China’s Labor Camp Director Sued for Torture During New York Visit

By Charlotte Cuthbertson, Epoch Times Staff, Oct 24, 2009 -

Shi Honghui, center, was served court papers after being sued by a group of Falun Gong practitioners for torture and genocide

NEW YORK—In a bittersweet moment for Crystal Chen, the man who signed away five years of her life to a forced labor camp was served with a lawsuit in Manhattan on Oct. 22.

Shi Honghui, director of forced labor camps in China’s Guangdong province, is responsible for torture, genocide, and other gross human rights violations, according to the complaint. He was approached by a professional process server while visiting Pier 16 in lower Manhattan.

Upon being served, Shi threw the documents to the ground. He later fled the scene in a chartered bus, leaving other members of his party stranded at the pier, according to Wang Zhiyuan, spokesperson for the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong and witness to the scene.

Wang was part of the team that tracked Shi to New York and ensured the papers were served.

“All those criminals who actively participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners have been documented, and in the end they will find it hard to escape the dragnet of the law,” Wang said.

Beginning in August 2000, Chen was sent without trial twice to Chatou Women’s “Re-education Through Labor” Camp in Guangdong’s capital city of Guangzhou for her belief in Falun Gong, where she spent a total of over five years. Among the documents committing her to the camp were ones signed personally by Shi, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

For 36-year-old Chen, a Queens resident since May and United Nations refugee, the lawsuit is significant, but cold comfort when she knows countless other Falun Gong practitioners are still being detained and tortured in Guangdong.

“It was an opportunistic moment,” she said of Shi being served. “It’s a good chance for him to know that the international community will hold him responsible for all the bad things he has done.”

Her own experience of severe beatings, forced-feeding, and prolonged sleep deprivation included one incident that remains stark in her memory.

Room 212 in the Tianhe District Detention Center, Guangzhou City, China, was the scene of Chen’s first experience of torture. She was thrown on the floor of her cell and four large males from China’s notorious 610 Office held her limbs 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. Chen’s eyes were covered with a dirty towel. Guards shoved the opening of the bottle against Chen’s teeth and tried to pry her mouth open with a used toothbrush. She was obstinate—she knew the salt could kill her.

“The salt went everywhere into my mouth and up my nose,” Chen said in a previous interview. “I vomited salt and blood for the following days and could not eat. My gums were full of blood, I could hardly talk. They still handcuffed me.”

Six days after her release from this detention center, a male practitioner, Gao Xianmin, died after being subjected to the same high-density salt torture……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

Over 2,000 Protest Pollution and Arrests in Southeast China Village

By Gu Qing’er, Epoch Times Staff,  Oct 24, 2009-

An ongoing struggle between residents and a local ceramic factory over pollution has erupted in protesting, arrests, and riot police presence. When a dozen resident activists of Paibian Village, Jiedong County, Guangdong Province were arrested the morning of Oct. 22, thousands went to the local regime officials, demanding their release.

An Epoch Times reporter interviewed villagers at the scene. According to a villager surnamed Lu, there were no legal procedures, and no one knew where the arrested villagers were taken. He said there were more than 2,000 people who joined the protest.

Another protester, surnamed Chen, said that his friend’s husband was not only arrested, but his cash and cell phone were confiscated.

“What kind of policemen were they! They did not show any ID, but just broke down the door and dashed into the house. I saw policemen taking one woman away in her underwear,” Chen said.

“It’s quite chaotic, and riot police are here,” he said. “The head official is not coming out to talk to us.”

Victims of Factory Pollution

Villagers complain that the exhaust from a ceramic factory has been jeopardizing the quality of life and health of local residents.

“The exhaust smells like disinfectants. It’s horrible and makes me dizzy,” Chen said. “My neighbor’s bamboo shoots stopped growing, and the school children have to cover their mouths and noses.”

The ceramic factory in question is located less than 170 feet from a residential area and an elementary school with 900 students. Students are reported to have symptoms of coughing, sore throats, dizziness, and chest pain.

There is no tap water in the village and residents drink from wells they have dug. The factory also releases waste water into the ground, polluting local sources of water. Residents have complained about loud noises from the factory as well.

Even neighboring villages are affected—residents complain that wind-born pollutants have caused a large number of crops to wither.
Taking the Issue into their Own Hands

Villagers at first approached the Bureau of Environmental Protection with their complaints, and were told the factory was being monitored and was unlicensed due to its failure to meet environmental standards. Local government officials took no action to assist the residents, and neither did the factory respond to complaints.

Two months ago, residents of the affected villages determined they would initiate action on their own. Thousands cooperated to set up roadblocks which stopped the factory from transporting materials. They also demanded that the ceramic factory move out of their area.

A fight broke out between residents and the factory owners the evening of Aug. 9. A resident told The Epoch Times that the factory owner threatened to run down residents with trucks. He also threatened to blow up an oil tank in the factory that would cause the whole village to burn.

The resident also reported that the owner bragged he had paid a town hall official a million yuan, and “he was not worried about us.”

- The Epochtimes

East China Petitioner Gets One Year and Six Months in Prison for “Obstructing Official Business”

Human Rights in China (HRIC), October 23, 2009 -

Human Rights in China (HRIC) learned that on October 23, 2009, Duan Chunfang (段春芳), a Shanghai petitioner and Charter ’08 signer, was sentenced by a Shanghai court to one year and six months in prison for “obstructing official business.” Duan’s family members said that this is an unjust ruling and that they plan to appeal. Duan has been petitioning the authorities for redress for the 2007 death of her brother, Duan Huimin (段惠民), while he was serving a Reeducation-Through-Labor (RTL) sentence.

In 2000, Duan Chunfang and her brother began petitioning the authorities after her home was demolished by the government and he lost his job. On November 3, 2006, while petitioning in Beijing, they were beaten by around ten men – including one named Gao Weiguo – who had been sent by Shanghai authorities to Beijing to intercept petitioners. The brother and sister were brought back to Shanghai, and Duan Huimin was subsequently sentenced to 13 months of Reeducation-Through-Labor (RTL). He received no medical treatment in detention and his condition worsened. On December 31, 2006, the authorities decided to let Duan serve the remainder of his sentence outside of RTL facilities. While being escorted home by RTL officials, Duan asked to be taken to a hospital but was abandoned in the street instead. After his family retrieved him, he died two days later.

Following Duan Huimin’s death, Duan Chunfang continued to go to Beijing, to seek reparations for her demolished home and justice for her brother death. She also signed Charter ‘08. On June 23, 2009, Duan Chunfang and her husband were surrounded and beaten by a dozen or so policemen. Her arm was injured in several places. On July 3, she was detained and accused of assaulting policemen. She was later formally arrested on suspicion of “obstructing official business.”…… (more from Human Rights in China)

Four Held in Farmland Clashes Between Police and Local residents in South China

Radio Free Asia, 2009-10-23 -

HONG KONG— Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have detained four villagers following clashes this week between police and local residents over a disputed sale of farmland which left six people in hospital.

Work on a planned economic development zone in Shuidong township near Guangdong’s Maoming city has halted following the standoff, which villagers said left three people seriously injured.

“The villagers broke through the perimeter wall of the construction site,” a local resident who attended the protest said.

“The wall collapsed. We haven’t seen any workers going in or out, so it seems as if work has stopped for the time being.”

“Things are normal in the village now. No one is protesting.”

Blockade

Clashes broke out Tuesday when more than 100 villagers converged on the construction site to block the way of construction workers and machinery.

An official who answered the phone at the Shuidong No. 1 Detention Center Thursday confirmed that some people were being held there following the clashes.

But he said, “I can’t tell you what they are being charged with or when they will be released. You will have to call the police for that.”

An employee who answered the phone at the local police station declined to answer questions about the incident.

“The government took away our land, so we were going to snatch it back again,” a resident of Dianbai village near Maoming city surnamed Wu said.

“But they wouldn’t let us have it.”

He said around 100 villagers had marched to the site to get in the way of construction work.

“There were older people, of 50 or 60, women, elderly, and children. All went along,” Wu said.

“The clashes started when we tried to stop work on the site. The police were beating up a lot of people, and many were injured. There are still a few people in the People’s Hospital. There were about 50 police officers,” he added……. (More details from Radio Free Asia)

More Tibetans arrested in China in connection with Internet activities

Reporters Without Borders, 22 October 2009 -

Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of three young Tibetans from the village of Dara who have been held in Nagchu county since 1 October, when they were arrested in nearby Sogdzong county for allegedly sending information about Tibet to contacts abroad via the Internet.

The police have not allowed the three – identified as Gyaltsen, 25, Nymia Wangchuk, 24, and Yeshe Namkha, 25 – to have any contact with their families since their arrest.

“The Internet is monitored, censored and manipulated more in Tibet than in other Chinese provinces,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Despite the risks, Tibetan Internet users continue to transmit information, especially to the diaspora and human rights groups. It is deplorable that the Chinese police devote so much energy to identifying and arresting ordinary Internet users.”

The three young people allegedly used QQ, a Chinese instant messaging service, to send photos of the Dalai Lama and speeches by him. It appears that the Bureau of Public Security had been monitoring their online activities for some time. The population of Sogdzong country complain of police harassment, including frequent ID checks.

The monks in Sog Tsandan monastery, for example, were forced by the police to attend patriotic meetings with the authorities and were forbidden to observe their end-of-summer retreat (in which they stay within the monastery to avoid harming the insects that emerge at that time of the year).

Several bloggers and other Internet users have been arrested in Tibet in recent months. They include Pasang Norbu, arrested in Lhasa on 12 August for looking at online photos of the Tibetan flag and Dalai Lama, and Gonpo Tserang, a guide sentenced to three years in prison in June on charges of inciting separatism and “communicating outside the country” for sending emails and SMS messages about the March 2008 protests in Tibet.

- Reporters Without Borders

China: 43 Detainees ‘Disappeared’ After Xinjiang Protests, Recent Report Shows

Human Rights Watch, October 21, 2009 -

(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately account for all detainees in its custody and allow independent investigations into the July 2009 protests in Urumqi and their aftermath, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on enforced “disappearances” released today.

The 44-page report, “‘We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them’: Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang’s Protests,” documents the enforced disappearances of 43 Uighur men and teenage boys who were detained by Chinese security forces in the wake of the protests.

“The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government says it respects the rule of law, but nothing could undermine this claim more than taking people from their homes or off the street and ‘disappearing’ them – leaving their families unsure whether they are dead or alive.”

Last week, Xinjiang judicial authorities started trials of people accused of involvement in the protests. Nine men have already been sentenced to death, three others to death with a two-year reprieve, and one to life imprisonment.

Human Rights Watch research has established that on July 6-7, 2009, Chinese police, the People’s Armed Police, and the military conducted numerous large-scale sweep operations in two predominantly Uighur areas of Urumqi, Erdaoqiao, and Saimachang. On a smaller scale, these operations and targeted raids continued at least through mid-August.

The victims of “disappearances” documented by Human Rights Watch were young Uighur men. Most were in their 20s, although the youngest reported victims were 12 and 14 years old. It is possible that some Han Chinese also became victims of “disappearances” and unlawful arrests. However, none of the more than two dozen Han Chinese residents of Urumqi interviewed by Human Rights Watch provided any information about such cases.

According to witnesses, the security forces sealed off entire neighborhoods, searching for young Uighur men. In some cases, they first separated the men from other residents, pushed them to their knees or flat on the ground, and, at least in some cases, beat the men while questioning them about their participation in the protests. Those who had wounds or bruises on their bodies, or had not been at their homes during the protests, were then taken away. In other cases, the security forces simply went after every young man they could catch and packed them into their trucks by the dozens……. (more details from Human Rights Watch)

In shock of praise of China

bclocalnews.com, October 20, 2009 -

I was sentenced to six years in prison for “anti-revolutionary mobilization” in 1990 simply because I wrote many letters to all levels of the Chinese regime opposing the TianAnMen Massacre in 1989. I fled China to live in Canada, a country I admire – where I can write letters without fear of being imprisoned for expressing my views.

But I am shocked and saddened to see Canadian politicians continuously kow-towing to the Communist murderers.

While they believe that they are pleasing the Chinese voters, they are not. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) front organizations who claim to be representing the Chinese community but are really the voice of the Chinese Embassy do not represent me, nor the majority of Chinese Canadians who came to Canada for freedom.

Recently some politicians in Ottawa paid tribute to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist regime. Shame on them. China has a glorious 5,000 years history, not 60 years. The Communist regime does not represent China. The Communist history is not China’s history. Couldn’t those few Canadian politicians figure it out?

In 1949 when the Communists got power they began to kill immediately and they never stopped. They have killed more people (70 million) than Hitler and Stalin combined. They are still killing and persecuting now – Tibetans, Uighurs Underground Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, rights defenders, people who hold different opinions, and more. Instead of praising the Chinese Communists, Canadian politicians should be educating themselves and the people they represent about the repressive and deceiving nature of the Chinese Communist regime.

October 1 should have been a day of mourning and remembrance, not celebration, for the tens of millions of Chinese killed, tortured, and imprisoned and for the 1.3 billion still oppressed.

The Canadian politicians praising the Chinese Communist Party murderous regime are “useful idiots’ in the minds of the Communist cadres.

Steven Shi,

Ottawa, Ontario

- bclocalnews.com

China Democracy Activist Guo Quan Sentenced 10 Years for Subversion

NTDTV, 2009-10-20 -

A former Chinese judge and university professor has been found guilty of “subversion of state power” and given a 10-year prison sentence. Guo Quan had challenged China’s one-party rule.

Guo had been detained several times since 2007 for things like posting articles on the Internet that called for a democratic system in China. In 2008, he founded the New Democracy Party of China.

Guo’s online postings eventually became a target of China’s Internet police, and he was fired from his job at Nanjing Normal University. Last November, he was arrested in Nanjing and has been detained ever since.

On Friday, the Suqian Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangsu Province found Guo guilty of so-called “subversion of state power.” The ill-defined charge is often used by the communist regime to suppress political dissidents.

One legal expert told Sound of Hope Radio that the verdict is against China’s own constitution.

[Professor Zhang Zanning, Chinese Law Expert]:
“This is like the modern literary inquisition. Legally, it doesn’t have a foot to stand on. Doesn’t China’s constitution allow the freedom of expression and the freedom of association? So this verdict violates the constitution.”

- NTDTV

Everything You Know About China Is Wrong

By Rana Foroohar | NEWSWEEK,  Oct 17, 2009 -

The conventional wisdom is that China is steaming through the global financial crisis by building on the momentum generated by its 30-year boom. Indeed, ever since it sailed through the last big global crisis—the Asian contagion 10 years ago—Beijing has been feted for uniquely steady helmsmanship in financial storms. So perhaps it’s natural for forecasters to assume that the Chinese supertanker of state is not turning sharply now, particularly since it continues to grow rapidly even as other economies sink in the recession. Yet this crisis is different—bigger and more damaging than any seen in generations—and it is exposing limits and forcing change in just about every key piece of the China model: the supremacy of the one-party state, the smart economic management, the export-driven growth, the emerging consumer class, the burgeoning private sector, the headlong focus on growth at any environmental cost, and the drive to build world-class companies. What follows is a look at why these common assumptions about China are increasingly inaccurate or just plain wrong.

Myth No. 1: THE COMMUNIST PARTY IS A MONOLITH.

No, the financial crisis is splitting the party, pitting the rural populists against the urban growth-firsters. The populists include the current top two, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, who favor slower growth, distributed more evenly to poorer rural Western regions, governed with a more careful eye to protecting the environment and less devotion to the free market. Opposed to them are the elite factions based in urban coastal cities, led by Shanghai, who want high-speed growth, more freedom for the free market, and greater support for entrepreneurs and the private sector. While it’s too early to tell which faction will win out, it’s clear that the new leadership will take China in new and possibly unexpected directions. “Perhaps the biggest myth about China is that it is only developing economically,” says Cheng Li, a China expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “In fact, it’s also evolving politically.”

Myth No. 2: THE COMMUNISTS ARE BRILLIANT ECONOMIC MANAGERS.

On the day in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers fell, China began planning the swift rollout of a $600 billion stimulus that would prove to be the largest (as a share of GDP), swiftest, and, many say, most effective in the world. The results—China continues to grow at a world-beating pace, now 8 percent—have confirmed the reputation of the party elders as macro maestros. While most economists agree that Beijing has done a strong job of solving the short-term problem, which was how to keep growth high enough to offset massive unemployment and subsequent political unrest, there is growing unease about how the massive stimulus could distort the economy in the long term. China has become an economy driven almost entirely by state investment, which in the first half of 2009 accounted for 88 percent of GDP growth—a share for which it is hard to find any parallel, in any country, at any time.

The dangers of this lopsided boom are real. The pro-market faction worries that the liberalization of financial markets and the privatization of strategic sectors (which include most of the richest industries such as banking, telecoms, and construction) are being forgotten in favor of “bridge to nowhere”–style projects. Even government officials now admit that 60 percent or more of the stimulus money has ended up in stock and real-estate markets, fueling worries about dangerous new asset bubbles. In some coastal cities, property sales are three times what they were last year; the Shanghai stock market is up over 60 percent this year. “It’s just a stopgap measure—all the stimulus has been concentrated in building new infrastructure and reheating the property sector,” says Chinese independent economist Andy Xie.

This could spell trouble for Hu and Wen. The Chinese government debt, once negligible, is now officially about 30 percent of GDP, but some Western economists put the real figure as high as 70 percent. While these figures are still low compared with Western nations (the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will reach about 100 percent next year), they have Chinese politicians fretting. Last month Wen told a group of VIPs at the World Economic Forum in Dalian that China’s rebound was “unstable, unbalanced, and unconsolidated.” A week earlier Chi Fulun, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was blunter: “Chinese leaders,” he said in an interview, “should rethink the country’s reform package.”…… (more details from Newsweek)

Appearance of a Legal System in China Misleading, Says Commission

By Gary Feuerberg, Epoch Times Staff, Oct 18, 2009-

WASHINGTON—China gives the appearance of a modern state, with a comprehensive judicial system and code of laws. In reality, China experts agree that respect for the rule of law and individual rights common in democracies takes a backseat to other state priorities. Still, the Chinese regime must have answers to international inquiries about how China is addressing, for example, climate change, environmental protection, and the recent Tibetan and Uyghur protests.

To access how China’s legal system and human rights protections are evolving, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) asked a group of experts to assess the current state of human rights and the rule of law.

“In its 2009 report, the [CECC] Commission expressed deep concerns about the continual human rights abuses and the stalled rule of law development,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND), Co-Chairman of the Commission, in his opening statement. The 2009 annual CECC report is scheduled for an Internet release on Oct. 13.

“Mr. Chairman, I am afraid that what we have seen in China is not the emergence of rule of law but rule by law. All of China’s developing legal structures, regulatory institutions, bureaucratic agencies, don’t amount to real law, since the communist party and the government aren’t subject to them,” said ranking member Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).

Senator Dorgan said it is in the interest of the U.S. as well as Chinese citizens for the China’s regime to cease repressing free expression and the rule of law. “The harassment of whistle blowers and the suppression of criticism and dissent remove internal checks against environmental damage and hurt not only Chinese citizens but have a global impact as well.”

“To maximize progress on food safety, product quality, even clean air, the Chinese government must engage as allies environmental whistle blowers, watchdog press, the NGOs, Human Rights lawyers, and they cannot be repressed as enemies of the state,” said Sen. Dorgan……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

Lhasa Fears Swine Flu, China officials decline to give infection figures

Radio Free Asia, Oct. 16, 2009-

HONG KONG—Residents of the Tibetan capital Lhasa say they fear a spike in infections with H1N1 influenza, while Chinese officials decline to give infection figures.

“This disease has become very serious. Most of the victims are students,” said one Tibetan man living in Lhasa.

“The leadership seems to have been more engrossed in celebrations of the 60th anniversary, and they seem to be underplaying the seriousness of the epidemic,” he said, referring to nationwide celebrations of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1.

China announced its first swine flu death in the Tibetan region last week.

The victim was an 18 year-old Tibetan woman who had been hospitalized in Lhasa the week before with severe symptoms.

Officials have sent 200,000 doses of influenza A (H1N1) vaccine to the region since, according to a statement on the Health Ministry’s Web site.

No outreach

But residents say that so far there have been no Tibetan-language programs on radio or television to educate the population on how to prevent swine flu, which was declared a pandemic in June.

Another Tibetan man said that the local swine flu infection rate is considered “very high” by Lhasa residents.

“The number of people arriving on trains from different parts of China is increasing, and there are huge concentrations of people at railway stations and other places where people gather. The chance of getting infected is extremely high,” he said.

“It is very serious in the Lhasa area, but the authorities are trying to underplay the spread of this disease.”…… (more details from Radio Free Asia)

China’s Information on Gao Zhisheng ‘Unacceptable,’ Says U.S. Senator

By Gary Feuerberg, Epoch Times Staff, Oct 14, 2009 -

WASHINGTON—People listened attentively at an Oct. 7 hearing of the U.S.-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on Capitol Hill to an update on the status of renowned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

The commission invited four China experts to give testimony on various aspects of China’s legal system, and one of them, John Kamm, had just come back from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., the day before the hearing.

Mr. Kamm, founder and executive director of the Dui Hua (“dialogue”) Foundation, has been successful in the past in obtaining information on China’s prisoners of conscience.

Lawyer Gao, 43, known as the “conscience of China,” was abducted by a dozen security agents on Feb. 4, and the Chinese regime has not answered queries on his whereabouts or health since. The latter is of much concern because of fears that he has been maltreated and tortured, as he has been in the past. Gao’s personal account of over 50 days of torture in 2007, including electric shocks to his genitals, at the hands of China’s secret police was published in February 2009.

Gao was an army veteran and self-taught lawyer, who had a highly successful law practice until Chinese authorities closed down his law office. Voted one of the 10 best lawyers in China by the Ministry of Justice in 2001, his fortunes changed when he began to defend Falun Gong practitioners and wrote public letters to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabiao in 2005, the National People’s Congress in 2004, and to the U.S. Congress in 2007 criticizing the “barbaric” treatment of Falun Gong. He also resigned from the Chinese Communist Party in December 2005. Gao’s wife and two children fled to the United States in January.

Co-chairman of the CECC Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) said lawyer Gao has been branded “enemy of the state.”

“Gao represented some of China’s most vulnerable people, including exploited coal miners, Christians, Falun Gong members. … He believed in the power of the law and sought to use the law to battle corruption, expose police abuses, and defend religious freedom,” said Sen. Dorgan.

Sen. Dorgan said he has written Chinese authorities on numerous occasions about the status of lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

Mr. Kamm said the Chinese Embassy told him that Gao was permitted to go to his home village in northern Sha’anxi Province to pay respects to his ancestors. He was told, “Gao is not being mistreated, is fine” and is not being subjected to “compulsory legal measures.” Kamm also said that a friend of Gao’s reported on his blog of having received a call in July. Presumably, the call was allowed to prove that Gao was alive.

“Unfortunately, we still don’t know his whereabouts; there is concern for his well-being, obviously,” said Mr. Kamm. “Finally, we have no idea on what basis he is being held. We are basically being told he is not being held for legal reasons.”

Mr. Kamm said Gao has “disappeared” and compared this situation to the “disappearance” of Bishop Su Zhimin, leader of the Catholic underground Church of China, who has gone “missing” for 12 years.

Sen. Dorgan thanked Mr. Kamm and said: “We don’t know the whereabouts or what [Gao] has been charged with. We do know he was abducted from his home after his family escaped China. We do know he was previously incarcerated and tortured in China. We also know that his behavior was the behavior of a lawyer who had a law office, doing the professional work of people who needed the help of a lawyer, and for that, he apparently has been incarcerated.”

“I would say to the Chinese Embassy in the United States: The responses I have received from them about Mr. Gao are wholly unresponsive and unsatisfactory to me and this commission. We would hope that the Chinese Embassy and the government of China would take seriously our concerns about Mr. Gao.”…… (more details from The Epochtimes)

My mother and sister, prisoners of China’s Communist Party

By Yi-Yuan Chang, The Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2009-

China’s leaders meant for the celebrations on Oct. 1 to remind the world of their country’s growing power and importance. But the 60th anniversary of the communist revolution, which Nina Hachigian wrote about in her Sept. 30 Times Op-Ed article, should also remind us of something else: The Chinese Communist Party is still very much an authoritarian regime whose nature remains quite the same as when Mao Tse-tung brutalized the nation.

I should know. About four months ago, my mother, Yao-Hua Li, and sister, Yi-Bo Zhang, were abducted by Chinese police officers simply because of their spiritual beliefs.

Just as millions of Chinese citizens did in the 1990s, my family embraced the Buddhist spiritual discipline of Falun Gong. The practice combines meditation and a moral philosophy based on the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance. It enabled my mother to find relief from severe back pains and gave us all a more positive outlook on life.

The Chinese Communist Party, however, viewed the growing spiritual movement as a threat and banned the Falun Gong faith in 1999. Since then, international observers have reported that more than 100,000 Falun Gong adherents have been sent to forced-labor camps, and thousands have been tortured (many to death) because they refused to recant their beliefs.

Though I had feared that my family members in China could be victimized under this persecution, I had assumed they were safe. After all, my mother has Hong Kong residency, and my sister was a successful financial manager with a well-known international corporation. I thought this would give them some level of protection.

I was wrong.

On June 4, exactly 20 years to the day after the massacre at Tiananmen Square, my mother and sister were taken from their home in Shanghai and sent to jail for no other reason than the fact that they practice the Falun Gong faith. They still haven’t been charged with a crime or brought to trial (even if they do get a trial, it would be a farce). I searched high and low in Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million people, and I could not find one lawyer with the courage to take their case.

Their fate will be determined by the local 610 Office, a Gestapo-like organization charged with persecuting Falun Gong adherents.

My family is not alone in our suffering. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2008 country report on human rights, Falun Gong adherents are estimated to make up as much as half of China’s labor camp population. They also account for two-thirds of the torture cases in China, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

All around the world, people and governments look to the United States for leadership on human rights. This is precisely why lawmakers and business leaders need to keep the countless number of people such as my mother and sister in mind when engaging with China’s leaders.

The values of human rights and freedom are not just American values; they are universal. A relationship can only be healthy and long-lasting when it is built on shared values, not just shared interests, which are temporary and ever-changing.

This is why I am very thankful that 77 members of Congress, including California Reps. Maxine Waters, Ed Royce, Darrell Issa, Duncan D. Hunter, Dana Rohrabacher and Adam Schiff, have co-sponsored HR 605, which recognizes the ongoing persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and calls for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison and torture its practitioners.

The resolution is being reviewed by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which is chaired by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village). There are millions of people suffering persecution in China, not just my family and not just Falun Gong adherents. Every single one of them would join me in my hope for Congress to pass this resolution.

After his trip to China in August, Berman described Chinese officials as being “very open” to expanding human rights in their country. For the sake of my family and so many others, I hope he supports HR 605 and takes advantage of the openness to which he attests. My mother and sister are waiting.

Yi-Yuan Chang is assistant director of UCLA’s Center for Esthetic Dentistry.

- The Los Angeles Times

Eutelsat Hearing Postponed Due to Last Minute Submissions

Press Release, NTDTV, Oct. 14, 2009-

On 13 October 2009, the Commerce Court in Paris was to hear the merits of a petition brought forth by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) to determine whether to appoint an expert to investigate Eutelsat SA’s termination of NTDTV’s broadcast over China. However, Eutelsat legal counsel Jean-Michel Lepretre presented a new stack of documents to the court very late in the evening before the day of the hearing. In order to study and digest the newly produced documents, NTDTV legal counsel William Bourdon asked for and received a postponement to the hearing. The Commerce Court has rescheduled the hearing to 5 November 2009 instead.

Although the hearing date was set more than two months in advance, such an act is often employed as a stalling tactic, according to Joseph Breham, an associate of Mr. Bourdon. He expressed confidence in the strength of NTDTV’s case, and indicated that the additional documents should not pose any problems for him and he intended to use the allotted time to examine the newly produced documents and prepare a response.

Background

In June 2008 Eutelsat terminated NTDTV’s broadcast to China on its W5 satellite, ostensibly due to technical failures onboard the craft. Days later, Reporters Without Borders obtained evidence that Eutelsat intentionally shut down NTDTV’s broadcast to appease the Chinese communist regime, and that contrary to Eutelsat’s claims, W5 had sufficient capacity to resume NTDTV’s broadcast.

Known for beaming uncensored news into mainland Chinese homes, NTDTV has long been a thorn in the side of the Chinese regime. The interruption to NTDTV’s broadcast represented a further setback for information freedom in China.

Recognizing NTDTV’s importance to the Chinese people, the European Parliament passed a resolution in January 2009 calling on the European Commission and EU Member States to take the necessary action to help restore NTDTV’s broadcasts to China and to support access to uncensored information for millions of Chinese citizens.

According to the convention that established Eutelsat in 1982, Eutelsat is obligated to “insure the freedom of expression and of information” in providing cross border television service. Citing “opacity of [Eutelsat's] behavior”, the lawsuit seeks to shed light on the facts surrounding W5’s malfunction, so a determination can be made on damages and interest in compensation of any prejudice suffered by NTDTV.

For the latest update on the progress of this legal action and its background, please contact Carrie Hung at 917-319-0219 or carrie.hung@ntdtv.com.

About New Tang Dynasty Television

Established in February 2002, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) is a non-profit television broadcaster and the only independent Chinese-language television to broadcast into China. NTDTV is dedicated to providing objective, uncensored news to Chinese residents. As a vital news source, NTDTV reported on the SARS outbreak in China three weeks before Beijing admitted to its existence. NTDTV also reports on environmental and human rights issues in China, generating awareness among Chinese residents important issues their government withholds from them.

What Has NOT Changed in China?

Professor Li Dong, The Epochtimes, Oct 12, 2009-

Exactly 60 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power after a bloody civil war and established the “People’s Republic” of China.

The CCP was able to win the civil war because most Chinese people were disappointed with the legitimate Guomindang government, a corrupt and undemocratic regime, and the CCP made wonderful promises.

Two of them were especially appealing: The first is the promise of land reform, made to the peasantry who made up more than 80% of the population. The second is the promise of democracy, made particularly to the better educated urban people.

What happened to both of these promises?

Land Reform and Famine

Immediately after the CCP gained control of the mainland, it introduced a nation-wide land reform. This was a violent campaign which killed millions of country gentry and annihilated the entire landowning class. Anyway, peasants got their land, right? Wrong. Hardly had the land reform been concluded, when the CCP launched its Soviet-styled agricultural collectivization drive.

Peasants were forced to give up their newly-acquired land to agricultural co-operatives and people’s communes, and thus began their 30-year socialist ordeal; during 1959-1962 at least 36 million peasants died of starvation in a nation-wide famine. This worst famine in human history was caused entirely by Mao Zedong’s lunatic economic adventurism called the Great Leap Forward. It is therefore quite legitimate to contend that the promise of “Land to the tiller” was a big lie and the CCP had betrayed Chinese peasantry.

Then, what of the promise of democracy?

Promise of Democracy a Lie

A study of China’s history after 1949 shows it was another big lie, with the CCP betraying the Chinese people, who had believed and backed the Party in its drawn-out bid for power. It was interesting to note that when the Government of the People’s Republic of China was first formed in 1949, it did include some nominal figureheads who were not CCP members.

Three out of the country’s six vice premiers were non-CCP members. All were middle-of-roaders and fellow travelers. But each of them vanished without fanfare, until 1956 when every vice premier was CCP members; even nominal figureheads were no longer tolerated.

Today a superficial scan of China’s governance arrangements would show that China has what we call the super structure of a modern state – it has a legislature, an executive branch and even a judiciary system, similar to the United States.

Let us, however, look a little more closely at each of these……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

China’s Export of Censorship (2)

by Christopher Walker and Sarah Cook, Far Eastern Economic Review, October 12, 2009-

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More insidious has been an indirect form of economic intimidation, whereby publications, event organizers or governments engage in self-censorship on topics deemed sensitive to the mainland, a dynamic some have dubbed “pre-emptive kowtowing.” Given their small size, proximity and relationship to the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

This June, the Hong Kong edition of Esquire magazine, published by South China Media, pulled a feature story by journalist Daisy Chu on the Tiananmen Square massacre slated to run on the 20th anniversary. In 2008, a prominent legal journal in Hong Kong made a last-minute decision not to publish an article on Tibetan self-determination. A blackout on independent coverage of the Falun Gong is believed to be practiced among certain Hong Kong and Taiwanese outlets whose owners have close ties to Beijing or significant business interests on the mainland.

As China’s economic clout and role on the global stage grows, it will inevitably exert greater influence beyond its borders. However, the issue is not whether China—which features one the world’s least hospitable environments for free expression—will project influence but what shape this growing power will take. The CCP plans, for instance, to spend billions of dollars on expanding its overseas media operations in a potentially massive show of “soft power.” But whether this enormous investment will simply project the deeply illiberal values that characterize China’s domestic media scene to a wider playing field is a question advocates of free expression should seriously ponder.

This critical question, so far, does not provide an encouraging answer.

China’s attempts to insinuate itself into Taiwan’s media sector, and Beijing’s ongoing efforts to limit the vitality of Hong Kong’s media, are among the examples of this phenomenon in Asia. The CCP has recently demonstrated its willingness to suppress open expression in Germany and Australia. The United States is not immune to this pressure. The Dalai Lama will be waiting a bit longer for his meeting with President Obama.

The Chinese government’s position at the vanguard of efforts to monitor and filter Internet content, using its wealth and technical acumen to devise methods to limit the free and independent flow of information online, also has serious transnational implications for free expression. China effectively serves as an incubator for new media suppression; authoritarian governments around the world carefully watch China’s censorship techniques and learn from its innovations.

The community of democratic states must acknowledge the Chinese government’s growing media ambitions and efforts to censor beyond its borders. Acquiescence in this challenge will only embolden the Chinese authorities.

Christopher Walker is director of studies and Sarah Cook is an Asia researcher at Freedom House.

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- Original report

China’s Export of Censorship (1)

by Christopher Walker and Sarah Cook, Far Eastern Economic Review, October 12, 2009-

The Chinese government’s effort to prevent dissident authors from taking part in the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair, an international showcase for freedom of expression, has offered Germany a close-up view of China’s intolerance of dissent.

In September, two Chinese writers, journalist Dai Qing and poet Bei Ling, had their invitations to the fair revoked by German event organizers after China’s organizing committee complained. The Chinese delegation threatened a boycott over invitations to the writers for a September symposium promoting the Frankfurt Book Fair, which begins on October 14. China is the “guest of honor” at this year’s fair. In the face of this pressure, the event’s organizers withdrew the invitations. The writers’ participation was ultimately enabled when the German PEN club of independent writers invited the two Chinese dissidents.

While Beijing’s coercive behavior caught many Germans off guard, it should not have come as a surprise; the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) censorship ambitions are neither new, nor limited to Germany. In fact, this action is just the latest example of an ongoing pattern of interference, cooptation and intimidation beyond China’s borders used to muzzle voices critical of the Chinese government.

Two days after the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, a film festival in Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaohsiung, will begin. It, too, has come under pressure to censor. In this instance the issue is a planned screening of “The 10 Conditions of Love,” a documentary about exiled Uighur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer. Chinese authorities assert Kadeer has terrorist links, unsubstantiated claims not accepted by most Western countries or independent analysts. Despite pressure to shelve the film—linked to fears that the city’s growing industry servicing mainland tourists could be hurt—the Kaohsiung Film Archive and the organizing committee of the 2009 Kaohsiung Film Festival announced on September 27 that it would go ahead with the screening. A similar series of events unfolded at the Melbourne Film Festival this summer.

In September, Uighur activist Dolkun Isa, who holds German citizenship, was denied entry into South Korea, to take part in a conference on democracy. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner. Isa, who fled China in 1997 and obtained asylum in Germany, was held at the Seoul airport without explanation for two days after being denied entry to South Korea.

The Chinese authorities have developed an elaborate arsenal of censorship, including an extensive domestic apparatus of information control. Less appreciated and understood are the methods of interference and intimidation employed to muzzle critical voices abroad. Some of the modern authoritarian techniques the Chinese authorities use for this purpose beyond its borders are detailed in a study, “Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians,” recently released by Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.

Economic coercion is a principal line of attack in the transnational suppression of issues deemed sensitive by China’s rulers. The coercion is applied directly and indirectly.

Instances of direct economic coercion and censorship typically occur when an event has already been planned or already begun. Pressure is then applied by Chinese government representatives on the organizers or local authorities to suppress certain activities or appearances deemed undesirable by the CCP. In such instances, explicit or implicit threats of boycotts, trade sanctions, or withdrawal of Chinese government funding have been used to force the hand of those in charge. The CCP’s Frankfurt Book Fair gambit fits this model, given the financial implications of the Chinese government’s $15 million investment in the event. (next >>)

Observation: Will China Ever Become a Spy Power?

chinascope.org, 11 October 2009-

Observation is a magazine published by the US based China Information Center. On August 6, 2009, the magazine carried the article “Will China Rise to Be a Spy Power?” The following is a translation of the article. [1]

Will China Ever Become a Spy Power?

More than two years ago, Chinese hackers broke into German government computers, infecting them with spyware, and, at one point, paralyzing their electronic systems. This attracted international attention, and the East was newly viewed as a threat. In fact, experts say, the telecommunication systems of the United States Congress have to withstand millions of attacks each day. Modern information warfare had long been fought around the world, silently, but intensely. However, as long as the public is unaware of it, no one will know just how cutthroat it really is. The practice of stealing industrial intelligence and business information has been going on for a long time among industrialized countries. In recent years, as China has started engaging in the international community and entering into global competition, rumors have begun to spread that Chinese spies are everywhere. In fact, many Chinese living in the United States now work in the government, in national defense, and in economic enterprises and trade, and do academic research. In recent years, news about these people stealing information for their home country of China has made headlines, causing much worry and anger in the U.S. At the same time, German media have recently reported a number of cases of Chinese espionage. The rise of this new power is understandably being viewed with consternation.

Two years ago, the theme of one issue of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine was “Yellow Spies.” The story ridiculed Chinese spies with sarcasm and prejudice as well as racism. It caused a huge wave of irritation among China’s “angry young,” even though many of them couldn’t fully understand the content of the issue. They relayed distorted information, causing quite a phenomenon at the time. The free press in the West loves reporting bad news, and not only on issues related to China. They are also fascinated with exposing the dark side of their own societies, afraid that if they lag behind in digging out bad news, their readers will abandon them. China’s “angry young” are so used to listening only to the Chinese official media, which exaggerate the Chinese government as wonderful, brilliant, and precise, that if they ever run across any criticism from the outside, their nationalistic emotions irrationally take over.

The most common type of espionage carried out by Chinese in the West is to collect information on commercial and industrial high-tech technologies. Chinese hackers attacking their targets in Germany via the Internet is very popular in Germany. The areas they focused on were scientific and technological enterprises, such as automotive manufacturing, new energy research and development, chemistry, communications, optics, electrical engineering, materials research, and military equipment.

Chinese espionage activities in Germany are so widespread that they have become a threat to Germany’s infrastructure, especially in areas such as the country’s power grid. Mr. Walter Opfermann, an espionage protection expert in the office for counterintelligence in the German Federal Constitution Protection Bureau, pointed out in July that Chinese hackers are trying hard to hide their identities by installing Trojans in e-mail attachments or simply launching attacks via other large-scale network systems, and that their tactics are increasingly sophisticated. China’s “National Trojan program” has a dual function: theft and destruction. China’s National Security Bureau utilizes advanced technology provided by U.S. electronics companies such as Cisco Systems (CISCO). These high-tech systems enable the National Security Bureau to attack individuals or organizations that they have targeted by transmitting viruses. As soon as the PCU is turned on, the entire computer system is paralyzed. One of the reasons that the Chinese spies steal high-tech information could be that the Chinese want the results of Western research free of charge, eliminating the need for investing in research and development at home. But this approach has simply made the means of competition more malicious.

German experts know that, in recent years, China’s spies are not only stealing economic information, but also monitoring those people they consider “disturbances.”  Of course, they do not operate as openly in Germany as they do in China. Germans know that Chinese spies in Germany are monitoring Uyghurs, Falun Gong followers, Tibetan independence movement adherents, and Taiwan independence movement supporters, as well as pro-democracy activists. South Munich is the Uyghur’s home base outside of China. Since the 1970s, the US government-backed Radio Free Europe has broadcast in the Uyghur language. In the 1990s, the exiled Uyghur people set up organizations in South Munich and attracted a large number of Uyghur refugees. In 2004, the “World Uyghur Congress” established its headquarters in Munich. Rebiya Kadeer became the world leader of Uyghurs in exile, even though she was in Washington, D.C. at the time. Unlike the Chinese pro-democracy organizations, within which divisions and disunity always exist, Uyghurs and Tibetans are very respectful of their spiritual leaders, and it is rare to hear of internal struggles. Even though the Chinese regime discredits the World Uyghur Congress as being a terrorist organization, because Kadeer is popularly respected in the US Congress, the World Uyghur Congress was able to hold its Opening Assembly in front of the US Capitol Building in May. This was a further affront to Beijing.

Chinese diplomats in Germany often gather information under the shadow of diplomatic immunity. The German government recently prevented a consul named Ji Wumin from entering Germany, because, during the past few years when he worked as a Chinese diplomat in Germany, the German federal intelligence agency discovered that he had carried out espionage. Mr. Ji Wumin was specifically interested in collecting information on Uyghurs. He returned to his home country in 2007. Probably because Beijing was pleased with his accomplishments, he was again sent to Munich. But this time, the German government refused to allow him to enter.

Because hackers from China have often invaded Germany’s sensitive intelligence systems, its Federal Constitution Protection Bureau has now established a special team to deal with such attacks. Germany is now vigilant when it comes to China, just as it was with regard to Russia in the past. According to estimates by its Federal Constitution Protection Bureau, there are 20 to 50 Chinese intelligence personnel in Germany, and their job is to collect intelligence for China. It seems that, with the growth of the economy, as well as with the escalation of conflicts among different ethnic groups, China no doubt will develop into an “intelligence power.” Compared to the U.S., Russia, and other big powers, China is different in that its National Security agency always does business behind closed doors, seizing and fighting against its own citizens. Its evil ways have not yet reached foreign countries, but if one day China’s CIA and KGB do extend the country’s tentacles of influence overseas, it will mark a new era in extraterritorial abductions and intimidation.

- Chinascope.org