China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update - April 2006

The Tibetan government-in-exile released a statement on February 25 from Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy, about the fifth round of dialogue with Chinese officials. Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, accompanied by two senior staff, visited China from February 15 to 23. The envoys did not travel this time to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) or one of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures (TAPs) in other provinces, in contrast to their three previous visits. Special Envoy Gyari described these visits in statements released in September 2002, May-June 2003, and September 2004.

The Qidong County People's Court in Hengyang city, Hunan province, sentenced the head of a Hengyang welfare institute (approximately equivalent to an orphanage) and other alleged traffickers on February 24 to prison terms for trafficking in infants, according to a February 24 Xinhua article. The court sentenced three traffickers to 15 years in prison and six others to terms ranging from 3 to 13 years and sentenced the director of a welfare institute in Hengdong county in Hunan province to 1 year in prison. Hengyang city government agencies dismissed or censured 22 other welfare institute employees and local Department of Civil Affairs (DoCA) officials, including the director and vice-director of the Hengyang city DoCA.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) distributed "Six Prohibitions on People's Prison Police" and "Six Prohibitions on People's Reeducation Through Labor (RTL) Police" on February 14 for implementation by justice bureaus across China, according to a February 16 Legal Daily article (in Chinese). MOJ Vice Minister Fan Fangping told Legal Daily that, beginning on the date of the announcement, prison and RTL police found violating the prohibitions would be subject to punishments ranging from warnings to dismissal. In cases in which police behavior may constitute a crime, authorities will also investigate the actor's criminal liability. Vice Minister Fan disclosed that the MOJ is preparing to dispatch a supervisory group of its own, and that local justice bureaus will also be expected to implement regular supervision and investigation of police activities.

A senior Ministry of Public Security (MPS) official disclosed the use of mass roundup measures to maintain social order during the early March annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to official sources. The CPPCC plenary session began on March 3, and the NPC plenary convened on March 5. Xu Hu, Deputy Director of the MPS's Department for the Management of Public Order, said at a March 2 press conference that public security officials will round up those "people without proper professions, fixed places of residence, or stable incomes who have been hanging around Beijing for a long time" and encourage them to leave the capital, according to a Chinese-language transcript posted on the China Internet Information Center's (CIIC) Web site. The CIIC Web site operates under the auspices of the State Council.

The Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force held a teleconference in January 2006 and notified "relevant agencies" that they should "purify the publishing market" and be on duty 24 hours a day during the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which concluded on March 13, according to a January 19 Chinese Readers' Digest article (in Chinese) on the Guangming Daily Web site.

Premier Wen Jiabao announced the launching of a "Program for Establishing and Developing a Rural Healthcare Service System" in a March 5, 2006, government work report to the annual plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), according to the text of the report posted March 16 on the Guangming Daily Web site. The State Council adopted the plan on March 1, according to a March 2 Xinhua report. An outline of the plan also was published on December 31, 2005, in an Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside.

Premier Wen Jiabao pledged in a March 6, 2006, address to delegates of the National People’s Congress to increase central government spending on mine safety, and admitted that China’s mine safety has "serious problems," according to a March 6, 2006, South China Morning Post report (subscription required). Wen placed the primary responsibility for mine accidents on local officials, and allowed that, together with traffic accidents, mine accidents result in great losses in lives and property. He said that China's poor safety record is the result of the huge demand for coal, poor implementation of safety rules, lack of oversight by local officials, and the corruption of safety officials and mine owners. Wen said the central government would contribute some 3 billion yuan (approximately US $374 million) to develop solutions to coal mine gas explosions, and he called on local governments and mine owners to invest more in safety programs.

The Bijie People's Procuratorate in Guizhou province charged Li Yuanlong, a journalist with the Bijie Daily, on February 9, 2006, with inciting subversion of state power in connection with his using software to circumvent China's Internet censorship and e-mailing essays to the operators of foreign Web sites that the Chinese government blocks, according to a copy of the indictment posted on the Boxun Web site on March 1. According to a February 27 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) press release, Li reported on rural poverty, and had been censored in recent years because of complaints by local officials embarrassed by his reports. CPJ reported that Chinese authorities have prevented his family from visiting him since his detention, but a local lawyer has seen him twice.

The Guangdong Public Security Bureau (PSB) has circulated a report that blames a succession of mass protests in 2005 on "disputes over so-called rights defense," according to a February 24 Ming Pao article (in Chinese). Public security officials indicated that in 2006, they will concentrate on striking against internal and external "hostile forces" who get involved in domestic issues of "rights defense." The report blames hostile forces for politicizing issues of farmer and consumer economic rights, and taking advantage of individual incidents to write essays stirring public opinion. It accuses these forces of inciting the masses, who are unaware of the truth, to create disturbances that threaten the construction of a harmonious and stable society in Guangdong.

The Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued an Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside on December 31, 2005. The People's Daily published the Opinion on February 22, 2006. On February 23, the State Council issued an English language press briefing on the Opinion.

The Urumqi Cultural Market Inspection Brigade and the Tianshan branch of the Urumqi Public Security Bureau confiscated 350 "illegally printed" religious posters on February 10 and 11 during a surprise inspection of the ethnic language publishing market in Urumqi's Erdaoqiao neighborhood and surrounding districts, according to a February 15 article posted on Tianshan net.

Public security officials in Baoding city, Hebei province, detained Lu Genjun and Guo Yanli, both unregistered Catholic priests of the Baoding diocese, on February 17, according to a February 23 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. Officials sent Guo to a detention center in Xushui county in Hebei province and sent Lu to an undisclosed location. For more than 10 years, the Chinese government has concentrated its effort to control the unregistered Catholic community on the unregistered Catholic clerics of the Baoding diocese. As of February 15, 17 of 41 Catholic clerics in prison, under house arrest, or under strict surveillance were from Baoding diocese, according to the CKF's list of Prisoners of Religious Conscience for the Underground Catholic Church in China.

Chinese officials are experimenting with reforms that allow a limited degree of public participation by citizens in the selection of local Communist Party officials. Ouyang Song, Deputy Director of the Party's Organization Department and Deputy Director of the Leading Group for the "advanced education" campaign, noted at a March 1 State Council press conference that these "public nomination, direct election" experiments are currently under way in 217 counties in 13 provinces.

Jampa Phuntsog (Xiangba Pingcuo), the Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government, acknowledged the Dalai Lama's envoys’ February visit to China during "unusually frank" remarks to reporters in Beijing on March 6, according to a Reuters report dated the same day. "We cannot call the talks negotiations now. They are just dialogue, or contact, but the channels for communication have always been smooth," he said, adding that, "We will have further discussions in [the] future. But we haven't yet reached the stage of substantive negotiations."

China's state-run news media organizations, including Xinhua, the China Daily, People's Daily, and Beijing News, published several articles during February and March that quoted senior Chinese political and corporate leaders as saying that the Chinese government's controls over freedom of expression and the free flow of information conform to international norms and standards. For example:

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."

"Chinese citizens' ability to exercise their right to freedom of religion remains as subject to arbitrary restrictions as ever," Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in a March 1 press release that marked one year since the new Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA) entered into force. The Chinese government had hailed the RRA as progress in protecting religious freedom, but HRW reported that, since its implementation, authorities "continue to detain and arrest religious believers, close religious sites, and impose restrictions on the movements, contacts, visits, and correspondence of religious personnel."

The Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (IPC) exonerated a man of a robbery charge two years after it initially convicted and sentenced him to death for the same crime, according to a March 2 Legal Daily article (in Chinese). After an initial conviction on March 11, 2004, Cao Hongbing appealed his death sentence to the Chongqing High People's Court (HPC). On December 7, 2004, the Chongqing HPC vacated the lower court's order and remanded the case for retrial. During the retrial, held on March 30, 2005, Cao retracted his original admission of guilt to the police and asserted that his admission was coerced. The Chongqing IPC exonerated Cao on February 27, concluding upon retrial that:

Liu Binjie, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication and Deputy Chief of the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force, said that political publications are the highest priority target for the Task Force, according to a February 23 Guangming Daily report (in Chinese). Liu said it is necessary to "purify the market," and government officials elsewhere in China reiterated Liu's call to crack down on political publishing, according to state run news outlets such as those in Guangxi province (including the Liuzhou Government Information Office, the Guangxi Daily (via Xinhua), and the Beihai Daily (via Xinhua) and the Jinan provincial government (all in Chinese).

Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak learned of a new prison holding at least some Tibetan political prisoners during his November 20-December 2, 2005, visit to Beijing, Lhasa, and Urumqi, according to a March 10 "advance edited version" of Nowak’s report on his China visit. The new Qushui Prison is located in Qushui (Chushur) county near Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

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.

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) used its authority to accredit television hosts to shut down the television show of well-known economist Lang Xianping (also known as Larry Lang) in late February 2006, according to a March 7 Radio Free Asia article (in Chinese) and a March 14 Financial Times article. According to Lang's assistant and Shanghai-based television producers, SARFT shut down Lang's program on the grounds that he lacked a required government certification that he speaks standard Mandarin Chinese. Lang is a Taiwan-born professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. According to the Financial Times:

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government will keep the region’s population within 22 million people by the end of 2010, according to news from a XUAR population and family planning work meeting on February 13 that was reported February 14 on Tianshan Net.

The Rules on Internet Security Protection Technology Measures, which impose new requirements for Web site operators to retain the contents of news they post on the Internet, went into effect on March 1, 2006. The Rules, promulgated by the Ministry of Public Security on December 28, 2005, mandate nationwide data retention standards for Internet service providers (ISPs) and Internet information services (IISs). The Rules require ISPs to:

The Zibo Intermediate People’s Procuratorate in Shandong province, formally indicted businessman Li Jianping on March 7, 2006, on charges of "incitement to subvert state power," according to the procuratorate’s indictment. The indictment specifically alleges that Li "compiled and wrote 31 articles that libeled the socialist system, defamed Party and government leaders, and incited subversion of state power, and used e-mail to send them to ChinaEWeekly, Epoch Times, Democracy Forum, Global Forum, and other Web sites for publishing. Many Web sites reprinted these, and they were disseminated broadly."

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.

Chinese authorities released Cai Lujun from the Shijiazhuang No. 1 Prison in Hebei province, on March 2, 2006, following the conclusion of his three-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power, according to a March 3 Radio Free Asia article (in Chinese). The Shijiazhuang state security bureau placed Cai under residential surveillance on February 22, 2003, detained him on March 3, and arrested him on April 8. The Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court tried Cai in August 2003 and sentenced him to three years in prison in September 2003.

Chinese authorities in Chongqing have released Internet essayist Luo Changfu from prison following completion of his three-year sentence for inciting subversion of state power, according to a March 16 Boxun article. State security officials detained Luo on March 13, 2003, after he published essays on the Internet calling for the release of Liu Di, the Boxun Web site reported on November 14, 2003. Luo was tried in July 2003 by the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, which sentenced him to three years in prison and one year deprivation of political rights on November 16, 2003.

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court commuted a life sentence imposed on Bangri Chogtrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan reincarnated lama, to 19 years of fixed-term imprisonment on July 31, 2003, according to a February 28 statement by the Dui Hua Foundation. Bangri Chogtrul subsequently also received a further one-year sentence reduction on November 17, 2005. Bangri Chogtrul, who is also known as Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche and as Jigme Tenzin Nyima (Jinmei Danzeng Nima), lived as a householder and directed a Lhasa children's home until security officials detained him in August 1999 after another Tibetan attempted to blow himself up in a Lhasa plaza.