Access to Justice
The following text was retrieved from the Law-Lib.com Web site on January 18, 2006.
The Chinese government's Three Gorges Project has led to the forced eviction of residents in Shengquan village, Chongqing municipality, according to a December 2 report by Radio Free Asia. Construction on the massive hydroelectric dam project began in 1993 and should be completed by 2009. Local government officials issued eviction orders on December 1, giving villagers seven days to complete procedures for temporary relocation. Villagers complained that government agents began shutting off their water supply and blocking streets as early as November 30, to force them to relocate. In addition, villagers allege that the compensation and resettlement terms offered to them are unreasonable, and that the government offers higher amounts to those with an urban household registration ("hukou") than those with a rural hukou.
Official abuse of Chinese petitioners is rampant, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) press statement and report released on December 8. Chinese citizens often petition Party and government xinfang ("letters and visits") bureaus for redress of their grievances. The HRW report notes that petitioners rarely succeed in obtaining redress, and also cites first-hand interviews with Chinese petitioners detailing official abuses, including beatings and torture.
Shanghai police officers have placed defense lawyer Guo Guoting under house arrest, according to a March 16 South China Morning Post report. Recognized for his legal representation of activists, Guo has defended journalists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other lawyers. In 2003, for example, he defended lawyer Zheng Enchong, who had advocated on behalf of evicted residents and eventually was convicted of illegally disclosing state secrets.
The Beijing Justice Bureau ordered prominent rights advocate Gao Zhisheng to shut down his law firm and stop practicing law for one year beginning on November 4, according to reports from the China Aid Association, Washington Post (registration required), BBC, and Radio Free Asia (RFA). Gao told the Washington Post that government officials had rejected the Beijing Shengzhi Law Firm's attempt to register a new address when it moved to a new office in early 2005. The Beijing Justice Bureau now bases its action on the firm's failure to register its new location. Gao has said that he plans to challenge the suspension through a formal hearing.
The Intermediate People's Court in Nanping city, Fujian province, sentenced Huang Jin'gao on November 10 to life imprisonment and deprivation of political rights for accepting bribes and corruption, according to a Xinhua report (in Chinese) dated the same day. A former Communist Party official, Huang once was hailed in China's state-run media as a whistleblower who exposed massive government corruption. According to the Xinhua report, the court found that Huang had used his positions as a deputy district head, director of the Fuzhou municipal finance committee, and Communist Party secretary in Lianjiang county to obtain 3,549,300 million yuan (US $228,000) in bribes.
Chinese authorities have placed a Communist Party cadre who briefly rose to fame in China by denouncing official corruption under a form of house arrest while authorities investigate his conduct, according to a November 11 report in the Washington Post. Local Communist Party secretary Huang Jingao became frustrated with the lack of higher-level support for his efforts to stem corruption in Lianjiang County, Fujian, and on August 8, 2004, he posted an open letter of complaint on the People's Daily website. Huang accused higher level officials of conspiring to protect corrupt local cadres. For a few days, Huang's contribution to the battle against corruption was widely praised in China.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) issued Measures on the Registration of Judicial Forensic Centers and Measures on the Registration of Judicial Forensic Personnel on September 30 implementing a February 28 National People’s Congress (NPC) decision barring courts from establishing their own forensics centers to provide expert determinations of fact. The dependence of some courts on the revenue generated from fees raised by these centers has raised concerns regarding judicial fairness, such as the perception that parties may purchase favorable factual determinations from the courts that are responsible for handling their legal disputes.
Supreme People's Court (SPC) Vice President Wan Exiang announced September 25 that the SPC is taking further steps to reclaim the power of review over all death penalty decisions, according to the September 27 edition of the China Youth Daily. In a public lecture at the Beijing Institute of Technology, Vice President Wan said that the SPC will add three criminal tribunals to cope with the additional work from taking back the death penalty review power. He added that this latest move will be vital to maintaining judicial neutrality.
Chinese authorities shut down the Web site of Ai Xiaoming, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province, on October 5, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported (subscription required) on October 7. Ai wrote an open letter (in Chinese) to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on September 15 that included a list of people in Taishi village who were detained the previous day. According to the SCMP report, authorities closed the Web site after Ai posted a description of a September 26 incident in which security guards "smashed" a taxi that was taking her and two lawyers home from a visit to Taishi village. Men on motorcycles pursued and beat Guo Yan, one of the lawyers, when he left the taxi to seek help.