Institutions of Democratic Governance

Chinese authorities released China Democracy Party member Tong Shidong at the expiration of his seven-year prison sentence on March 9, according to a March 10 South China Morning Post article.

Remarks to the press in early March by a senior Communist Party official deny that China faces rising social instability and assert that the Party's "advanced education" campaign will allow Chinese leaders to address popular discontent. Chinese authorities have ruled out "democracy for all" as a source of anarchy rather than a path to social and political stability in the government's 2005 White Paper on "Building of Political Democracy in China."

The Chinese government issued a white paper titled "Building of Political Democracy in China" on October 19, according to an International Herald Tribune article on October 19. The white paper justifies Communist Party rule as necessary for political stability, and notes that "Party committees serve as the leadership core over all [government and mass] organizations at the same level . . . and through Party committees and cadres in these organizations, ensure that the Party's policies are carried out . . . Through legal procedures and democratic discussion, Party committees ensure that Party proposals become the will of the state and that candidates recommended by Party organizations become leaders in the institutions of state power."

The Chongqing High People's Court rejected the appeal of Xu Wanping on February 28; a lower-level court had sentenced Xu in December 2005 to 12 years in prison in connection with his association with the banned China Democracy Party (CDP), according to a February 28 Reuters article. The High People's Court "found that Xu received financial aid from hostile foreign organizations starting in 2001, and joined illegal organizations aimed at subverting the Chinese government," according to a Xinhua article reprinted on the China Radio International Web site.

Prison officials subjected activist Zhao Changqing to repeated beatings and long periods of solitary confinement at Weinan Prison in Shaanxi province, according to a February 8 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. HRIC reported that, most recently, authorities held Zhao in solitary confinement for 40 days for refusing to sing "Socialism is Good" and other songs praising the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system during a flag-raising ceremony at the prison. HRIC said that in another incident, prison inmates reportedly beat Zhao after he conversed with another prisoner who is a Falun Gong practitioner. Zhao's sister described her brother’s condition to Radio Free Asia in a report (in Chinese) published February 9:

Imprisoned China Democracy Party (CDP) member Tong Shidong's sentence will expire on March 9, 2006, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. NGO that advocates for prisoners of conscience in China. The Changsha Intermediate People's Court's initial sentence provides that Tong will be deprived of political rights for three years after release.

The National People's Congress (NPC) will deliberate on a new "Administrative Coercion Law" in 2006 that will restrain the "administrative compulsory power" of government agencies, according to a Xinhua article on December 27, 2005, and a China Newsweek article posted by Xinhua on January 17 (both in Chinese). Administrative compulsory power allows administrative agencies to take compulsory measures (ranging from confiscations of property to restraints on personal liberty) against Chinese citizens. China Newsweek's article notes that the purpose of the new law is to "standardize and restrict the government's administrative power."