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By Radio FREE Asia

30 January 2012

A year after calls for a Chinese 'Jasmine Revolution,' activists say they have been subjected to beatings and humiliation.

As Chinese activists mark the first anniversary of online calls for an Arab World-style "Jasmine Revolution" in China, authorities in the eastern province of Hangzhou announced they would try a prominent dissident for subversion.

The beginning of the Arab Spring in Tunisia last year sparked online calls for Chinese activists to begin their own Jasmine Revolution, prompting the detention and suveilance of hundreds of dissidents and rights defenders across the country.

Chinese activists say they were subjected to beatings, humiliation, and brainwashing techniques during the crackdown, which continues this week with the trial of Hangzhou-based pro-democracy activist Zhu Yufu for "incitement to subvert state power."

"The authorities used every kind of method to make people feel sub-human," said Beijing-based rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong. "This undermines a person's sense of themselves, and of their human dignity and values."

Guangzhou-based independent commentator Ye Du, who was himself detained for a period of time during the clampdown, was reluctant to discuss the experience.

"My treatment at that time was such that I can't bear to recollect it," Ye said.

Jiang said many of his friends and fellow activists felt similarly about their experiences at the hands of China's state security police.

While dozens of those detained by the authorities were eventually freed, many remain under close police surveillance. The Jasmine crackdown has also prompted a string of lengthy jail terms handed to prominent activists for subversion.

"They detained large numbers of people and eventually let them out again," said Wuhan-based rights activist Qin Yongmin.

"But just as everyone was thinking it was all behind us, and that they should let those remaining people go, they sentenced a whole string of people, Chen Xi, Li Tie, and Chen Wei, in the space of a month."

Leadership succession

Qin said he believed the jail sentences handed to the three activists were the result of nationwide preparations for a crucial leadership succession at the 18th Party Congress later this year.

"The authorities are hoping that nothing big will happen ahead of the 18th Congress," he said. "So they are showing political dissidents what they're made of."

Rights groups estimate that at least 40 activists were held under criminal detention in the two months that followed the calls for a Jasmine Revolution--proposed silent demonstrations in major Chinese cities--that, in the event, appeared to attract more police and journalists than protesters.

Authorities in Hangzhou meanwhile announced they would try Zhu Yufu, a founding member of the now-banned opposition China Democracy Party (CDP), for subversion on Tuesday, his wife said.

Zhu's trial would begin at th Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court at 9.00 a.m. local time, according to Jiang Hangli. Only two passes were issued for family to attend the proceedings, she said.

"Only close family members [can attend]," Jiang said, adding that she and the couple's daughter planned to attend the trial. "Even more distant relatives aren't allowed."

She said the case against her husband apparently hinged on a poem he posted online, titled "It is Time," calling on Chinese people to walk the streets in support of political change.

"I read the poem," Jiang said. "But my friends said they couldn't see anything in it ... The lawyer also said that he collected donations and asked about the families who had people in prison over Spring Festival."

"He also gave interviews to journalists; that's what the lawyer said."

'It Is Time'

Zhu was formally detained by Hangzhou police last March after he posted his poem, titled "It Is Time" online.

"It is time, people of China! It is time," the poem read. "The square belongs to us all; our feet are our own."

"It is time to use our feet to go to the square and to make a choice ... We should use our choices to decide the future of China," it said.

Zhu, 60, is a veteran activist who first caught the attention of the authorities during the Democracy Wall movement of 1978. He was sentenced in 1998 to a seven-year jail term for his involvement with an unprecedented attempt to register the Zhejiang provincial branch of the CDP as a civil organization with the authorities.

Prior to his most recent arrest, he had been under frequent surveillance by police.

Zhu's charge sheet mentioned his habit of giving interviews to foreign media, his publishing of "subversive" opinions, his propaganda on behalf of the CDP and his online promotion of calls for a Jasmine Revolution in China, according to fellow CDP activist Zou Wei.

Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Lin Ping for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source

By Sharon LaFraniere ~ The New York Times

January 27, 2012

Weary of waiting for the authorities to alert residents to the city's most pernicious air pollutant, citizen activists last May took matters here into their own hands: they bought their own $4,000 air-quality monitor and posted its daily readings on the Internet.

That began a chain reaction. Volunteers in Shanghai and Guangzhou purchased monitors in December, followed by citizens in Wenzhou, who are selling oranges to finance their device. Wenzhou donated $50 to volunteers in Wuhan, 140 miles inland. Officials have claimed for years that the air quality in fast-growing China is constantly improving. Beijing, for example, was said to have experienced 286 "blue sky" days in 2011, a statistic belied by the heavy smog smothering the city for much of the year.

But faced with an Internet-led brush fire of criticism, the edifice of environmental propaganda is collapsing. The government recently reversed course and began to track the most pernicious measure of urban air pollution -- particulates 2.5 microns in diameter or less, or PM 2.5. It decreed that about 30 major cities must begin monitoring the particulates this year, followed by about 80 more next year.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection also promised to set health standards for such fine particulates "as soon as possible." Last week, after years of concealing its data on such pollutants, Beijing began publishing hourly readings from one monitoring station.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing nonprofit group, credits the Chinese public for the breakthroughs. "At the beginning of last year, we had almost lost hope that the PM 2.5 would be integrated into the standards," Mr. Ma said. "But at the end of the day, the people spoke so loudly that they made their voice heard."

The fine particulates, caused by dust or emissions from vehicles, coal combustion, factories and construction sites, are among the most hazardous because they easily penetrate lungs and enter the bloodstream. Chronic exposure increases the risk of cardiovascular ailments, respiratory disease and lung cancer. The Chinese government has monitored exposure levels in 20 cities and 14 other sites, reportedly for as long as five years, but has kept the data secret.

It sought 18 months ago to silence the American Embassy in Beijing as well, arguing that American officials had insulted the Chinese government by posting readings from the PM 2.5 monitor atop the embassy on Twitter. A Foreign Ministry official warned that the embassy's data could lead to "social consequences" in China and asked the embassy to restrict access to it. The embassy refused, and Chinese citizens now translate and disseminate the readings widely.

While China has made gains on some other airborne toxins, the PM 2.5 data is far from reassuring in a country that annually has hundreds of thousands of premature deaths related to air pollution. In an unreleased December report relying on government data, the World Bank said average annual PM 2.5 concentrations in northern Chinese cities exceeded American limits by five to six times as much, and two to four times as much in southern Chinese cities.

Nine of 13 major cities failed more than half the time to meet even the initial annual mean target for developing countries set by the World Health Organization. Environmental advocates here expect China to adopt that target as its PM 2.5 standard.

Wang Yuesi, the chief air-pollution scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimated this month that Beijing needed at least 20 years to reach that goal. The embassy's monitor showed that fine particulate concentrations over the past two years averaged nearly three times that level, and 10 times the World Health Organization's guideline, said Steven Q. Andrews, an environmental consultant based in Beijing.

In fact, Mr. Wang told Outlook Weekly, a magazine owned by China's official news agency, Xinhua, that Beijing's PM 2.5 concentrations have been increasing by 3 to 4 percent annually since 1998. He said the finer particulates absorbed more light, explaining why Beijing so often is enveloped in a haze thick enough to obscure even nearby buildings. Air pollution in the city and in nearby Tianjin is so severe that "something must be done to control it," he wrote on his blog.

Such sentiments are increasingly common on weibos, the Chinese version of microblogs like Twitter, especially among elites. International schools here are doming their athletic fields because pollution so often requires that students stay indoors.

In November, Pan Shiyi, a Beijing real estate tycoon, asked his seven million microblog followers whether China should employ a stricter air-quality standard. Shi Yigong, a molecular biologist who left Princeton University in 2008 to lead Tsinghua University's life sciences department, complained in a December blog post that air pollution was the single "most upsetting and painful thing" about life in China.

Some Chinese citizens remain stoic or unaware. One afternoon last week when smog cloaked Beijing and the American Embassy monitor edged toward the top of the chart, parents flocked to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, a children's hospital in downtown Beijing, towing children with respiratory ailments.

One mother of a 6-year-old awaiting treatment for her child's chronic cough said: "I think it's good for the child's immune system to be exposed to tough weather like today's. It will make them tougher."

Chinese statistics indicate that urban air quality has improved over the past decade as cities have relocated factories, reduced coal burning and adopted stricter vehicle emission standards. The World Bank's analysis of the government's data found that average concentrations of particulates measuring 10 microns or less -- a group that includes both fine and coarser particulates -- fell 31 percent from 2003 to 2009 in 113 major cities.

Still, only a few cities managed to meet China's own toughest standard, which is twice as loose as the World Health Organization guideline. Mr. Wang, the researcher, contends that while Beijing's PM 10 level fell nearly a third from 2006 to 2009 -- for the most part, in the years leading up to the Beijing Olympic of 2008 -- it has been edging up ever since.

Whether government statistics are reliable is another matter. While some argue that the release of ever more detailed data makes fudging ever harder, Mr. Andrews, the environmental researcher, contends that the government systematically manipulated data and standards to create more "blue sky" days. Although attention focuses on Beijing, at least 16 other cities are more polluted, the World Bank says. Their efforts to clean up the air are partly offset by rising populations, an avalanche of vehicles and never-ending construction.

Some experts contend that the government shies away from epidemiological studies on pollution's health impact. "They are really unwilling to match it to the health data because that would be much more alarming," said one specialist who spoke anonymously for fear of angering Chinese officials. "They want to get the counts down first."

The World Health Organization estimated in 2007 that 656,000 Chinese died prematurely each year from ailments caused by indoor and outdoor air pollution. The World Bank placed deaths related to outdoor pollution at 350,000 to 400,000, but excised those figures from a 2007 report under government pressure.

Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told China Daily last month that without intervention, PM 2.5 particulates would replace smoking as China's top cause of lung cancer. Beijing health experts told the newspaper that while smoking rates were flat, the city's lung-cancer rate had risen 60 percent in the past decade, probably as a result of air pollution.

Feng Yongfeng, a Beijing father of a 3-year-old who founded a nonprofit environmental group called Greeen Beagle in 2009, argues that the Chinese should protect themselves by investigating their surroundings.

"If the data is real, officials keep it to themselves," said Mr. Feng, whose organization began this July to lend two PM 2.5 monitors to anyone who completes an online application. "You should not wait for the ministry to tell you the truth. You can find it out for yourself."

Only 30 people accepted the offer in the first five months. But Wang Quixia, the project manager, said interest had skyrocketed since publicity made PM 2.5 a household phrase in Beijing.

Now there is a two-month waiting list.

Mia Li contributed research.

>> Original Source

By Jonathan Watts | The Guardian (United Kingdom)

January 25, 2012

Chinese relations with Norway have been frosty since Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that dissident Liu Xiaobo would be peace laureate.

Norway could shut China out of the Arctic Council if Beijing does not stop a campaign of diplomatic snubs imposed after the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Norwegian newspaper has reported.

If confirmed, Oslo's move would mark a bold confrontation with the world's fastest rising economic power and highlight the growing importance of the Arctic, which is opening up for navigation and mineral exploitation as it melts due to global warming.

China's relations with Norway have been frosty since October 2010, when the Oslo-based Nobel committee announced that Liu, an imprisoned Chinese democracy activist, would be the next peace laureate.

Although the Norwegian government has stressed that the Nobel committee is independent, Beijing has punished its host nation by cutting political and human rights dialogues.

Until now, Norway has tried to use quiet diplomacy to ease the situation but, with little sign of progress, the Aftenposten, Norway's best selling newspaper, claims the government is preparing to up the stakes.

Citing an unnamed high-level diplomatic source, the paper said Norway would find it difficult to agree to China's application to be a permanent observer on the Arctic Council while the current situation persisted.

The Arctic Council is a forum for political discussions on the far north. It was established in 1989, originally to discuss measures to protect the Arctic environment, but has since expanded to work on scientific research, sustainable development and responses to emergencies.

Officially, the two governments have yet to comment on the issue.

"I can neither confirm nor deny this story, but I can say bilateral contacts between Norway and China are at a low level," Karsten Klepsvik, the senior Arctic official at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

He said no decision had been reached about Norway's position on applications from several nations to join the Arctic Council, adding: "As of today, we have not had inter-agency consultation on applications, but we will have to do that in the near future."

China makes no secret of its interests in the Arctic. The country has had a permanent research base in Norway since 2004 and conducted four expeditions of the region, according to the website of the government's Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

It has also announced plans to build a new 8,000-tonne icebreaker by 2013 to join its current vessel, the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, on some of the other three expeditions planned by 2015.

The potential is enormous. If the ice clears sufficiently for reliable summer navigation, ships could drastically cut the time needed to carry goods from China to Europe, and Chinese academics believe the Arctic could become the most important trade route in the world.

The region also has abundant resources, including fisheries, minerals, more than 10% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of its undiscovered gas reserves.

Although much of this is within territory that has already been claimed, emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil seek influence over these opportunities through observers seats at the Arctic Council, which currently has eight full members - Norway, Canada, Russia, the US, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark.

Until now, it had been thought that Russia and Canada were the strongest opponents of expansion, while Denmark has been the most supportive of a greater role for China in the development of the Arctic.

The Danish ambassador to Beijing, Friis Arne Peterson, said in October that China has "natural and legitimate economic and scientific interests in the Arctic".

Denmark hopes to benefit from the shrinkage of Greenland ice with the extraction of major deposits of rare earths, uranium, iron ore, lead, oil and gems. China is likely to be a key customer for these resources.

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By Edward Wong | The New York Times

18 January 2012

Yu Jie, a prominent writer of 11 books and a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, said Wednesday in a news conference in Washington that he and his family had left China on Jan. 11 after more than a year of harassment and house arrest.

Mr. Yu said his ordeal began Oct. 13, 2010, when he was placed under house arrest after the announcement that his close friend Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned writer, had won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. That December, Mr. Yu said, he was detained for four days and tortured nearly to death. He said security officers criticized him for planning to write a biography of Mr. Liu and for writing "China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao," a scathing critique of the prime minister.

Mr. Yu was then kept under house arrest, with a travel ban, until this month.

>> Original Source

By BBC World News

January 17, 2012

A veteran Chinese dissident, Zhu Yufu, has been charged with subversion for writing and publishing a poem on the internet, according to his lawyer.

The poem, entitled It's Time, urged people to gather in support of freedom.

Mr Zhu's lawyer said no date had been set for the trial. Chinese officials have not commented on the reported charge.

Mr Zhu was formally arrested last April as China began a wide-ranging clampdown on dissent.

The lawyer, Li Dunyong, said he had collected the indictment on Monday from a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

He told Reuters news agency he had met Mr Zhu, who he said was "in a good condition".

Jailed twice

Zhu Yufu, who is from Hangzhou, is a veteran activist who was involved in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, which pressed for a quicker pace of change in China.

He has been jailed twice before for his activism - in 1999 for seven years and in 2007 for two years.

The Chinese authorities formally arrested Mr Zhu in April 2011 for inciting subversion of state power - a charge often used against critics of the Communist Party.

A verse of his poem reads: "It's time, Chinese people! / The square belongs to everyone / the feet are yours / it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice."

But Li Dunyong said Mr Zhu was not connected with internet appeals for rallies inspired by uprisings in Arab countries.

Chinese police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to those calls; but the rallies themselves were tiny, with participants outnumbered by security officials.

China's Communist leaders have been stressing the need for stability ahead of a leadership change later in 2012.

The authorities have continued to detain and question large numbers of activists and lawyers.

In December 2011 the prominent Sichuan writer and political activist, Chen Wei, was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.

Days later, the veteran Guizhou dissident, Chen Xi, received a 10-year sentence on the same charge.

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