Criminal Justice

The Gulou District People's Court in Fuzhou city, Fujian province, sentenced Li Changqing, a deputy director at the Fuzhou Daily, to three years imprisonment for "reporting for the U.S.-based Chinese-language news portal Boxun that an outbreak of [dengue fever] had infected more than 100 people in Fujian in 2004," according to a January 25 Reuters report citing Li's lawyer, Mo Shaoping. Public security officials previously placed Li under residential surveillance on January 20, 2005, and formally arrested him on February 3, 2005, for "inciting subversion of state power," a crime under Article 105 of the Criminal Law.

Public order disturbances in China increased during 2005, according to Ministry of Public Security (MPS) statistics released in a January 19 news release and January 20 News York Times and South China Morning Post articles. Crimes of "disturbing public order" rose by 6.6 percent over 2004, to 87,000. "Interferences with government functions" increased by 18.9 percent, while incidents of "mass gatherings to disturb social order" rose by 13 percent.

The Jingbian County People's Court in Yulin city, Shaanxi province, has sentenced private investor Feng Bingxian to three years imprisonment for "gathering a crowd to disturb public order," a crime under Article 291 (amended in December 2001) of the Criminal Law, according to a January 5 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. The court identified Feng as the principal leader and organizer of a group of private investors whose oil fields the municipal governments of Yulin and Yanan seized in 2003.

Zheng's brother said that authorities detained Zheng on December 3, 2004, and held him for ten days at the Liaohe Hotel in Yingkou city, according to a March 15, 2005, statement from the Independent Chinese PEN Center. A document that appears to be a transcription of the Yingkou Intermediate People's Court verdict (in Chinese) posted on the Epoch Times Web site shows that public security officials placed Zheng under residential surveillance on December 3, 2004, took him into criminal custody on December 20, and officially arrested him on December 31. The document also says that the Yingkou Municipal People's Procuratorate indicted Zheng on March 20, 2005, and the court tried him on April 26. The procuratorate submitted a request to extend the hearing on June 13, 2005, and a request to supplement evidence on July 6.

The Chongqing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Wanping to 12 years imprisonment and 4 years deprivation of political rights for incitement to subvert state power on December 23, according to a December 24 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. Chinese authorities have not disclosed for what actions they prosecuted Xu. In addition, they have taken several measures to ensure the public does not learn about the facts relating to his case:

Shanghai public security officials detained several petitioners, including housing rights activist Liu Xinjuan, on January 16 and forcibly admitted Liu to psychiatric care at the Minhang District Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, according to a January 20 report by Human Rights in China (HRIC). The detentions took place when Liu and others met to petition before the Shanghai People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, both in session on that date. The HRIC report notes that public security officials took Liu into custody and transported her first to the Qibao Township Dispatch Station and then to the Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, both in Shanghai's Minhang district.

A local court in Shanghai sentenced petitioner Xu Zhengqing to three years in prison on October 17, according to reports available through Human Rights in China (HRIC) and the International Herald Tribune. Xu has been in police custody since January 29, when he traveled to Beijing to attend memorial services for former senior leader Zhao Ziyang. The Shanghai Putuo District Procuratorate charged Xu with "creating disturbances," a crime punishable by up to five years imprisonment under Article 293 of China's Criminal Law.

CECC Summary
The U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 483 by unanimous consent on Tuesday, December 7. The resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that, "China is in violation of international human rights standards by detaining and mistreating Tibetans who engage in peaceful activities to protest China's repression of Tibetans or promote the preservation of a distinct Tibetan identity," and calls on China to release imprisoned Tibetan lama Tenzin Deleg and all other political prisoners.

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