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China Commits to "Open Government Information" Effective May 1, 2008
In a move that Chinese officials say is intended to combat corruption, increase public oversight and participation in government, and allow citizens access to government-held information, the State Council on April 5, 2007, issued the first national Regulations on Open Government Information, which take effect May 1, 2008.
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Dalai Lama's Envoys To Begin China Visit on May 3
The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama announced in a May 2, 2008, press release that the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen would arrive in China on May 3 for "informal talks with representatives of the Chinese leadership." The visit comes on the heels of a cascade of Tibetan protests, some violent, that began in Lhasa on March 10 and spread through at least 52 county-level areas of which approximately two-thirds are in officially designated Tibetan autonomous areas of Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces.
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Government Official Reaffirms State Controls Over Religion
Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, called for continued controls over religion to meet state goals in a March 13 interview in the Southern Weekend newspaper.
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Wang Zaiqing Presumed Released From Prison, Shi Weihan Detained in Separate Bible-Printing Cases
House church pastor Wang Zaiqing completed his two-year prison sentence for "illegal operation of a business" on April 27 and is presumed to have since been released from prison, according to information from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Political Prisoner Database.
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Censorship of Internet and Foreign News Broadcasts Following Tibetan Protests
Foreign media in mid-March reported incidents of censorship of the Internet and international news broadcasts in China following Tibetan protests that began on March 10.
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China Blocks Foreign Reporters from Covering Tibetan Protests
Chinese officials have barred foreign journalists from entering large parts of western China to cover recent incidents of Tibetan protest.
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Authorities Block Uighur Protest in Xinjiang, Detain Protesters
Authorities suppressed demonstrations by ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region who gathered on March 23 and 24 to protest human rights abuses, according to reports from U.S. media.
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Beijing Court Sentences Hu Jia to 3 Years 6 Months' Imprisonment
The Beijing Number 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced activist Hu Jia on April 3 to three and a half years' imprisonment and one year deprivation of political rights for "inciting subversion of state power," according to an April 3 Xinhua article (no longer available via Xinhua, but reprinted via Boxun; shorter English version available via China Daily).
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Land Rights Activist Yang Chunlin Sentenced to Five Years
Yang Chunlin, the land rights activist who organized a petition titled "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics," was sentenced to five years in prison on March 24 by the Jiamusi City Intermediate People's Court in Heilongjiang province for "inciting subversion of state power," according to March 24 articles by the Associated Press and Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
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New Internet Regulations Tighten State Control Over Audio and Video Content
New regulations, which went into effect January 31, further tighten the state's control over online audio and video content in China.
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Xinjiang Authorities Pledge Crackdown Against "Three Forces"
Officials in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region renewed a pledge in early March to crack down against the government-designated "three forces" of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.
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Foreign Minister "Freedom of Speech" Comments At Odds With Arrests, Detentions
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that it is "impossible" for someone in China to be arrested for saying "human rights are more important than the Olympics," a statement that conflicts with the recent arrest, detention, and questioning of a number of Chinese citizens who have publicly criticized China's human rights record in relation to the Olympics.
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House Church Leader Zhou Heng Released From Detention
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region released house church leader and bookstore manager Zhou Heng from detention on February 19 after holding him for over six months for alleged involvement in plans to receive and distribute religious literature.
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Party, Government Launch New Security Program, Patriotic Education, in Tibetan Area
Official Chinese Communist Party and government sources in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, have published unusually detailed accounts of anti-separatism and patriotic education activity in Ganzi county, and of a pilot security initiative underway in selected villages.
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See also, CECC Analyses of Recent Tibetan Activity.
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"Bilingual" Policy Reduces Use of Ethnic Minority Languages in Xinjiang Preschools
A new program in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region strengthens government measures to promote Mandarin Chinese at the preschool level via educational instruction that the government describes as "bilingual" but that places primacy on Mandarin at the expense of ethnic minority languages.
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China's Long-Awaited Action Plan on Trafficking Aims To Provide "Sustainable" Solutions
China's first national plan to combat trafficking of women and children formalizes cooperation among agencies and establishes a national information and reporting system. The State Council's General Office issued China's National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012) on December 13, 2007.
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Qinghai-Tibet Railway Statistics Add to Confusion, Mask Impact on Local Population
China's state-run media has released additional information about passengers who used the Qinghai-Tibet railway to travel to and from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) from July 2006 to December 2007, the first 18 months of the railway's operation. Based on CECC analysis of the fragmentary and sometimes contradictory information, more than a half million passengers, most of whom are likely to be ethnic Han, may have traveled during that period to the TAR to seek work, trade, and business opportunities.
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Time Line: Central Government Legislation on Religion
In 2004 the State Council issued the Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA), marking the first national-level comprehensive regulation on religion. Since then, the government has not issued one consolidated set of implementing provisions, as some observers anticipated, but rather expanded upon specific articles within the RRA by issuing legal measures (banfa) regarding these articles.
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Xinjiang Government Strengthens Campaign Against Political and Religious Publications
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region will make "illegal" political and religious publications the focal point of their campaign to "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications," according to a January 18 report from Xinhua.
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Tibetan Abbot Suspected of Link to Posters Sentenced to Three Years' Imprisonment
A court in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), located in Sichuan province, sentenced the abbot (khenpo) of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on July 16, 2007, to three years' imprisonment for endangering state security with "anti-government propaganda" and by "incitement of [the] masses," according to a February 2, 2008, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy report.
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Uighur Editor Korash Huseyin's Prison Sentence Expires
Editor Korash Huseyin completed his three-year prison sentence for "dereliction of duty" on February 2 and is presumed to have since been released from prison, according to information from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Political Prisoner Database.
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Thousands of Chinese Citizens Call for Ratification of ICCPR Before Olympics
More than 14,000 Chinese citizens signed an open letter released to the public on January 1, 2008, urging the Chinese government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights before the 2008 Olympics "without reservations," according to a January 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese).
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CECC Political Prisoner Data Shows Rise in Tibetan Detentions in 2007
According to information available in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's Political Prisoner Database as of January 30, 2008, the number of known political detentions of Tibetans in 2007 (24) is greater than the number of such known detentions in 2006 (13) and 2004 (15), is currently the same as the number in 2005, and may surpass the number of known political detentions in 2003 (33) and 2002 (36) as additional information about detentions in 2007 emerges from China.
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Mixed Progress for Olympic Foreign Reporting Regulations One Year Later
A year after China's Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period went into effect, a Beijing-based association of foreign journalists noted "improved overall reporting conditions for foreign journalists" but also "hot spots where journalists have experienced repeated violations" of the regulations, according to a January 1 Foreign Correspondents Club of China press release.
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Party Congress Promotes Officials Linked to Harsh Policies Toward Tibetans
The 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, concluded on October 21, 2007, resulted in the promotions of two high-ranking Party officials, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Yandong, whose recent posts associate them with harsh policies that contribute to the repression of human rights such as the freedoms of religion and expression, and that undermine ethnic minority rights guaranteed by China's Constitution and system of regional ethnic autonomy.
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Tibetans Appeal Splittism, Espionage Sentences for Horse-Racing Festival Incident
Relatives of four Tibetan men -- two nomads, a monk, and a school teacher -- traveled from a Tibetan area of Sichuan province to the provincial capital, Chengdu city, to submit appeals to the Sichuan High People's Court following the men's sentencing on November 20, 2007, on splittism and espionage charges, according to a December 4 Radio Free Asia report.
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Guo Feixiong Sentenced to Five Years for Illegal Business Operation
A Guangzhou court sentenced rights defender Yang Maodong (who uses the pen name Guo Feixiong) to five years in prison for "illegal operation of a business," a crime under Article 225 of China's Criminal Law, according to a November 16 Guangzhou Daily article (in Chinese, via the Web site of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government).
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"Green Olympics" Commitments Raise Concerns Over Transparency and Implementation
Beijing's bid in 2000 to host the 2008 Olympics promised a "Green Olympics" and the "greatest Olympic Games environmental legacy ever," yet concerns remain over Beijing's transparency and progress toward fulfilling the specific commitments underlying these promises, especially with regard to air quality.
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Central Propaganda Department Restricts Reporting on Air Quality, Food Safety
The Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party recently issued a notice to Chinese news editors restricting domestic coverage of topics relating to China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics, including air quality and food safety, according to a November 13 South China Morning Post report (subscription required).
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