2008 was a disappointment to many China watchers who hoped China under the Chinese Communist Party would move more in the direction of becoming a state governed by the rule of law and humane towards all its citizenry. China’s crackdown in 2008 on political dissent, the media, the free exercise of religion, and especially the harsh repression on Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, and Uyghur minorities, is incompatible with the development of the rule of law and international norms, according to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission.
The regime seems to have no constructive way to handle dissent through dialogue and the legal process, but instead adopts an “emergency mentality,” says the report, and resorts to extra-judicial procedures and arbitrary social control measures that undermine the rule of law.
With China playing an increasing role in the global economy, the report notes that U.S. citizens and others have a stake in “improved governance in China.”
The intensification of the persecution of adherents to Falun Gong during this past year has already been the subject of a previous article on the CECC Commission’s findings at http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/falun-gong-beijing-olympics-cecc-8214.html. The present article gives a general picture of the repression by the Chinese Communist regime that others face.
In 2008, censorship and manipulation of the press and Internet worsened, according to the Commission.
“In a June 2008 speech, President and Party General Secretary Hu Jintao reiterated the Chinese media’s subordinate role to the Party, telling journalists they must ‘serve socialism’ and the Party. The Communist leader sees the Internet as a vehicle ‘for disseminating socialist advanced culture.’ The Party’s Central Propaganda Department (CPD) issues directives that Chinese journalists must follow,” says the report.
“From November 2007 to July 2008, propaganda officials issued several directives ordering journalists to avoid numerous topics for the Olympics, including air quality, food safety, protest zones designated for the games…,” says the report.
For the Tibetan protests in March, little coverage was allowed. Chinese media focused on the violence committed against the ethnic Han population and denounced the Dalai Lama. Despite China’s promise to provide press freedom to foreign journalists, they were expelled from Tibetan areas where the protests occurred and were barred from entering.
The Commission rejected the claim made by the regime that the ban on foreign journalists in the Tibetan protest areas was for their physical safety, and said it was motivated by political concerns.
It appears that the Party lost some control during the Sichuan earthquake on May 12 that killed nearly 70,000. Initially, journalists were told not to travel to the disaster area, but this order was ignored. On the positive side, foreign reporters operated with few restrictions and Chinese television aired graphic scenes from the disaster. However, foreign reporters were “briefly detained when trying to cover the protests.” Later, domestic journalists were told to promote the regime’s proactive response and not to report on protests by grieving parents. One who did report otherwise faced arrest.
“Sichuan officials detained retired professor Zeng Hongling in June 2008 on charges on ‘inciting subversion’ after she posted articles online alleging corruption and poor living conditions in areas affected by the earthquake,” says the report. Middle school teacher Liu Shaokum was sentenced to one year of reeducation through labor (RTL) for posting photos of collapsed schools online and criticizing their construction, says the report.
The Commission cites two instances where the authorities stepped in. When a journalist wrote about the substandard materials in the building of a major railway line, the CPD ordered the journalist’s dismissal in November 2007. And a newspaper was pulled from the stands in July for publishing a photo of injured protesters at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
As part of a campaign to “cleanse” the publishing industry, new book publishing regulations were issued in May 2008. The report says, quoting from these regulations, that book publishers “insist on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought” and the “correct guidance of public opinion,” and have a government-approved sponsor.
Private publishing of religious materials is forbidden. The owner of a Christian bookstore in Beijing, Shi Weihan, was charged with illegally printing and distributing religious literature in November 2007.
New regulations for audio and video websites went into effect this past year. The Party seeks to control these popular sites, which are difficult to censor. Now they are state-owned and state-controlled, says the report.
In March 2008, the regime stated that during a two-month crackdown, it shut down 25 video websites and warned 32 others for “failing to have the proper license or ‘endangering the security and interests of the state’,” says the report.
Video of the Tibetan protests that began in March were apparently blocked on U.S.-based YouTube.com and no footage of the protests could be found on the Chinese video websites.
Searches on popular Chinese search engines like Baidu for news stories on Tibet “turned up no protest news in the top results or inaccessible links,” says the report.
Foreign news organizations were blocked at various times, during this past year. These include Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, BBC, Guardian, and Hong-Kong-based Apple Daily. Also subject to being blocked are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders, and sites related to Tibetan, Uyghur and Taiwan issues.
Many of these sites became available to foreigners at the Olympic Village after complaints were made about being blocked. Chinese officials said in July, however, that Falun Gong sites would remain blocked despite the Olympics, which, of course, violated China’s promises to provide free access to foreign journalists.
Perhaps because China purports to base its restrictions on free expression on the rule of law, many Chinese activists peacefully write and advocate even when it offends authorities. The Commission profiles three writers and activists, who were convicted on vague charges. It is virtually impossible to defend oneself when the charges are as vague as: “endangering state security,” “splitism,” “subverting state power,” and “supplying state secrets.”
Hu Jia was sentenced to three years and six months for posting essays online “critical of the government’s harassment of [human] rights defenders,” and “making ‘subversive’ comments to foreign reporters,” says the report. Hu had been under house arrest for more than 200 days before he was formally detained.
Hu is well known for his advocacy of HIV/AIDS and environmental causes, and has called for an official enquiry into the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In October, Hu received European Parliament’s 2008 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, an award that China vigorously sought to prevent.
Yang Chunlin was sentenced to five years imprisonment for inciting subversion, says the report. Yang offended authorities when he initiated a petition, titled, “We want Human Rights, Not the Olympics,” posted it online, and collected 10,000 signatures of mostly farmers who had allegedly been cheated of their land. Prosecutors said, among other things, China’s image abroad was harmed by the petition due to the heavy foreign media coverage.
Lu Gengsong is described by the Commission as a “freelance writer who has written about corrupt local officials who seize land in deals with property developers.” Lu was sentenced to four years for “subversive” activities, which included writing essays that appear on foreign websites that “questioned the legitimacy of [Chinese Communist] Party-led government,” but do not advocate violence, says the report. The Commission noted that the court, which sentenced Lu, “made no attempt to determine the actual threat posed by the essays.”
The Commission’s report was signed off by its Chairman, Representative Sander M. Levin and Co-Chairman Senator Byron L. Dorgan. “The 23-member Commission was created by Congress in 2000 to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China,” says its website. It consists of nine members of the House of Representatives, nine Senators, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President.
In addition to the annual report, which is available on the Commission’s website (www.cecc.gov), the Commission made available the case records of 1,088 political prisoners from its Political Prison Database (PPD). The Commission uses the PPD for its own advocacy and research work, while welcoming the public to use it (http://ppd.cecc.gov), which includes updated information on particular political and religious prisoners.
The regime seems to have no constructive way to handle dissent through dialogue and the legal process, but instead adopts an “emergency mentality,” says the report, and resorts to extra-judicial procedures and arbitrary social control measures that undermine the rule of law.
With China playing an increasing role in the global economy, the report notes that U.S. citizens and others have a stake in “improved governance in China.”
The intensification of the persecution of adherents to Falun Gong during this past year has already been the subject of a previous article on the CECC Commission’s findings at http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/falun-gong-beijing-olympics-cecc-8214.html. The present article gives a general picture of the repression by the Chinese Communist regime that others face.
China Represses Freedom of Expression
In 2008, censorship and manipulation of the press and Internet worsened, according to the Commission.
“In a June 2008 speech, President and Party General Secretary Hu Jintao reiterated the Chinese media’s subordinate role to the Party, telling journalists they must ‘serve socialism’ and the Party. The Communist leader sees the Internet as a vehicle ‘for disseminating socialist advanced culture.’ The Party’s Central Propaganda Department (CPD) issues directives that Chinese journalists must follow,” says the report.
“From November 2007 to July 2008, propaganda officials issued several directives ordering journalists to avoid numerous topics for the Olympics, including air quality, food safety, protest zones designated for the games…,” says the report.
For the Tibetan protests in March, little coverage was allowed. Chinese media focused on the violence committed against the ethnic Han population and denounced the Dalai Lama. Despite China’s promise to provide press freedom to foreign journalists, they were expelled from Tibetan areas where the protests occurred and were barred from entering.
The Commission rejected the claim made by the regime that the ban on foreign journalists in the Tibetan protest areas was for their physical safety, and said it was motivated by political concerns.
It appears that the Party lost some control during the Sichuan earthquake on May 12 that killed nearly 70,000. Initially, journalists were told not to travel to the disaster area, but this order was ignored. On the positive side, foreign reporters operated with few restrictions and Chinese television aired graphic scenes from the disaster. However, foreign reporters were “briefly detained when trying to cover the protests.” Later, domestic journalists were told to promote the regime’s proactive response and not to report on protests by grieving parents. One who did report otherwise faced arrest.
“Sichuan officials detained retired professor Zeng Hongling in June 2008 on charges on ‘inciting subversion’ after she posted articles online alleging corruption and poor living conditions in areas affected by the earthquake,” says the report. Middle school teacher Liu Shaokum was sentenced to one year of reeducation through labor (RTL) for posting photos of collapsed schools online and criticizing their construction, says the report.
The Commission cites two instances where the authorities stepped in. When a journalist wrote about the substandard materials in the building of a major railway line, the CPD ordered the journalist’s dismissal in November 2007. And a newspaper was pulled from the stands in July for publishing a photo of injured protesters at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
As part of a campaign to “cleanse” the publishing industry, new book publishing regulations were issued in May 2008. The report says, quoting from these regulations, that book publishers “insist on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought” and the “correct guidance of public opinion,” and have a government-approved sponsor.
Private publishing of religious materials is forbidden. The owner of a Christian bookstore in Beijing, Shi Weihan, was charged with illegally printing and distributing religious literature in November 2007.
New regulations for audio and video websites went into effect this past year. The Party seeks to control these popular sites, which are difficult to censor. Now they are state-owned and state-controlled, says the report.
In March 2008, the regime stated that during a two-month crackdown, it shut down 25 video websites and warned 32 others for “failing to have the proper license or ‘endangering the security and interests of the state’,” says the report.
Video of the Tibetan protests that began in March were apparently blocked on U.S.-based YouTube.com and no footage of the protests could be found on the Chinese video websites.
Searches on popular Chinese search engines like Baidu for news stories on Tibet “turned up no protest news in the top results or inaccessible links,” says the report.
Foreign news organizations were blocked at various times, during this past year. These include Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, BBC, Guardian, and Hong-Kong-based Apple Daily. Also subject to being blocked are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders, and sites related to Tibetan, Uyghur and Taiwan issues.
Many of these sites became available to foreigners at the Olympic Village after complaints were made about being blocked. Chinese officials said in July, however, that Falun Gong sites would remain blocked despite the Olympics, which, of course, violated China’s promises to provide free access to foreign journalists.
Vague Laws Used to Punish Activists
Perhaps because China purports to base its restrictions on free expression on the rule of law, many Chinese activists peacefully write and advocate even when it offends authorities. The Commission profiles three writers and activists, who were convicted on vague charges. It is virtually impossible to defend oneself when the charges are as vague as: “endangering state security,” “splitism,” “subverting state power,” and “supplying state secrets.”
Hu Jia was sentenced to three years and six months for posting essays online “critical of the government’s harassment of [human] rights defenders,” and “making ‘subversive’ comments to foreign reporters,” says the report. Hu had been under house arrest for more than 200 days before he was formally detained.
Hu is well known for his advocacy of HIV/AIDS and environmental causes, and has called for an official enquiry into the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In October, Hu received European Parliament’s 2008 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, an award that China vigorously sought to prevent.
Yang Chunlin was sentenced to five years imprisonment for inciting subversion, says the report. Yang offended authorities when he initiated a petition, titled, “We want Human Rights, Not the Olympics,” posted it online, and collected 10,000 signatures of mostly farmers who had allegedly been cheated of their land. Prosecutors said, among other things, China’s image abroad was harmed by the petition due to the heavy foreign media coverage.
Lu Gengsong is described by the Commission as a “freelance writer who has written about corrupt local officials who seize land in deals with property developers.” Lu was sentenced to four years for “subversive” activities, which included writing essays that appear on foreign websites that “questioned the legitimacy of [Chinese Communist] Party-led government,” but do not advocate violence, says the report. The Commission noted that the court, which sentenced Lu, “made no attempt to determine the actual threat posed by the essays.”
The Commission’s report was signed off by its Chairman, Representative Sander M. Levin and Co-Chairman Senator Byron L. Dorgan. “The 23-member Commission was created by Congress in 2000 to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China,” says its website. It consists of nine members of the House of Representatives, nine Senators, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President.
In addition to the annual report, which is available on the Commission’s website (www.cecc.gov), the Commission made available the case records of 1,088 political prisoners from its Political Prison Database (PPD). The Commission uses the PPD for its own advocacy and research work, while welcoming the public to use it (http://ppd.cecc.gov), which includes updated information on particular political and religious prisoners.
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