Criminal Justice
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of the Chairman and Cochairman on Political Imprisonment in China Today
August 19, 2010
MPS Launches "2010 Strike Hard" Anticrime Campaign
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin on the Newly Enhanced Political Prisoner Database
July 27, 2010
Weeks after reportedly "resurfacing" in late March 2010, prominent Chinese human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng disappeared again in mid-April, according to an April 30 New York Times (NYT) article and a May 1 Voice of America article. In early April, Gao gave several interviews to foreign reporters, claiming he had been "released" months earlier and had ended his human rights campaigning in hope of being reunited with his family. The extent of the restrictions imposed on Gao's freedom of movement and association after this reported "release" remain unclear. Gao provided few details of his circumstances or of his 14-month disappearance, according to a March 28 BBC News article.
Authorities in Yixing city, Jiangsu province, released environmental activist Wu Lihong from the Dingshan Prison on April 12, 2010, after Wu completed a three-year sentence for alleged fraud and extortion, according to an April 12 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese). Prior to his detention, Wu had spent years documenting pollution in the Lake Tai area in Jiangsu province. After his release, Wu repeated allegations that he was forced to confess to the crimes, and alleged that prison officials had subjected him to abuse during his detention and imprisonment from 2007 to 2010, according to a May 11 Agence France-Presse (AFP) article and a May 11 RFA article (in Chinese).
The following is a partial translation prepared by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China of the "Law on the Protection of State Secrets" issued by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on April 29, 2010. Click "more" below for the complete Chinese text of the law, which was retrieved from the National People's Congress Web site on April 30, 2010.
The Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau will reportedly hold an administrative hearing on April 22 to decide whether Beijing human rights lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei will have their lawyer's licenses permanently revoked, according to an April 21 New York Times (NYT) article and April 20 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. An April 14 Voice of America (VOA) article (in Chinese) reported that Tang and Liu had received a notice from the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau claiming that they "disturbed the order of the court and interfered with normal procedural activities" while representing a Falun Gong practitioner during a trial last year in Luzhou, Sichuan province.