China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update - No. 5 - June 4, 2010

In late April 2010, the National People's Congress Standing Committee issued the revised Law on the Protection of State Secrets which takes effect in October. The revised law maintains the vague and broad definition of state secrets under the existing law that has made it susceptible to abuse by officials. It remains to be seen whether the revised law will lead to less arbitrary determinations of state secrets and whether Internet and other public information network providers will be required to do more to locate and remove state secrets.

On April 14, 2010, the Hong Kong government released its Package of Proposals for the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2012. The package of proposals increases the membership of the Legislative Council and of the committee that selects the chief executive. However, the proposals reflect limitations imposed by China in a 2007 decision on constitutional reform.

Wu Lihong, a long-time environmental activist, was released from prison in Jiangsu province in April 2010 after serving a three-year sentence for fraud and extortion. Prior to his incarceration, Wu had spent years documenting pollution in the Lake Tai area of Jiangsu province. His environmental activism had made him the target of harassment over many years, but also reportedly resulted in heightened regulatory scrutiny of polluting enterprises. Wu claims that he is innocent of all charges, maintains that his confession was coerced, and has alleged mistreatment in prison. Wu's two appeals in Jiangsu courts were unsuccessful but he plans to file another appeal with the Supreme People's Court in order to challenge the original verdict in his case, to obtain compensation, and to set in motion an investigation into his allegations of mistreatment.

The Communist Party-controlled women's federation in the far western region of Xinjiang has strengthened efforts in the past year to control the religious practices of Muslim women. The Federation has carried out activities to regulate Muslim women religious specialists and to urge women to remove veils and face coverings. The Federation reported carrying out one local campaign in coordination with government offices, while a separate Communist Party office in another locality reported it would increase monitoring of Muslim women religious specialists. The restrictions on the women's religious freedom come as authorities have instituted broader campaigns targeting "religious extremism" and other perceived threats to the region's stability.

China's hukou (household registration) system imposes strict limits on where Chinese citizens may obtain legal residence. Limited reforms, however, are currently taking place in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province. Guangzhou's Public Security Bureau has directed various levels of city officials, starting in May 2010, to begin implementing a hukou reform experiment, originally proposed last summer, to phase out the rural and non-rural hukou distinctions over the next five years. In addition, the mayor of another major city, Chongqing, announced on May 5 that hukou reform will be among his top priorities.

Communist Party officials reportedly banned journalists from outside Qinghai province from covering the large earthquake that struck the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on April 14, 2010, although many media appeared to ignore the ban. In addition, a top Party official told Chinese media to propagate several themes in their reporting, including the government's response to the disaster, the "good(ness)" of the Communist Party, and ethnic groups "uniting" in disaster relief. In keeping with the Chinese government's response to other recent disasters, authorities have sought to establish the official narrative through faster reporting that follows the Party line while censoring other sources of information that may be critical of the government's response.

On April 15, 2010, public security authorities in the city of Shenzhen issued an announcement introducing a new policy restricting citizens from obtaining local residence permits if they have engaged in activities specified in the announcement including "abnormal petitioning." The directive follows a joint circular issued in November 2009 in Shenzhen city outlining penalties, including reeducation through labor (RTL), for citizens accused of 14 different types of "abnormal petitioning." Various other local governments have issued circulars similar to Shenzhen's that make "abnormal petitioning" subject to punishment. Several citizens in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region reportedly have been sent to reeducation through labor centers for "abnormal petitioning."

New measures have entered into force on a trial basis in China that regulate the financial affairs of sites of religious activity. While stipulating more state oversight for the religious venues, the measures also provide some protection for the venues' property and income. Authorities described issuing the measures to standardize religious venues' management of finances and to address issues such as embezzlement and illegal property confiscation. The new measures apply only to religious venues registered with the government, leaving unregistered venues both outside this system of oversight and outside the limited protections afforded by the measures. The new measures follow other legal measures in China that also regulate religion, subjecting registered religious communities and venues to a system of tight state control but also affording them a degree of state protection.