China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update - No. 3 - June 24, 2009

Ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continue to face widespread discrimination in recruitment for state jobs, according to Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) analysis of recent recruiting efforts for jobs in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) and XUAR schools. The recent recruitment programs follow other examples of discriminatory job recruiting practices in the XUAR and come during a period of high unemployment for XUAR college graduates.

Journalists and editors at Chinese news organizations are required to possess a government-issued press card in order to legally practice their profession. This requirement differs from more limited forms of press accreditation, such as press badges required for access to certain places or events. Under China's press card system, the government has complete discretion to determine who may or may not legally practice journalism. As detailed below, such a licensing scheme does not conform to international human rights standards for freedom of expression. Every five years journalists already possessing a press card must apply for a new card, at which time the government may deny renewal. 2009 marks five years since the government last renewed press cards in 2004. Press cards currently held by journalists will expire on July 1, 2009. The government has given journalists and editors until June 30 to obtain new cards.

Chinese officials continue to hold prominent intellectual and Charter 08 signer Liu Xiaobo even though the six-month limit for residential surveillance as provided for in China's Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) has expired. Article 58 of the CPL allows officials to place someone under residential surveillance for up to six months.

Authorities in a city in western China have launched a demolition project that has undermined the preservation of a cornerstone of the Uyghur ethnic group's cultural heritage and will result in the resettlement of roughly half the city's population. Official Chinese media have described the project to "reconstruct" the historic Old City section of Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), as a way to address infrastructure shortcomings and to guard against risk of earthquake damage. Chinese sources indicate that most of the existing buildings in the Old City will be demolished rather than restored. Overseas media have reported that authorities have undertaken the project despite opposition from local residents and have compelled residents to leave their homes, with reported cases of inadequate compensation.

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) have detained two Mongol men on charges of involvement with a pan-Mongolian organization and for attempting to organize a protest, according to a May 3 report from the U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC). State security personnel detained Almas in the IMAR capital of Hohhot on April 30, 2009, while authorities detained Baoyu in Bogt (Baotou) city on the same day.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued in 2009 to engage in censorship campaigns and punish people for peaceful expression and assembly. Authorities outside the XUAR also participated in the censorship of a Web site devoted to Uyghur issues. The measures continue a longstanding trend in blocking and punishing free expression in the XUAR, especially among the Uyghur ethnic group.

Attention to the challenges faced by China's rights defense (weiquan) community has spiked with the recent news that authorities have not renewed the lawyers' licenses of some of China's most prominent human rights lawyers. The case of Shenzhen lawyer Liu Yao, discussed below, is an example that shows that the difficulties Chinese lawyers face for taking on sensitive cases are not new. Rather, they constitute a long-standing and persistent problem for China's continued development of the rule of law.

China's Employment Promotion Law (EPL) took effect on January 1, 2008. Provisions in the law prohibit discrimination based on factors including gender (Art. 27), ethnicity (Art. 28), disability (Art. 29), whether or not the job candidate is a carrier of an infectious disease (Art. 30), and whether or not the job candidate is a migrant worker (Art. 31). Article 62 of the law permits workers to initiate lawsuits in cases of alleged discrimination. While plaintiffs have seen increased success in civil litigation against employers since the EPL took effect, experts continue to press for special legislation on employment discrimination, and efforts by both government and civil society groups to address discrimination continue (according to a March 3 People's Daily interview [via Sohu] with National People's Congress representative, Zhou Hongyu, and China University of Political Science and Law professor, Cai Dingjian.)

Local governments in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) reported throughout early 2009 on measures to strengthen control over religious activity. Measures include carrying out a campaign aimed at "weakening religious consciousness," implementing rules to expel religious leaders for missing political study classes, monitoring students' activities during school vacations, and holding open trials to punish "illegal religious activity" and demonstrate its consequences to the public. (See below for more details). The reports indicate a continuing trend in heightened repression over religion in the region, which according to official statistics has a majority Muslim population.

During the recent Universal Periodic Review of China's human rights record before the UN Human Rights Council, China denied the existence of human rights issues such as censorship, abuse of state secrets laws, and black jails, defended its reeducation through labor system and registration requirements for religious activity, and asserted that its laws protect workers, lawyers, and ethnic minorities. China did not support Member States' recommendations in many of these areas and called such concerns “politicized.”

Authorities throughout the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have continued in late 2008 and early 2009 to implement harsh security controls and widespread propaganda campaigns in the name of preserving stability, while a top official in the region said in March 2009 that the XUAR will face a more serious security terrain in the coming year.

In January and February, the Chinese government issued new policies to lift certain restrictions on household registration (hukou), allowing citizens who meet specified criteria to obtain local hukou. Having local hukou is effectively a prerequisite for securing employment, healthcare, social insurance, education, and other government benefits; this has been the case since the issuance of the Regulations on Household Registration in 1958. The new policies aim to promote employment as authorities recently acknowledged rising unemployment of college graduates and migrant workers during the current economic downturn.