Criminal Justice
The parents of a 24-year-old addict who died in a Guangdong province drug detoxification center received an anonymous call indicating that their son had been beaten to death, according to South China Morning Post articles published on August 4 and 5. An autopsy reportedly supports the caller’s assertion. The addict's parents, both doctors, had admitted him to the facility. According to one man who was detained there, the Guangdong center had a reputation for irregular fatalities and had been ordered to improve its record. Key footage from a surveillance camera that had been installed to prevent abuses is apparently missing without explanation.
A July 23 Beijing News article reviews in detail recent discussion and debate over amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL). According to the article, the CPL amendment has been added to the National People’s Congress (NPC) legislative calendar. An NPC source quoted in the article reports that the Legal Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee is still researching amendment issues and has not yet begun drafting the amendment proposal. The NPC has tentatively scheduled consideration of a draft CPL amendment proposal during 2006, with final passage slated for 2007. The article provides insights into problems that the drafters have already encountered in the amendment drafting process.
A group of prominent Chinese lawyers has published an open letter to the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) calling on it to investigate the detention of Beijing lawyer Zhu Jiuhu in Shaanxi province and work more actively to protect the legal rights of lawyers. Zhu had been representing thousands of investors in a sensitive administrative lawsuit against several local government entities in Shaanxi. The investors claim that Shaanxi officials illegally seized more than 5,000 privately run oil fields worth hundreds of millions of dollars after provincial officials encouraged them to invest in the properties. The seizures affected more than 1,000 private enterprises with more than 60,000 investors, and observers view the case as a test of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving protections for private property rights.
Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, is visiting China from August 29 to September 2, according to a United Nations press release. Ms. Arbour’s visit aims to renew technical cooperation programs between her office and the Chinese government. She also hopes to sign an agreement on facilitating the Chinese government’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on implementing several recommendations from the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. According to the press release, the High Commissioner will meet the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the President of the Supreme People’s Court, and other senior Chinese officials.
An advocate for Shaanxi investors who are challenging a government seizure of their oil wells was detained after local officials lured him out of hiding with a forged e-mail, according to an article in the Washington Post. Police officials in Yulin, Shaanxi province, have confirmed that they detained Feng Bingxian on July 26. Feng, a businessman, has been leading a lawsuit by thousands of investors against the local government. The investors claim that Shaanxi provincial officials illegally seized privately owned oil wells worth up to $850 million. Feng is not the first individual to be detained in connection with the sensitive case. In May, public security officials detained Zhu Jiuhu, a prominent Beijing attorney who was representing the investors. Zhu was reportedly charged with disturbing social order and illegal assembly simply for meeting with his clients.
A Shanghai court has sentenced two employees of a demolition and relocation company to death with a two-year reprieve for setting fires to intimidate local residents, according to a China Daily article. A third employee was sentenced to life in prison. Wang Changkun, Yang Sunqin, and Lu Peide of the Shanghai Urban Development Housing Relocation Co. set the blazes in early January in an effort to intimidate recalcitrant residents into moving out of a development zone, killing two people. The neighborhood has reportedly experienced a series of twelve fires since 2004. The case illustrates the often close connections between local government and developers and demolition units. A state-owned enterprise owns a 50 percent stake in the demolition and relocation company.
The Communist Party's Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission (CDIC) and the Ministry of Supervision (MOS) on August 26 jointly announced the results of anti-corruption efforts for the first half of 2005. The announcement said that 25 provinces and 36 ministries and commissions have taken measures to carry out the "Outline of a System Stressing Education, Institutions, and Prevention to Punish and Prevent Corruption in China," that the Politburo published on January 16, 2005.
David Ji, an American businessman who has been detained in China since November 2004, was released on bail on August 17, according to a statement released by his company, Apex Digital, Inc. Sichuan provincial police held Mr. Ji under "residential surveillance" beginning in November 2004 and then formally arrested him in May 2005. Ji is reportedly in fair health. In theory, he is now free to travel within China, but may not leave the country.
The respected U.S.-based human rights NGO Human Rights in China has published an edition of its journal China Rights Forum that focuses on China’s criminal justice system. The issue features English-language articles and translations of Chinese materials on a range of criminal justice topics, including criminal procedure reform, re-education through labor, the court system, torture, defense lawyers, recent wrongful conviction cases, and criminal provisions on subversion and state secrets. The issue also includes a list of lawyers currently detained in China, a profile of imprisoned journalist Shi Tao, and a resource list of online materials on China’s legal system.
Chinese authorities released writer Chen Shaowen on August 5, following the completion of his three-year sentence for inciting subversion, the Independent Chinese Pen Center (ICPC) reported on August 8. The ICPC reported that they were able to contact Chen by phone, but that he was not willing to discuss matters relating to his imprisonment. The report said that Chen's health had been deteriorating during his time in prison, and that police guards had beaten him in May 2005.