Freedom of Expression

Five members of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee have expressed support for holding public hearings for all draft laws that are of interest to the general public, according to an October 25 China Youth Daily report posted on the Xinhua Web site.

Activist Li Jian issued a draft "opinion" on November 10 calling on the State Council and National People's Congress Standing Committee to review the constitutionality and legality of the Rules on the Administration of Internet News Information Services (Rules). The draft opinion declares that the Rules, which went into effect in late September and which prohibit anyone from using the Internet to post news reports without prior government authorization, violate the Chinese Constitution and national laws.

Shi Zongyuan, Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said that Chinese authorities have halted plans to allow foreign newspapers to print in China because of concerns raised by the recent "color revolutions" against Soviet-era leaders in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, reports a November 16 article in the Financial Times (subscription required). GAPP Deputy Director Liu Binjie said in November 2004 that China would "allow foreign newspapers to come and print in China . . .

Government officials in a number of provinces launched a crackdown on activists and petitioners in the two weeks preceding U.S. President George W. Bush's November 19-20 visit to China, according to several news media sources. Reports in the London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times noted that in advance of the visit, the Chinese government failed to release any prisoners of conscience that President Bush raised in a September meeting with Hu in New York.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies said that the IOC has expressed concern about news media conditions in China, according to a November 13 Associated Press (AP) report available on the Mainichi Daily News Web site. The IOC expressed this reservation in an otherwise positive assessment that was not released to the public. The assessment evidently said that the Chinese government is either on track or ahead of schedule on commitments to the IOC, with 1,000 days remaining before the Olympic Games begin in 2008. The AP report cited an anonymous IOC official as saying that, among other measures sought in talks with the IOC, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Organizing Committee (BOOC) sought authorization to ask about the religious beliefs of foreign reporters on accreditation applications for the 2008 Games.

The Beijing Justice Bureau ordered prominent rights advocate Gao Zhisheng to shut down his law firm and stop practicing law for one year beginning on November 4, according to reports from the China Aid Association, Washington Post (registration required), BBC, and Radio Free Asia (RFA). Gao told the Washington Post that government officials had rejected the Beijing Shengzhi Law Firm's attempt to register a new address when it moved to a new office in early 2005. The Beijing Justice Bureau now bases its action on the firm's failure to register its new location. Gao has said that he plans to challenge the suspension through a formal hearing.

Lawyers for rural activist Guo Feixiong are taking advantage of a December 27 deadline to request his release from detention, according to articles in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) (subscription required) on November 10 and 16. The filing of their request on November 11 comes two weeks after the Panyu District Procuratorate returned Guo's case to public security officials for further investigation. Guo remains in official custody and has ended the hunger strike that he began on September 13 to protest his detention.

The procuratorate's "Return for Verification Notification from the Panyu District Procuratorate" (Notification), posted November 8 by Chengdu University Law Professor Wang Yi on his blog, says:

Public security officers detained human rights activist Hu Jia when he attempted to deliver a petition to Vice Premier Wu Yi at an AIDS conference in Henan province, according to a November 7 report by Radio Free Asia. Public security officials have also detained 30 other petitioners at the conference, according to a November 8 South China Morning Post report (subscription required). Authorities closed the conference to the public and prevented civil society groups from participating.

Hu Jia carried the petition on behalf of more than 50 AIDS patients from Henan province. Hu has served as executive director of the Aizhi Action Project, and has been involved in campaigns to free detained activists such as Liu Di. In August, security officers beat him and placed him under house arrest during the visit of Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.