Access to Justice

The China Youth Daily reports that over the past year, Liaoning province procuratorates have introduced a new system to clear the names of individuals mistakenly or falsely accused of crimes. The report notes that false accusations damage the reputations of the accused. When such cases arise under Liaoning’s new system, procuratorates are required to investigate and rectify the "harmful effects" of any false accusations. In one case described in the article, a local procuratorate held meetings to publicize its findings that a local enterprise manager had been wrongfully accused. As yet, no information is available from independent sources to confirm whether or not the procuratorates have implemented the new system in practice.

AFP reports that Chinese authorities have released journalist and farmers’ rights activist Li Boguang, but also have restricted his movements and banned him from advising petitioners. Li had been helping farmers in Fujian province petition the central government over alleged land abuses by local officials. Police detained Li on December 17 and charged him with defrauding the farmers, which he denies. Li reportedly has been released on bail on the condition that he seek permission before leaving Beijing and not contact or give legal advice to farmers or petitioners.

According to an article published in the Procuratorial Daily on January 4, a local procuratorate in Fuzhou, Jiangsu province has made interviews of criminal suspects a mandatory part of the arrest review process. Under the PRC Criminal Procedure Law, public security organs may detain and investigate a suspect, but afterwards must apply to the procuratorate for approval of a formal arrest. Procuratorates review the case file in approving an arrest but, as the article suggests, do not typically interview the suspects themselves. Fuzhou procurators claim that they have declined to approve 23 arrests in the first year the policy was implemented and that the interviews have helped them to avoid wrongful arrests. They also argue that the interviews have helped them to uncover and rectify 29 cases involving illegal behavior (including extended detention, torture, and violations of criminal procedure) by public security authorities.

A January 31 Procuratorial Daily article summarizes recent discussions in Hefei, Anhui province, concerning the small percentage of criminal investigations that police actually transfer for prosecution. According to the report, police transferred only eight cases, or 1.5 percent, out of more than 500 cases involving economic crimes that they investigated last year. In China, police or public security agencies are considered "administrative" agencies, while procuratorates (prosecutors) and courts are considered "judicial" authorities.

According to a Xinhua article published on the China Court Net Web site, the Ministry of Construction (MOC) has called for a stronger system of public notice and comment on plans for the demolition and relocation of urban homes and improved monitoring of compensation funds. An MOC official cited in the article reportedly said that many local governments have pursued construction while ignoring citizen property rights, lowering demolition and relocation standards, using coercive tactics, harming the legal rights and interests of residents, and endangering general social stability. The official confirmed that in 2005, the government will continue to "strictly control" the scope of demolition and relocation and undertake efforts to address abuses in the relocation process.

In a recent editorial, the China Daily notes that urban construction requires between 166,000 and 200,000 hectares of land each year. As a result, between 2.5 and 3 million farmers lose their land to urbanization annually. The editorial lists reform of the land requisition, rural taxation, and rural financial systems as priorities in protecting farmers’ interests. It also calls for higher compensation and better social security for farmers who lose land to construction.

The NPC Standing Committee is scheduled to give China's draft Property Law another reading in June 2005, the Beijing News reported on March 5. The article suggests that numerous committee members are anxious to pass the law. Wang Liming, one of the law’s drafters, has reportedly stated that this is very likely to happen at the mid-year Standing Committee meeting. In 2004, the China Daily reported that the law was slated for passage at this month’s NPC session.

In "China's Problem with Dissent," journalist Haoyu Zhang of BBC Chinese.com looks at what he describes as "China's continued intolerance of any form of political dissent." The article focuses on Ding Zilin, a retired university professor in her 70s, who leads the "Tiananmen Mothers." The group comprises Ding and a few other parents who lost sons and daughters during and after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Since that time, the Tiananmen Mothers have been calling on the Chinese government to apologize.

The article notes that the government's response to their request has been to subject them to "imprisonment, house-arrest, phone-tapping, and constant surveillance." According to the report, Ms. Ding had just told the BBC "I can't even go and get groceries without them following me and harassing me; neither Deng Xiaoping nor Jiang Zemin treated me as badly as…" when the phone line went dead.