Criminal Justice

Human Rights in China reports that Hu Shigen is in extremely poor health. Boxun reports that Huang Qi's health is also deteriorating.

Hu Shigen was arrested on May 27, 1992, together with other members of the “Beijing Fifteen,” a group of labor and democracy activists tried for “counterrevolutionary crimes” in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Hu was a co-founder Chinese Progressive Alliance and the Chinese Freedom and Democracy Party, as well as a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Free Labor Union of China. Hu was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for “heading a counterrevoutionary group” and “spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda,” including an alleged plan to use a remote-controlled model airplane to drop leaflets on Tiananmen Square to commemorate the anniversary of the crackdown.

In a commentary published in Southern Weekend, Chinese law professor Zhou Baofeng argues that problems inherent in the application of the death penalty in China will not be resolved simply by returning the power of death penalty review to the Supreme People’s Court. Zhou observes that legal scholars, judicial officials, and the society at large now assume that the power of death penalty review in all cases will be returned to the Supreme People’s Court. He notes that this should not be controversial, since both China’s dynastic legal traditions and modern international standards demand that the death penalty be applied only by a country’s highest judicial organ. But he argues that more must be done than just returning this power to the SPC in order for death penalty to be applied justly.

U.S. permanent resident Yang Jianli, who was convicted of illegal entry and espionage by a Chinese court earlier this year and is currently serving a five-year prison sentence, became eligible for parole today. Yang's advocates and relatives are in the process of trying to visit him and file petitions for parole. Earlier this month, 21 Senators, 85 Representatives, and 63 Harvard faculty members signed letters calling on the Chinese government to grant parole to Yang. The letters note that Yang's release would help to improve bilateral ties.

Xinhua reports that the draft Public Security Administration Punishments Law currently under consideration by China's National People's Congress contains provisions directed at Internet Cafe operators. Under the draft law, anyone caught operating an Internet Cafe without license can be subject to up to 15 days of administrative detention.

Drawing on arguments made by scholars and officials gathered in Guangzhou for the annual meeting of the Chinese Law Society, the PRC weekly Southern Weekend has called on the Chinese government to return the power of death penalty review in all cases to the Supreme People’s Court. Although the PRC Criminal Procedure Law and Criminal Law state that the SPC shall review all death sentences, in the 1980s, the SPC delegated this power to provincial high people’s courts for cases involving murder, rape, and several other crimes. In doing so, the SPC relied on a provision in the Organic Law of the People’s Courts that authorizes such a delegation of power. At the Guangzhou conference, however, SPC Vice President Huang Songyou reportedly stated that the criminal law provisions should control because they are enshrined in “basic laws” passed by the full National People’s Congress, as opposed to the Organic Law, which is a “general law” passed by the NPC Standing Committee.

Citing unnamed sources in Beijing, Radio Free Asia reports that retired physician Jiang Yanyong continues to be subject to government surveillance and restrictions on his movements and personal interactions. RFA also reports that Jiang is not allowed to access the Internet from his home. Jiang Yanyong wrote a letter, dated February 2, 2004, to key Chinese government and Communist Party officials describing his eyewitness account of treating wounded patients who entered his surgery ward at PLA No 301 Hospital on June 4, 1989. The letter, which called on the Party to re-assess its official verdict on over the Tiananmen democracy movement, was posted on the Internet in early March 2004. Jiang was questioned shortly afterwards, and was detained along with his wife on June 1, 2004. According to Human Rights in China, he was detained while on his way to apply for a U.S. tourist visa. During his detention, Jiang was subjected to "education" sessions to change his view on Tiananmen.

Chinese media report that 300 legal procedure experts met in Guangzhou last weekend to discuss a “major revision” of the Criminal Procedure Law as well as significant amendments to the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Litigation Law. The experts, who included both scholars and officials, gathered in Guangzhou for the 2004 annual meeting of the Chinese Law Society.

Human Rights in China reports that a Shanghainese woman, Mao Hengfeng, has reportedly been subjected to torture and abusive treatment because of her public protests against China’s official one-child policy. According to HRIC, Mao has been engaged in a 15-year struggle for redress since she was dismissed from her factory job for refusing to have an abortion. HRIC reports that, because Mao refused to give up her petitioning, in April 2004 the Shanghai Public Security Bureau sentenced her to 18 months of Reeducation Through Labor.