News: December 2008 Archives
By Edward Wong | THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 23, 2008
More than 160 prominent writers, scholars and human rights advocates outside mainland China have signed an open letter to President Hu Jintao asking him to release a well-known intellectual and dissident who was detained this month. The letter was posted on the Internet on Tuesday.
The letter to Mr. Hu indicates that the case of the intellectual, Liu Xiaobo -- one of the driving forces behind a bold manifesto demanding democratic reforms that has received worldwide attention -- is quickly turning into the latest human rights cause célèbre in China. The call for his release could embarrass the Communist Party at a time when Chinese leaders are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the policy of "reform and opening up."
Among the writers signing the letter are three Nobel laureates in literature -- the South African novelist Nadime Gordimer, the Irish poet Seamus Heaney and the Nigerian novelist Wole Soyinka -- as well as other writers who regularly champion freedom of expression, including the Italian novelist Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie.
Just as notable is the fact that an array of foreign China scholars also signed the petition, possibly risking their access to the country. Academics specializing in Chinese studies are often cautious about taking stands on political issues deemed sensitive by the Communist Party because the Chinese government has a track record of denying visas to people who publicly oppose the party's views. Some of the scholars who signed the petition are already on the Chinese government's blacklist, but others still have regular access to the country.
The scholars include Geremie R. Barmé of Australian National University; Richard Baum of the University of California, Los Angeles; and Andrew J. Nathan of Columbia University.
Prominent scholars in Hong Kong, which is controlled by China but enjoys greater freedoms than the mainland, also signed the letter.
Mr. Liu, a 53-year-old literary critic who has directed the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a group of writers who advocate for broader free speech, was taken by security officers from his home on the night of Dec. 8 and has not been heard from since.
Human rights advocates say that Mr. Liu has been made a target because he was one of the driving forces behind Charter 08, the recent manifesto demanding democratic reforms and accountability from the Communist Party that was signed by more than 300 Chinese from various backgrounds and recently posted on the Internet.
Other people who signed the manifesto have also been detained and questioned by the authorities. All except Mr. Liu have been released.
The officers who detained Mr. Liu took computers, mobile phones and personal papers from his home. His wife and other family members have received no word of his whereabouts or condition.
The open letter to Mr. Hu that was posted on Tuesday says: "For the international community to take seriously China's oft-stated commitment to respect human rights and the rule of law, and for China's own citizens to trust the judicial system to redress legitimate grievances, it is urgent that China's central leadership ensure that no one be arrested or harassed simply for the peaceful expression of his or her views."
The letter notes that although Mr. Liu was detained in the past for several years, he has never been convicted of any crime.
Mr. Baum, the political scientist at the University of California, helped bring the petition to prominence by circulating it on Chinapol, a Listserv managed by Mr. Baum that is read by many scholars of China. In an interview via e-mail, Mr. Baum said that he usually tried to avoid using the Listserv for political causes but that this case was different.
"While I have always tried to maintain Chinapol's political neutrality, some violations are so egregious that I cannot, as a sentient being, remain neutral," he said in an e-mail message.
Bruce Jacobs, a professor of Asian languages and studies at Monash University in Australia, said he signed the petition because "Liu was clearly arrested because of Charter 08."
"That concerned me," he said, "I've been very concerned with human rights in China for a long time, and recently it's gotten worse."
Mr. Liu has been a pillar of political dissent in China for years. He supported the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and continued his dissident writings afterward, work that led to his detention by the authorities. Starting in 1996, he spent three years doing hard labor for having "repeatedly stirred up trouble and disrupted public order." Since 1999, he has been allowed to continue his activism, presumably with the permission of the country's leaders, but has been under surveillance.
Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that if Mr. Liu is formally arrested and charged, then that would mean Chinese leaders want to show intellectuals that the Communist Party is hardening its line and unwilling to tolerate any dissent.
"He's been detained before," Mr. Bequelin said. "But if they send him to jail, that sends a political signal."
By RADIO FREE ASIA
December 22, 2008
More jail terms are handed down to Tibetans implicated in widespread anti-China protests earlier this year.
KATHMANDU--Authorities in China's southwestern province of Sichuan have handed down further prison terms to Tibetans detained in anti-China protests earlier this year, according to sources in the region.
The sentences follow a wave of jailings last month in which a court employee said that detained Tibetan protestors were being sent to prison "one after another," and promised "More will be sentenced."
Many of those recently sentenced are said to have taken part in a March 18 protest in Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi] Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture that a source there described as "major" but "peaceful."
"Recently, two monks, Orgyen Tashi and Tenzin Ngodrub, were sentenced by the Kardze People's Intermediate Court to three years' imprisonment," the source said. The fate of a third monk, Lobsang, who had at first been detained with the others, remains a "mystery," he said.
"His family members have no information about his health or place of detention, and they are extremely worried," he said.
Three-year terms were also handed to four other Tibetans involved in the March 18 protest, said another source. The four--Pema Deshey, Tashi Palden, Goga, and Sangpo--were "severely beaten during three months of detention in Kardze," the source said.
"Later, they were moved to Nyagrong [in Chinese, Xinlong] county prison and detained for a little over six months. Even during this detention, they were subjected to torture and severe beatings."
Relatives believe that all four may have been taken to a facility in Kardze Prefecture's Dartsedo [in Chinese, Kangding] county after sentencing, the source said, though "they could have been moved to a larger prison in China," the source said.
Truckload under guard
A truckload of Tibetan prisoners was seen being taken to China under heavy guard, the source said, and the personal belongings of some of the prisoners were being returned to family members.
More than 200 Tibetans were detained following protests throughout Kardze earlier this year, according to another source in the region.
"About 20 were released, while the rest are still being held. About 70 percent of those are said to have been sentenced to prison terms of different lengths."
"Recently, the Kardze People's Intermediate Court secretly sentenced Sherab, a monk of the Khangmar monastery, to three years in prison," a third source said.
"Tsering Phuntsog, also a monk from Khangmar, was given 2-1/2 years, and a lay youth named Palden Wangyal, 19, was given a three-year term."
"All these sentences were given secretly for fear of Tibetan reaction," the source said.
Reached for comment, a court official in Dartsedo confirmed the ongoing sentencing of Tibetan protesters, adding that only "serious cases" were being brought to the Dartsedo court, while "other cases are tried in their respective counties of the Kardze Prefecture."
Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi] Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other Tibetan regions of Sichuan saw a crackdown on Tibetans by Chinese security forces in the wake of the Lhasa protests, which turned to violent riots on March 14.
Tibet's government in exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent region-wide Chinese crackdown. China has meanwhile reported police as having killed just one "insurgent" and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 21 people.
Original reporting by Norbu Damdul and Lobsang Choephel for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written in English by Richard Finney. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
By Edward Wong | THE NEW YORK TIMES
18 December 2008
A court in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang has sentenced two men to death for an attack in August that killed 17 paramilitary officers, according to a report on Wednesday by Xinhua, the state news agency. The assault was one of the deadliest against security forces since at least the 1990s.
The court determined that the men, who were sentenced in the attack on Aug. 4 in the remote oasis town of Kashgar, were trying to "sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games that began Aug. 8," Xinhua reported. The men, Abdurahman Azat, 33, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 28, are ethnic Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people. Some Uighurs advocate independence in Xinjiang and resent what they call discriminatory policies put in place by the ruling ethnic Han Chinese.
Most, if not all, of the paramilitary officers killed or wounded on Aug. 4 were Han Chinese.
The Intermediate People's Court of Kashgar sentenced the men for "intentional homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives," Xinhua reported.
Chinese officials said the day after the attack that the men, a taxi driver and a vegetable vendor, had rammed a truck into a group of about 70 officers from the People's Armed Police who were out for morning exercises and had then attacked the officers with machetes and homemade explosives. At the time, the authorities said 16 officers were killed and 16 others injured. The attackers were arrested, the authorities said.
The assault was the first and deadliest of four in Xinjiang in August for which officials blamed Uighur separatists. The violence killed at least 23 security officers and one civilian, according to official tallies.
In interviews in September, three foreign tourists who were in the Barony Hotel, across the street from the site of the assault, gave details of the attack to The New York Times that appeared at odds with aspects of the official version. The tourists confirmed that the truck plowed into the officers, leaving many dead and injured. But they said they did not hear multiple explosions afterward.
Furthermore, they said they saw paramilitary officers using machetes to attack what appeared to be other men with the same green security uniforms. The men with the machetes mingled freely with other officers afterward, the tourists said.
The Xinhua report on Wednesday provided more details of the assault to back up the earlier official version. The report said that the two men, armed with guns, explosives, knives and axes, drove a heavy truck that they had stolen to the site of the assault at 6 a.m. and waited for the officers to emerge from their compound. About 8 a.m., Mr. Azat drove the truck into the officers when they came out for their exercises, killing 15 and wounding 13, Xinhua reported.
When the truck turned over, he detonated explosives to kill another person, according to Xinhua.
At the same time, the Xinhua account said, Mr. Hemit tossed explosives toward the gate of the security compound and brandished a knife at the police officers who had been felled by the truck. Mr. Hemit killed one officer and wounded another, Xinhua said.
One of the foreign tourists, a man who provided photos of the assault to two Western news organizations, said in September that he had seen a severely injured man tumble out of the driver's seat after the truck rammed the officers. The driver crawled around and did not appear to be in any condition to carry out further attacks, the tourist said.
The Xinhua report did not give any details on what kind of evidence was reviewed by the court in Kashgar during the trial of the two men. It also did not mention the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a shadowy organization that Chinese officials have long cited as the main separatist threat in Xinjiang. The day after the assault, the party secretary of Kashgar, Shi Dagang, told reporters that it appeared that the two men were members of that group.
By Jason Mick | DAILYTECH.COM
December 18, 2008
Just when you thought
However, with its bid for the summer Olympics on the line,
With the glow of the Olympics fading, though,
Reporters Without Borders slammed
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended his country's decision this week, saying that foreign news agencies have broken Chinese laws. Among their alleged offenses was calling
By REUTERS | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
December 16, 2008
China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday the country was within its rights to block websites with content illegal under Chinese law, including websites that referred to China and Taiwan as two separate countries.
China regularly blocks sites it finds unsavory, particularly those related to Tibet or critical of the Communist Party.
It considers self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Access to the Chinese-language versions of the BBC, Voice of America and Hong Kong media Ming Pao News and Asiaweek has been blocked since early December, according to a report by Asiaweek this week. They remained blocked on Tuesday.
"We can't deny that some websites continue to have problems that violate Chinese law," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
"For instance, if a website refers to 'two Chinas' or refers to mainland China and Taiwan as two independent regions, we believe that violates China's Anti-Seccession Law, as well as other laws," he said.
By Andrew Jacobs | THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 11, 2008
China celebrated International Human Rights Day on Wednesday with newspaper editorials and television commentaries hailing what they called the country's "unremitting efforts" and "nonstop progress" in promoting free speech and individual rights.
The day was busy for public security officials, sent to quell a protest by about 40 people who rallied outside the gated headquarters of the Foreign Ministry. After about 30 minutes of calling for free elections and demanding a crackdown on corruption, the demonstrators were herded onto buses and taken away.
Wednesday was the third day of detention for Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent dissidents. Friends and relatives said he was being held for his role in drafting a bold public letter that demands political, legal and constitutional reform.
The letter, posted on the Internet and signed by 303 Chinese academics, artists, farmers and lawyers, coincided with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a product of the United Nations and a foundation for human rights laws around the world.
In recent days, the police have also detained several other signers, including Zhang Zuhua, a political theorist and rights advocate, who was told the letter was a serious affront to the ruling Communist Party. After 12 hours of questioning, Mr. Zhang was sent home, although the authorities kept his passport, four computers, some books and money.
"I told them, this is just a civilian proposal and there's nothing to be afraid of," he said by phone shortly after his release. "But they said senior officials attach great importance to it. I don't think this is the end of it yet."
Human rights advocates said they were especially worried about the fate of Mr. Liu, who may be charged with "inciting subversion of state power," a more serious crime that carries a three-year term. It would not be his first experience in the Chinese penal system. He spent 20 months in jail for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. In 1996, he was sentenced to three years of hard labor for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party.
By EUbusiness.com
December 07, 2008
Chinese state media on Sunday blasted French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama as an "unwise move" that has undermined relations with Beijing.
Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU presidency, met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in Poland, risking a new flare-up of Chinese anger after mass demonstrations picketing French stores earlier this year.
"This development is indeed an unwise move which not only hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, but also undermines Sino-French ties," said a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency.
Sarkozy is the only European head of state to meet the Dalai Lama -- whom Beijing accuses of seeking independence for his Chinese-controlled Himalayan homeland -- while holding the EU presidency.
China's foreign ministry declined to issue an immediate response to the meeting on Sunday.
However, the talks at a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates were preceded by repeated Chinese warnings that Sino-French ties, including their burgeoning trade relationship, could be harmed.
"The Chinese government and people... stand firmly against any foreign leader's contact with (the Dalai Lama) in any form," Xinhua said.
"The French side, however, in total disregard of China's grave concern and the general situation of Sino-French relations, took an opportunistic, rash and short-sighted approach to handling the Tibet issue."
After the meeting, Sarkozy took pains to play down any split with China and stressed he was free to talk to whomever he wants.
"The Dalai Lama confirmed what I already knew, that he will not demand independence for Tibet, and I told him how important I thought it was to pursue dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Chinese authorities," he said.
He added: "I am free as the French president and the EU president, I have values and convictions. Let's not make things tense, the world doesn't need it and it doesn't correspond to reality."
By Canadian Broadcasting Company | cbcnews.ca
November 29, 2008
A Belgian TV journalist and his crew have been assaulted while reporting on AIDS in Central China.
Belgian journalist Tom Van de Weghe and his team from the public television network VRT were attacked on their way to interview several AIDS groups, said a statement released Friday by VRT.
It echoes an incident in the spring in which journalists from the American news program 60 Minutes were assaulted while attempting to film a plant processing toxic waste near the South China town of Shenzhen.
Van de Weghe and his crew were beaten and then robbed of their cash as well as their microphones and batteries by a dozen men recruited by authorities in Henan province, said the statement.
Beijing promised free access to foreign media reporting in China starting a year before the Olympics and recently extended the rules.
The Belgian channel is demanding an apology from Chinese authorities and payment or compensation for the damaged equipment.
VRT also wants a guarantee that its accredited correspondent could work in China without interference.
There's no response yet from Chinese authorities.
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