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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.

>> Original Source

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.

>> Original Report 

By Michael Wines | The New York Times
12 March 2010

One of China's top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be "irresponsible" and would draw a response from Beijing.

The statement by Li Yizhong, China's minister of industry and information technology, followed a statement on Wednesday by Google's chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, that "something will happen soon" in the two-month standoff over Internet censorship between his company and the Chinese government.

But it was no more clear on Friday what that something might be than it was two months ago, when Google executives first threatened to pull out of China unless the government stopped forcing it to censor the results of users' Internet searches.

Chinese journalists outside Google's Beijing offices on Friday said they had heard the company was planning to close its doors here. But a Google spokeswoman denied that in an article on Thursday in the government-run English-language newspaper, China Daily.

Google's China businesses "are still at normal," and rumors that the company had ordered its Chinese advertising agencies to cease work were not true, the spokeswoman, Marsha Wang, told the newspaper. At Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., another spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, declined to comment on the statements from Mr. Li or any other aspect of its dispute with China.

A company spokesperson said Wednesday that Google expected the dispute to be settled "in weeks, not months."

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's party-controlled legislature, Mr. Li said that he hoped for an amicable resolution to the standoff. But he gave no indication that the government would ease the censorship rules that are at the heart of Google's ultimatum.

"I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations," The Associated Press quoted Mr. Li as saying. But "if you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to bear the consequences."

Whether the company chooses to remain in China, he added, will be up to Google.

Since it opened shop in China four years ago, Google has captured roughly 30 percent of the search market in the world's largest assemblage of Internet users, and it is a favorite among the better-educated and wealthier classes that advertisers covet. But the company has long been uncomfortable with Chinese demands that it censor search results to prevent users from viewing some kinds of content, notably political matters that the government deems unacceptable.

Google's Chinese Web site does censor some of its content, but its restrictions are generally less onerous than elsewhere, and the censored items are clearly identified as having been banned by the authorities.

>> Complete Report

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.

>> Original Source

Michael Evans, Giles Whittell | TimesOnLine (United Kingdom)
March 08, 2010

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.

The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states.

Nato diplomatic sources told The Times: "Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we're now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security." The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.

In the US, an official report released on Friday said the number of attacks on Congress and other government agencies had risen exponentially in the past year to an estimated 1.6 billion every month.

The Chinese cyber-penetration of key offices in both Nato and the EU has led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable.

Sources at the Office for Cyber Security at the Cabinet Office in London, set up last year, said there were two forms of attack: those focusing on disrupting computer systems and others involving "fishing trips" for sensitive information. A special team has been set up at GCHQ, the government communications headquarters in Gloucestershire, to counter the growing cyber-threat affecting intelligence material. The team becomes operational this month.

British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but "the EU is less competent", James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said. "The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy."

The lack of routine intelligencesharing between the US and the EU also contributes to the vulnerability of European systems, another analyst said. "Because of Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with America our systems have to be up to their standards in a way that some of the European systems don't," he explained.

Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, warned in 2007 that several states were actively involved in large-scale cyber-attacks. Although he did not specify which states were involved, security officials have indicated that China now poses the gravest threat. Beijing has denied making such attacks.

Robert Mueller, FBI Director, has warned that, in addition to the danger of foreign states making cyber-attacks, al-Qaeda could in the future pose a similar threat. In a speech to a security conference last week, Mr Mueller said terrorist groups had used the internet to recruit members and to plan attacks, but added: "Terrorists have \ shown a clear interest in pursuing hacking skills and they will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders with an eye towards combining physical attacks with cyber-attacks."

He said that a cyber-attack could have the same impact as a "well-placed bomb". Mr Mueller also accused "nation-state hackers" of seeking out US technology, intelligence, intellectual property and even military weapons and strategies.To help to fight the growing threat, the Office of Cyber Security, set up last year as part of the Government's national security strategy, liaises with America's so-called cyber czar, Howard Schmidt, who was appointed by President Obama to protect sensitive government computers.

British officials said that everyone in sensitive jobs had been warned to be especially cautious about disseminating intelligence and other classified information. Whether British intelligence is involved in retaliatory attacks is never confirmed. However, officials said that there was a significant difference between being part of an information war and indulging in aggressive attacks to disrupt another country's computer systems.

Dr Lewis said that neither the US nor any of its Western allies had formed an effective response to the Chinese threat, which has its origins in a massive boost to Chinese technology ordered by Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader, in 1986. The West's own cyber offensives have so far been directed largely at terrorists rather than nation states, giving China virtually free rein to penetrate Western systems with its own world-class hackers and increasingly popular Chinese-made components. "You almost have to admire them," Dr Lewis said. "They have been very consistent in their goals."

>> Original Source