Excerpt: China Dissidents Live in Environment Filled With Repression
(China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2001)The Chinese government "continued to commit numerous and serious" human rights abuses in 2001, with the possible exception of some minor developments regarding Tibet, press freedom and an independent judiciary, according to the State Department's China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for the Year 2001.
The authors of the report found, in particular, that the Chinese government continued to restrict freedom of religion and intensified controls on some unregistered churches in 2001. The report cited the case of several leaders of the unregistered South China Church who were arrested in July 2001 and subsequently sentenced to death.
In addition, the report says the Chinese government's "strike-hard" campaign against crime -- characterized by roundups of suspects and mass sentencing rallies begun in April 2001 -- has targeted some dissidents, separatists, and underground church members. This is especially true in Xinjiang, where "the campaign has been vigorously carried out" against those deemed to be "splittists" by the Chinese authorities, the report adds.
The report notes particularly serious human rights abuses persisted in Tibet and in Xinjiang, where security tightened, but found that the enforcement of tight restrictions imposed on Tibetan Buddhists in the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2000 eased during 2001.
With respect to freedom of the press, the report states: "The Government strictly regulates the establishment and management of publications, controls the broadcast media, censors foreign television broadcasts, and at times jams radio signals from abroad. During the year, several publications were shut down or disciplined for publishing material deemed objectionable by the Government, and journalists, authors, and researchers were harassed, detained, and arrested by the authorities; several were fired."
The authors of the report, however, did find some signs of progress. "Journalists exposed a number of coverups and instances of official corruption during the year," and the government "loosened up controls over cable TV, allowing subscribers in a number of cities to have uncensored access to foreign news programming," the report says.
The report also notes that, although the Chinese judiciary is certainly not independent from political interference, "During the year, the Government took steps to correct systemic weaknesses in judicial procedures and to make the system more accountable to public scrutiny ... the percentage of persons acquitted in criminal trials continued to grow and the Government took measures to make legal representation more affordable for the poor."
Moreover, the Chinese government remained open to assistance from United Nations (U.N.), Western governmental, and nongovernmental organizations in reforming the Chinese judiciary. According to the report, the Chinese government continued to restrict, sometimes severely: freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, worker rights, use of the Internet, and citizens' privacy rights.
Arbitrary arrest, detention, trafficking in persons, and forced labor in prison facilities were reported as "serious" problems in China in 2001.
Other problems cited in the report include: violence against women (including imposition of a sometimes coercive birth control policy, including instances of forced abortion and forced sterilization); prostitution; discrimination against women; abuse of children; discrimination against persons with disabilities; and discrimination against minorities.
The full report can be found online at:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001
Following is the introduction to the U.S. Department of State's China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for the Year 2001:
(begin excerpt)
CHINA
The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount source of power. At the national and regional levels, Party members hold almost all top Government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with members of the Politburo. Leaders stress the need to maintain stability and social order and are committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. Citizens lack both the freedom peacefully to express opposition to the Party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of government. Socialism continues to provide the theoretical underpinning of national politics, but Marxist ideology has given way to economic pragmatism and economic decentralization has increased the authority of local officials. The Party's authority rests primarily on the Government's ability to maintain social stability, appeals to nationalism and patriotism, Party control of personnel, media, and the security apparatus, and the continued improvement in the living standards of most of the country's citizens. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, in practice, the Government and the CCP, at both the central and local levels, frequently interfere in the judicial process, and the Party and the Government direct verdicts in many high-profile political cases.
The security apparatus is made up of the Ministries of State Security and Public Security, the People's Armed Police, the People's Liberation Army, and the state judicial, procuratorial, and penal systems. Security policy and personnel were responsible for numerous human rights abuses.
The country's transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy continues. Though state-owned industry remains dominant in key sectors, the Government has privatized many small and medium state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and allowed private entrepreneurs increasing scope for economic activity. A 1999 constitutional amendment officially recognized the role of the private sector in the economy, and private firms now contribute 30 to 40 percent of yearly gross domestic product (GDP) growth. On July 1, in a move criticized by hard-line Communists, CCP Secretary General Jiang Zemin indicated that the Chinese Communist Party should be open to individuals, including entrepreneurs, regardless of their wealth. The country has large industrial and agricultural sectors and is a leading producer of coal, steel, textiles, and grains. Major exports include electronic goods, toys, apparel, and plastics. The country completed all of the preconditions for accession to the World Trade Organization during the year. Trade and foreign investment are helping to modernize an already rapidly growing economy. The official GDP growth rate through the first half of the year was 7.3 percent; the population is approximately 1.3 billion.
The economy faces many challenges, including reform of SOEs and the banking system, growing unemployment and underemployment, the need to construct an effective social safety net, and regional economic disparities. In recent years, between 80 and 130 million persons voluntarily have left rural areas to search for better jobs and living conditions in the cities (the so-called "floating population"), where they do not enjoy the same economic and social benefits as urban residents. In the industrial sector, downsizing in SOEs continued, bringing the number of jobless urban workers to an estimated 15 million in an urban workforce of roughly 200 million. Industrial workers throughout the country continued to organize sporadically to protest layoffs and to demand payment of overdue wages and benefits. Income gaps between coastal and interior regions, and between urban and rural areas, continued to widen. Urban per capita income in 2000 was $759 (6280 RMB) and grew by 6.4 percent over the previous year. Rural per capita income was $278 (2300 RMB), an official growth rate of 4 percent. However, rising urban living standards, greater independence for entrepreneurs, and the expansion of the nonstate sector have increased workers' employment options and have significantly reduced state control over citizens' daily lives. The total number of citizens living in absolute poverty continues to decline. According to official statistics, 30 million persons live in poverty; the World Bank, using different criteria, estimates the number at 100-150 million persons.
The Government's human rights record throughout the year remained poor and the Government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses. Authorities still were quick to suppress any person or group, whether religious, political, or social, that they perceived to be a threat to government power, or to national stability, and citizens who sought to express openly dissenting political and religious views continued to live in an environment filled with repression. Overall, government respect for religious freedom remained poor and crackdowns against unregistered groups, including underground Protestant and Catholic groups, Muslim Uighurs, and Tibetan Buddhists continued. Several leaders of the unregistered South China Church were arrested in July and subsequently sentenced to death; some of those sentences were suspended and some were appealed. Also in July, authorities arrested Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang and charged him with smuggling for bringing Bibles into the country. Abuses included instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process. Conditions at most prisons remained harsh. In many cases, particularly in sensitive political cases, the judicial system denies criminal defendants basic legal safeguards and due process because authorities attach higher priority to maintaining public order and suppressing political opposition than to enforcing legal norms or protecting individual rights. The Government infringed on citizens' privacy rights. The Government continued to implement its sometimes coercive policy to restrict the number of children a family may have. The Government maintained tight restrictions on freedom of speech and of the press and continued its efforts to control and monitor the Internet; self-censorship by journalists continued. The Government severely restricted freedom of assembly and continued to restrict freedom of association. The Government continued to restrict freedom of religion and intensified controls on some unregistered churches. The Government continued to restrict freedom of movement. Citizens do not have the right peacefully to change their Government. The Government does not permit independent domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) to monitor publicly human rights conditions. Violence against women (including imposition of a sometimes coercive birth control policy, including instances of forced abortion and forced sterilization); prostitution; discrimination against women; abuse of children; and discrimination against persons with disabilities and minorities are all problems. Particularly serious human rights abuses persisted in Tibet and in Xinjiang, where security tightened. The Government continued to restrict tightly worker rights, and forced labor in prison facilities remained a serious problem. Child labor exists and continues in rural areas as adult workers leave for better employment opportunities in urban areas. Trafficking in persons is a serious problem.
Arbitrary arrest and detention also remained serious problems. Because the Government tightly controls information, it is not possible accurately to determine the total number of persons subjected to new or continued arbitrary arrest or detention. According to international press reports, over 200,000 persons are serving sentences, not subject to judicial review, in reeducation-through-labor camps. Many thousands more remain incarcerated in prisons. The Government denied that it holds any political or religious prisoners, and asserted that authorities detained persons not for their political or religious views, but because they violated the law. However, the authorities continued to detain citizens for political and religious reasons. During the year, the Government used laws on subversion and endangering state security to threaten, arrest and imprison a wide range of political, religious, and labor activists and dissidents, including former Government officials, NGO organizers, activists for artistic freedom, and independent advocates for legal reform that directly and publicly opposed the Government and the CCP. After 2 years of intense repression marked by propaganda campaigns, beatings, and imprisonment, thousands of organizers and adherents of the banned Falun Gong (FLG) movement were in reeducation-through-labor camps or in prison, most without benefit of formal judicial process. Various sources reported that over 200 Falun Gong practitioners died in detention as a result of torture or mistreatment.
In 2000 officials stated that there were approximately 1,300 individuals in prisons serving sentences under the Law Against Counterrevolutionary Activity, a crime that no longer exists; many of these persons were imprisoned for the non-violent expression of their political views. According to Amnesty International (AI) 211 persons remain in prison for their activities during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Since December 1998, at least 30 leaders of the China Democracy Party (CDP) have been given long prison sentences on subversion charges.
The authorities released a few political prisoners before their terms were over, notably Zhang Jie, Han Lifa, Guo Haifeng, Cao Maobing, and Ma Zhe. Others, such as CDP activist Zhou Yongjun, who was released in March, were released after completing their sentences. At year's end several thousand political prisoners--including Bishop An Shuxin, Cai Guihua, Han Chunsheng, Li Bifeng, Liu Jingsheng, Qin Yongmin, Shen Liangqing, Zha Jianguo, Wang Youcai, Xu Guoxing, Fang Jue, Xu Wenli, Zhang Lin, Zhang Shanguang, Zhao Changqing, Abbot Chadrel Rinpoche, Jigme Sangpo, and Ngawang Sangdrol (see Tibet addendum)--remained imprisoned or under other forms of detention for the peaceful expression of their political, social, or religious views. Some of those who completed their sentences and were released from prison were kept under surveillance and prevented from taking employment or otherwise resuming normal lives. Authorities also harassed and monitored the activities of dissident's relatives.
In April the Government began a national "strike-hard" campaign against crime. However, the campaign also has targeted some dissidents, separatists, and underground church members. The campaign has been vigorously carried out in Xinjiang, where those deemed to be "splittists" by the Government are targeted. The "strike-hard" campaign has been characterized by roundups of suspects and mass sentencing rallies. By the third quarter of the year, domestic press stories indicated that over 2,000 persons had been executed as part of the campaign. The Government regarded the number of death sentences it carried out as a state secret.
Unapproved religious groups, including Protestant and Catholic groups and members of nontraditional religious groups, continued to experience varying degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression. The Government continued to enforce regulations requiring all places of religious activity to register with the Government or come under the supervision of official, "patriotic" religious organizations. In some areas, authorities guided by national policy made strong efforts to control the activities of unapproved Catholic and Protestant churches; religious services were broken up and church leaders or adherents were harassed, and, at times, fined, detained, beaten, and tortured. At year's end, some religious adherents remained in prison because of their religious activities. In some regions with high concentrations of Catholics, relations between the Government and the underground church loyal to the Vatican remained tense. Relations varied greatly, with parishioners worshipping together in some districts and deep rifts in the Catholic community in other areas. In other regions, registered and unregistered churches were treated similarly by the authorities and reported little or no day-to-day interference in their activities. The human rights situation in Tibet remained poor, as the Government continued its campaign to reeducate monks and nuns with sympathies to the Dalai Lama. However, the enforcement of tight restrictions imposed on Tibetan Buddhists in the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2000 eased during the year. Local authorities forcibly relocated thousands of Tibetan Buddhist nuns and monks from the Serthar Tibetan Buddhist Institute in western Sichuan Province.
The Government strictly regulates the establishment and management of publications, controls the broadcast media, censors foreign television broadcasts, and at times jams radio signals from abroad. During the year, several publications were shut down or disciplined for publishing material deemed objectionable by the Government, and journalists, authors, and researchers were harassed, detained, and arrested by the authorities; several were fired. Nonetheless, journalists exposed a number of coverups and instances of official corruption during the year. The Government loosened up controls over cable TV, allowing subscribers in a number of cities to have uncensored access to foreign news programming. Despite the continued expansion of the Internet in the country, the Government maintained its efforts to monitor and control content on the Internet. Several new regulations regarding the Internet were issued, and many Web sites, including politically sensitive Web sites and foreign news Web sites, were shut down or blocked by the authorities.
The judiciary is not independent. During the year, the Government took steps to correct systemic weaknesses in judicial procedures and to make the system more accountable to public scrutiny; however, new regulations and policies passed in the past few years have not brought the country's criminal procedures into compliance with international standards, and the law routinely is violated in the cases of political dissidents and religious leaders and adherents. Nonetheless, the percentage of persons acquitted in criminal trials continued to grow and the Government took measures to make legal representation more affordable for the poor. The Government also remained open to U.N. organizations, Western governmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations that assist in reforming its judiciary. Some lawyers, law professors, and jurists continued publicly to press for a transparent system of discovery, abolition of coerced confessions, a presumption of innocence, an independent judiciary, the right to remain silent, and improved administrative laws giving citizens recourse against unlawful acts by the Government.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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