Criminal Justice
On July 9, 2009, The RTL Management Committee in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, ordered Sun Xiaodi, a Gansu environmental activist who reportedly exposed pollution problems and illegal activities at a mine in Diebu County, Gansu to serve two years of reeducation through labor (RTL) for "illegally providing state secrets overseas" and "rumor mongering," according to a July 17, 2009, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) news release. Authorities in Gannan also ordered Sun's daughter, Sun Haiyan (also known as Sun Dunbai) to serve 18 months of RTL for the same activities according to CHRD. The RTL committee asserted that Sun "stole" information about the No. 792 Uranium Mine in Diebu County, according to a copy of the RTL decision available in a July 16, 2009, Human Rights in China article.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Congressional Executive Commission on China Releases Annual Report on State of Human Rights in China
October 16, 2009
Officials in Lhasa city, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), have implemented a "strike hard" anti-crime campaign running from mid-January until late March 2009―a period of time that brackets a series of dates that many Tibetans consider to have a high level of cultural and political sensitivity. The campaign aims to "strike hard according to law against all kinds of illegal criminal activity and to vigorously uphold the city's social order and stability," according to a January 23 report (in Chinese) published in the Communist Party-run Lhasa Evening News (LEN).
The following Chinese text was retrieved on December 7, 2016, from the website of the State Bureau for Letters and Calls.
Refer to this page for the prior version of the Administrative Penalty Law of the People's Republic of China, passed on March 13, 1996, and effective on October 1, 1996.
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have continued to enforce tight security measures in the region following a demonstration by Uyghurs on July 5 and violent clashes in the XUAR capital of Urumchi (Urumqi). The measures are a stated effort by the government to safeguard stability and "strike hard" against people who officials say incited unrest. The Chinese government has provided limited updates on developments in the region and has permitted limited access by foreign media; however, the government also has continued to enforce controls over the free flow of information on events. Violence also was reported after July 5, including when Han Chinese carrying weapons took to the streets of Urumchi.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan Calls on China to Reveal Whereabouts of Gao Zhisheng
July 28, 2009
Chinese public security officials formally arrested prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo on June 23, 2009, on the charge of "inciting subversion of state power," according to the Xinhua News Agency (as reported by Singapore Lianhe Zaobao on June 24). The Commission has not been able to locate the original Chinese-language Xinhua article through a publicly available source online, although numerous media and NGO reports in Chinese have quoted directly from it. (See, e.g., June 24 BBC report, June 24 Chinese Human Rights Defenders report).
On April 16, 2009, the Heyuan Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong province sentenced Shenzhen rights defense lawyer Liu Yao to 18 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, in the second appeal and final hearing in his case, in connection with his representation of villagers from his hometown in Dongyuan county, Heyuan municipality, whose land was reportedly illegally seized for the purpose of building a new hydroelectric station, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) article and a Human Rights in China (HRIC) report, both dated April 17.
Chinese officials continue to hold prominent intellectual and Charter 08 signer Liu Xiaobo even though the six-month limit for residential surveillance as provided for in China's Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) has expired. Article 58 of the CPL allows officials to place someone under residential surveillance for up to six months.