Human Rights Defenders Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Government Oppression

February 28, 2006

Human rights defenders in China launched a hunger strike relay on February 4, according to Chinese dissident Web sites and international news media reports. On February 4, the Epoch Times set up an online forum (in Chinese) for discussion of the topic and posted a "Proposal by Gao Zhisheng and Others to Organize a Rights Defender Hunger Strike Support Group." The proposal condemned the increasingly oppressive environment in which Chinese citizens have attempted to defend their rights, and established the hunger strike relay in support of "laborers, farmers, intellectuals, free [religious] believers, as well as Party, government, military, police, and members of all communities and all groups (including petitioners and social activists in all places) who are illegally persecuted or violently beaten." Organizers launched a Web site (www.jueshi.org) through which volunteers could register to participate. Beginning February 15, they coordinated simultaneous hunger strikes in at least 10 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese) on the same day. As of February 16, over 370 individuals (including overseas supporters) had joined the hunger strike relay, according to an Agence France-Presse article (via Yahoo News) published the same day.

Human rights defenders in China launched a hunger strike relay on February 4, according to Chinese dissident Web sites and international news media reports. On February 4, the Epoch Times set up an online forum (in Chinese) for discussion of the topic and posted a "Proposal by Gao Zhisheng and Others to Organize a Rights Defender Hunger Strike Support Group." The proposal condemned the increasingly oppressive environment in which Chinese citizens have attempted to defend their rights, and established the hunger strike relay in support of "laborers, farmers, intellectuals, free [religious] believers, as well as Party, government, military, police, and members of all communities and all groups (including petitioners and social activists in all places) who are illegally persecuted or violently beaten." Organizers launched a Web site (www.jueshi.org) through which volunteers could register to participate. Beginning February 15, they coordinated simultaneous hunger strikes in at least 10 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese) on the same day. As of February 16, over 370 individuals (including overseas supporters) had joined the hunger strike relay, according to an Agence France-Presse article (via Yahoo News) published the same day.

In response to the nationwide efforts, government officials reportedly have cracked down on organizers and participants. Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng, one of the first to participate on February 4, told RFA that public security officers placed 75 percent of the participants in Beijing under house arrest. Officials in other parts of China are said to have placed many others under house arrest or taken them into custody for interrogation. In a February 16 essay (posted by the Epoch Times, in Chinese), Gao reported that activists Hu Jia, Qi Zhiyong, and three associates of Gao's law firm, which the Beijing Justice Bureau shut down in November 2005, were among the first reported missing and thought to be in government custody. In a February 19 statement (posted by the Epoch Times), Gao announced that these government actions required a change in the hunger strike strategy. He said the time had come to scale down the level of coordination among hunger strike participants and ensure that their identities could remain confidential.

Participants such as Gao have pointed out that previous government crackdowns tested their will and motivated them to launch hunger strikes, and noted that the government has responded to their non-violent resistance with additional repressive measures. The hunger strike relay follows months of government violence against human rights defenders in China, which is documented in Hazardous Times for Human Rights Defenders: An NGO Report on Respect for and Implementation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders in PRC (posted via Boxun, on January 4). The report, which the Network for Chinese Rights Defenders submitted to Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, characterizes 2005 as "a leap forward in Chinese citizens' rights consciousness" and provides a number of examples of "close surveillance and brutal repression by government agents." On February 2, activist Guo Feixiong (whose true name is Yang Maodong), published an essay on The Widespread Infringement of Human Rights Suffered by Rights Defenders (posted via Boxun, in Chinese). Guo's essay noted that the criminal case against house church leader Cai Zhuohua provided momentum in 2005 for a growing movement among Chinese human rights defenders. He identified government suppression of a recall campaign against an allegedly corrupt local leader in Taishi village, Guangdong province, as the start of a widespread government campaign targeting those activists. As evidence of this campaign, Guo highlighted the government's violent treatment of Ai Xiaoming, Guo Yan, Tang Jingling, Lu Banglie, Xu Zhiyong, Zhao Xin, Yao Lifa, and Gao Zhisheng, who all provided legal representation for defendants in, or expressed criticism about, some of the most high-profile rights cases of 2005. According to a February 3 RFA report (in Chinese) and February 6 SCMP report (subscription required), unidentified assailants beat Guo outside the doors of the Linhe police dispatch station in Guangzhou, two days after he published the essay and immediately after officials interrogated him.

International law protects the individuals and activities that news media and NGO reports have raised in their coverage of the hunger strike relay. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights defines a "human rights defender" as someone who acts on behalf of individuals or groups to promote and protect civil and political rights, and to promote, protect, and realize economic, social, and cultural rights. The definition includes those who focus on good governance and advocate for an end to government abuse of power. Human rights defenders must adopt peaceful means for their struggle if they wish to fall under the protections of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration). Article 12 of this Declaration, adopted in 1998 by consensus of the UN General Assembly, stipulates that: (1) Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms; and (2) The state shall take all necessary measures to ensure protection against violence, threats, or retaliation for those who exercise this right. In addition, Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which China signed on October 9, 2005, protect each individual's freedom of association.

For a timeline of government actions against human rights defenders, beginning in mid-2005 and leading up to the 2006 hunger strike relay, see below.
 


TIMELINE OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO HUNGER STRIKE RELAY

September 12, 2005. Local officials in Taishi village, under the administration of Guangzhou city, Guangdong province, suppress citizen efforts to remove an allegedly corrupt village committee head.

September 13, 2005. Guangzhou officials take Guo Feixiong into custody for his involvement in the Taishi village recall campaign.

September 28, 2005. The operators of the Yannan Forum, an electronic bulletin board service, shut down the Web site one week after they ordered forum administrators to "clean up" their forums and delete all posts related to events in Taishi village.

October 4, 2005. Guangzhou officials formally arrest Guo for "gathering people to disturb public order," a crime under Article 290 of China's Criminal Law.

October 5, 2005. Authorities shut down the Web site of Professor Ai Xiaoming of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, after she posted a description of a September 26 incident in which unidentified assailants "smashed" a taxi that carried her and Guangzhou lawyers Tang Jingling and Guo Yan home from a visit to Taishi village. At the time, these assailants pursued and beat Guo Yan, who left the taxi to seek help.

October 9, 2005. Unidentified assailants beat Lu Banglie, a local people's congress deputy, as he escorts a British journalist attempting to report on events in Taishi village.

November 4, 2005. The Beijing Justice Bureau orders the closing of the Beijing Shengzhi Law Firm, which Gao Zhisheng operated and where Guo Feixiong worked.

December 27, 2005. Guangzhou officials release Guo without charge, after the local procuratorate decides not to go forward with prosecution of his case. Guo's release comes just weeks after a bloody confrontation between villagers and the People's Armed Police on the outskirts of Shanwei city, also in Guangdong province, on December 6.

January 29, 2006. Plainclothes security officers, reportedly from the Ministry of State Security and National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, move into the ground-floor unit of Guo's apartment building and begin 24-hour surveillance of his activities.

January 30-31, 2006. Guo visits Taishi village, which reportedly remains under tight security.

February 1, 2006. Guo posts an essay (in Chinese) on the Boxun Web site, recounting his visit and revealing that local officials have also visited villagers. Officials told villagers that Guo and his associates wished to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party and that the villagers should distance themselves from the activists.

February 2, 2006. Guo's essay on The Widespread Infringement of Human Rights Suffered by Rights Defenders (in Chinese) appears on the Boxun Web site.

February 3, 2006. An altercation between Guo and plainclothes security officers takes place after they attempt to photograph his wife and two children. Public security officials take Guo to the Linhe police dispatch station in Guangzhou, where officials interrogate him for about 12 hours. While Guo is in custody, Gao Zhisheng posts an essay (in Chinese) through the Boxun Web site, calling on supporters to launch a hunger strike, and express their protests through strictly non-violent means, as soon as Guo suffers any physical harm.

February 4, 2006. Unidentified assailants beat Guo outside the doors of the Linhe station, as he leaves around 12:30 am after 12 hours of interrogation. Gao immediately condemns the beating and goes on hunger strike for 48 hours beginning 6 am that morning.