News: December 2007 Archives

By Donald Greenlees and Keith Bradsher | The New York Times
December 30, 2007

Chinese officials announced Saturday that Hong Kong would have to wait at least another decade for democratic elections to select its leader, and for more than 12 years to have the right to directly elect the entire legislature.

The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the democracy aspirations of Hong Kong residents, and another sign that Beijing's current leaders have scant appetite for experimenting with greater public participation in political decision-making.

The Basic Law, the mini-Constitution imposed by China on Hong Kong after Britain returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997, raises the prospect of choosing Hong Kong leaders starting in 2007 by the principle of one person, one vote. But having already decided in 2004 to postpone universal suffrage until at least 2012, Beijing's leaders took the next step on Saturday of postponing action for at least five years after that.

Donald Tsang, the current chief executive who is Hong Kong's leader, plans to retire in 2012.

That has raised the prospect of a struggle among pro-Beijing political groups at that time over who might succeed him.

Pushing back even the possibility of universal suffrage until 2017 means that whoever succeeds Mr. Tsang would probably be running for re-election and would have all the advantages of an incumbent.

Delaying action until 2017 also means that Beijing's current leaders would leave the problem of how to handle Hong Kong to their successors, which will be chosen in 2012, as President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao are both expected to retire in early 2013.

The Chinese government's timetable for democratic reform in Hong Kong follows a decision by the Standing Committee of China's Parliament, the National People's Congress, to reject universal suffrage there in 2012, a timetable that opinion polls suggested is favored by a majority of the people of Hong Kong.

The earliest voters would be entitled to elect the chief executive by popular vote is now 2017. They must wait until 2020 before possibly having the opportunity to vote for the entire 60-seat Legislative Council.

>> Read the complete article

By William Foreman - Associated Press - via Yahoo Malaysia! News
December 26, 2007

DONGZHOU, China - Trucks with loudspeakers drove through a fishing village in southern China on Wednesday, warning residents against protesting over a power plant they claim was built on unfairly seized land. Police briefly detained a foreign reporter before escorting him away from the village.

Scores of security forces, including military police riding on trucks, were guarding the road to the power station in Dongzhou, where three men were shot dead two years ago when police cracked down on a protest against the facility. Residents say the government gave them little or no compensation for the land used by the plant.

The long-simmering dispute began boiling again early this month when protesters blocked an electricity pylon that wasn't fully operational. Last week, Radio Free Asia _ a private broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress _ reported that about 1,000 riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Dongzhou.

One resident, who declined to give his name fearing arrest, confirmed the details of the Radio Free Asia report.

"They're telling us not to march in the streets anymore," the man whispered as one of the loudspeaker trucks cruised by in the center of the village. "It's still tense. There are about 1,000 security officers here. They've arrested some of the protest leaders in the past few days."

Other residents said the same thing, but they were reluctant to chat much about the protests in Dongzhou, on the southeastern coast of Guangdong _ one of China's most prosperous provinces.

The grievance is just one in a series of increasingly frequent confrontations across China between police and villagers angry over land seizures for construction of factories, shopping malls and other projects.

>> Read the complete report

by CNN International | Source: The Associated Press
December 20, 2007

An online commentator who said next year's Beijing Olympics would force ordinary Chinese to live "like pigs and dogs" has been detained for nearly a week on a charge of subversion, his wife said Wednesday.

Though Beijing encourages Internet use for business and education, it tightly controls Web content, censoring anything it considers critical of -- or a threat to -- the Communist Party. Press freedom and human rights groups say China has jailed dozens of people for writings posted online.

Wang Dejia, who uses the pen name Jing Chu, has written numerous online articles about sensitive topics in China -- for example, backing Taiwan's bid for U.N. membership and criticizing Beijing for human rights abuses against journalists and dissidents.

Wang was taken from his home in Quanzhou County, part of southern China's Guilin city, early Friday on a charge of "subverting state authority," said his wife Wen Zhenyan. Officers confiscated his computer, memory cards, books and banking documents.

"The public security bureau said he was anti-communist," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Family members were told they were not allowed to visit Wang, who had often been under surveillance but never previously detained, his wife said.

In July, he told the Epoch Times, a newspaper linked to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, that China's central government was ignoring the needs of common Chinese in the lead-up to the Olympics. Instead, he said, the Communist Party was most concerned about cracking down on dissidents and building new venues.

"Let the people live like pigs and dogs, I think that's how it will achieve its goal of a harmonious society," he said in the interview.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that Wang met with U.S. officials in October to discuss human rights issues. Wen said her husband did meet with a consular representative, but she didn't know what they talked about.

>> Read the complete article

By TODAYonline.com
17 December 2007

Taiwan's Vice President Annette Lu on Sunday accused China of interfering with the island's upcoming parliamentary and presidential polls by trying to squeeze its air space.

Lu said that on November 26 China, via Hong Kong's aviation authorities, added a new flight route in the Taiwan Strait that is 42 miles (67.2 kilometres) closer to the centre of the strait -- a "middle line" that has been observed for decades by Taiwan and China to prevent unexpected clashes.

The new flight route was endorsed by China's Central Military Commission on December 5, said Lu, an outspoken critic of China.

In so doing, the Taiwan air force's two existing bombing practice areas in the Strait will be cut and their training capacity reduced, she said in Taipei while campaigning for a legislative election candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

"The move is apparently another territory claim by China," Lu said, adding that the chances of unexpected clashes between the two sides may go up.

>> Read the complete article

USA Today
December 11, 2007

The Olympics, to be held next summer in Beijing, are a source of immense national pride. China's communist government is presenting the Games as one huge coming out party, proof that it's a respected international power. To get the Olympics, it made promises on improving human rights in general and press freedom in particular.

Those promises, however, are looking increasingly empty.

In the past few months, at least 60 foreign journalists have been obstructed or detained by Chinese police -- this after China agreed in January to relax restrictions on foreign reporters, allowing them to travel more freely.

Swiss TV correspondent Barbara Luthi, for example, was recently hit and detained by authorities in Shenyou, a village near Beijing where unrest led to the deaths of several people two years ago. Two more Swiss journalists were detained as they reported on villagers who had been threatened in connection with a land dispute.

China also plans to conduct ID checks on 20,000 or more journalists covering the Games. The checks could be used to bar those who want to report on sensitive issues. "If they do not pass the tests, their accreditation requests will be refused," said Chinese official Yang Minghui, according to the press watch group Reporters Without Borders.

That China is hugely sensitive to criticism now is plain. Complaints by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) led to the easing of rules on foreign journalists. And when Hollywood stars threatened to call the Summer Games the "Genocide Olympics," Beijing belatedly pressured Sudan, where it buys oil, over Darfur. With pressure off on both those issues, the Chinese authorities are backsliding. This is no time to let up.

China has changed rapidly over the past quarter-century, but political freedoms haven't kept up with economic ones. Reporters Without Borders has documented about 100 Chinese journalists, cyberdissidents and free-speech activists jailed for "subversion" or "disseminating state secrets" -- often for revealing things the authorities want to hide, such as environmental dangers.

This moment, when the Chinese are susceptible to pressure, is a unique opportunity for the IOC to promote the cause of press freedoms. The more China opens up before the Games, the harder it will be to shut back down once the torch moves on.

By The Associated Press | The New York Times
05 December 2007

(Geneva, Switzerland): China continues to evict 13,000 people each month in preparation for the Beijing Olympics, despite worldwide attention and increased scrutiny, a housing rights group said Wednesday.

The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions said a recent trip to the Chinese capital confirmed an estimate it made earlier this year that 1.5 million people would be displaced by the time the 2008 Games are held.

Beijing says the group is grossly inflating the number of people being relocated as a result of the Olympic preparations, and that residents are content with the compensation they have received.

''Despite courageous protests inside China, and condemnation by many international human rights organizations, the Beijing municipality and Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games have persisted with these evictions and displacements,'' said Jean du Plessis, the Geneva-based COHRE's deputy director.

The group -- which claimed in June that 1.25 million had already been displaced -- said it returned to Beijing in August and found that forced evictions were continuing unabated.

In September, the Beijing municipality demolished several buildings in a run-down neighborhood called the ''petitioners' village'' in Fengtai District, which provided housing for thousands from all over China who came to complain to the central government about land seizures, forced evictions and corruption, COHRE said.

''Evictions in Beijing often involve the complete demolition of poor peoples' houses,'' the group said. ''The inhabitants are then forced to relocate far from their communities and workplaces, with higher transportation costs driving them further into poverty.

''In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterized by arbitrariness and lack of due process. In many cases, tenants are given little or no notice of their eviction and do not receive the promised compensation.''

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