TORONTO—Zhou Yongkang is not a name often in the news, unless your news diet includes a regular helping of Chinese state-run press. But on Monday, Mr. Zhou, who holds authority in the Chinese Communist Party for politics and law, managed to gain two separate mentions in the western media.
First was news in the New York Times and Forbes that under Mr. Zhou’s purview a U.S. citizen had been sentenced to eight years in a Chinese prison for purchasing a database of Chinese oil wells on behalf of the American consulting company that employed him.
Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to China, called for the release of Dr. Xue Feng, who was charged under a vague state secrets law and has reportedly been tortured during the two-and-a-half years since his arrest. Critics called the ruling “baffling” and politically motivated.
Second was a news release from the Liberal Party of Canada saying that as part of his trip to China this week Canadian opposition leader Michael Ignatieff would be sitting down with Mr. Zhou for a chat Tuesday morning in Beijing.
That prompted Epoch Times journalists to ask what exactly the Liberal leader planned to discuss with Mr. Zhou, who currently holds no position in the Chinese government itself but has earned a remarkable reputation as the heavy hand of the communist party.
As the minister of public security between 2002 and 2007, Mr. Zhou was responsible for the controversial security measures that included rounding up suspected dissidents and detaining them in the lead-up to the 17th Party Congress and Beijing Olympic Games.
“We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists, and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities,” Mr. Zhou was quoted during preparations for the Olympics. An excerpt of his speech appears on the top of an Amnesty International appeal.
Similar tactics are said to have been employed again ahead of the Shanghai World Expo that is now underway.
What’s more, Mr. Zhou advocates “striking hard” at these groups not only “at home,” but “abroad” too. Mr. Zhou was accused of having been behind a pro-Beijing mob that accosted and in some cases assaulted Falun Gong protesters in New York’s Flushing Chinatown for weeks in 2008.
The Epoch Times pointed this out to Mr. Ignatieff’s office, noting that he was preparing to meet Mr. Zhou just 10 hours after CSIS head Richard Fadden had testified in Ottawa on the topic of foreign interference in Canada.
Ignatieff’s office did not directly address questions sent via email this week both before and after his meeting with Zhou. Tibetan exiles in Canada are among those looking for answers.
As the communist party secretary for Sichuan Province between 1999 and 2002, Mr. Zhou earned the nickname “human rights killer.”
Exiled Tibetans have gathered 40,000 signatures on petitions bearing Mr. Zhou’s name, calling for the release of Tenzin Delek, a Tibetan community leader arrested under Mr. Zhou’s watch in Sichuan and given a heavy sentence eight years ago.
Mr. Delek is said to be in ill health while serving a life sentence handed down for “conspiring to cause explosions,” a charge his supporters say is without evidence and that he confessed to under torture.
First was news in the New York Times and Forbes that under Mr. Zhou’s purview a U.S. citizen had been sentenced to eight years in a Chinese prison for purchasing a database of Chinese oil wells on behalf of the American consulting company that employed him.
Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to China, called for the release of Dr. Xue Feng, who was charged under a vague state secrets law and has reportedly been tortured during the two-and-a-half years since his arrest. Critics called the ruling “baffling” and politically motivated.
Second was a news release from the Liberal Party of Canada saying that as part of his trip to China this week Canadian opposition leader Michael Ignatieff would be sitting down with Mr. Zhou for a chat Tuesday morning in Beijing.
That prompted Epoch Times journalists to ask what exactly the Liberal leader planned to discuss with Mr. Zhou, who currently holds no position in the Chinese government itself but has earned a remarkable reputation as the heavy hand of the communist party.
As the minister of public security between 2002 and 2007, Mr. Zhou was responsible for the controversial security measures that included rounding up suspected dissidents and detaining them in the lead-up to the 17th Party Congress and Beijing Olympic Games.
“We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists, and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities,” Mr. Zhou was quoted during preparations for the Olympics. An excerpt of his speech appears on the top of an Amnesty International appeal.
Similar tactics are said to have been employed again ahead of the Shanghai World Expo that is now underway.
What’s more, Mr. Zhou advocates “striking hard” at these groups not only “at home,” but “abroad” too. Mr. Zhou was accused of having been behind a pro-Beijing mob that accosted and in some cases assaulted Falun Gong protesters in New York’s Flushing Chinatown for weeks in 2008.
The Epoch Times pointed this out to Mr. Ignatieff’s office, noting that he was preparing to meet Mr. Zhou just 10 hours after CSIS head Richard Fadden had testified in Ottawa on the topic of foreign interference in Canada.
Ignatieff’s office did not directly address questions sent via email this week both before and after his meeting with Zhou. Tibetan exiles in Canada are among those looking for answers.
As the communist party secretary for Sichuan Province between 1999 and 2002, Mr. Zhou earned the nickname “human rights killer.”
Exiled Tibetans have gathered 40,000 signatures on petitions bearing Mr. Zhou’s name, calling for the release of Tenzin Delek, a Tibetan community leader arrested under Mr. Zhou’s watch in Sichuan and given a heavy sentence eight years ago.
Mr. Delek is said to be in ill health while serving a life sentence handed down for “conspiring to cause explosions,” a charge his supporters say is without evidence and that he confessed to under torture.
Mr. Ignatieff’s riding is home to the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, which is the heart of Toronto’s Tibetan diaspora, the largest in the world outside of India according to Tenzin Lobsang, national director for Students for a Free Tibet Canada.
“Considering that he is the MP for this constituency, I think Mr. Ignatieff should have been more vocal about human rights, especially in Tibet, and we would like to see more of a public statement about human rights atrocities in Tibet and in China during his trip there,” says Ms. Lobsang.
“I think that in meeting with Zhou Yongkang, who was the party secretary in Sichuan back during the ’strike hard' campaign, he should have been even more vocal,” she added.
In Sichuan, Mr. Zhou was also a champion of the communist party’s ruthless repression of the Falun Gong spiritual group. When Zhou visited the U.S. in 2001, a Boston woman served him with a lawsuit alleging Zhou was responsible for the torture of her sister, a Falun Gong practitioner in Sichuan.
Falun Gong practitioners regard Mr. Zhou as one of the four ringleaders of the regime’s persecution of the group, which has continued since 1999.
Requests for comment from Mr. Ignatieff’s office on Monday and Wednesday as to whether the Liberal leader was aware of Mr. Zhou’s background or would raise any human rights issues related to Zhou’s background were answered only with a referral to Mr. Ignatieff’s speech at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday.
That speech touched on human rights generally but held more praise for China’s human rights achievements than Canada’s, and made only the most oblique suggestion that the Chinese regime needed to address human rights at all.
While Mr. Ignatieff did mention that the two countries must speak plainly with one another about human rights, he repeated that neither country has a flawless past or present and said Canada falls short of its ideals.
Among other things, he suggested that Chinese regime leader Hu Jintao could give him “very good advice” on how to win the next election, a statement the Toronto Star questioned given that Hu is an “authoritarian leader who doesn’t face popular elections.”
While Mr. Ignatieff’s office has said little, a Liberal blog posting by MP Ujjal Dosanjh notes that the visiting MPs who met with Mr. Zhou “spoke very candidly about issues surrounding the contrasts in our countries’ political systems, human rights, and business relations between our two countries.”
The Epoch Times requested specifics as to what issues were raised, but received no reply.
Mr. Ignatieff is in China with both Mr. Dosanjh and Liberal member of parliament Scott Brison. Following meetings in Beijing, the three travelled to Shanghai where they are visiting the Canadian pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo.
“Considering that he is the MP for this constituency, I think Mr. Ignatieff should have been more vocal about human rights, especially in Tibet, and we would like to see more of a public statement about human rights atrocities in Tibet and in China during his trip there,” says Ms. Lobsang.
“I think that in meeting with Zhou Yongkang, who was the party secretary in Sichuan back during the ’strike hard' campaign, he should have been even more vocal,” she added.
In Sichuan, Mr. Zhou was also a champion of the communist party’s ruthless repression of the Falun Gong spiritual group. When Zhou visited the U.S. in 2001, a Boston woman served him with a lawsuit alleging Zhou was responsible for the torture of her sister, a Falun Gong practitioner in Sichuan.
Falun Gong practitioners regard Mr. Zhou as one of the four ringleaders of the regime’s persecution of the group, which has continued since 1999.
Requests for comment from Mr. Ignatieff’s office on Monday and Wednesday as to whether the Liberal leader was aware of Mr. Zhou’s background or would raise any human rights issues related to Zhou’s background were answered only with a referral to Mr. Ignatieff’s speech at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday.
That speech touched on human rights generally but held more praise for China’s human rights achievements than Canada’s, and made only the most oblique suggestion that the Chinese regime needed to address human rights at all.
While Mr. Ignatieff did mention that the two countries must speak plainly with one another about human rights, he repeated that neither country has a flawless past or present and said Canada falls short of its ideals.
Among other things, he suggested that Chinese regime leader Hu Jintao could give him “very good advice” on how to win the next election, a statement the Toronto Star questioned given that Hu is an “authoritarian leader who doesn’t face popular elections.”
While Mr. Ignatieff’s office has said little, a Liberal blog posting by MP Ujjal Dosanjh notes that the visiting MPs who met with Mr. Zhou “spoke very candidly about issues surrounding the contrasts in our countries’ political systems, human rights, and business relations between our two countries.”
The Epoch Times requested specifics as to what issues were raised, but received no reply.
Mr. Ignatieff is in China with both Mr. Dosanjh and Liberal member of parliament Scott Brison. Following meetings in Beijing, the three travelled to Shanghai where they are visiting the Canadian pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo.
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