China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update - January 2006

 
 
 

Announcements

CECC 2005 Annual Report In HTML Format, Chinese Version of Executive Summary Posted

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has prepared a version of its 2005 Annual Report in HTML format. In addition, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China has prepared a Chinese language version of its 2005 Annual Report Executive Summary.

 

Translation: Compulsory Patent Measures

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has prepared a translation of the Measures for Carrying Out Compulsory Licensing of Patents on Issues Involving Public Health.

 

Translation: Local Regulations

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has prepared a translation of the Circular Regarding the Program to Submit Proposals to the City Government's 2006 Plan for Drafting Regulatory Documents issued by the Changzhou City People's Government. For more information on this circular, see "Changzhou City Government Adopts WTO-Inspired Transparency Measure" below.

 
 
 

Reporters Without Borders Gives Zhao Yan 2005 Press Freedom Award

Reporters Without Borders awarded its 2005 Fondation de France Prize on December 7 to Zhao Yan, a researcher for the Beijing bureau of The New York Times. Zhao received the prize for being one of the "journalists who, through their work, attitude or principled stands, have shown a strong commitment to press freedom."

Supreme People's Court Calls for Hearings in Death Penalty Appeals

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has called on provincial high courts to conduct hearings for all death sentence appeals beginning next year, according to a December 8 article in Xinhua. The SPC issued a Circular Regarding Further Improving Open Court Session Work in Second Instance Death Penalty Cases (translated by CECC staff) on December 7. The circular follows SPC President Xiao Yang's announcement in late October that the SPC would consolidate and reclaim its power over death penalty review as part of a Second Five-Year Reform Plan for China's courts. Court officials characterized both reforms as necessary to carry out the Second Five-Year Reform Plan's goals of ensuring greater fairness and caution in the death penalty review process.

Chinese-Installed Panchen Lama Pledges to Meet Communist Party Expectations

Gyaltsen Norbu, the boy the Chinese government installed as the Panchen Lama, concluded a Buddhist ritual offering at the tombs of his predecessors by saying that he would "live up to the expectations of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government," according to a December 15 Xinhua report. The ritual took place one week after the 10th anniversary of the December 8, 1995, ceremony at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), where State Councilor Li Tieying presided over then five-year-old Gyaltsen Norbu's installation as Panchen Lama, according to the China Tibet Information Center. Marking the anniversary, the teen-age Gyaltsen Norbu pledged to "be a good living Buddha who loves his motherland, his religion and serves his country and its people," according to a December 8 Xinhua report.

Beijing Court Announces Reform of Judicial Disciplinary System

Chi Qiang, President of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (IPC), announced the abolition of that court's responsibility system for wrongly decided cases, according to a November 21 newspaper article in The First. The system is described in the Implementation Details for the Beijing No. 1 IPC's Responsibility System for Illegally Adjudicated Cases (Trial)," which previously was used to discipline judges for cases overturned or altered on appeal.

Government Acts Against House Church Protestants During November

The Chinese government during November 2005 detained Protestant house church leaders, removed house church leaders from Beijing, sentenced a house church leader to imprisonment, and censored news media coverage of President Bush's message supporting religious freedom during his November 19-21 visit to Beijing, according to a number of news sources.

Power Plant Construction Continues After Government Suppresses Villager Protests in Shanwei

The construction of a controversial power plant in Shanwei city, Guangdong province, has continued on schedule after provincial authorities promised full support and "conditions of social stability" for the continued construction, based on a December 22 news update on the Web site of the Guangdong Red Bay Generation Company, which is building the plant. The update followed a Washington Post report on December 21 that concluded that local opposition to the power plant had been "reduced to submission." Following violent confrontations with the People's Armed Police (PAP) on December 6 and 7, authorities sealed off Dongzhoukeng village in Shanwei and placed it under heavy police surveillance.

Trade Officials Tell WTO That Government Contemplates No New Changes to Criminal IPR Laws

Chinese trade officials told an October 25-28 World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting that the National People's Congress (NPC) has "no plans to amend the Criminal Code or other IP laws at this moment, although in-depth research and study in this field would continue," according to the WTO's official record of the meeting released on November 21. The comments responded to the written submissions of other WTO members that questioned the adequacy of the provisions of the Criminal Law that define intellectual property rights (IPR) offenses. The exchange was part of the fourth annual WTO Transitional Review Mechanism (TRM), which the WTO's Council on Trade Related Aspects of IPR conducted in late October.

Central Government Releases HIV/AIDS Statistics, Launches Migrant Awareness Program

The State Council Working Committee on AIDS Prevention and Treatment reported that the number of confirmed HIV/AIDS carriers in China has risen to more than 130,000, according to the transcript of a November 29 teleconference posted on the National Population and Family Planning Commission Web site. That number accounts for only about 16 percent of the total estimated HIV/AIDS cases in the country, according to comments made by Vice Premier Wu Yi during the teleconference.

Assailants Beat Catholic Nuns Over Xi'an Land Dispute

Unidentified assailants beat a group of registered Catholic nuns on November 23 in Xi'an city, Shaanxi province, according to a November 28 AsiaNews report. The nuns were protesting the demolition of a school that the government had promised to sell to the state registered Catholic Church. Five nuns sustained severe injuries and required hospitalization. Hundreds of Xi'an Catholics marched November 27 to protest the violence against the nuns, according to a November 30 AsiaNews report. The Holy See issued a declaration that "the violence practiced in Xi'an against a number of defenseless nuns cannot but be firmly condemned." Authorities in Xi'an subsequently detained 11 men in connection with the beatings, according to a December 8 report (in Chinese) in the Xi'an Evening News.

U.S. NGO Reports that Official Abuse of Petitioners Is Rampant in China

Official abuse of Chinese petitioners is rampant, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) press statement and report released on December 8. Chinese citizens often petition Party and government xinfang ("letters and visits") bureaus for redress of their grievances. The HRW report notes that petitioners rarely succeed in obtaining redress, and also cites first-hand interviews with Chinese petitioners detailing official abuses, including beatings and torture.

Five Drepung Monks Detained During Patriotic Education, Prompting Silent Protest

Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), detained five monks from the Drepung monastery, the urban area's largest, on November 23, according to November 29 reports by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Changzhou City Government Adopts WTO-Inspired Transparency Measure

Officials in Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, announced in November that the city government would no longer enforce regulatory documents [guifanxing wenjian] that have not been published first in the local newspaper, the government's gazette, or another publication specified by the city government, according to a December 8 article (in Chinese) in the Legal Daily.

Officials Detain and Eventually Release 29 House Church Leaders in Henan Province

Officials detained 29 house church leaders meeting in Henan province on December 12, according to a report issued the same day by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors the religious freedom of house church Protestants.

Three Gorges Project Results in More Evictions, Land Scandals, and Corruption Cases

The Chinese government's Three Gorges Project has led to the forced eviction of residents in Shengquan village, Chongqing municipality, according to a December 2 report by Radio Free Asia. Construction on the massive hydroelectric dam project began in 1993 and should be completed by 2009. Local government officials issued eviction orders on December 1, giving villagers seven days to complete procedures for temporary relocation. Villagers complained that government agents began shutting off their water supply and blocking streets as early as November 30, to force them to relocate. In addition, villagers allege that the compensation and resettlement terms offered to them are unreasonable, and that the government offers higher amounts to those with an urban household registration ("hukou") than those with a rural hukou.

New Regulations on Newspapers and Magazines Go Into Effect December 1

New rules governing the publication of newspapers and magazines in China went into effect on December 1. The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) issued the Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers and Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals on September 30 to replace the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers (Interim Provisions) and the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals originally enacted in 1990 and 1988, respectively. According to a special section entitled Interim Provisions to Become History: Ten Key Words to Understanding the New Rules on Newspaper and Periodical Registration on the People's Daily Web site, the new Provisions are intended both to incorporate more recent government regulations on journalists and editors and editors-in-chief, as well as to address issues raised by China's increasingly market and profit driven newspaper publishing industry. The Provisions governing newspapers and magazines are similar in most material respects, so this update will focus on the former.

Social Service Organizations Involved in Two Child Trafficking Cases

Social service organizations [fuli yuan] were involved in two child trafficking cases in November. Officials in Hunan province broke up a trafficking ring that included orphanage employees, according to a December 2 Xinhua article, and a court in Inner Mongolia sentenced traffickers who bought infants from medical clinics, according to a November 22 Xinhua article.

Local Governments Resist Reforms to Household Registration System

Ministry of Public Security (MPS) sources say that national plans for reform of China's hukou (household registration) system that were announced in October have encountered resistance from some ministries and local governments, according to a November 21 report in Outlook Weekly magazine. Lu Hongyan, Deputy Director of the MPS General Office, said that hukou reform "is not entirely within the power or responsibility of the MPS" and that issues that affect the work of local governments require coordination with them, according to a November 24 China Economic Net article. The MPS is attempting to coordinate with local governments and other ministries to present a hukou reform program by late December 2005 or early 2006.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Concludes Two-Week Visit to China

Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, concluded his two-week visit to China and confirmed allegations that "the practice of torture, though on the decline - particularly in urban areas - remains widespread in China," according to a December 2 press release available through the Web site of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The press release acknowledges the Supreme People's Procuratorate's (SPP) efforts to investigate civil servants for criminal activity related to torture and other forms of ill treatment, but concludes, "When compared with other national statistics, these official figures are clearly the tip of the iceberg in a country the size of China and demonstrate that most victims and their families are reluctant to file complaints for fear of reprisal or lack of confidence that their complaints will be addressed effectively." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) published remarks by spokesman Qin Gang at a December 6 press briefing that refute Nowak's finding that torture is widespread and insist that "the rapporteur jumped into a conclusion, which is ill-grounded on the part of facts and does not conform to reality." Qin said, "We have expressed our position to the Rapporteur and hope that Mr. Nowak can correct the wrong conclusion in his report." Nowak will submit a final report on his visit to the UN Commission on Human Rights at its session in 2006.

Authorities Detain Two Foreign Journalists in Henan and Guangdong Provinces

Public security officers in Henan and Guangdong provinces detained two foreign journalists to prevent them from reporting on politically sensitive stories. The first incident occurred December 7 near Shanwei in Guangdong province, when a reporter from Hong Kong's TVB tried to enter Dongzhoukeng village to investigate reports of clashes between local residents and the government over property rights, according to a December 8 Radio Free Asia report. Chinese authorities detained the reporter, forced him to write a self-criticism, and would not allow him to enter the township.

Communist Party, State Council Order Stronger Controls Over Society

The general offices of the Communist Party Central Committee (CPCC) and the State Council jointly issued an opinion that calls on Chinese authorities to strengthen controls over society and address a range of social problems as a means to "establish a harmonious society," "improve the Party's ruling capacity," and "solidify the Party's position in power," according to a December 4 Xinhua article appearing in Chinese (on the central government's Web site) and English. Two committees directly subordinate to the CPCC, the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee and the Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, prepared the "Opinion Regarding Carrying Out Stable and Secure Development." A spokesman from the Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security commented in a press statement appearing on the National People's Congress Web site that the goal of the opinion is to curb a rise in the number of protests and demonstrations, and to combat crime.

New Civil Society Regulations To Apply Same Restrictions to Domestic, Foreign Groups

Sun Weilin, director general of the Bureau of NGO Administration at the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA), said on December 14 that the State Council is currently examining revised civil society regulations that will apply the same registration requirements to domestic and foreign organizations, according to a December 15 China Daily article. Sun stated that the regulations are expected to be published early next year.

Senior Censorship Agency Official Says Communist Party Must Control News Media

Shi Feng, a Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), described the position of the government and Communist Party on state control over newspapers and periodicals in an October speech to the National Newspaper and Magazine Administration Work Meeting (via the People's Daily Web site). Shi's remarks came a month after the GAPP issued new regulations governing newspaper and periodical publishing in China in September. Deputy Director Shi's views were published again in an article in the November edition of "Media" magazine (via the Xinhua Web site).

Xinjiang Government Promotes Mandarin Chinese Use Through Bilingual Education

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government and the region’s Communist Party Committee convened a meeting on elementary and middle school bilingual education on December 4, according to a Xinjiang City News report posted December 5 on the Tianshan Net Web site.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway Passenger Service to Begin in July 2006, Six Months Early

Zhang Shuguang, Director of the Transportation Bureau of the Ministry of Railways, announced that the Qinghai-Tibet railroad will begin commercial operation on July 1, 2006, according to December 12 articles in Xinhua and China Daily. Zhang said that direct connection to the new railway line will be available at Beijing's West Railway Station from July 1, according to Xinhua, and that other Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, will launch direct railway passenger service to Lhasa on July 1.

Banking Regulator Opens Seven Cities to Local Currency Business by Foreign Banks

The China Bank Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced (in Chinese) on December 5 that foreign banks may apply to conduct local currency business in the cities of Shantou, Ningbo, Harbin, Changsha, Lanzhou, Yingzhou, and Nanning. The State Council Information Office published the CBRC announcement.

Xinjiang Communist Party Official Promoted to Acting Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region

The Communist Party Central Committee appointed Zhang Qingli, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), and commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), to be the acting Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Party Committee, according to a November 27 Reuters report.

SIPO Publishes Compulsory Licensing Measures for Drugs to Treat Infectious Diseases

The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) issued the Measures for Carrying Out Compulsory Licensing of Patents on Issues Involving Public Health on November 29. The Measures permit government ministries to apply to SIPO for a compulsory license for patented pharmaceutical products that treat or prevent AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or other infectious diseases. In addition, WTO member governments that lack the capacity to produce sufficient quantities of these pharmaceuticals, or non-WTO members that are classified as “least developed countries,” may request that SIPO grant a compulsory license to produce these products in China, provided they are exported only to the requesting country. The Measures implement a World Trade Organization (WTO) decision on intellectual property protection for pharmaceuticals that permits the governments of countries facing public health crises, such as high rates of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, to issue compulsory licenses for drugs that can treat or prevent those diseases.