handed official warnings after they published a joint editorial calling for an end to the household registration, or hukou, system, which they said discriminates against rural residents who move to large cities to work.

Wen pledged in his speech to abolish some restrictions on migrant workers in smaller towns and cities, but stopped short of abolishing the hukou system, saying the authorities will take a "step-by-step"
approach.

Beijing University's Xia said the same pledge has already been heard from China's leaders.

"We have heard them say this many times now, over many years, to win a bit of applause in the moment, and nothing has come of it so far," Xia said. "If they really could do what they are saying, there wouldn't be so much discontent among ordinary Chinese people."

"Right now there is a huge gap between what the government says it's going to do, and what it actually does," he said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Xin Yu and Qiao Long, and in Cantonese by Hai Nan. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Source

By Michael Wines | The New York Times
March 02, 2010

Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.

It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.

"How can this happen?" The A.P. quoted him as saying. "It's a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!"

Telephone calls on Tuesday to Mr. Liao's home in rural Chengdu produced a recording saying that the line was temporarily unavailable. Calls to his cellphone went unanswered.

Mr. Liao was removed from a plane at Chengdu's airport as he prepared to fly to Germany to attend lit.Cologne, one of Europe's largest literary festivals, where he was to read from one of his books, "Miss Hello and the Farm Emperor: Chinese Society From the Bottom."

"The reason for inviting Mr. Liao was simple: he's a great writer," Traudle Berger, a spokeswoman at the Cologne Festival, said in an interview on Tuesday. "And China should be proud of such a great writer."

Ms. Berger said Mr. Liao's scheduled reading would still take place, with an actor assuming his role. Proceeds from the ticketed event will be donated to the human rights group Amnesty International, she said.

Last September, Mr. Liao was barred from traveling to Berlin to attend an event affiliated with the Frankfurt Book Fair, at which China was designated the honored guest.

A poet, screenwriter and new-journalism author, Mr. Liao, 51, is one of China's best known and most outspoken writers. Many of his works tell stories of people who have been left behind in the nation's rush to economic and political prominence, characters that include prostitutes, a grave robber, and a lavatory attendant.

His 2008 book "The Corpse Walker," another view of Chinese society's lower rungs, was published to international acclaim. His works are banned in China, but he has gained a large underground following, and pirated versions of his works can be found in some Chinese bookstores.

Mr. Liao was imprisoned for four years in the early 1990s after writing an epic poem, "Massacre," which denounced the Chinese government's suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In December 2007, when he traveled to Beijing to receive an award from the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers' rights organization, he was detained by the police and sent back to Chengdu.

In a text-message exchange last month, Mr. Liao said he had repeatedly met with Chengdu security officials to negotiate for permission to attend the Cologne event, but was told that he had been blacklisted by Beijing officials and forbidden to travel abroad.

In a Monday interview with the German network Deutsche Welle, Mr. Liao said he was seated on the plane at Chengdu's airport on Monday morning when a flight attendant approached and told him that "someone is looking for you."

"I asked who it was, and she said it would be best if I got my luggage," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I got my bags, and while I was walking to the cabin door, I saw a police officer."

Mr. Liao said the police told him, "You cannot continue doing whatever you want."

"I told them there will be many readers at the festival," he said. "I would like to go and meet them and read some of my own pieces and play the traditional Chinese mouth organ, the xiao. I said it was purely a literature festival and nothing political. They said they understood and were only doing their job following orders from the top."

On Monday, the PEN American Center, which like the Chinese organization is one of 145 affiliates of the International PEN Center, called on China's president, Hu Jintao, to lift restrictions on Mr. Liao and other writers.

"It is hard to figure what the Chinese government hopes to accomplish by preventing one of its most compelling literary voices from meeting with international colleagues and readers," Larry Siems, who directs the American center's Freedom to Write program, said in a written statement.

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