Ongoing H1N1 Outbreak Cover-up in China

By Fang Xiao & Gu Yunyin, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 7, 2009-

When the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of swine flu, some experts predicted that if swine flu combined with the avian flu in Asia, it would probably cause a genetic mixing of the swine flu and the avian flu, and the result would be very serious.

Currently, H1N1 has already spread in China, but many local officials intentionally hide the outbreak for the sake of promoting their political careers and block H1N1 tests on suspected patients.

Shanghai World Expo an Excuse to Hide the Spread of H1N1

Shanghai resident Mr. Lin told a New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) reporter that hospitals in Shanghai have all received orders from the “higher-ups” to not conduct H1N1 examinations because Shanghai will be holding the World Expo. “Presently, hospitals do not conduct H1N1 exams. Even if one goes to a hospital specializing in treating H1N1 infections, people will be treated like normal flu patients and won’t know whether they have the H1N1 virus.”

Details are also lacking in Southeast China’s Jiangxi Province. Recently a female student died of H1N1 at Lantian College in Jiangxi Province. Her classmate, Zheng, told a Sound of Hope (SOH) Radio reporter that H1N1 has spread on campus for more than a month and has caused several deaths, but it has been covered up.

“She went to the First Hospital of Nanchang University for emergency treatment, but she died. It was H1N1, but no one reports on it. We students talk about it among ourselves, and our teachers also talk about it. The school does not let the public know how serious the H1N1 outbreak is. The First Hospital of Nanchang University is designated to treat H1N1. They have treated many H1N1 patients. I heard there were hundreds.”

A daily average of 140 patients with fever visit the Nanchang City Ninth Hospital, another hospital designated to treat H1N1 patients in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. Last week there were over 300 such patients every day, with one day having 350 patients with fever. When there are more flu patients, there are also more H1N1 patients, according to a report on Dec. 3 by Information Daily. jxnews.com.cn/xxrb/system/2009/12/03/011259786.shtml

One staff member of the Nanchang City Ninth Hospital told an Epoch Times reporter that although this hospital is designated to treat H1N1 patients, it does not have the authority to confirm the diagnosis of H1N1. “Currently we indeed have a relatively high number of H1N1 patients. We also have many more who are hospitalized. In Nanchang City, only the municipal Disease Control Center (DCC) and the provincial DCC can confirm the diagnosis of H1N1. No hospital can confirm [H1N1 cases].”

Cases Go Unreported

In Weihai City, Shandong Province of Northeast China, a staff member of a hospital told a reporter that she contracted H1N1. She recovered, but the hospital did not include her case in the reported number of H1N1 infections.

She said that at least 200 patients came to her hospital and 90 percent of them are H1N1 patients. “These cases cannot possibly have been reported.

“The first day I had a fever of 101° F. The second day my temperature was as high as 104° F, and it lasted for four to five days. I went to the hospital. I was diagnosed with H1N1. Later, when I recovered, I found out that my case was not reported.

“Health bureaus in some areas do not try to diagnose serious pneumonia patients. There is an unspoken rule that a high H1N1 death toll indicates poor disease control.”

Deaths From Vaccine Reactions

The Chinese regime has reported that only four people have died after receiving H1N1 vaccine injections.

On Nov. 25, the Health Bureau of Gansu Province in North China reported that 114 people had shown abnormal reactions after receiving the H1N1 vaccine injections from the first batch of vaccines. An Epoch Times reporter called the Health Bureau of Gansu Province to ask for the causes of the abnormal reactions.

A staff member at the Immune Programming Division of the Lanzhou City (capital of Gansu Province) DCC avoided the reporter’s question. When asked about the vaccine, he said: “The second batch of vaccines is safe and effective. You can get the information from the Web site of the Health Bureau.” The reporter continued to ask: “What is the difference between the second batch and the first batch? Why do you say it is safe and effective?” The staff member said: “Why do you ask this question?” and then hung up the phone.

The Health Bureau of Gansu Province reported the latest death toll from H1N1 infections was 10 people, but they did not give any detailed information about the fatalities.

When asked by the reporter about the true death toll, the staff member of the Gansu Province DCC said that he does not have the authority to release this information. He said that most deaths are from middle-aged people. A municipal DCC staff member stated that only the provincial Health Bureau has the authority to release the information about H1N1.

In 2003, during the SARS epidemic, Chinese Communist authorities, in order to pursue economic development, pressured local officials about the “control” of the epidemic and told those officials that they would be dismissed from their positions if SARS infections occurred in their area. As a result, the reported number of SARS was zero for each locale.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s Southern Guangdong Province, expressed his concern about the reassortment (genetic mixing) of H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu, and H5N1, the virus that causes avian flu. He said, “Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster.

“This is something we need to monitor—the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting the death rate must be really transparent,” according to an interview with Reuters Television.

- The Epochtimes

My View of China Has Not Changed, Harper Tells Reporter

By Jason Loftus, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 6, 2009-

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first visit to China did not change his views of the country, according to an interview he gave an ethnic media reporter who travelled with him.

Mr. Harper told the reporter that “although this is the first time he visited China, it did not change the view of China he’s had all along,” according to an account of the interview published in the Chinese-language Sing Tao newspaper.

The Sing Tao report summarized Harper’s comments and did not provide direct quotes. According to the article, Harper said China’s economic development had “made him feel he needs to strengthen the relationship between Canada and China.”

But at the same time Harper “emphasized that he would not waver on core values of human rights and democracy that Canada values.”

A slew of minister-level trips to China promoting trade combined with relative quiet on the human rights front had some concerned that the government was slowly abandoning its support for human rights in China in favour of trade ties.

Harper’s comments on the China trip appeared to suggest that though the government will pursue trade, it is digging its heels in on the issue of human rights.

“Our government believes and has always believed that a mutually beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights, and the rule of law,” Harper announced at a business dinner in Shanghai on Friday night.

“And so in relations between China and Canada, we will continue to raise issues of freedom and human rights, be a vocal advocate and an effective partner for human-rights reform, just as we pursue the mutually beneficial economic relationship desired by both our countries.”

Then on Saturday in Hong Kong, Harper again turned to the topic of freedom and democracy.

“Ours is a country, that has always stood up when the cause has been just, a country that has never flinched in a fight no matter how fierce the foe, and a country that has never wavered in its defence of freedom, democracy, and justice,” Harper was quoted saying at a remembrance event for Canadian soldiers who died defending Hong Kong from Japanese forces during World War II.

But aside from a promise to champion human rights, Mr. Harper did not name specific human rights issues in his public speeches in China.

On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed to The Epoch Times that in meetings with the Chinese, Harper had raised the case of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen imprisoned in China on charges that human rights groups say are highly suspect, while also raising other human rights issues. But a spokesperson for the PM could not confirm what those issues were.

Several groups in Canada had called on Harper to raise specifics human rights cases when travelling to China.

An all-party group of Canadian parliamentarians had asked Mr. Harper to raise the ongoing and often brutal persecution of Falun Gong adherents by the Chinese authorities.

And in November, the Canada Tibet Committee had written to Mr. Harper asking him to raise their “deep concern” with “human rights in Tibet, including but not limited to freedom of religion, expression and due process.”

- The Epochtimes

China Grants Canada Destination Status

Scott Deveau, National Post, Friday, December 04, 2009 -

Canadian tourism officials celebrated yesterday after Canada finally received its coveted approved destination status from China.

The designation essentially allows Chinese travel agents to begin marketing Canada as a holiday destination, and for Chinese travellers to come to Canada on a tourist visa.

For more than a decade Canadian tourism officials have lobbied the federal government and its Chinese counterpart for the designation. But they were forced to sit on the sidelines as more than 130 countries were awarded approved destination status (ADS), including Australia, the United States and such nations as Syria, Bulgaria and Jamaica.

David Redekop, principal research associate for the Conference Board of Canada, said the significance of Canada receiving the designation could not be underestimated, given China’s population of 1.3 billion would-be-tourists and 46 million outbound trips a year. An estimated 166,000 travellers came to Canada from China in 2008, a figure Canada could easily double in the next five years, he said. “This is a big deal for Canada.”…….

- National Post

The two Chinas

Lorne Gunter, National Post, Canada, Friday, December 04, 2009 -

A friend who does a lot of business in mainland China describes the political climate there this way: “You are welcome to say whatever you want against the government, so long as no one pays attention.”

Chinese may pin up anti-government posters, post anti-government messages on websites or stand on street corners and preach venom against the central committee of the Chinese Communist party. But if more than a handful of others gather around to listen, they could quickly find themselves spirited off to a political prison.

The Chinese government is all in favour of free speech, it’s the listening that scares them. The ruling cadre worries that if citizens begin getting together, begin using their new economic clout to demand influence over politics and public policy, there will be no stopping them from toppling the regime.

Instead, go out, make money, lots of money. There are fewer regulations on business creation in many provinces in China than there are in Canada (and lower taxes, too). Buy fancy cars, hire a private legion to protect your assets, whoop it up in a high-tech nightclub, accumulate capital, just don’t do anything that makes the Communist party antsy. Let them run the government. You concentrate on running your business. So long as everyone adheres to their roles, everything will be fine.

This is the dichotomy of modern China, a country that is both banker to the world and the world’s leading executioner; the country with the planet’s most rapidly growing manufacturing sector and one of the most repressive systems for dealing with dissidents.

Case in point: Falun Gong, a spiritual movement with millions of adherents in China and worldwide. No other organization seems to rankle the central committee as much as Falun Gong. Members claim all the time that they are harassed, beaten, disappeared, tortured, even executed for their esoteric beliefs.

Last January, a grandmother was handing out Falun Gong pamphlets on the streets of a small industrial city in central China. Police surrounded her, threw her in the back of van and took her to jail. Within days, she was sentenced by a Chinese court to spend nearly a year and half in a re-education camp where she is at risk of torture, or being worked to death, or starved.

In August, the Falun Gong Clearing House claims, a member arrested in a northern China coal-mining town was prodded to death with electric police batons. Within two weeks of his arrest, he was dead without access to a lawyer or formal charges being laid.

Last week, a young lawyer who had made a habit of defending practitioners of Falun Gong in court was sentenced to seven years in prison for his efforts. There is a strong possibility he will not make it to the end of the sentence alive; many prisoners of conscience do not in China.

Falun Gong adherents also claim the Chinese government harvests the organs of those they kill for sale on the international black market.

Just last week, China executed two milk-company executives whose company sold tainted milk that last year killed six infants and made 300,000 sick. They did so with a speed and efficiency that would make a Westerner blanch.

Contrast that with the gleaming skyscrapers of Southeast China, which, outside of the Persian Gulf, are now seldom rivalled for their height, beauty and technological impressiveness.

Modern China is a glitzy facade behind which hides a still brutal way of governing.

Should Prime Minister Stephen Harper raise human rights while he is in China? What’s Mandarin for “D’uh!?”

I cannot see how he could, in good conscience, avoid raising China’s appalling record. But should he do so in a way that embarrasses his hosts? No.

Engaging the Chinese is the only way to get them — over time — to change.

- National Post

China: Two Young Tibetans Get Three Years in Jail for Posting Dalai Lama Photos on Internet

Reporters Without Borders, Dec. 4, 2009-

Two young Tibetans, identified as Gyaltsing and Nyima Wangdu, have just been given three-year jail sentences for posting photos of the Dalai Lama online. The exact date of their conviction is not known but it is believed to have been three or four days ago. They were convicted on charges of “communicating information to contacts outside China.”

They have been detained in Lhassa since 1 October. Their families, who have not been able to visit them in prison or obtain any information about them, are concerned for their health.

Three other Internet users, identified as Yeshi Namkha, Anne (a pseudonym) and Thupten, were arrested for similar reasons on 1 December but have not yet been tried. It is not known where they are being held.

“All these young Tibetan Internet users did was exchange photos of Tibet’s spiritual leader,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call for their immediate release and the withdrawal of all the charges. These convictions are absurd. These young people should not be made to pay for the tension between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama.”

- Reporters Without Borders

Organ Pillaging and Falun Gong in China (2): Speech by David Kilgour

By Hon. David Kilgour, J.D., Subcommittee on Human Rights, European Parliament- Brussels, Via MWC News, Dec. 2, 2009 - (cont’d)

<< previous

Our conclusion is that many of the disappeared were killed for their organs, which were sold to transplant tourists.  It would take too much time to set out how we came to that conclusion.  We invite you to read our report, which is on the internet (accessible at www.david-kilgour.com), or our book. Briefly, three of the dozens of evidentiary trails we followed which led to our conclusion are these:

1) Only Falun Gong practitioners in work camps and prisons are systematically blood tested and physically examined. This testing cannot be motivated by concerns over the health of practitioners, because they are also systematically tortured.  Testing is necessary for organ transplants because of the need for blood type compatibility between the organ source and the recipient. Crystal Chen, for example, during three years in a camp was medically tested several times, including two blood tests.

2) Traditional sources of transplants-prisoners sentenced to death and then executed, voluntary donors, the brain dead/cardiac alive-come nowhere near to explaining the total number of transplants in China. There is no organized system of organ donations. There is a cultural aversion to organ donation. There is no national organ matching or distribution system in China.

The only significant source in China of organs for transplants before the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began was prisoners sentenced to death and then executed.  The volume of organ transplants in China went up dramatically shortly after the banning of the practice of Falun Gong. Yet, the numbers of those sentenced to death and then executed did not increase.

We estimate that 41,500 organs transplanted over the period of persecution up to 2005 came from Falun Gong practitioners. How we reached this conclusion is explained on page 96 of our book.

3) We had callers phoning hospitals throughout China posing as family members of persons who needed organ transplants. In a wide variety of locations, those who were called asserted that Falun Gong practitioners (known to be healthy because of their exercise regime) were the source of the organs.

Since our report came out, laws and practices in China have changed. A law on transplants in May 2007 required that transplants be performed only in registered hospitals. The Ministry of Health announced that from June 26, 2007 Chinese patients would be given priority access to organ transplants over foreigners.  The announcement also banned all medical institutions from transplanting organs into foreign transplant tourists. The government announced in August 2009 that it was launching an organ donation system as a pilot project.

With these changes, however, the crime against humanity continues. The recipients have changed from foreign to local, but the sources remain substantially the same. The government denies that organs for transplants are being sourced from prisoners who are Falun Gong practitioners. Yet, it accepts that organs for transplants are being sourced from prisoners. The only debate we have with the Government is which group of prisoners is the source of organs.

“Non consenting parties”

Sourcing of organs from prisoners is done without consent.  Deputy Health Minister Huang Joyful at a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou in November 2006 said in a speech, “too often organs come from non consenting parties”. The government of China accepts that sourcing of organs from prisoners is wrong. Huang at the time of the announcement of an organ donor pilot project stated that executed prisoners “are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants”.  This principle, that prisoners are not an acceptable source for organs, is followed by the Transplantation Society and the World Medical Association.

So what is the rule of law world going to do about the Chinese party-state’s abuse of global transplant ethics?  Our report and book have a long list of recommendations.  Given the shortness of time, I mention here only two.

One possibility is extraterritorial legislation.  The 2007 policy giving priority to Chinese patients has cut down on transplant tourism to China, but such legislation would be a useful statement of universal principle. The sorts of transplants in which the Chinese medical system engages are illegal everywhere else in the world. But it is not illegal for a foreigner from any country to go to China, obtain a transplant which would be illegal at home, and then return home.  Foreign transplant legislation everywhere is territorial; it has no extraterritorial reach. Many other laws are global in their sweep. For instance, child sex tourists can be prosecuted not just in the country where they abuse children, but often at home as well. This sort of legislation does not exist for transplant tourists who pay for organ transplants without bothering to determine whether the organ donor has consented.

A second recommendation is that any person known to be involved in trafficking in the organs of prisoners in China should be barred entry by all foreign countries.

Conclusion

The attempted crushing of Falun Gong, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and other independent faith groups, human rights lawyers and other civil society and democracy communities in recent years indicates that China’s party-state must still be engaged with great caution despite the severe ongoing world economic problems. If it stops the systematic and gross abuses of human rights and takes major steps to indicate that it wishes to treat its trade partners in a mutually-beneficial way, the new century will bring harmony for China, its trading partners and neighbours. Its people have the numbers, perseverance, self-discipline, intelligence and other qualities to help make this new century better and more peaceful for the entire human family. (END)

- By Hon. David Kilgour, J.D., Subcommittee on Human Rights, European Parliament- Brussels. Published via MWC News

Organ Pillaging and Falun Gong in China (1): Speech by David Kilgour

By Hon. David Kilgour, J.D., Subcommittee on Human Rights, European Parliament- Brussels, Via MWC News, Dec. 2, 2009 -

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about organ pillaging from Falun Gong practitioners in China as a new crime against humanity.

The earlier witness, Gao Wenqian from Human Rights In China (HRIC) in New York, told us in part that the overall human rights situation in China today is worsening. The experiences of another Gao (no relative), Gao Zhisheng, illustrates this phenomenon well.

In 2004, Gao Zhisheng, then one of China’s top lawyers and since nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, defended a Falun Gong practitioner who had been sent to a labour camp without any form of hearing. Gao learned that the court refused to hear the case because of “orders from above”, so he courageously wrote to the National People’s Congress and later sent three letters to the top leadership in Beijing. One of them referred to the “indescribable violence done to kind (Falun Gong) practitioners”.

Gao’s permit to practise law was subsequently removed and his office was closed by the government. His wife and daughter were harassed by police. He was imprisoned and tortured during a horrific five-week period and is now being “held incommunicado at an unknown location”, according to Amnesty International.

Forced Labour Camps

In doing our final report on organ pillaging from Falun Gong, David Matas and I visited about a dozen countries to interview practitioners sent to forced labour camps since 1999, who managed later to leave the camps and the country itself. They told us of working in appalling conditions for up to sixteen hours daily with no pay, little food, being cramped together on the floor for sleeping, and being tortured. They made export products, ranging from garments to chopsticks to Christmas decorations at times as subcontractors to multinational companies.

The camps, which were created in the Mao era and modeled closely on those in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Third Reich, allow the party to send anyone to them for up to four years with neither any form of hearing nor appeal. One estimate of the number of the camps across China as of 2005 was 340, having a capacity of about 300,000 inmates. In 2007, a US government report estimated that at least half of the inmates in the camps were Falun Gong. It is the combination of totalitarian governance and ‘anything is permitted’ economics that allows such inhuman practices to persist.

Take Falun Gong practitioner Crystal Chen, a former assistant to the president of a leading import export corporation in Guangzhou and an amateur actor, for example, who spent three years in a camp. She experienced beatings, being shackled and stretched, and prolonged sleep deprivation. In a detention centre, she was thrown on the floor of her cell and four large men held her down. A water bottle was cut in half to be used as a funnel. A one-pound bag of salt was poured inside the bottle, a small amount of water added. Guards shoved the opening of the bottle against Chen’s teeth and tried to pry her mouth open with a dirty toothbrush.

She resisted, knowing the salt could kill her. Chen: “The salt went everywhere into my mouth and up my nose… I vomited salt and blood for days and could not eat. My gums were full of blood, I could hardly talk. They still handcuffed me.” A male practitioner, university teacher Gao Xian in, died after being subjected to the same salt torture in the same detention centre.

Chen, now a refugee living outside China, stresses that Falun Gong practitioners, while understandably unsympathetic towards the Party, seek no role in Chinese politics: “only to stop the persecution which has continued for more than ten years… I love China. I’m proud of thousands of years of Chinese civilization and proud of being Chinese… I look forward to the renaissance of genuine Chinese values and dignity, including truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.”

Killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs

David Matas and I came to the dismaying conclusion that Falun Gong practitioners in China have been and are being killed for their organs on a large scale. We wrote a report that came to this conclusion, which came out in July 2006. There was a second version in 2007. A third in book form was published last month as Bloody Harvest.

Falun Gong is essentially a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline, consisting of principles for living, meditation and exercises which began in China in 1992.  Initially the government encouraged the practice as beneficial for health. By 1999, it had grown so popular that the Party became afraid that its own ideological and numerical supremacy were being threatened. The numbers of persons practising Falun Gong across China had grown from virtually none in 1992, according to a government estimate, to 70-100 million. The practice was accordingly banned.

Practitioners were asked to recant. Those who refused and continued the practice and those who protested the banning were arrested.  If they recanted after arrest, they were released.  If they did not, they were tortured.  If they recanted after torture, they were then released.  If they did not recant after torture, they disappeared into the Chinese detention and forced labor system. (To be cont’d……)

Law Professor’s New Book Says China Plans to Take Over Taiwan by 2012

NTD TV, Dec. 2, 2009-

An exiled Chinese law professor has written a book called “Taiwan Disaster.” In it, he says the Chinese Communist Party is planning to make Taiwan part of the People’s Republic of China by 2012. He spoke at a press conference last week in Taipei.

[Yuan Hongbing, Exiled Law Professor]:
“The truth is, the tyrant Chinese Communist Party is planning to, by 2012, comprehensively—through political, economic, cultural and social fronts—infiltrate Taiwan, to control Taiwan’s democratic system, and to further eradicate Taiwan’s democratic system.”

Yuan says much of his book is based on classified information. His book cites a 2008 document issued by the Central Government. It says that reunification “should be achieved by comprehensive unification efforts in political, economic, cultural and social areas. [The reunification] will completely smash the conspiracy of domestic and foreign enemies to overthrow socialist China through the utilization of Taiwan’s so-called democratic experiences.”

Another document Yuan obtained was the transcript of a June 2008 speech by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. It was given at a highly secretive meeting of the Politburo of the Communist Party’s Central Committee.

According to Yuan, that meeting was primarily focused on plotting the strategy behind the Taiwan unification plan. The book says Wen Jiabao stated at the meeting that, “Economic integration is by nature, economic unification. Taiwan benefits from it economically, and we [the CCP] fulfill our political goal by doing it.”

And economic unification is just one of the strategies revealed in the new book.

Yuan says the communist regime also plans to:
• Make Taiwan economically dependent on the Mainland by occupying a large portion of Taiwan’s export and tourism markets;
• Erode Taiwan’s political platforms by corrupting the leaders of the ruling Kuomintang Party; and
• Marginalize the pro-democracy Democratic Progressive Party.

[Yuan Hongbing, Exiled Law Professor]:
“What is [the CCP] hoping to get in return for these economic concessions? They want Taiwan’s freedom in exchange. They want to deprive Taiwan’s freedom. This is the truth of the problem.”

- NTDTV

China swine flu death toll triples in two weeks

AFP, Dec. 2, 2009-

BEIJING — China’s official swine flu death toll has tripled in the past two weeks after the government ordered more accurate reporting of fatalities amid suspicions of a cover-up.

A statement posted on the health ministry’s website late Tuesday said the number of people reported killed by the influenza A(H1N1) virus had jumped to 178 at the weekend, up from a previously reported nationwide tally of 53.

The statement gave no reason for the sharp increase but it comes after the ministry on November 19 ordered more transparent reporting following comments by a renowned medical whistleblower who questioned official tallies.

The statement noted that “the number of severe cases and deaths continues to rise.”

“The epidemic situation in our nation remains grim,” it said.

Despite reporting tens of thousands of confirmed A(H1N1) cases in China since the virus first emerged this spring in North America, the reported death rate here has remained far below that of other countries.

Cover-up suspicions were fuelled last month when medical expert Zhong Nanshan was quoted by a Chinese newspaper saying he suspected authorities in some areas were under-reporting fatalities to convince superiors they were containing the virus.

Zhong’s opinion carries weight after he earned wide respect in 2003 for defying the official line on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak to help reveal the true extent of the illness.

The government had initially tried to hide the SARS outbreak and only owned up after it began to spill over into other countries.

The health ministry order for better reporting came shortly after Zhong’s comments were published.

Chinese officials including Health Minister Chen Zhu have warned repeatedly in recent months that China was likely to see a sharp increase in overall cases of swine flu and deaths during the winter, when flu is most virulent.

Tuesday’s health ministry statistical statement said more than 91,000 people had been confirmed to have contracted the virus in China, the vast majority of whom had already recovered.

- AFP

China Human Rights Briefings, November 21-27

Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Dec. 2, 2009-

Arbitrary Detention

Despite Scheduled Surgery, Police Detain Activist during Obama’s Visit

Qianjiang Police Detain One, Injure at Least Two in Clash with Villagers

Shenzhen Police Detain Workers Petitioning over Workplace-Related Illness

Hubei Petitioner Released after Fourth Detention in Psychiatric Hospital

Former Tiananmen Prisoner Released from Psychiatric Hospital

One More Hebei Villager Detained Following Resistance against Land Requisition

Torture or Other Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment

Jilin Man Dies in Detention, Wife Alleges Torture

Freedom of Association

Shenzhen Labor NGO Targeted by Tax Authorities

Forced Eviction and Demolition

Tent Village Torn down to Make Way for Guangzhou University Town

Citizens’ Actions

Activists Draft Public Letter to Canadian Prime Minister Urging Focus on Human Rights During Visit

Journalist Wins Landmark Lawsuit against Bureau of Press and Publication

Residents Demonstrate Against Plan to Build Garbage Incinerator in Guangdong

Discriminated Against by Family-Planning Law, Xuzhou Woman Challenges Decision in Court

Freedom of Religion

Five House Church Leaders Sentenced to Prison in Shanxi

Freedom of Expression

Beijing Police Extend “Investigation Period” of Liu Xiaobo’s Case for Third Time

Harassment of Petitioners

Interceptors in Beijing Seize Henan AIDS Petitioners

Law and Policy Watch

Xinhua Magazine Reports on “Black Jails” in Beijing

Liaoning Court Convicts Four Police Officers of Torture, But Punishments Do Not Fit Crime

Supreme People’s Court Issues Opinion Calling on Lower Courts to Hear Administrative Litigation Suits

China Sentences Lawyer to 7 Years in Prison for Defending Falun Gong

NTD TV, Dec. 1, 2009-

He’s been detained for more than four months. And then, last Friday human rights lawyer Wang Yonghang was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Shahekou People’s Court in Dalian city in China.

He was charged with “posting articles on a foreign website” and so-called “using a cult to damage the social and legal systems.”

In 2008, Wang posted an open letter to Chinese communist leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. He argued the persecution of Falun Gong adherents is illegal and unconstitutional.

In 1999, the communist regime started a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual practice also known as Falun Dafa. According to the Falun Dafa Information Centre, at least six thousand Falun Gong adherents have been sentenced to prison, and about 100-thousand more are in re-education-through-labor camps.

Wang Yonghang is one of a few lawyers of conscience who have taken on Falun Gong cases. Despite the Chinese regime’s illegal mandate that there be (quote) “no legal defense of innocence for Falun Gong.”

Wang then lost his license to practice law. But he continued to defend Falun Gong adherents.

According to rights advocate, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Wang was detained and tortured by Dalian city police on July 4th.  Amnesty International called for urgent action for his release, but then on October 16 he was put though a secret trial.

Wang is part of an increasing number of lawyers being targeted for taking on human rights cases. They report being harassed and beaten by police, and often lose their license to practice law.

- NTD TV

Building an Asia Pacific Human Rights Framework: conference

Sheridan Harvey, NTD TV, Sydney, Australia, Dec.1, 2009 -

It’s a very difficult — yet basic — question to raise: How to bring countries together in the Asia Pacific region that have vastly different standards for human rights.

Well that’s the focus for a recent conference at the University of Sydney. They’re talking about how to build a regional institution to monitor human rights in Asia Pacific countries.

[Hitoshi Nasu, Conference Organizer]:
“In the past the main focus has been on the content of the human rights rather than the institution, the framework of the human rights monitoring. So that’s perhaps the biggest difference in focus of this conference.”

Right now there’s no regional institution to protect human rights in Asia Pacific nations. International experts say establishing one is important so governments with poor human rights records are pressured to change.

One example is China. One lawyer says political influence keeps its court system from protecting people’s basic rights.

[Assoc. Professor Surya Deva, University of Hong Kong]:
“The real issue is that the institutional framework in China is not conducive to support the human rights there, whether the violator is the government department or the government officials or the Party officials or the violators are some private companies it does not matter. Because if they are powerful it is very, very difficult to enforce the rights. There is rampant corruption and there is too much nexus between the Party officials and the judges.”

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, is co-author of the book “Bloody Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs.” He’s been investigating and exposing the Chinese regime’s abuses against people who practice Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation discipline. The regime’s abuses include killing people and selling their organs in state-run hospitals. Over the past three-plus years, Matas has released several reports on this topic—and he says these reports have forced the regime to make internal changes.

[David Matas, Canadian Human Rights Lawyer]:
“If you just listen to the verbal reaction it sounds like nothing’s happening. But they also change their behavior to avoid the criticism. Now some of the avoidance isn’t really that useful. For instance, when we wrote our report about the killing of Falun Gong and their organs a lot of the information came from Chinese websites (Chinese official websites) from within China. So what we saw over time is those websites disappearing.”
 
But Matas says ultimately public pressure will have a greater effect.

[David Matas, Canadian Human Rights Lawyer]:
“No perpetrator can completely insulate themselves from global public opinion indefinitely. And it continues to undermine their support if public opinion goes against them, globally. Which is why we see China reacting the way they do in relation to organ abuse.”

When it comes down to it, meaningful change is what these lawyers want to see.

[Assoc. Professor Surya Deva, City University of Hong Kong]:
“The real issue in China is about the implementation. Can we implement anything which has been put on a piece of paper. That is the real issue, so let us see how it goes. It’s too early to conclude that it is going to be effective. But it is definitely better than not having anything.”

- NTD TV