Institutions of Democratic Governance

The government of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has spent over 40 million yuan since 2001 on its Fourth Five-Year Work Program for Popularizing the Law, the Xinjiang Legal Development Net reported on September 26. As part of the work program, in 2001 the Xinjiang government's Law and Politics Office began sending legal experts and educators to counties throughout the region to conduct seminars on how best to increase adherence to the law by juveniles. The teams have conducted 216 seminars in 13 prefectures and 62 counties, reaching an audience of 360,000 middle school students, teachers, and parents, according to the report. In another of the programs, some 300,000 government officials have participated in yearly legal examinations since 2002.

According to a U.S. State Department press release, China agreed to consider resuming its human rights dialogue with the United States, during an official visit of Secretary of State Colin Powell to Beijing. Further information is available in a New York Times article. Official human rights talks between the two nations broke down earlier this year following Chinese objections to the U.S. introduction of a resolution critical of the Chinese human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Official Chinese statements regarding a possible resumption of the human rights dialogue have been muted. However, a report on Powell's visit carried in the Beijing News characterizes the resumption of the dialogue as not merely under discussion, but already agreed upon.

A group composed of six inspectors from the Communist Party Central Propaganda Department, the National Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force, and the General Administration of Press and Publication praised officials in Gansu province for the success of their recently-concluded campaign against illegal publications, according to a September 12 article on the People's Daily Web site. The article stated that Zhou Dexiang, director of the Gansu Press and Publication Administration, told the inspectors that during that campaign, which lasted from mid-June until the end of August, authorities in Gansu confiscated 12,600 "pornographic, political, and other illegal books and periodicals."

In the first four months of 2005, the Chinese government has promulgated several laws to regulate news reporters and editors. While ostensibly intended to curb what the state-controlled news media portrays as rampant corruption and fraud in Chinese journalism, these new rules and regulations also dictate who may engage in journalism, what their political orientation must be, and when they must submit to Party and government censorship:

Human Rights in China reported on January 31 that Chinese authorities in Shanghai formally detained Xu Zhengqing. Authorities had taken Xu into custody in Beijing on January 29, along with 22 others, including Wang Qiaojuan, Zheng Peipei, and Chen Xiuqin, as they tried to attend memorial services for former senior leader Zhao Ziyang.

According to Boxun several activists who security authorities subjected to movement restrictions and surveillance have reported a lessening of official harassment after Zhao’s funeral ended. Boxun said that Qi Zhiyong and Li Jinping have been allowed to return home, and Ding Zilin, Jiao Guobiao, Zhang Xianling, and Liu Xiaobo report that police surveillance has ended around their homes.

According to this article from a Chinese anti-corruption Web site, the Jiangsu province Communist Party Disciplinary and Inspection Committee forwarded a corruption case involving the former vice mayor of Suzhou city to the procuracy for "investigation and disposition according to law." The official is charged with misuse of his office to benefit his son's private business. A tip from a private citizen in early 2004 evidently led the Jiangsu Provincial Committee on Discipline and Inspection to review the case for several months before deciding in August 2004 to begin a formal investigation. Government authorities in Jiangsu province, Suzhou city, and Wuxi city cooperated to "break" the case. This case shows how the Party manages an initial period of investigation when high Party officials are implicated.

The China Youth Daily reports a prominent defense lawyer's views on why leading cadres fall into corrupt practices. His article helps to understand the climate of impunity surrounding leading cadres in China.

The lawyer, who had respresented Liu Fangren and Cheng Kejie in well-known corruption cases, notes that, even after his arrest, Liu Fangren worried that hiring a lawyer would anger the Party organization. Hiring a lawyer might reveal a poor attitude, a sense that he was resisting the organization.

This article on gambling alleges that some 600 billion yuan (US $72.49 billion) annually has been flowing out of China into gambling venues in Hong Kong, Macao, and outside of China. The writer says that the CCP's Central Disciplinary and Inspection Commission moved in January 2005 to stem the growing problem by making it clear that the Party will dismiss members and cadres whom authorities catch gambling. The Party evidently will treat members and cadres who gamble outside China even more strictly, according to the article. Government and Party concern stems not only from the significant cash outflow but also from notorious recent cases of prominent officials who have been prosecuted for using public funds to gamble in Macao and elsewhere.