Criminal Justice

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) have detained two Mongol men on charges of involvement with a pan-Mongolian organization and for attempting to organize a protest, according to a May 3 report from the U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC). State security personnel detained Almas in the IMAR capital of Hohhot on April 30, 2009, while authorities detained Baoyu in Bogt (Baotou) city on the same day. According to the report, authorities detained them for involvement or alleged involvement in the "Pan-Mongolia Association," which authorities label as a separatist organization, as well as for alleged attempts to arrange a protest in Hohhot on the 62nd anniversary of the IMAR's founding on May 1. SMHRIC reported that Almas is the secretary of the Pan-Mongolia Association and that authorities alleged Baoyu was also involved in the organization.

Courts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) completed trials in 2008 for a total of 268 cases involving crimes of endangering state security (ESS), a number that appears to represent a surge over previous years, based on available data. (See analysis below for more details.) The XUAR High People's Court announced the number of cases during a report made at a January 9, 2009, meeting of the XUAR People's Congress, according to a January 10 report on the Xinhua Xinjiang Web site. Crimes of ESS (also translated as "endangering national security") are defined in articles 102-113 of the Chinese Criminal Law to include acts such as separatism, espionage, and armed rebellion. Many of the ESS crimes carry the possibility of life imprisonment and capital punishment.

The Wuhou District People's Court in Chengdu, Sichuan province, postponed the trial of rights activist Huang Qi after initially notifying Huang's wife and his lawyer on February 2, 2009, that the trial would be held the next day, according to February 2 articles in the Washington Post (WP) and Associated Press (AP, via WTOP.com). Huang's wife, Zeng Li, said the court called her twice on February 2, first informing her of the trial date on the next day, and later telling her the date had been postponed and that she would receive three days' notice before the trial. No new date has been announced. Huang, founder of the rights advocacy Web site, 64tianwang.com, has been detained since June 2008 on charges of illegally possessing state secrets.

Uyghur historian Tohti Tunyaz completed his 11-year sentence for "inciting splittism" and "unlawfully obtaining state secrets" on February 10, 2009, according to information accessible to the public in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Political Prisoner Database, and he has since been released from prison, according to February 10 reports from the Sankei and Mainichi (via Yahoo) newspapers, based on information from sources close to the case. According to the reports, after being met by his sister at the prison in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Tohti Tunyaz traveled to a relative's home. The Sankei report said it is unclear whether Tohti Tunyaz will be allowed to return to Japan, where he had previously lived.

A Communist Party-run newspaper has provided the first detailed information about Tibetans convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment for nonviolent activity that authorities link to rioting on March 14, 2008, in and near Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The November 8, 2008, Lhasa Evening News (LEN) report asserted that the defendants had "endangered state security." China's state-run media has previously provided legal process information about the cases of only a few dozen Tibetan "rioters," but almost no information about the large but unknown number of Tibetans believed to have been detained in connection with peaceful protest activity. (See the CECC 2008 Annual Report for more information on the 2008 Tibetan protests and their consequences.)

Chinese officials have warned of increasing "social unrest" in 2009 and have called for strengthening public security in the run-up to several significant anniversaries and amid the country's economic downturn. Security officials reportedly plan to use the "valuable" and "successful" experience of security measures deployed during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games to increase security controls in 2009, according to a January 6 People's Daily article and a January 13 South China Morning Post report (subscription required). Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu called on public security officials to acknowledge the "grave challenge of maintaining national security and social stability" ahead of the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in October this year, as reported in the People's Daily article.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital of Urumqi have detained two young Uyghur men for distributing leaflets on a university campus calling on students to organize a public demonstration. Available information suggests the leaflets may have called on students to protest tobacco and alcohol sales. Two security staff at Xinjiang University (XU) detained 20-year-old Miradil (Mir'adil) Yasin and 19-year-old Mutellip Téyip on December 20, 2008, after seeing them distribute leaflets within the campus gates, according to a December 25 report of the event on the XU Web site and a Xinhua report posted January 1, 2009, on the Xinhua Bingtuan Web site. Two people outside the campus gates fled the scene as the detention occurred, according to the reports.

Chinese authorities have harassed at least 101 signatories of Charter 08 and placed signer and prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo under residential surveillance at an unknown location in Beijing in apparent violation of Chinese law following his detention on December 8, 2008, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) reports on January 2 and January 9.