State-Run Media Highlight Human Rights Abuses and Deaths While in Police Custody

July 31, 2006

A July 7, 2006, article (in Chinese) in the Guangming Daily Observer criticized Chinese officials for shielding one another from punishment and thereby allowing the continued abuse of authority in violation of human rights. Gao Yifei, a legal scholar at Southwest University of Politics and Law, argued that the Chinese government has been too lenient in punishing officials who abuse their authority to coerce confessions under torture, acquire evidence through the use of force, or maltreat prisoners. In support of his argument, Gao highlighted several cases in which torture resulted in the deaths of Chinese citizens while in custody. State-run media reported in 2006 that courts imposed criminal sentences of varying lengths on the parties responsible for the deaths in three of those cases:

A July 7, 2006, article (in Chinese) in the Guangming Daily Observer criticized Chinese officials for shielding one another from punishment and thereby allowing the continued abuse of authority in violation of human rights. Gao Yifei, a legal scholar at Southwest University of Politics and Law, argued that the Chinese government has been too lenient in punishing officials who abuse their authority to coerce confessions under torture, acquire evidence through the use of force, or maltreat prisoners. In support of his argument, Gao highlighted several cases in which torture resulted in the deaths of Chinese citizens while in custody. State-run media reported in 2006 that courts imposed criminal sentences of varying lengths on the parties responsible for the deaths in three of those cases:

  • A January 24, 2006, Hainan provincial government report (in Chinese) noted that two public security officials had been sentenced to 10 years' and 8 years' imprisonment, respectively, for beating Liang Guicai, a man accused of fraud in Hainan province, until he died during police interrogation. According to the report, in 2005, Hainan procuratorates filed and investigated a total of three cases of torture province-wide.
  • A June 8, 2006, China Court Net report (in Chinese) noted that two public security officials had been sentenced to 1 year and 12 years' imprisonment, respectively, for beating Tao Xianbi, a woman accused of prostitution in Sichuan province, until she died during police interrogation. According to an April 29, 2004, Xinhua article (in Chinese), the local procuratorate did not begin investigating Tao's death until July 2003, more than two years after it occurred and only in response to her husband's persistent efforts to petition the government.
  • A July 7, 2006, Beijing News report (in Chinese) noted that Zhang Shuli, a reeducation through labor (RTL) prisoner and production brigade leader in Huludao city, Liaoning province, was executed in June 2006 for torturing to death a fellow inmate. According to the Beijing News report, seven other prisoners who had taken part in the torture received sentences ranging from five years' to life imprisonment. In addition, a local court sentenced three RTL police officers for allowing the death to occur. The Beijing News report noted that the officers had "instigated" Zhang Shuli to beat fellow inmate Zhang Bin, but the report did not disclose the length of their sentences.

Official use of torture against criminal suspects, defendants, and prisoners violates both Chinese and international law. Article 247 of the Criminal Law provides for criminal punishment of judicial officers, defined to include law enforcement officers, who coerce confessions under torture or acquire testimony through the use of force. Article 248 provides for criminal punishment of police at prisons and other institutions of confinement who beat or maltreat inmates. In addition, the Ministry of Justice issued prohibitions in February 2006 to restrain prison and RTL police from either beating, or instigating others to beat, inmates. These prohibitions subject prison and RTL police to sanctions ranging from warnings to dismissal or, where the behavior may constitute a crime, to criminal punishment. The Chinese government is further bound by provisions in the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which it ratified in 1988.

Although torture is illegal in China, torture and abuse by law enforcement officers remain widespread. A March 2006 report by Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, said that the Chinese government's definition of torture under the Criminal Law and administrative regulations does not correspond fully to the international standard as outlined in Article 1 of the CAT. Provisions issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate in September 1999 narrow the definitions of "coercing a confession under torture," "acquiring evidence through the use of force," and "maltreating a prisoner," and require procuratorates to file and investigate a case only in a limited number of circumstances. For example, a law enforcement officer must commit the wrongdoing three or more times, or against three or more individuals, before a procuratorate should consider filing the case for investigation. After his visit to China in late 2005, Nowak found that torture is widespread in Chinese prisons, RTL centers, and special psychiatric institutes (ankang) for criminal offenders.

For additional information on Torture and Abuse in Custody, see Section III(b) of the CECC's 2005 Annual Report.