Access to Justice
The wrongful detentions and torture of four teenagers in 2005 in Chaohu city, Anhui province, reflect continuing criminal procedure violations and abuses by local police, as described in a September 12 Xinhua report (in Chinese) on the cases. The teenagers, who ranged in age from 16 to 18, were released in January 2006 after more than three months in police custody. According to the Xinhua account, the Anhui provincial-level Public Security Bureau (PSB) acknowledged that officials handled the teenagers' cases in error. In addition, public security officials have agreed to give each teenager 60,000 yuan (approximately US$7,600) in compensation for their wrongful detentions, pursuant to agreements signed with each individual teenager's guardians. Xinhua reports that authorities currently are investigating the three police officers who handled the cases for their suspected involvement in coercing confessions under torture.
The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) continues to hold Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng without a formal charge, and has denied him access to a lawyer on the grounds that his case involves "state secrets," according to a September 25 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese). More than 10 plainclothes police officers abducted Gao on August 15 from his sister's home in Dongying city, Shandong province, where he was visiting his critically ill brother-in-law, according to an August 17 RFA report (in Chinese).
Guangzhou police have accused rights defender Yang Maodong (who uses the pen name Guo Feixiong) of posing as a publisher, misappropriating the book numbers of various publications, and illegally publishing, printing, and issuing over 20,000 publications, according to a September 15 Guangzhou Daily report (in Chinese, via the Guangdong provincial government Web site). The report characterized Guo's alleged wrongdoing as "illegal operation of a business," a crime punishable under Article 225 of the Criminal Law. The Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) have both reported that police took Guo from his home during the early morning of September 14, and that they are currently holding him at the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a circular on August 8 announcing the results of an investigation that identified "gaps and omissions" in the online reporting of disease-related deaths, calling the lapses a "grave phenomenon." Investigators surveyed 130 medical facilities at the county-level and above in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. They found that 20 percent of the hospitals surveyed had failed to develop an online network for the reporting of disease-related deaths. The investigation also found that hospitals that had developed online reporting failed to report deaths more than 30 percent of the time. The MOH identified the lack of a unified nationwide reporting network as a major problem, and called for greater speed and accuracy among all medical facilities in the reporting of disease-related deaths.
Officials demolished an unregistered Catholic church and beat several Catholics who attempted to prevent the demolition on Pingtang Island in Fujian province on September 1, according to a September 4 AsiaNews report. The AsiaNews account said that officials warned the Catholics that they would demolish another unregistered Catholic church on the same island.
Hebei provincial officials released An Shuxin, formerly the unregistered auxiliary bishop of Baoding diocese in Hebei province, on August 24 after detaining him for over 10 years, according to an August 25 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. Before officials released Bishop An, the government and Bishop An agreed that he would register with the government but would not be required to register with the Party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), according to an August 26 AsiaNews report.
Government officials in Henan, Jilin, and Sichuan provinces and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region investigated or accused Protestant house church members of being involved in "cults" during June and July 2006, according to the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China.
The following is a translation prepared by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China of the Aiqinhai Petition to Repeal the Internet News Information Regulations. The Chinese text was retrieved from the Signature Net Web site on May 2, 2006. Additional background and analysis of this petition is available here.
Chinese public security officers detained Lin Daixian, 40, an unregistered Catholic priest, and 10 other Catholics, on July 25 in Pingtan, Fujian province, reports the Cardinal Kung Foundation, a U.S. NGO that monitors the unregistered Catholic community in China. Father Lin is a diocesan priest of the Fuzhou diocese, according to the report. Security officials detained Lin while he was saying Mass with 50 Catholic faithful in a private home in Pingtan. Some of the faithful resisted the officers and were beaten and injured. Lin, a seminarian, and nine other Catholics were taken to the Pingtan City Detention Center. Father Lin was detained three times in 2000 and 2001.
Zhejiang officials demolished a Protestant house church in Hangzhou city on July 29, beat hundreds of church members, and detained more than 50 church members, according to reports of July 31 and August 2 by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. Officials detained three more Hangzhou house church leaders on August 3, the CAA reported the following day. The CAA reported on August 9 that authorities released over 20 of the previously detained members, placed five others in criminal detention under charges of "interfering with the duties of a public security official," and continued to hold over 20 members without charge.