China Is Losing a War Over Internet

By LORETTA CHAO and JASON DEAN,Wall Street Journal, Dec. 31, 2009-

BEIJING—These appear to be dark days for the Internet in China.

Four months into a crusade against Internet pornography, the government is closing thousands of sites—some pornographic, some not—and tightening rules on who can register Web addresses inside China.

Foreign sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, blocked by censors in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1, remain inaccessible to most Chinese users. Several prominent critics of the state who used the Internet to spread their message have been detained or imprisoned.

Yet this list of casualties obscures a larger truth: The censors are losing.

The dozen or so years since the Web came to China have seen repeated rounds of crackdowns and detentions, aided by a steady growth in scope and sophistication of the government’s filtering apparatus that critics dub the Great Firewall. Still, the Internet has enabled more Chinese to have more access to information today, and given them greater ability to communicate and express themselves than at any time since the founding of the People’s Republic.

The censors “are winning the battles everywhere,” says Isaac Mao, a blogging pioneer based in China and Chinese-Internet researcher, “but losing the war.”

In 2009, Beijing lost a big battle, too, in the so-called Green Dam episode. It was the most dramatic illustration of the limits of the censors’ power. The government’s plan to quietly compel all personal-computer makers put Web-filtering software known as Green Dam-Youth Escort into new PCs shipped into China was indefinitely shelved, amid anger from global technology companies and Chinese citizens alike.

The government said the software was meant to block children from accessing pornography, but critics said that it was unreasonable to require a specific program for all PCs, and that the software was filtering a broad range of content, such as social and political commentary, and even health, among others……. (more details from Wall Street Journal)

China to Monitor Karaoke Music

NTDTV, Dec. 30, 2009-

Authorities in the Chinese city of Chongqing are implementing a surveillance system in more than 150 local karaoke parlors. According to state-run media, the move is part of a campaign to monitor what music people are singing along to at thousands of karaoke parlors across the country.

When a song with lyrics deemed obscene or politically sensitive, the system will directly alert local authorities. The song will then be deleted from the karaoke machine’s database.

The Deputy Inspector of the Henan Provincial Department of Culture spoke to the Easter Today News about what “politically sensitive” songs would be. For example, those relating to issues like Xinjiang independence or Taiwan. Or those with lyrics that poke fun at political figures.

Karaoke parlors are hugely popular in China, and this latest move to monitor what goes on inside them is already making patrons uneasy.

- NTDTV

Outrage As China Executes British Man

JOHN GARNAUT HERALD CORRESPONDENT, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, December 30, 2009-

BEIJING: The Chinese leadership has disregarded international opinion and allowed the execution of a British man with a reported history of mental illness.

Yesterday’s execution of Akmal Shaikh – the first death sentence carried out against a European in China in 50 years – follows the harsh sentence given to a democracy activist, Liu Xiaobo, on Christmas Day despite top-level advocacy from the United States and other Western nations.

”It’s one thing to turn your back on world opinion and put a man in prison, but another thing to execute somebody,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, head of research at the Dui Hua Foundation in Hong Kong.

Shortly after noon yesterday Beijing time, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, confirmed that Shaikh had been put to death.

”I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,” Mr Brown said.

He had personally pleaded with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and Premier, Wen Jiabao, to exercise leniency.

Shaikh’s family issued a statement saying they were saddened by China’s refusal to listen to their appeals. They said his execution ”was carried out … despite repeated requests for clemency and a proper appraisal of Akmal’s mental state”. Chinese authorities refused to investigate his mental health, his family said.

”China executes more people than all the other countries in the world combined,” said Mr Rosenzweig. He said the number of executions carried out this year was believed to be about 5000.

But in recent months China has shown a new willingness to ignore international opinion in pursuing its domestic and foreign policy objectives.

It dramatically upgraded ties with pariah states North Korea and Sudan, it rolled out an ice-cold welcome mat to the US President, Barack Obama, in his inaugural visit and, according to some Western observers, it systematically scuttled the prospects of reaching a more aggressive international agreement in Copenhagen to combat climate change.

In July the Australian iron ore executive Stern Hu became the most senior corporate leader to be arrested in China for stealing state secrets, before his charges were downgraded following an international outcry.

Some political observers in Beijing and overseas say a leadership succession battle can help explain how China has lurched towards old-style conservatism in the past 18 months……. (more details from Sydney Morning Herald)

Brother Looking For “Conscience of China” Gao Zhisheng in Beijing, No Result

By Wang Qian, Yi Fan, Fang Liang, Sound of Hope Radio Network, via the Epochtimes, Dec. 29, 2009-

It has been nearly a year since Gao Zhisheng disappeared—kidnapped by Chinese police. His family lives in a state of constant fear and turmoil regarding his well-being. Their questions persist, unanswered: Where is he? Is he still alive?

Gao is often referred to as the “conscience of China.” At enormous personal risk, he has defended Falun Gong practitioners, house Christians, and others who are denied basic rights by the communist regime in China.

The regime has not responded to queries regarding his whereabouts. Due to the extreme nature of the physical and mental torture he endured during previous arrests, many public officials, human rights organizations, and individuals have petitioned for his release.

On Christmas Eve, in the midst of a harsh winter and after enduring two long days of travel, his older brother Gao Zhiyi went again to Beijing on behalf of his family. His mission: to determine the whereabouts of his brother, so the entire family could have a sense of direction for the New Year.

The result, however, was far from what they had hoped for. Gao Zhiyi spoke with Sound of Hope radio about his experience.

“I went to the Beijing City Police Petition Office and told them the story, but they had no response; I then had no other strategy,” he said. “They did acknowledge that there is such a person, but they said, given the situation, I should search in Xinjiang and then come back. They had no other suggestions.

“I felt so helpless: I’m simply one ordinary person. I felt like there was nothing I could do. Even if I did stay there longer, there would still be nothing that I could do.”

Gao Zhiyi returned to his home in Shanxi with nothing more to tell the family.

As they wait helplessly, their only hope is that the media will help them raise awareness and make their appeals known, and that the international community and the general public will continue to press for Gao Zhisheng’s release.

- The Epochtimes

China Police Official Warns of Threats by ‘Hostile forces’

CLIFFORD COONAN in Beijing, The Irish Times, Dec. 29, 2009-

JUST DAYS after the jailing of top dissident Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s top police officers has promised “pre-emptive attacks” against threats to the Communist Party’s rule of the country.

In a strongly worded speech carried on various state websites, Yang Huanning, vice minister for public security, said that even though the economy was growing, there were still many threats to stability.

“The schemes of western anti-China forces seeking to westernise and split us, friction and disputes between countries and hostile forces stirring up chaos and sabotage . . . remain major factors affecting our national security and social stability,” Mr Yang said.

“Strike hard against hostile forces at home and abroad. Strive to anticipate and prevent, staging pre-emptive attacks.”

The word “hostile forces” generally refers to political threats. Mr Yang focused on perceived dangers from separatists in Tibet and Xinjiang, both Chinese territories where indigenous people are seeking more autonomy from Beijing.

Mr Yang said the security forces must increase their levels of political vigilance, and gather intelligence about these “hostile forces”.

He also mentioned the influence of the Falun Gong religious group, which was banned in China in 1999 after a harsh crackdown but has been a nuisance to Beijing through its numerous activities outside the country, including pickets at embassies around the world.

“In the new year, there will be no relaxation of stability preservation and no lightening of pressure on stability,” he said.

Mr Yang’s speech was actually delivered on December 18th to security officials, but only released yesterday. The timing is significant because Liu Xiaobo, the country’s most prominent critic of Communist Party rule, was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Friday on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”.

The court said Mr Liu was guilty of inciting subversion for helping to organise the Charter 08 petition seeking democratic reforms, and for publishing essays critical of the Communist Party on the internet……. (more details from The Irish Times)

Newsletter: Year 2009 Marks 10 Years of Persecution in China- Millions Suffer

Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group -

Tragically, the year 2009 marks the 10 year-anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The persecution is as severe as ever and the lack of help from the world community abroad has aggravated the suffering of those Chinese who continue to lose their loved ones because they simply want to keep practicing Falun Gong and exercise their basic human rights of freedom of speech and belief.

We have brought you only the most poignant stories, hoping that you will pass the word and help to stop the torture and insane persecution of innocents in China.

Ms. Gao Yumin, 40, was three months pregnant when she was arrested on September 19, 2007, for her belief in Falun Gong. On October 28, after brutal beatings at the police station, she was rushed to the hospital unconscious. When the doctors operated because her heart had stopped, they found a dead fetus in her womb. They sent her home after 8 days in the hospital and a cost of 10,000 yuan, but arrested her again on December 15, 2008, saying she hadn’t finished her term. She is now detained and being tortured at the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Sun Min and her husband were arrested on April 22, 2009, for distributing Falun Gong DVDs and sent to the Niujie District Police Station. Ms. Sun died within a day of her arrest. At a viewing of her body, the family saw evidence of beatings with an electric baton, being tightly handcuffed, and hung up by her arms. The family took pictures.

Mr. Li Guangwei, 65, was famous for his Chinese calligraphy and painting. Because Mr. Li had written letters to tell people about his experience with Falun Gong, the authorities started monitoring him and followed him whenever he went out. On July 25, 2005, he told his family that he wanted to take a walk, and would come back shortly. However, he never returned. Even four years later, no one knows his whereabouts.

On December 29, 2001, Mr. Zhu Hongbin, 38, was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison because he had Falun Gong materials. He was tortured, injected with an unknown drug, and starved multiple times. When finally released from prison, he weighed so little that his family could easily count all the bones in his body. He died on June 18, 2009, not long after his release.

Mr. Yang Guiquan, 45, was arrested on June 20, 2009 and sent to the Xindi Detention Center in Liaoning Province. He only lasted through a month of torture and brutal force-feeding before he died on July 20. Witnesses said his body was covered with bruises and scarring consistent with use of an electric baton.

Mr. Fu Ziming, 34, was arrested on April 17, 2009, because he posted a pro-Falun Gong message. He died just three days later while the “610 Office” escorted him back to Jianli County. The authorities would not allow his family to view his body.

Olympic Persecution:

We have documented the cases of 10,194 Falun Gong practitioners who were detained, arrested, and tortured during the 2008 Olympics. Many of them are still in detention and still being tortured.

For a list of the 10,194 Falun Gong practitioners, please go to below link: http://www.falunhr.org/reports/PDFs/BeijingOlympicsPersecution.pdf.

The China Bubble (4)

Gady Epstein, Forbes Magazine, dated December 28, 2009-

Assuming China’s reckoning does arrive some day, it’s impossible to say whether it might presage Japan-style deflation, Russian-style hyperinflation or American-style stagnation. For now, private, semiprivate and state-owned enterprises are getting creative to keep the boom alive. Some cash-starved local governments are believed to be asking companies to prepay 2010 corporate taxes to meet this year’s budgets. It’s the kind of monkeyshines you might expect in New Jersey or California, not in supposedly cash-rich China.

Related-party transactions are another popular funding source. Hainan Expressway Co. in southern China is a government-owned outfit deep in hock. In the last year it has lent some $40 million to its founding shareholder, the Hainan Department of Transportation, and booked the loan due as an asset on its balance sheet. This classification provides the Hainan Expressway with additional collateral to borrow even more in new construction loans from state-owned financial institutions and increases the risk that it will eventually default, according to Northwestern’s Shih.

Western and Hong Kong investors are in on the frenzy, too. Evergrande Real Estate Group, a Guangzhou developer, recently staved off a default on short-term debt by raising $800 million in a Hong Kong initial offering, which bestowed it with a $14 billion market cap. But whom is it kidding? Sixty percent of its “profit” this year is expected to come from increasing the reported value of its properties, a ploy that is a common source of earnings for Chinese real estate developers.

As is typical in the later stages of property booms, many investors in China appear to have discarded rental yields as a measure of how much a building is worth in favor of greater-fool pricing. In downtown Beijing office towers sold this year for $400 per square foot, despite the fact that many were unleased and many more are under construction. The leading buyers: state-owned enterprises, including banks and insurers.

Warning Signs

Asset flipping can go on only so long. At some point you need paying tenants.

–Developers highly leveraged, dependent on easy credit.

–Government funding via debt and land sales to state-owned corporations, prepayment of corporate taxes.

–Total outstanding debt approaching Japan’s precrash level.

from The Forbes

The China Bubble (3)

Gady Epstein, Forbes Magazine, dated December 28, 2009- (cont’d)

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China’s mercantilist trade policy is another contributor to its asset bubble. By artificially depressing the value of its currency and making it difficult for locals to invest abroad, China has forced an artificially large amount of capital to chase after domestic investments, inflating property and stock prices. It’s the same scenario China pursued in late 2007, before its stock market lost two-thirds of its value, but that era was characterized by monetary restraint compared with today.

“It’s a pure debt game,” says Andy Xie, an economist who advises private investors and sees the current bubble as “much worse than previous ones.”

In late November China’s ruling Politburo declared that the nation’s monetary and fiscal promiscuity will continue into 2010. The markets, predictably, were overjoyed. Economists who see parallels to the Russian and Brazilian financial crises a dozen years ago are less sanguine.

“The more debt that’s on the balance sheets, whether you see it or not, the more vulnerable borrowing entities become to shocks,” warns Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University and expert on China’s economy and sovereign debt.

China naysayers have been wrong before. Gordon Chang, author of the 2001 book The Coming Collapse of China, has warned–wrongly, so far–that doom lies around the corner. Cushioning China’s economy is its high growth rate, an estimated $260 billion (but declining) annual current account surplus and, at $2.3 trillion, the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserve.

Bubbles, it bears noting, tend to surprise many observers with their longevity. (A FORBES cover story warned six years too early that the U.S. housing bubble threatened to tank the economy.) But when bubbles do eventually blow, it’s usually with a bang.

In the first nine years of this decade China added an average of $1.50 in new credit to the economy to produce each incremental dollar of output. With so much money chasing domestic investments, that ratio has jumped to $7 of fresh credit for each additional dollar of GDP this year, estimates Pivot Capital Management, a Monaco hedge fund.

All told, China’s ratio of outstanding credit (government and private) to annual GDP stands at 160% and could approach 200% by 2011, which would be similar to the 1991 level in Japan, just as that nation began tottering off the economic precipice. (U.S. ratio: 240%.) “All this points to [the idea] that credit in China is not going to be able to grow much longer without risking a crisis,” Pivot concludes……. (to be cont’d)

The China Bubble (2)

Gady Epstein, Forbes Magazine, dated December 28, 2009- (cont’d)

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The U.S. government’s $7.2 trillion in debt at the end of June represented 50% of gross domestic product. The Chinese government’s officially disclosed $840 billion in public debt represents less than 20% of GDP. But the People’s Bank of China and the treasury are also on the hook for potentially $1.5 trillion in off-balance-sheet debt owed by cities and provinces and entities they control. They’re also implicitly obliged to backstop $1 trillion, both in loans that “policy banks” were directed to issue, even when they made no economic sense, and nonperforming loans that the government removed from the books of state-owned commercial banks over the past decade.

Add it up and the national government is responsible for debt equal to over 70% of 2009 GDP. That doesn’t count any loans generated this year that might go sour amid a 30% increase in debt balances nationwide. (The U.S. government, in addition to its direct debt equal to 50% of GDP, is responsible for cosigning of mortgage borrowers’ obligations equal to another 18% of GDP.)

Like the U.S. housing industry a few years ago, China’s big developers are highly leveraged and dependent on low interest rates and rising prices. Municipal governments are knee-deep in this asset swamp. They use land sales as a means of funding themselves.

As fast as China is growing and urbanizing, its cities are churning out more office towers and luxury malls than can be leased for years to come. Tianjin, a gritty metropolis not far from Beijing, will soon have more prime office space than will be filled in a quarter-century at the current absorption rate. Shunyi County, in the capital’s suburbs, sold a residential plot last month for $400 per square foot, a new national record. The bidders were mostly state-owned companies and the winner none other than a developer owned by Shunyi County. Where the developer came up with the money for the purchase is unclear, but the county will nevertheless book $740 million as revenue from the sale……. (to be cont’d)

The China Bubble (1)

Gady Epstein, Forbes Magazine, dated December 28, 2009-

China’s economy is humming along in high gear, thanks to a fast-growing pile of dicey debt. Such booms tend to end badly.

China’s economy is the envy of the world. As developed nations struggle to eke out a bit of growth and to get unemployment rates out of double digits, Chinese output gallops ahead at an 8% annual rate. This $4.7 trillion economy, it seems, is the world’s dynamo and the prototype for the future.

Take a close look, however, and you may come away thinking China resembles nothing so much as Japan shortly before its stock and property markets melted down two decades ago. A speculative frenzy of borrowing and bidding up is at work. If and when prices crash, there will be hell to pay.

Signs of the times: government bureaucracies funding themselves by foisting debt on state-owned business enterprises; local governments raising capital by selling land at sky-high prices to corporations they own; and a People’s Bank of China lavishing liquidity on the entire system in a way that makes Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke look downright stingy.

“It’s a Ponzi scheme whose head is the central bank, and it can print money,” says Victor Shih, a China expert at Northwestern University……. (to be cont’d)

- From The Forbes

The imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo recalls a bleak tradition of China’s repression

The Times, UK, Dec. 26, 2009-

Communist China was born amid trumped-up charges against supposed enemies of the State. The eleven-year prison sentence imposed yesterday on Liu Xiaobo, a literary scholar and the country’s most prominent dissident, demonstrates a bleak continuity in the regime’s practices. It was a peculiarly cynical touch that the judgment was issued on Christmas Day.

Liu was seized from his home a year ago. One of his compatriots — a blogger, in a country that seeks to control access to the internet — pointedly referred to him yesterday as the Chinese Mandela. The comparison is not far-fetched, except that in his trial for high treason in 1963, Nelson Mandela at least had the opportunity to make a five-hour speech.

Liu was given no opportunity to respond to his sentence, which was a foregone conclusion. His “crimes” consist of calls for political reform. He published half a dozen online articles, including one for the BBC, and organised a petition for a reform entitled Charter 08. His model was the Charter 77 movement in Czechoslovakia, which proved to be a rallying point, that aided the triumph of liberty. Several hundred Chinese intellectuals have signed Liu’s petition. As happened in Czechoslovakia, a repressive communist regime uses a catch-all law against subversion in order to stifle dissent.

Western diplomacy faces a conundrum. China has emerged as a 21st-century economic giant, yet its embrace of the global market has gone unaccompanied by political reform. There is a long tradition in Western political thought, from Charles James Fox through the Victorian free- traders John Bright and Richard Cobden, that sees commerce as the route to comity. Yet China is a counter to the assumption that repressive regimes are inevitably softened by greater prosperity, and a burgeoning middle class.

As the advanced industrial democracies suffer the consequences of a huge financial crisis, China’s relative influence in the global economy has increased. It is as if, having attained a crucial status in international economic relations, China’s regime sees its new prosperity as a means of asserting its political model. Western governments must deal with that fact.

Western standards of living are increasingly tied to China. America’s wide current account deficit is, in effect, being supported by the huge stock of savings that China has built up and invested in dollar-denominated financial instruments over the past decade. China matters to the West. Yet it appears, from the draconian treatment meted out to Liu, that it is futile to expect economic development on its own to support trends towards Western liberal political rights within China.

There lies the diplomatic importance of the Liu case. A brave man has been treated in the worst traditions of an autocratic regime. As Liu takes as his model the campaigns for human rights in the Eastern bloc, then Western governments should follow him. The Helsinki final agreement, signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1975, established human rights as an integral concern of the superpower relationship and gave heart to dissident movements. As Liu begins his incarceration, the West should seek a new Helsinki with an emerging superpower. Trade is not enough.

- The Times

China Closes Down The Internet– make the country more like North Korea

Gordon G. Chang, The Forbes, 12.25.09 -

This week, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released regulations, dated Dec. 15, requiring the registration of all Web sites.

MIIT’s justification was the need to eliminate sexual content. As a Ministry spokesman stated, “This is about mobile pornography, it’s not referring to any other issue.”

The explanation, however comforting it sounds, is disingenuous. The wording of the rules is broad enough to cover all sites, domestic and foreign, whether or not they carry sex-themed material. “Domain names that have not registered will not be resolved or transferred,” the regulations state. In other words, unregistered sites will become unavailable to users in China.

Today, Beijing blocks a multitude of sites, in effect creating a blacklist. Under the new system, there will be a “whitelist”: only registered sites will be accessible inside the country. Once the regulation is fully implemented, China will no longer have an Internet. In effect, it will downgrade to an intranet. At this moment, there are perhaps 270 million Web sites across the world, and only a miniscule number of them will register with the Chinese authorities.

Of course, the whitelist system, which is to be implemented in three phases next year, is completely incompatible with a modern society such as China’s. Already, the country’s traditionally noisy netizens are complaining. They flooded a Twitter-like service run by the Communist Party’s flagship publication People’s Daily, causing the site to be immediately taken down. Moreover, official publications have expressed caution about putting the sweeping rules into effect. Foreign governments are bound to get in on the act because the expansive regulations, by blocking access to business sites, probably constitute a violation of China’s trade obligations.

MIIT tried a similar stunt this spring with its requirement that the so-called Green Dam-Youth Escort filtering software be installed in all computers sold in China from July 1. The Ministry justified this rule on pornography grounds, but many suspect the software was intended to block unwanted political content. After an uproar–from both home and abroad–Chinese authorities admitted they had made a mistake and backed down.

Yet they did not give up. Earlier this month, the country’s top police officer, Meng Jianzhu, publicly said that China’s Internet monitoring–perhaps the most effective in the world–was not good enough. At the time, it appeared he was just moaning, as public security officials have been doing for years. But this week it became clear Meng was getting the public ready for a really spectacular set of regulations……. (more details from The Forbes)

Lawyer Speaks on China’s Former Communist Head’s Genocide Case in Argentine (3)

By Lin Lin, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 25, 2009- (cont’d)

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What meaning does this decision have for Argentina, for China and for the international community?

For Argentina, the country is playing the lead role of a most efficient and accurate administration of justice, against the abusive behavior of an authoritarian state, that does not hesitate to commit horrific crimes against its own citizens, for merely exercising their natural freedom of thought, as aligned with their convictions. This places our country in the forefront of the enforcement of international law in the defense of human rights, and as an example of a direction–which the world today needs now more than ever before–to follow. At the very least, it can be said that Judge Aráoz de Lamadrid has attained this level; what is left to be seen is whether the country can come up to the same level as the judge.

For China, or rather the Chinese people, it means that this could be the beginning of the end of a dictatorship that has been in power for 60 years, exercised through a bloody repression that has claimed more than 85 million victims.

And for the international community it is a wake-up call. This judge, through this courageous decision, has faced the representatives of a monstrous power that dominates minds and wills through money obtained from exploitation and oppression of it own people, those who are sick and tired of the ruling regime.

What does this case and this latest decision mean to you personally?

I remember, like it was yesterday, the words of Alexandru Victor Micula, the Ambassador of Romania in Argentina, at the International Seminar ‘Socialist experience and transitions’ (Experiencia socialista y transiciones), organized by CADAL, the Hayek Institute and the Department of History at the University of Belgrano. The event marked the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in November 2005. He said, “There isn’t anyone who has not lived under a communist dictatorship that can have any idea what it means.” He was referring to the control by the ruling party from birth to death of people in all aspects of life, and that represented the unbearable oppression for his people.

However, I can state that in these four years spent on this research, the reports and literature that I have read in this connection, the conferences I have attended, the statements of witnesses which I have heard, [these things] have led me to only the crudest understanding of the meaning of those words spoken by Alexandru Micula.

That’s why I do not regret having started and continued until this moment, fighting for the truth that exposes the cruelty of the communist system, a system which represents much more than the appropriation of large properties and the expulsion of multinationals.

It constitutes the maintenance of an oppressive, police-like state, lacking any type of freedom of worship, association, thought, and ultimately of freedom as a whole, as it is understood in free western democracies. (End)

Read the original Spanish article.

Lawyer Speaks on China’s Former Communist Head’s Genocide Case in Argentine (2)

By Lin Lin, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 25, 2009- (cont’d)

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Are there precedents for a case like this?

In the case of Argentina, at the legal level, it is the first time extraterritoriality has been accepted in the handling of a crime. Globally, the case is also unique in the sense that it brings together the application of universal jurisdiction, the recentness of the crimes, and the first arrest warrant among the many crimes of which the communist dictatorship in China is accused.

There is a very similar case in Spain, in which Judge Ismael Moreno sent, via diplomatic channels, a rogatory letter [letter of request] to those accused, but the arrest warrant is still pending and the deadline for them to respond is not up yet.

In particular, besides the legal precedent, what stands out is the magnitude of the crimes being reported, involving the extreme victimization of at least 100 million innocent people, are in danger of being arrested illegally, tortured and even risk being killed for their organs, as part of an extensive, systematic persecution aimed at uprooting them from their legitimate spiritual belief.

But principally, one has to especially take into consideration the fact that these crimes are not in the past, but are still being committed. At present, most cases of crimes against humanity are crimes committed ten, twenty or even seventy years ago.

Here, it is not about looking for justice to condemn who committed a wrong in the past, which, of course, is very important. In this case, based on conclusive evidence, Judge Araoz de Lamadrid has decided to prosecute those responsible for crimes already committed, and which are still being committed, and this could be the beginning of the end of the persecution, that has about a half million persons missing.

What kind of evidence was admitted to the investigation?

Declarations from dozens of witnesses, who made long distance trips to Argentina from North America, Europe and Oceania, in order to provide a raw and very concrete image of the sinister face and attitude towards human rights maintained by the CCP; other audiovisual evidence, and also numerous research reports published by independent organizations and individuals widely recognized in the area of human rights.

Among the reports presented were: the report of the 62nd session of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, prepared by the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, the “Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” prepared in 2006 by David Kilgour (former MP and former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific Region) and David Matas, a renowned human rights lawyer who has been widely recognized for his human rights work, and his role in organizations like Amnesty International.

The Persecution has been ongoing since 1999, and the principle of universal jurisdiction is not new either, so why is it only now that a decision like this has come out?

Obviously the laws do not function by themselves, and the same is true for legal procedures; ultimately, even with the legal and judicial tools, it is still up to human beings to make decisions.

Confronted by Evil, human beings can: be indifferent, or join in solidarity with the victims, in a way that each considers most appropriate. In the case of a judge like Araoz de Lamadrid, there is no alternative but to investigate: trying to get to the truth and make a judgment, when he is convinced that a crime has been committed—and this is just what he did.

We all have a moral code that obliges us, [it is] so intimate—to discern if something or someone is good or bad. From my personal perspective, the judge decided to try the representatives of a regime, not only by the laws, treaties and the principles correctly cited in the decision, which legitimize and legalize it, but also in accordance with a moral code.

(to be cont’d……)

Lawyer Speaks on China’s Former Communist Head’s Genocide Case in Argentine (1)

By Lin Lin, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 25, 2009-

Attorney Dr. Alejandro Cowes. (The Epoch Times)

BUENOS AIRES— A recent landmark ruling was made by Dr. Octavio Aráoz de Lamadrid, the judge of the Argentine Federal and Criminal Corrective Court No. 9. The ruling ordered the indictment and international arrests of former Chinese communist leader Jiang Zemin and his right hand man Luo Gan, on charges of genocide and torture against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

The Epoch Times interviewed one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Dr. Alejandro Cowes.

Can you tell us briefly about this case and the ruling?

In short, in 2006, Judge Araoz de Lamadrid courageously accepted a complaint from the Association of the Study of Falun Dafa in Argentina, which lead to the investigation and substantiation of the terrible crimes of genocide and torture being committed in Mainland China by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Falun Gong practitioners.

The judge has been faithful to the current trend of international law, in effect, to provide access to the pursuit of justice for victims of crimes against humanity, which is impossible in the country where the victims live and where they suffer such extreme persecution.

Last Friday, after four years of arduous investigation, Judge de Lamadrid ordered the indictments of, and issued arrest warrants for Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan, former leader and former Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs of the Central Committee of the CCP respectively.

What are the immediate consequences of the resolution?

It was taken into account that both of the accused parties can neither be detained or extradited from China, because the same political apparatus which instigated the persecution persists in enforcing it.

However, when either of the two travel abroad, they can immediately be detained and put in solitary confinement: this order is already set in place with Interpol.

Actual extradition depends on the existence of a treaty with each individual country or, in the absence of such, the willingness of the country to cooperate, where either of these two would happen to be at the time.

And what then: once they would be extradited?

The judge would effect a signed declaration and then would decide on their trial.

(to be cont’d……)

China Attempted to Interfere With Argentina’s Genocide Case

By Tang Ying, Sound of Hope Radio Network, Via The Epochtimes, Dec. 25, 2009-

The Chinese Communist regime used a variety of tactics in attempts to block the Argentina Federal court case against Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan for their role in the persecution of Falun Gong, according to Fu Liwei, the plaintiff.

On Dec. 17, arrest warrants were issued by the Argentina Federal Court for Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Luo Gan, former head of the infamous 610 office which is responsible for carrying out the persecution of Falun Gong. The arrests followed a four-year investigation.

In 2005, Ms. Fu, who is also President of the Argentina Falun Dafa Association, sued Luo Gan during his visit there. At the time, the Chinese Consulate in Argentina argued that Luo Gan had diplomatic immunity. However, because the judicial system in a western democratic country is relatively independent, the CCP’s tactic was in vain.

“Next, the Foreign Minister sent a document to the judge, who, in turn, sent the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court replied: ‘Luo Gan is not in Argentina. He does not have diplomatic immunity,’” Fu said.

Overseas Interference with Legal Procedures

The CCP utilizes and organizes a number of overseas Chinese groups to interfere with lawsuits. They also search for loopholes in the laws of democratic countries.

“Once, a lawyer who represented a chamber of commerce backed by the Chinese regime went to the court and asked to see the document prepared by our lawyer. Usually in Argentina, a lawyer can request to review legal documents. But the judge saw through the ruse and refused his request according to the law,” Fu said.

Fu told of another incident that opened her eyes. “Once, at a book fair, an official from Argentina’s Ministry of Economy and Finance came over to our Falun Gong booth. After chatting for a while, he came to understand the persecution of Falun Gong in China and asked us whether we realized the difficulty we were facing in trying to expose it. He said, ‘Do you know there is a large group of Chinese people in Argentina’s Ministry?’”

Another example of the Chinese regime’s influence in Argentina involves an iron mine. When Luo Gan visited Argentina in 2005, he arranged for a Chinese company to purchase the largest iron mine in Argentina at low cost. However, it was not the iron that interested the Chinese—rather, it was the cobalt in the mine. Now all workers at the iron mine are from mainland China, and everything that comes out of the mine is loaded directly onto a ship that is not even inspected by the Argentine authorities.

Read the original Chinese article

Christmas of Fear– 10 Local Christian Leaders Were Jailed, Church Shut Down, in North China

By Robert Saiget, AFP-

LINFEN, China — Christians in north China are facing a Christmas of fear after 10 local religious leaders were jailed in recent weeks and their new church shut down amid a crackdown on unauthorised worship.

Five of the church leaders were given prison terms of up to seven-years by a Linfen court, while the others were sentenced without trial to labour camps for two years, their lawyer said.

Their crimes? “Illegally occupying farm land” and “disturbing transportation through a mass gathering”.

“The authorities are clearly sending a message to the Christians,” lawyer Li Fanping, who defended the church leaders at their trial last month, told AFP. He expressed shock at the severity of the punishment for minor offences.

“They’ve convicted them of these specific crimes. As Christmas is coming, a lot of Christians will want to gather to worship, but the authorities have made it clear what can happen if they gather.”

China officially allows freedom of religion, but in practice, the ruling Communist Party restricts independent worship by forcing groups to register with the government.

About 15 million Protestants and five million Catholics worship at official churches, according to official data.

But more than 50 million others are believed to pray at “underground” or “house” churches, which refuse to submit to government regulation.

At the heart of the Linfen case is the giant Golden Lamp Church, built by Yang Rongli and her husband Pastor Wang Xiaoguang through donations.

The church is capable of accommodating thousands of worshippers at a time and could serve the religious needs of many of the up to 60,000 Christians in the area.

Bob Fu, head of the US-based Christian rights group ChinaAid, said the church was leading a nationwide Christian revival through its evangelical work and social services which had brought it to the brink of official legitimacy.

“Local officials at the village level have been tolerating and even helping the Linfen church,” he said, when asked how the leaders had been able to build the towering structure.

But it appears that more senior religious authorities began getting nervous at the size of the unregistered church, and feared its ability to organise ordinary people into what could become mass anti-government movements, Fu said.

The completion of the building in December 2008 sparked a crackdown on unregistered churches, with police in mid-September raiding numerous places of worship throughout Linfen linked to the Golden Lamp, locals said.

The worst clampdown appeared to be in nearby Fushan county, where up to 400 police and hired thugs levelled a makeshift church in a farming community, attacking worshippers and seriously injuring several people, they said.

“None of the followers fought back, they just silently protested the action by the authorities and took the beatings,” one Christian told AFP by phone, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the case.

“Right now it is too dangerous to meet outsiders — the police are watching us and the phones are not safe to use,” said the man, who is related to one of people who was jailed.

Other church followers refused AFP requests for interviews out of fear of retribution by police……. (more details from AFP)

Media Coverage Overlooking the Crime Evidence in Argentine’s Seeking Arrest of Two High-ranking China Officials Case

Statement from the Falun Dafa Information Center, Dec. 25, 2009-

Last week, an Argentine judge indicted and ordered the local Interpol department to seek the arrest of two high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan, for their role in crimes against humanity committed against Falun Gong practitioners. Subsequent media coverage of the decision has exhibited a tendency to frame the lawsuit, the judge’s decision, and the CCP’s response in relativistic terms. That is, framing the story as one of allegations being thrown back and forth between Falun Gong (or the judge) and the CCP with little evaluation of the credibility of the source or the evidence presented to support either position. Such coverage is unfortunate and inaccurate.

The Argentinean judge, Octavio Araoz de Lamadrid, conducted extensive and detailed research over a span of four years before reaching his conclusion that crimes against humanity have taken place with Jiang and Luo counted among those responsible. In fact, of the 140+ page decision he issued, over one hundred pages are an account of the evidence he found of such crimes. This includes first-hand accounts from Falun Gong victims whom he personally interviewed and found to be credible, as well as Amnesty International and United Nations reports.

His final conclusion, cited in the decision was: “The genocidal strategy … comprised a broad range of actions arranged in total contempt for life and human dignity. The designated purpose – the eradication of Falun Gong – was used to justify any means used. Therefore, torment, torture, disappearances, deaths, brainwashing, psychological torture were everyday occurrences in the persecution of its practitioners.” Yet this statement fundamental to the understanding of the case has been missing from most news reports.

Judge Lamadrid clearly took his investigative task seriously and has made an independent assessment of the situation – therein lies the importance of what he has done. It is far from spurious ‘false charges’ as a recent Reuters article unquestioningly cites a Chinese government spokesperson stating. It is therefore disappointing that this aspect of the story has been overlooked or even dismissed in coverage of the case, while vilifying and inaccurate CCP propaganda has been given significant attention.

Falun Gong practitioners have not filed this and other lawsuits as a political or public relations effort to make the Chinese authorities lose face. The suffering that is happening in China is very real, well-documented, and ensconced in a climate of impunity. The use of universal jurisdiction to file overseas lawsuits is a last resort. Falun Gong practitioners who tried suing Jiang inside China were themselves arrested, imprisoned, and tortured.

The Falun Dafa Information Center encourages reporters covering this story to examine the decision itself. The Center has also assembled a brief report that cites third-party confirmation of the brutality and scale of the persecution Falun Gong practitioners face: http://faluninfo.net/article/908/?cid=162.

There is little doubt that what the Chinese regime has done—and continues to do—to Falun Gong fits the Rome Statute’s definition of crimes against humanity. The question lies in what the international community should do about it. Judge’s Lamadrid decision is a solid first step and deserves to be covered as such.

- The Falun Dafa Information Center

China: Liu Xiaobo’s 11-Year Sentence Send Message of Zero Tolerance for Universal Human Rights

Human Rights in China, December 25, 2009 -

In one of the most high-profile political trials in China in recent years, a Beijing court today found Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced him to 11 years of imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights.  Liu’s lawyers told Human Rights in China (HRIC) they do not agree with the decision, stating that Liu was merely exercising his right as a citizen to freedom of expression. According to his lawyers and family, Liu plans to appeal.

“The guilty verdict demonstrates once again the Chinese authorities’ intolerance for free expression and their incapacity to respond constructively to critical voices,” said Sharon Hom, HRIC’s executive director. “But the Chinese government must recognize that the free pass on human rights that it has been receiving from the international community will not insulate it forever from the growing demands of its own people for freedom and democratic reforms.”

“By using the police and security apparatus and the legal system to violate the rights of its citizens, the Chinese government may find itself, in time, subverting its own state power,” said Hom.

The conviction and sentence were pronounced by judge Jia Lianchun (贾连春) of the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court (北京市第一中级人民法院), who previously convicted and sentenced rights defense lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) and AIDS activist Hu Jia (胡佳) on similar charges. The government based the conviction on Liu’s role in drafting and organizing the signing of Charter 08, a petition issued in December 2008 calling for human rights protection and political reform, and on six essays Liu published between 2005 and 2007 critical of the Chinese government. (Click here for excerpts selected and translated by Human Rights in China.)

Liu, 53, was detained, imprisoned, and put under house arrest many times for his writing and activism, including a 20-month detention (June 1989 to January 1991) for participating in the 1989 Democracy Movement, and a three-year Reeducation-Through-Labor sentence (October 1996 to October 1999) for criticizing government corruption. Liu continued to write essays about the human rights condition in China and to advocate for political reform up until his most recent detention on December 8, 2008, one day before the release of Charter 08. In the weeks before Liu’s trial, more than 450 co-signatories of Charter 08 signed an online petition accepting collective responsibility……. (more details from Human Rights in China)

Liu Xiaobo Essay excerpt: “The Communist Party of China’s Dictatorial Patriotism”

Essay excerpts from “The CPC’s Dictatorial Patriotism” (《中共的独裁爱国主义》) (2005), Via Human Rights in China website-

. . . Since the Communist Party of China (CPC) took power, it has always yakked about patriotism in order to maintain its absolute rule over the people and country. It has also emphasized a specious logic of governance — the theory of “death of the party is death of the nation”. . . .

In fact, the “death of the party” and the “death of the nation” have no inevitable causality. This is because any political party is a representative of a special interest group and does not have the grounds to assert that it represents the “nation, ethnic groups, and people.” Even if it is the ruling party, it does not equal the nation, and even less the ethnic groups or culture. The CPC regime does not equal China, and even less the Chinese culture. . . .

All dictatorships like to proclaim patriotism but dictatorial patriotism is just an excuse to inflict disasters on the nation and calamities on its people. The official patriotism advocated by the CPC dictatorship is a fallacious system of “substituting the party for the country.” The essence of this patriotism is to demand that the people love the dictatorship, the one-party rule, and the dictators. It usurps patriotism in order to inflict disasters on the nation and calamities on the people.

(The original Chinese article was first published on the Epoch Times website on October 4, 2005, http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/5/10/4/n1074197.htm.)

- from Human Rights in China

Christmas Day in China: 11-year jail sentence for free speech activist Liu Xiaobo

Reporters Without Borders, Dec. 25, 2009-

Reporters Without Borders is profoundly shocked by this unbelievable and outrageous sentence. A Beijing court today sentenced leading Chinese free speech activist Liu Xiaobo 刘晓波) to eleven years in prison on a charge of subverting state authority for posting outspoken articles online and helping to draft Charter 08, a call for democratic reform. He had been facing a possible 15-year sentence. The dissident said he would appeal.

“It is a disgrace that Liu Xiaobo is going to spend the next eleven years in prison when all he did was defend free expression and participate in a debate about his country’s future with many other Chinese intellectuals,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is also disgraceful that such a sentence was announced on Christmas Day.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Where are the universal values of freedom of expression that China is supposed to represent in Shanghai in 2010? The national and international pressure for this famous dissident’s release must be redoubled. The international community must not be manipulated by the Chinese authorities, who are trying to minimise reaction by concluding this case during the end-of-year holidays.”

Arrested in December 2008, Liu spent nearly a year in prison before being formally charged with subversion on 12 December. His trial on 23 December was accompanied by a high degree of police surveillance. Dozens of foreign journalists, foreign diplomats and Liu supporters were kept away from the courthouse. Liu’s wife, who had wanted to attend, was prevented from leaving her home.

This is not the first time that the Christmas period has proved to be particularly dangerous for Chinese human rights activists. See the previous release.

Inspired by Charter 77, the charter circulated by Czechoslovak dissidents in 1977, Charter 08 was released on 8 December 2008, two days before the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Originally signed by some 300 intellectuals and human rights activists, it now has more than 10,000 signatures.

A former University of Beijing philosophy professor and winner of the Reporters Without Borders press freedom prize in 2004, Liu is committed to the idea that the Chinese media will one day be able to operate as a real fourth estate and stand up to the omnipotent Communist Party.

Examples of some of Liu’s statements about free expression.

- Reporters Without Borders

Leading China Dissident Liu Xiaobo Gets 11-Year Term for Subversion

By ANDREW JACOBS, New York Times, December 24, 2009 -

BEIJING — In an unequivocal rebuke to those pursuing political reforms, a Chinese court on Friday sentenced one of the country’s best-known dissidents to 11 years in prison for subversion.

Liu Xiaobo, 53, a former literature professor and a dogged critic of China’s single-party political system, was detained in December 2008 after he helped draft a petition known as Charter 08 that demanded the right to free speech, open elections and the rule of law.

The 11-page verdict, largely a restatement of his indictment, was read out Friday morning at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, said Mr. Liu’s lawyer, Shang Baojun. In addition to his prison term, Mr. Liu will be deprived of his political rights for an additional two years, a penalty that will prevent him from writing or speaking out on a wide range of issues.

“We are just extremely disappointed,” said Mr. Shang, who added that Mr. Liu intended to appeal the verdict.

Gregory May, first secretary with the U.S. Embassy who stood outside the courthouse Friday morning, called on the authorities to immediately release Mr. Liu.

“Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights,” he said.

Although Mr. Liu had faced a 15-year sentence, legal experts and human rights advocates said the punishment was very harsh and was meant to send a message to others who might agitate for political reform in one of the world’s longest-running authoritarian governments.

Nicholas Bequelin, a senior Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, described Mr. Liu as “a sacrificial lamb” and said that the Communist Party leadership was trying to intimidate its critics. The rights group called the trial “a travesty of justice.”

Mr. Bequelin and others said Mr. Liu’s prosecution for violating rights enshrined in China’s Constitution suggested a political hardening, a trend that began before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“It shows that the leadership is increasingly conservative and restrictive of basic freedoms,” Mr. Bequelin said, “and it also sends a strong message to the rest of the world that China is not really serious when it talks about human rights.”…… (more details from New York Times)

China must reveal fate of Uighur asylum-seekers

Amnesty International, 23 December 2009 -

Amnesty International has called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum-seekers who were forcibly deported from Cambodia to China on 19 December

The group, which includes two very young children, may be at risk of torture or even execution since their forcible deportation at the request of the Chinese government.

Since 2001, Amnesty International has documented cases in which Uighur asylum seekers or refugees who were forcibly returned to China were detained, reportedly tortured and in some cases sentenced to death and executed.

“The 20 should either be charged with recognizably criminal offences or released,” said Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi in a letter to the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Buzhang.

“Their trials should meet international fair trial standards, and under no circumstances should the death penalty be imposed.

“Our concerns are heightened by the fact that the Chinese authorities have already executed nine people and sentenced eight others to death in relation to the July 2009 unrest in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,” said Sam Zarifi.

Amnesty International has also urged the Chinese government to provide the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with immediate access to the 20 individuals to monitor their well-being.

Name list of the deported Uighur asylum-seekers, from Amnesty International