News: January 2008 Archives
By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
30 January 2008
When state security agents burst into his apartment last month, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype, the Internet-based telephone system. Mr. Hu's computer was his most potent tool. He disseminated information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other politically touchy topics even though he often lived under de facto house arrest.
Mr. Hu, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City. She blogged about life under detention, while he videotaped a documentary titled "Prisoner in Freedom City." Their surreal existence seemed to reflect an official uncertainty about how, and whether, to shut them up.
That ended on Dec. 27. Mr. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting state power while Ms. Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci. Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed. Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely 2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.
For human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Mr. Hu's detention is the most telling example of what they describe as a broadening crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August. In recent months, several dissidents have been jailed, including a former factory worker in northeastern China who collected 10,000 signatures after posting an online petition titled "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics."
"This is a coordinated cleansing campaign," said Teng Biao, a legal expert who has known Mr. Hu since 2006. "All the troublemakers -- including potential troublemakers -- are being silenced before the Olympic Games."
With fewer than 200 days before the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies, Beijing is in the full throes of preparations. Roads and subway lines are being completed, and the city's new stadiums are nearly finished. But with more than 20,000 journalists expected for the Games, Beijing is also tightening controls over information.
Early this month, the authorities announced that only state-sanctioned companies would be allowed to broadcast video and audio files on the Internet, although the practical effect of that edict remains unclear. China has also extended a crackdown on Internet pornography and "unhealthy" content, a move some rights groups consider a tool for arresting online dissidents.
China has jailed 51 online dissidents -- more than in any other country -- and last year blocked more than 2,500 Web sites, according to Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group.
Mr. Hu used his own Web site to post updates about other dissidents or peasant protests. He also did not hesitate to describe his semi-regular encounters with the police and state security officers assigned to monitor him.
"The police force mobilized is much, much larger than before," Mr. Hu told Agence France-Presse in October as the Communist Party clamped down on dissidents during an important political meeting. "Now, they just arrest people very publicly and arbitrarily, without the necessary legal procedures."
Last year, Mr. Hu became involved in the case of Yang Chunlin, the former factory worker who organized the "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics" petition drive, part of an effort to help local farmers seek legal redress over confiscated land. Mr. Yang was arrested last summer and charged with subverting state power, according to human rights groups.
Mr. Hu told Agence France-Presse that Mr. Yang's arrest was part of a government effort to "clean up" politically touchy cases before the Games.
"I'm helping Yang Chunlin to hire a lawyer," Mr. Hu said. "The authorities have threatened Yang's family and relatives. Yang's wife dares not speak to anyone because of the threats."
By Richard Spencer | The Daily Telegraph, United Kingdom
January 28, 2008
The Prince of Wales has snubbed the Chinese government by refusing to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.
The Prince made his decision known to campaigners for a free Tibet, who had been calling on him to show solidarity with those who believe the Games risk obscuring China's human rights record.
He gave no reason for his decision, and neither did he say whether he had received a formal invitation.
But recently he has been wooed by the Chinese, and particularly their new ambassador in London, who had made it her personal mission to encourage him to go.
"As you know, His Royal Highness has long taken a close interest in Tibet and indeed has been pleased to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama on several occasions," a letter, written to the Free Tibet Campaign by Clive Alderton, the Prince's deputy private secretary, said.
"You asked if the Prince of Wales would be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His Royal Highness will not be attending the ceremony."
Separately, the Prince's staff have made clear he will not be attending the Games at any stage during the summer.
Although the letter avoids backing the group's position on the Games, the Free Tibet Campaign welcomed the decision, with which it intends to launch a campaign to persuade other prominent figures not to attend in protest at Chinese policies.
"We welcome Prince Charles's decision to stay away from the Games, and call on other public figures and politicians to follow suit," said Matt Whitticase, a Free Tibet Campaign spokesman.
"The deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet and China since the Games were awarded is deplorable and can only mean that these Games rightly are destined to be known as the Games of shame."
By The Miami Herald
January 20, 2008
After acrimonious debate, Miami Beach commissioners have decided to end city sponsorship of a cultural and business exchange program with China because of concern over the communist country's dismal human rights record. Instead, commissioners voted unanimously to move the program to the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce.
The China Cultural and Business Exchange Program is the pet project of Commissioner Jerry Libbin, who defended it as a valuable way to boost tourism. Libbin started the program in 2005, led a local delegation to Beijing in 2006 and Shanghai in 2007, and has hosted reciprocal delegations as well.
But Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, who led the anti-China charge at Wednesday's commission meeting, criticized the program ``in light of the nation's blatant and ongoing human rights abuses.''
By BBC News
January 14, 2008
Apple and China Mobile have called off talks to launch the US group's popular iPhone handset to Chinese consumers.
While no explanation was given in China Mobile's statement, there is speculation that the two firms failed to agree on a revenue sharing deal.
The news means the iPhone is unlikely to be released in China anytime soon.
China Unicom, the country's only other mobile network, said last year that while it had no plans to introduce the iPhone it remained open to the idea.
Double average salaries
Mobile phone analysts have long said Apple would struggle to introduce the iPhone in China.
In addition to difficulty in gaining agreement over a revenue sharing deal, they have pointed to technical and content issues.
The iPhone sells for about $500 (£255) in the US, double the average monthly salary in China.
Though out of reach for the great majority of Chinese, it would likely prove very popular among the growing middle classes of Beijing, Shanghai and the other big eastern cities.
The iPhone was launched in North America and Europe last year, where Apple chose a single network provider in each country.
It is now continuing with talks to launch the handset in Japan.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
January 12, 2008
Ron Rust and Beve Kozub were poking around the toy booths at China's biggest trade fair two years ago when something caught their eye: pouty-faced baby dolls snuggling in light blue and pink fleece blankets, their eyes tightly shut or gazing with a newborn's woozy stare.
The American dealers plunked down $22,052 for a shipment of 2,740. But the lifelike dolls turned out to be knockoffs. Rust and Kozub were slapped with a lawsuit that could have cost them their home in Harmony, Pa.
Despite getting burned, they were back in China this fall. For new products at the right price, China is ''the only option at this time,'' Rust said.
The Americans fell prey to one of the many dangers of China's rough and raw capitalism. It's a cutthroat, predatory world where many factories cut corners to make an easy buck or just stay ahead of the thousands of others vying for their business. Safety scares, copyright ripoffs and outright thuggery are endemic.
Yet, foreign buyers keep snapping up toys, clothes, laptops and a myriad of other products that the world's factory floor churns out. Getting your hot product made in China is seen as a sure moneymaker. In the first 11 months of 2007, China's exports totaled $1.1 trillion, up 26 percent from the same period in 2006, according to China's Commerce Ministry. Chinese exports to the U.S. totaled $212.7 billion, a 15 percent increase from 2006, the ministry said.
The buyers are not blameless: Many breeze in on buying missions and don't stick around to ensure the goods are made right.
For consumers, it can be a dangerous and even deadly game. Chinese-made toy trains coated with lead paint ended up in playrooms worldwide. Cough syrup containing a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze killed dozens in Latin America. A tainted pet food ingredient killed dogs and cats in North America.
Chinese officials defend their factories, saying only a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in exports each year have problems. But it takes just one bad batch of toothpaste to cause deaths.
By Radio Free Asia
04 January 2008
China's government has issued a stringent new set of rules which will ban all but state-owned corporations from making and uploading video to the Internet.
The new regulations were issued jointly Dec. 31 by the Ministry of Information Industry and the Bureau of Film and Television under China's cabinet, the State Council.
"Companies or individuals who do not have an operating license issued by the relevant department, or who have not submitted an application for such a license, must cease to offer online video services," said the regulations, which come into effect Jan. 31.
The move will make it difficult for Chinese netizens to post video to their blogs or to Web sites, or to Chinese video-sharing sites similar to YouTube, including citizen journalism of the kind which has proliferated amid growing civil unrest across the country.
Fears of unrestIndustry experts estimate that there are currently around 160 sites offering such services in China, and that the majority of them are private enterprises financed by venture capital. Quite a few of them operate without any kind of license from the government.
"There is only one point to these rules, and that is to step up controls over any possible political dissent that might emerge in China," Shaanxi-based cyberdissident Deng Yongliang told RFA's Mandarin service.
"Now that the standard of living is rising for many people, they are beginning to demand more intellectually as well as materially, and such ideological freedom would be a challenge to the current political system," Deng said.
"We are also about to hold the Olympic Games, and so the authorities will continue to step up controls on freedom of expression."
It is currently possible to see video of incidents of social unrest in China, circulating alongside hard and soft porn, and home movies people make to amuse each other.
In one video uploaded to the popular sharing site 56.com, an ordinary citizen visited Beijing's "Petitioner Village", a now-demolished shantytown once housing hundreds of destitute people who lost everything, and who now spend their lives trying to win redress for grievances against the government.
By AFP | via Yahoo!News Canada
January 08, 2008
Canada's Trade Minister David Emerson said Tuesday he is ready to go to the World Trade Organization to try to force China to allow its citizens to visit his country, if the issue is not resolved soon.
In a teleconference from Beijing, he accused Chinese officials of unfair discrimination in refusing to designate Canada an approved tourism destination, while granting more than 130 other countries the special status.
After three years of fruitless negotiations, he said, "we really have got to the point where we have to move it along in a meaningful way in a relatively short time frame or we will have no choice but to explore the WTO option."
The status quo "could do economic damage to Canada," he added, explaining that most foreign trips to the United States, which has been christened a favorable vacation spot by Beijing, include a stopover in Canada.
By REUTERS | The New York Times
07 January 2008
A group of Chinese dissidents has signed an open letter condemning the arrest of an AIDS and environmental activist on subversion charges and urged the government to improve human rights ahead of this year's Olympics.
The letter, signed by 57 lawyers, academics, editors, writers and civil rights campaigners, said Hu Jia's arrest last month on charges of inciting to subvert the government was "unacceptable" as his words and deeds were protected under the constitution.
Hu's activism has set him on a collision course with the Communist Party, which has stepped up curbs on non-governmental organizations, the media, the Internet, lawyers, academics and civil rights campaigners to maintain its grip on power.
The signatories urged the government "to make good use of the opportunity to make the Olympics a truly grand event for the Chinese nation by opening the door of social reconciliation" and proving that it has made efforts to improve human rights.
The letter, e-mailed to reporters by the rights watchdog Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said Hu, 34, was suffering from liver problems and should be released at once.
At the very least, he should receive medical attention and be allowed to meet his relatives and lawyer.
Last week, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering called on Beijing to free Hu, saying he hoped the Olympics would be a chance for China to show it is committed to internationally recognized human rights standards, including freedom of expression.
Asked to comment on Pottering's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "China is a country ruled by law. Everyone is equal before the law. No one is above the law. Relevant agencies acted in accordance with the law."
CUT OFF
Police have prevented Hu's wife, blogger and fellow AIDS activist Zeng Jinyan, her newborn baby and elderly mother from leaving the couple's Beijing home. Authorities have cut off her communications with the outside world.
"They broke into our home and took away Hu Jia ... Then they searched our home for about five hours and took away our cell phones, laptops, fax machine, business cards, bank pass books, notebooks and video tapes," Zeng told Reuters last week.
"Six men refused to leave and occupied our living room for two days and one night. I protested angrily but they ignored me and called me a traitor," she said, using a friend's cell phone which was smuggled in but has since been confiscated.
The New York Times
January 05, 2008
China has pulled Li Yu's "Lost in Beijing," a movie whose sexually explicit scenes were already censored, from theaters and banned its producer from the film business for two years, The Associated Press reported. The ruling against "Lost in Beijing" accused the filmmakers of publishing unapproved pornographic scenes from the movie on the Internet and on DVDs, the official China News Service Web site reported. The film's producer, Fang Li, said he believed that Chinese officials faced political pressure to act amid the rapid spread of uncensored versions of "Lost in Beijing" and another sexually explicit film, Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," on the Internet and in pirated DVDs.
By Associated Press | The Straits Times (Singapore)
January 03, 2008
China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos - including those posted on video-sharing websites - to sites run by state-controlled companies and require providers to report questionable content to the government.
It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers of Internet video that host websites available in China but are based in other countries.
The new regulations, which take effect Jan 31, were approved by both the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry and were described on their websites Tuesday.
Under the new policy, websites that provide video programming or allow users to upload video must obtain government permits and applicants must be either state-owned or state-controlled companies.
The majority of Internet video providers in China are private, according to an explanation of the regulations posted on Chinafilm.com, which is run by the state-run China Film Group.
The policy will ban providers from broadcasting video that involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability or promotes pornography.
Providers will be required to delete and report such content.
'Those who provide Internet video services should insist on serving the people, serve socialism ... and abide by the moral code of socialism,' the rules say.
By Michael Bristow | BBC News
January 02, 2008
A few days ago, about 30 police officers broke into the home of Chinese activist Hu Jia and took him away.
His wife, fellow activist Zeng Jinyan, is now under house arrest. At least 10 security personnel guard her home.
Mr Hu's arrest comes as China celebrates the start of one of its most important years in recent history.
This summer, all eyes will be on it as it plays host to the Olympic Games.
Foreign campaigners say Beijing has not fulfilled its promise to improve human rights ahead of the Olympics - a charge the Chinese government flatly denies.
But the country's human rights record - including Mr Hu's case - will be under scrutiny as much as its sporting endeavours.
'Inciting subversion'
Mr Hu was arrested two days after Christmas, during the afternoon, as he sat at his computer in the dining room of his home.
When officers barged into his flat, his wife was in the bedroom, feeding their two-and-a-half-month-old baby.
According to his arrest warrant, issued by the Beijing Public Security Bureau, the 34-year-old is accused of inciting subversion.
His wife has not been told where he is being held.
Mr Hu is a well-known HIV/Aids activist who also helps publicise other human rights cases in China.
He has been arrested several times before.
On the night he was taken away, six police officers stayed at Mr Hu's home to guard his wife, her mother and their child.
Telephone lines and internet access to the home, in an eastern Beijing suburb, have been cut off.
When the BBC visited the couple's flat, we found Ms Zeng was being closely guarded by at least 10 public security officers.
We arrived as three of them were escorting her as she walked her baby in a shared garden next to her apartment.
After a lengthy check of our identification papers, officers finally refused to allow us to interview Ms Zeng, who also publicises Chinese human rights abuses.
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