University Town Quarantined after H1N1 Outbreak in China

By Fang Xiao, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 15, 2009 -

A H1N1 flu outbreak has lead to the closure of a university town in Langfang, a city in China’s Hebei Province. Students now carry thermometers with them as they walk

There were over 300 suspected H1N1 cases on the campus of the People’s Armed Police Force Academy, according to an instructor there who spoke to The Epoch Times under condition of anonymity.

The instructor said those infected were all transferred to Beijing for treatment, and a series of preventative measures taken on campus.

“They have found two more H1N1 cases in the cafeteria, so [the cafeteria] was closed… School authorities have disinfected and cleaned the campus. Every student carries a thermometer with them,” the instructor said.

Although death rates are low among the infected, the instructor said that in the future victims might suffer complications, such as partial paralysis or damage to the neurological, respiratory, or circulatory systems.

One clerk who works in Langfang told The Epoch Times that there are 14 universities with about 40,000 to 50,000 students in the university town, and over 10,000 people have been quarantined since last Wednesday.

The Public Security Bureau was issuing passes in and out of town.

The library had been closed since the outbreak, according to someone who works there contacted by telephone.

Rumors circulated on the internet that authorities in Xiong County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, had issued an order to towns and villages in the area to not report any fever cases, to not confirm any H1N1 cases, and to treat H1N1 flu like the regular flu. The Epoch Times was unable to verify these claims.

The state’s Xinhua News Agency recently reported a new confirmed H1N1 flu case in the Hebei Technical College of Petroleum Profession and those who were infected with H1N1 in Langfang City had all been hospitalized for quarantine and medical treatments.

Xinhua News Agency also reported on Sept. 12 that the Hebei Province Education Department had ordered schools in the province to report any H1N1 cases to their local Education Bureaus, which will then report to the Provincial Education Department.

- The Epochtimes

Chinese 53-year-old Woman Dies from Torture Six Days after Arrest

THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER, 15 Sep 2009 -

NEW YORK — A 53-year-old from China’s northeastern Hebei Province has died in police custody six days after being taken from her home.

According to sources in Hebei Province, Ms. Wang Huilan was taken away by police on Sept. 1, 2009 by Zhouzhou City police. Sources familiar with her case say Ms. Wang was force fed on Sept. 7, 2009 and died that afternoon from injuries sustained during the force-feeding.

Unlike force-feeding performed by medical personnel to provide vital nutrients to a patient who will not or cannot feed themselves, force-feeding inside Chinese prisons, labor camps or detention centers is often performed as a torture method and is frequently used on Falun Gong detainees. Force-feeding has been the cause of death in approximately 10 percent of all known death cases of Falun Gong practitioners inside China.

The force-feeding is most often carried out by labor camp staff with no medical training, or by criminal inmates who are coerced to assist. Unsanitary rubber tubes are shoved into an adherent’s nose and down the stomach, often rupturing or damaging tissue; sometimes the tube enters the lungs. Detainees are often fed irritants such as highly concentrated salt water, hot pepper oil, boiling water, detergent, or even human feces.

Ms. Wang had been detained at least once before in March, 2006. Her home was ransacked by police at the time of her arrest and she was held for seven days before being released.

Throughout China, practitioners of Falun Gong are subject to arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and often torture as part of a systematic campaign waged by the Chinese Communist Party to “eradicate” the traditional Chinese exercise and meditation practice.

- THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER

Thousands of Workers on Strike for Over Seven Days in North China for Being Laid Off

By Gu Qinger, Epoch Times Staff Apr 9, 2009 -

For seven consecutive days, workers at the Yimian Group in Baoding, Hebei Province, have staged a large-scale strike. In order to prevent the new buyer of the company from moving out the equipment, several thousand workers surrounded the factory, and stood on watch day and night. According to workers on the scene, the strike was still going on as of April 3. Some workers have gone to Beijing to appeal for readdress of the injustice. Although the local  authorities sent an investigational group to the factory,  that didn’t remedy any of the issues.

Yimian Group is an old enterprise with a 50-year history. In 2003, the company had 9,021 employees. In 2004, in a re-organization,  all of its shares were sold to the Zhongce Group in Hong Kong. Subsequently, Zhongce Group established a specialized company called Asian Textile Enterprise. After this re-organization, a large number of workers were laid off, with only four thousand  being retained.

The reason  for this large-scale strike was because several thousand workers learned at the end of last month that the company has been secretly sold, but no workers had been told anything about it. Only about one hundred of the nearly four thousand workers will be retained to work at a new factory in Baoding county. The rest will all be laid off. Since last Friday, almost ten thousand workers, including those already retired from Yimian Group, spontaneously went to the factory to watch over the equipment.

The workers disclosed many illegal transactions before and after the reorganizations, including  severe loss of state-owned assets. They explained that after the reorganization five years ago, the promised $50 million investment in three years after the buy-off  was never made. For five years, the payment for employee compensation was delayed, and the retirement insurance also has not been  paid.

Workers stated that the factory originally had $700 million in assets, but now has nothing. The factory has been sold, and the money has disappeared. Now the new buyer and city government cannot or will not answer questions raised by the workers about these transactions.

One worker, Mr. Liu, told this reporter, “This strike has been going on for seven days. The bosses of the factory terminated the contracts with workers for no reason, and halted the production. The factory has been sold. Those  bosses swallowed up all the money, and now the workers have no way to make a living.”

Another worker said, “We are protecting the factory. The leaders planned to sell all the equipment, but the workers protected the factory. Everyone from eighty-year old retirees to young workers and old leaders all came out to ask for justice. Now is the peak time of the strike. Workers are especially angry.”

“Every day there are three to four thousand workers taking turns protecting the equipment, and preventing the buyers from moving the equipment,” he said.

Mr. Liu said, “The city government sent an investigation group to investigate and maintain  order. However, their true responsibility was to monitor the situation. There are many  plainclothes as well as uniformed police outside—nearly 200 to 300 people. We dare not to go in and out freely because we are afraid of being arrested. Now Baoding is blocking the  news of the strike, not publicizing anything.”

When an Epoch Times reporter called the city government of Baoding to inquire about the strike, a staff person there dismissed the call, saying that he is not aware of this matter and that any interview should be directed to the Propaganda Department.”

- The Epochtimes:  Thousands on Strike for Over Seven Days in Baoding, Hebei Province

China Vet Exposes Toxins in Food Supply

By Xin Fei, Epoch Times Staff, Nov 23, 2008 -

Ms. Wang Haizhen, a vet from Hebei Animal Pharmaceutical Co., exposes corruption within the industry. (The Epoch Times)

Ms. Wang Haizhen, a veterinarian from the Hebei Province Animal Pharmaceutical Co, recently went public with information exposing corruption in China’s food industry.

According to her, as early as 2005, several toxic substances including melamine were detected in some animal feed, resulting in contaminated milk powder, eggs, and pork having entered the food market and harming consumers. She said after the Sanlu Company’s contaminated baby formula incident, many other companies in the area have still been using chemicals such as the known carcinogen iodized rhodium protein, which is more dangerous than melamine.

Wang’s husband was arrested a few years ago for contacting the authorities in regards to contaminated animal feed. When the Sanlu incident occurred, she made the decision to not only continue appealing for her husband’s release but also follow in his footsteps by appealing for the people.

Wrongfully Imprisoned

Gao Songlin, Wang’s husband, was a sales manager for the Feilong Company, a subsidiary of the Hebei Animal Pharmaceutical Co. In 2005, Gao discovered that certain banned substances were being used in the formulas for some animal feed the company had been producing.  Much of this feed was already distributed, which means counterfeit drugs and toxic feed additives had already entered the market and contaminated the animal husbandry in some areas. This later led to the subsequent emergence of contaminated milk powder, eggs, and pork.

Gao was shocked by all this. He made arrangements to speak with An Diajin, the head of the legal department of the company in an effort to have the toxic substances removed from the animal feed formula. Gao also reported it to the Ministry of Agriculture several times. A month after the seizure of the company, An Dianjin falsely accused Gao of embezzlement. What should have been a civil case turned into a criminal case without a criminal investigation. Gao was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison.

Wang said, “The accusations are entirely false!”

Wang remarked that authorities had long since been aware of the presence of toxic substances in animal feed and its harmful effects but did their best to keep it quiet. She said they failed to take any preventive measures, and in order to protect their own best interests, they retaliated against the whistleblower.

“When my husband said he would report it, the person from the Pharmaceutical Company said, ‘Go ahead! Many of our men are the authorities.”

Toxic Materials Still Being Used

According to Wang, Hebei is the largest manufacturing base in China. It contains several large animal pharmaceutical companies for food additives, animal feed and animal pharmaceuticals. The Feilong Animal Pharmaceutical Company is one of them.

Wang said, although the Feilong Company was closed, it quickly changed its name and went on with business. Its plant and employees never changed. Just like the Sanlu Company, it changed its name and went right on with business.

According to Wang, a lot of manufacturers are still using melamine even after the Sanlu Scandal was exposed. Besides melamine, they also add large doses of Rh proteins, Lipiodol, Clenbuterol, attractant agents, just to name a few, to get the effect of accelerating the growth rate of animals. But the chemicals and toxic materials they are adding can easily have carcinogenic effects. Some of these additives are more dangerous than melamine.

She reported that in Hebei alone, there are several hundred companies like this. Besides these, there are several thousand unregistered companies. There are many cases like these in other parts of the country.

According to Wang, people on the inside know all the dirty tricks. Therefore they are usually very careful when it comes to eating meat. Consuming meat containing these additives on a long-term basis can lead to serious health consequences. Higher cancer rates nowadays are directly associated with eating contaminated meat.

She said it’s a secret trick of the trade to avoid meat as much as possible……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

Retracing the Path Toxic Powder Took To Food in China

By Maureen Fan and Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post Foreign Service, USA, Saturday, November 8, 2008-

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Xue Jianzhong never posted a sign on his ground-floor shop, but somehow everyone knew what he was selling. Customers from all over this dairy farming region in the northeastern province of Hebei flocked to Xue’s dusty street to buy special concoctions that he said would make milk more nutritious — and more marketable.

Advertised as a “protein powder,” the substance was sold in 44-pound bags and was tasteless, odorless and white, like talc. It wasn’t cheap, about $1 a pound, but it could be mixed into inferior milk or even with specially treated water and the result would be a milklike liquid that would pass government quality tests.

It wasn’t until September, when Xue was arrested in connection with the investigation into the poisoning of tens of thousands of babies across China, that it became clear his secret ingredient was a toxic industrial chemical called melamine.

Melamine can mimic protein in nutrition tests for milk and in products such as wheat gluten and chicken feed. But when ingested in large amounts, it can cause kidney stones or death in children and animals.

The problem is not just a domestic one. Melamine has surfaced in foods sold across Asia and, earlier, in pet food that poisoned animals in the United States, tainting China’s reputation as the world’s factory.

How the same substance that had killed pets and was officially banned in China as an additive in food just last year wound up in baby formula and so many other food products is a story of desperate farmers, complicit chemical companies, and government officials who looked the other way. All were part of a system that allowed the network of melamine dealers to thrive.

Farmers and companies involved in food and feed production said that the doctoring of their products was an open secret in the countryside but that the salesmen had told them it was harmless.

“Actually, every milk collection center bought a lot of melamine,” said Wang, a 60-year-old farmer in the village of Yudi, in the Shijiazhuang area, who would not give her full name because she feared retribution. “Everybody did this.”

China’s melamine trade is run by a criminal syndicate that has relied on chemical companies and underground laboratories for its supply. The trade has been supported by a customer base so eager for the substance that for years it turned a blind eye to its potentially deadly effects. Traditionally used in the manufacture of plastics and leather, melamine has made its way into the food supply in a way that was never supposed to happen.

Initially covered up by officials afraid of losing their jobs and besmirching the Beijing Olympic Games, the melamine contamination scandal began with infant milk formula that killed at least four infants and sickened 54,000 babies. It soon spread to candy, instant coffee, yogurt, biscuits and other products made with Chinese milk, prompting bans or recalls in 16 countries.

In recent weeks the toxin has been discovered in eggs and in animal feed, sparking fears that tainted foods go well beyond dairy products and may include fish, shrimp, beef and poultry.

“Almost all the animal feed companies I know added protein powder to their product until this September. So did our factory,” said a sales manager surnamed Li, in a branch factory of the Liuhe Group, a large animal feed company in Shandong province. “Of course, no one dares to add it now.” …… (more details from washingtonpost)

China’s Persecution of Christians Intensifies After Olympics

China Aid, October 29, 2008-

CHINA – Since the end of the Olympic Games, ChinaAid has received reports of intensified religious persecution from across China.

- In Beijing, Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan and his family members have been evicted from their home, beaten and arrested.

- In Heilongjiang province, one city called Yichuan recently banned all of the house churches.

- In Yunnan province, some house church members were attacked right after the Olympics.

- In Shandong province, Pastor Zhang Zhongxin was sentenced to two years of re-education through labor, and after the Olympics his appeal was denied. Pastor Zhang’s lawyer, Li Fangping, was refused permission to meet with him because authorities claim Pastor Zhang could endanger state security.

In another shocking new discovery, ChinaAid learned 29 house church leaders have been serving time in a labor camp and prisons in Henan province since July 9, 2007. They are accused of being “evil cult” members.

Among the 29 house church leaders, 21 are being held in No. 3 Prison of Henan province. One leader was released in September 2008. The other seven house church members belong to a house church group in Lingbao city that is part of the “Born Again Movement”. They were sentenced by the court as “evil cult” members on July 9, 2007. One leader was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, which is the harshest sentence against a house church leader in recent years besides Pastor Zhang Rongliang who was sentenced to seven and a half years in 2004 for allegedly “attempting to illegally cross the border and forgery of an official document”.

- ChinaAid.org

China Egg Farmers Desperate As Melamine Crisis Worsens, Over 10,000 Chickens Slaughtered Everyday

The Epoch Times,  Oct 31, 2008-

Since Hong Kong detected melamine in Chinese eggs on October 26, egg farmers in northern China’s Dingxing county, Baoding city have been increasingly anxious about their livelihoods.

In the past five days, the egg wholesale price has not been over US88 cents per kilogram, and in Zhongtaoshen village, the 120 egg farmers have had to slaughter over 10,000 chickens everyday, according to wholesaler, Mr Liao’s estimation.

According to the Jinghua Times report, most of the local eggs are sold to Beijing and Guangdong, and wholesalers have already reported that all eggs will be rejected if there is not a “No Melamine” certificate attached.

Facing cash flow pressure, many farmers have had to sell their chickens to slaughterhouses at prices as low as US$1.20 per kilogram.

Egg farmer Lu Shuanxi from Zhongtao Shenyi village recently sold 1,000 chickens to the slaughter house for money to buy several more days chicken feed for the rest of his 5,000 chickens.

On October 27 and 28, no one came to his village to buy eggs, and on October 29, the egg price offered by wholesalers was only US64 cents per kilogram.

According to one Zhongtao Shenyi village committee staff member, there are few refrigeration facilities in the area, and the first batch of eggs produced after October 26 is expected to expire in 9 days.

However, those farmers are also victims, as recent media reports indicate that chicken feed is actually the source of the melamine in the eggs. The use of melamine is an open secret in the animal feed industry in China, which initially started in aquaculture farming, and spread to poultry and livestock farms.

Internet reports from mainland China argue that most of the melamine comes from chemical plant waste.

- The Epochtimes

‘Underground’ Catholic Bishop Detained in North China on Last Day Of Beijing Olympics

UCA News, August 25, 2008-

HONG KONG (UCAN) — Underground Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding was taken away from his residence by public security officers and government officials on the closing day of the Beijing Olympics.

A Catholic source told UCA News that the 73-year-old bishop was resting in his room in the Christ the King Cathedral compound and talking with some Catholics there when the officers took him away at 11:20 a.m. Zhengding diocese is in Hebei province, which mostly surrounds Beijing.

The incident, the source said, occurred after the prelate celebrated Sunday Mass on Aug. 24 at the cathedral in Wuqiu, a village near Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, 270 kilometers southwest of Beijing.

The officers, from the Shijiazhuang area, told the Catholics at the scene that the authorities have arranged “a summer tour for the bishop” and that “he will not be back soon,” the source added.

Some of the hundreds of Catholics who attended the bishop’s Mass that morning were still in the cathedral and saw security officers lead Bishop Jia away.

A press release from the United States-based Cardinal Kung Foundation dated Aug. 24 said “six government officials in two automobiles arrested Bishop Jia” at the cathedral at about 10:45 a.m.

As of Aug. 25, the prelate, who is in ill health, has been under house arrest in Shijiazhuang, the source told UCA News.

Local Catholics do not know the reasons for removing their bishop, the source said, but surmise that it could be linked to the upcoming Paralympic Games in Beijing, which run Sept. 6-17. Bishop Jia runs an orphanage that also cares for disabled children, the source noted.

Earlier, on Aug. 15, Bishop Jia had presided in Wuqiu at the Mass celebrating the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. More than 1,000 Catholics attended even though public security officers had warned Catholics in the diocese to stay away from the feast-day Mass at the cathedral.

Underground Catholics reject affiliation with government-approved administrative structures for the Church.

- Source: CHINA  ‘Underground’ Hebei Bishop Detained By Security Officers On Last Day Of Olympics, UCA News

Two underground Catholic priests arrested in north China

Cardinal Kung Foundation, July 13, 2008-

Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A. — In his pastoral letter to China last year, Pope Benedict XVI established the date May 24 as the day “for the Catholics of the whole world to be united in prayer with the Church which is in China…..in liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai…..I would like that date to be kept by you as a day of prayer for the Church in China…”

Upon the encouragement of Pope Benedict, and as a tradition in honoring Our Lady of Sheshan 佘山聖母, thousands of Chinese made a pilgrimage to Sheshan 佘山in Shanghai in May. Most of them had tacit approval from the Chinese government. Those who had no such approval risked arrest and detention. The entire underground clergy of the Shanghai Diocese was placed under house arrest during the month of May in order to prevent them from making pilgrimage to Sheshan. Other underground Catholics were warned by the government official not to participate in visiting Sheshan on May 24.

Among the pilgrims were two underground priests from Xuanhua 宣化 Hebei 河北. Father Zhang Jianlin 章建林, age 42, was intercepted by Chinese authorities in Nanking 南京on his way to Sheshan to participate in the prayers for China on May 24. Father Zhang was sent back by the security police to Xuanhua where he was promptly arrested and detained. Father Zhangli 張利, age 45, announcing his intention to go to Sheshan on May 24, was arrested and detained few days before May 24 in order to prevent him from going to Sheshan. Both priests disappeared while they were in the hands of Chinese authorities. There has been no news on these two priests since their arrests. We do not know what is happening to them and where they are.

The underground diocese of Xuanhua has many houses dedicated to prayers. They have now all been forbidden by the Chinese authorities to be used as prayer-houses. Those larger houses have now been fitted with video cameras by the authorities in order to have continuous monitoring of these houses of worship to make sure that no prayers are to be recited there……. (more details from Cardinal Kung Foundation)

China: Unprecedented Motion by 6 Lawyers Defends Falun Gong in Court for First Time

By Samantha Lev, The Human Rights Law Foundation, via the Epochtimes, Oct 25, 2007-

In a daring and unprecedented motion ( .PDF, in English, download)  recently smuggled out of China, six Chinese lawyers have for the first time formally defended Falun Gong adherents’ right to freedom of belief in court.

“Falun Gong … which advocates ‘truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance,’ has been banned and persecuted for no justifiable reason at all,” says the document. “The current various punitive actions against Falun Gong believers do not have any legal basis, and must therefore be stopped.”

The defendants in the case are a family of three—Wang Bo, 27, and her two parents, Wang Xinzhong and Liu Shuqin. All three practice Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation and spiritual discipline. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned the practice in 1999, when several leaders perceived Falun Gong as a threat to their power after its adherents reportedly outnumbered Party members.

To strengthen the campaign against Falun Gong, the CCP issued directives barring attorneys from defending practitioners. Since then, the authorities have disbarred or arrested most attorneys who have tried.

“In China, defense lawyers have themselves been arrested, arbitrarily detained, subject to criminal prosecution or imprisonment simply because they provide legal representation to Falun Gong adherents and other Chinese citizens targeted for persecution by the authorities,” says Terri Marsh, executive director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.

Despite such circumstances, as the family’s trial approached, six lawyers from Beijing—Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Zhang Lihui, Li Shunzhang, Teng Biao, and Wu Hongwei— decided to disregard the prohibition and represent Wang and her parents.

“I think Falun Gong practitioners have fundamental rights,” said Teng Biao, one of the six attorneys, on a New Tang Dynasty Television program in April. “In the face of this persecution, intellectuals and attorneys in mainland China remain silent. This kind of silence is unconscionable, and that is why we’re here to defend Wang Bo.”

Defense on Multiple Fronts

The lawyers’ 14-page motion ( .PDF, in English, download) , which was submitted to a court in Hebei Province in April 2007, combines legal theory on freedom of belief with an analysis of Chinese law. Drawing on sources ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Japanese legislation on religious organizations, it reflects extensive research on the part of its authors. Enumerating multiple ways in which the campaign against Falun Gong violates China’s constitution, the lawyers argue that the criminal charges against their clients lack any legal basis.

The lawyers’ defense of Wang and her parents consists of six parts, beginning with a section reaffirming what they see as universal principles related to the case, as well as dismantling the CCP’s claim that Falun Gong had to be collectively banned because it was supposedly a “cult.”

The section addresses three issues: the right to freedom of belief, the legal principle that a criminal offense can only be based on one’s conduct and not one’s thoughts, and the separation of religion and the state, which the lawyers term “The Great Divide.” Among the sources sited in this latter subsection is American founding father Thomas Jefferson.

“Jefferson criticized the history of the integration of religion with political regimes … refined the principle of The Great Divide, and realized this principle in a political system,” write the lawyers. “The current laws, regulations, and judicial practices which sanction the suppression of Falun Gong deviate from the principle of The Great Divide.”

But for Guo Guoting, a Shanghai lawyer who was disbarred and exiled to Canada in 2005 for defending Falun Gong, the most impressive aspect of the motion is the second part. It covers the unconstitutionality of the campaign against Falun Gong and argues that the persecution itself is illegal and invalid.

“In the case of Falun Gong, this is a fundamental principle,” says Guo, who has authored several articles analyzing the campaign against Falun Gong. “A lot of Chinese lawyers who defend Falun Gong do not dare to mention this point. They just defend the individual practitioner, but don’t argue against the whole persecution. [These lawyers] mention all the key points.”

Having established the illegality of the ban on Falun Gong, the lawyers focus the next three sections on denouncing the measures taken to wipe out the practice and calling on the government to review its policy.

“We believe that adopting high-handed policies against Falun Gong believers not only opposes the Chinese constitution and basic international human rights standards,” they write. “Even from a practical perspective, the persecution has had a limited or even counterproductive effect.”

Taking the argument a step further, they call for those who’ve committed abuses against Falun Gong to be held accountable.

“We also consider the implementation of torture on Falun Gong practitioners to be a violation of our country’s Criminal Law provisions, thus constituting a crime,” they write. “The perpetrators should bear responsibility for their criminal actions.”

The document’s final section then addresses the specific situation of their clients. Wang and her parents were facing imprisonment for posting online information exposing abuses, downloading materials related to Falun Gong, and taking photos of a banner calling on people to quit the CCP.

“The identification of the above behavior as criminal … is absurd,” they write. “Using a camera to take photographs is a part of normal life for citizens, and does not threaten or harm society. It is ludicrous to judge citizens’ normal practice of their faith or day-to-day activities as criminal.”

“We ask that you respect citizens’ constitutional rights, righteously face your historic responsibility, have the courage to face the truth and your conscience, and acquit the innocent defendants,” concludes the motion.

Aftermath

But in a move typical of Chinese courts’ treatment of Falun Gong, the judges did not acquit the three practitioners. Without responding to any of the arguments raised in the defense motion, on May 9, they upheld the previous court’s decision and sentenced Wang Bo and her parents each to three years in prison where they remain today.

“They just ignored the submission,” says Guo Guoting. “This is how Chinese courts are. They don’t dare to even mention the defense lawyers’ points. Because all the judges who handle such cases are CCP members and are so-called ‘politically reliable’… they don’t dare speak what they are truly thinking. So, in China, the courts give no justice at all.”

Equally disconcerting for those who hope to see rule of law emerge in China, the lawyers themselves have become victims of abuse since taking the case. On the day of the hearing, Teng Biao was reportedly beaten by police. Last month, Li Heping was kidnapped and shocked with electric batons.

“I was so badly beaten that I rolled on the ground everywhere,” said Li in a statement later posted online. “Yet, they continued to chase and beat me with smiles on their faces. The beating went on and off for four to five hours.”

Such treatment by the authorities against those who defend Falun Gong has been a consistent pattern. To Guo Guoting, himself a victim of such retaliation, the fact that the lawyers wrote such a motion despite the risks, is a testament of their dedication to the rule of law.

“Why did they speak out? Because they did their job. I respect them,” he says. “They are true human rights lawyers.”

“Li Heping and his colleagues have brought the related cases of Falun Gong practitioners Wang Bo and her parents to trial,” said Marsh. “This is unprecedented in China and the partial transcript of these proceedings will have far reaching consequences for China and the outside world in the years to come.”

In 2002, Wang Bo was sentenced to a labor camp for raising a Falun Gong banner on Tiananmen Square. By manipulating statements Wang made under torture, China’s state-run television station produced an influential anti-Falun Gong program claiming Wang had been convinced to give up the practice.

Upon her release, Wang posted an online video recounting the abuse she suffered and denouncing the television program. Soon after, Wang and her parents were arrested and sentenced to four and five years in prison, respectively, on vague charges of “using a heretical organization to undermine the law.” At the time of the first trial, the three were unable to find a lawyer to represent them.

Download .pdf English translation of lawyers’ motion here.

 

- Report from  the Epochtimes : Chinese Lawyers’ Motion Defends Falun Gong in Court for First Time

Underground Water Table Sinks 4 Feet a Year in North China City

By JIM YARDLEY, New York Times, September 28, 2007-

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the primary water source for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running dry. The underground water table is sinking about four feet a year. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater.

Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. A new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.

“People who are buying apartments aren’t thinking about whether there will be water in the future,” said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for 20 years to raise public awareness about the city’s dire water situation.

For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply……. (more details from New York Times: Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up)

China: Catholic Bishop Died In Secret Detention, Cremated by Authority In 6 Hours

Press release, Cardinal Kung Foundation, USA, Sep. 9, 2007-

Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A. — Bishop Han Dingxiang (韓鼎詳), the underground Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Yong Nian (永年) in Hebei Province (河北省), died at 11 pm (Beijing time) on September 9 yesterday at the end of his almost 8 years imprisonment by the Chinese authority. With the exception of few of his very close relatives who were suddenly summoned by the government authority to his bedside before his death, none of his priests and other faithful were aware of his grave illness or of any other cause leading to his death; nor were they aware of the fact that he was dying in a hospital.

The bishop was immediately ordered by the government authority to be cremated at approximately 5 am next morning and his ashes were buried immediately in a public cemetery – all within 6 hours after his death.

Consequently, with the exception of a few relatives, the body of Bishop Han was not viewed by the public or by any other faithful. There were no priests or other faithful present during his burial.

He was 71 years old. His last words before he drifted into a coma were to ask his congregation to recite more rosaries.

Bishop Han was born on May 17, 1937, sent to a labor camp by Chinese authority 1960 – 1979, became a high-school teacher from 1979 to 1982, and operated a medical clinic between 1982 – 1986 while he was a seminarian. He was ordained a priest November 21, 1986, and then ordained a bishop December 19, 1989.

During his episcopacy, Bishop Han was arrested by the Chinese authority 11 times. His last arrest was on November 20, 1999 while he was conducting a religious retreat for some of his nuns. After approximately 4 years of detentions in various locations, he was moved to an apartment on the 4th floor of a police family unit where he stayed for another two years.

On September 23, 2005, Bishop Han was secretly moved to an unknown location and disappeared ever since until his death. He spent approximately a total of 35 years of his life either in the labor camp, or in a prison, or in house arrest.

Joseph Kung, the President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: “What was the Chinese government afraid of to cremate Bishop Han only 6 hours after his death and at such an early hour at five o’clock in the morning? Why were the priests of his diocese not allowed to bless his remains and, together with his faithful, to pray for this heroic shepherd, and to view his body? This is not only inhuman, and atrocious, but also suspicious. I urge the Vatican to open an official inquest for the cause of the death of Bishop Han.”

- Original report from Cardinalkungfoundation.Org : The Death of An Underground Bishop in Yong Nian, Hebei, China

55 Kinds of Famous Toxic Food in China

ChinaScope, 08/25/2007-

It was reported and widely reprinted in Chinese official websites and Blogs that there are 55 kinds of toxic food in China, ranging from daily rice, flour, vegetables, meat and eggs, fruits to famous seasonings and gradients, formulations, etc. [1, 2] Vegetables with very toxic residual pesticide were labeled as “harmless” vegetables and widely sold.

A. Rice, Flour and manufactured food (4)

1. Highly Carcinogen rice (old rice, rice for peasant workers) and manufactured food made of such rice. Eating this kind of rice will lead to nausea, vomiting, and cancer in the long-run.
2. Bleached flour: contains excessive amount of oxidized benzoformyl, causing fatigue, dizzy, amenesia, more dreams and neuroasthenia
3. Black-hearted moon cake – moon cakes with fertilizers
4. Dumplings made with unwanted meat and unwashed cabbages in Xinda Food Factory, Town of Panzhuang, Ninghe County, Tianjin City[3]

B. Meat and eggs (9)

1. Taicang Meat Floss made of meat from dead pig and mother pig, mixed with large amount of pea powder and bleached with hydrogen peroxide, and added with additives, food colors to make the meat floss looking good
2. Chicken/duck meat, pork and milk with large amount of chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline
3. Muscle-type pork feed with Clenbuterol
4. Convenience food with brine or smoked meat from sick-dead animals;
5. Mule meat posing as Pingyao Beef
6. Jinhua Ham submerged in Dichlorvos
7. Toxic sausage in Taixin city, Jiangsu province
8. Toxic “peasants” food in Wenzhou, Fujian province
9. Red yold eggs from hens feed with CAROPHYLL®Red

C. Vegetables and fruits (10)

1. Vegetables with excessive residual pesticide- “harmless” vegetables in Zhangbei county, Hebei province with highly-toxic residual pesticide, such as omethoate and methamidophos. These vegetables were labeled “harmless” and claimed to have never been sprayed with pesticides. These pesticides were used because they are cheap and strong, making good-looking vegetables that sales very well. The peasants told the journalists that they never eat these vegetables. [4]
2. Potatoes smoked by sulfur
3. Sichuan kimchi preserved by prohibited industry salt
4. Toxic leeks sprayed by “3911″ pesticide, these leeks are thicker, wider, longer and with deeper color
5. “Fresh” shoot preserved by sulfur and industry salt
6. Sinister bean sprouts that were raised using growth hormone, rootless agent, bleached by Na2S2O4 [5]
7. Toxic longans bleached and smoked with sulfur
8. Strawberry and monkey hunting peach (Actinidia) that are fast-matured by growth hormone
9. Dried fruits with large amount of bacteria (100 times higher than national standard)
10. Preserved red dates with formaldehyde

D. Non-staple food, waterishlogged food, seasonings and gradients, formulations (24)

1. Toxic seeds (watermelon, pumpkin, sunflower) processed with mineral oils
2. Smelly Tofu processed by pig excrement
3. Yuba processed by chemical and carcinogens, such as industry gelatin, basic orange (chrysoidine), Rongalite (Sodium Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate)
4. Sweet potato starch noodles processed by rongalite and food colors
5. Longkou vermicelli contains rongalite;
6. Degenerated soy milk
7. Toxic milk powder in Anhui province
8. Rice noodles contains carbolic acid
9. Sanyuan “Quanjia (all good)” Lactobacillus in Shanghai with numerous streptomyces
10. Tremella, red peppers and Pericarpium Zanthoxyli
11. Black fungus (Auricularia auricular) stained with black ink
12. Green teas stained with green color
14. Various waterishlogged foods contains formaldehyde
15. Liquor mixed with industry alcohol
16. “Wine” made of Saccharin and food color
17. Hogwash fat took out from drainages
18. The famous chongqing Hot-pot Seasoning using paraffin as the coagulant
19. Red chili oil soup stock that that are leftovers from thousands of people
20. Toxic lard in Hunan province
21. Extra low price chicken extract
22. Toxic soy sauce processed with hair water
23. Shanxi “Very Old Vinegar” added with industry acetic acid
24. Fruit juice made nearby bathrooms with sorbic acid, potassium sorbate

E. Others (4)

1. “health chopsticks” submerged in sulfur
2. Low quality drinking fountains
3. Unqualified disposable medical devices
4. Numerous counterfeit and fake medicines

Notes:
[1]-[5] please check the original report from ChinaScope.org

Underground Catholic Bishop and Priest Arrested in North China

Press Release, Cardinal Kung Foundation, August 23, 2007-

Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A. — Bishop Jia Zhiguo, the underground Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Zheng Ding in Hebei Province, was arrested again by the Public Security and Religious Bureau at approximately 9:00 in the morning of August 23, 2007 (Beijing time). We do not know the reason of the bishop’s arrest, nor do we know his current location.

In the last 5 days, there was a marked increase in the number of security police for putting Bishop Jia under strict surveillance 24 hours a day and there were police vehicles parking outside of the bishop’s residence. Anyone coming to visit the bishop was summarily arrested. A priest and a layperson were arrested and interrogated for 8 hours before they were released.

Since the release of the China letter by His Holiness Pope Benedict XIV, Bishop Jia was told several times by the religious bureau that he was not allowed to publicly support and promulgate the Pope’s China letter. We do not know for sure whether this order has anything to do with the bishop’s arrest this time.

A few days ago, the Religious Bureau forcibly put a sign “The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” vertically at the side of the gate of bishop Jia’s church! The sign could possibly still be there.

Bishop Jia is 73 years old and was ordained a bishop in 1980. He was previously jailed for approximately 20 years and has been under strict surveillance for many years by the Chinese authorities. He takes care of approximately 100 handicapped orphans in his house. As far as we know, he has been arrested eleven times since January 2004.

In addition, another priest, Father Wen Daoxiu, of Beiwangli Village, Qingyuan County, Hebei, was also arrested on August 15, 2007 by the Public Security Bureau after the priest had just finished offering a Holy Mass. We do not know his whereabouts and the reason of his arrest. Father Wen is in very poor health with three partially blocked blood vessels to his heart. He is in his mid-fifties.

Joseph Kung, the President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: “It is apparent that the aforementioned actions by the Chinese government is not only contrary to the spirit of the China letter issued by the Pope almost two months ago, but also contrary to the generally accepted principles of human rights and to the spirits of the Olympic games.

“The freedom-loving and powerful countries of the world should take into greater consideration – consistently, and persistently, and not haphazardly – all human rights violations in China when forming and implementing their political and commercial decisions in relation to China. Does a country consistently violate the most basic human rights deserve to be the host of 2008 Olympic Games?”

- Original press release from Cardinal Kung Foundation : UNDERGROUND BISHOP JIA ZHIGUO IS ARRESTED AGAIN ANOTHER PRIEST IS ALSO ARRESTED

List of the Most Wicked Labor Camps in Modern China

Under China’s “reform through labor” policy, hundreds of modern labor camps are built up through out the country to hold political prisoners, dissidents, religious, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders along side dangerous criminals.

Torture to death

Torture is widely used in these labor camps to force prisoners to reform.

Till the year 2003, “at least 69 labour camps have directly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners to death (Appendix 2 contains detailed information)”, said in a report by World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG).

“Even practitioners who were senior citizens older than 65 years, infants as young as eight months, or disabled had no impunity”, it said.

Two specific cases:

“In November 2000, Ms. Wang Lixuan and her nearly eight-month-old infant son were both tortured to death at the Tuanhe Labour Camp in Beijing. ” ( details)
(photo right: Ms. Wang Lixuan and her 8-month-old son)

“In October 2000, 18 female Falun Gong practitioners were stripped of their clothing and thrown into the male criminals’ cells at the Masanjia Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. ” ( details)

The worst- organ harvesting

large-scale of organ harvesting is happening in China labor camps, said by two well-known Canadian human rights activists, David Kilgour and David Matas, in their independent report “BLOODY HARVEST- Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China”.

List of most wicked labor camps

I’m trying to collect information from the Internet to list out some of the most wicked labor camps in modern China.

By click on the name on the list, you can find out the labor camps’ location, introduction, cases of abuses and killing, victims and Perpetrators.

1. Masanjia Labor Camp
- Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, Northeast China

2. Harbin Wanjia Labor Camp
- Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China

3. Beijing Tuanhe Labor Camp
- Daxing County, Beijing City, Capital city of China

4. Beijing Tiantanghe Women’s Labor Camp
- Daxing County, Beijing City, Capital city of China

5. Beijing XinAn Labor Camp
- Daxing County, Beijing City, Capital city of China

6. Hebei Gaoyang Labor Camp
- Gaoyang County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, north China

7. Tianjin Banqiao Labor Camp
- Tianjin City, north China

8. Harbin Changlinzi Labor Camp
-Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China

9. Shenyang Longshan Labor Camp
- Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeast China

10.Shenyang Zhangshi Labor Camp
- Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeast China

11. Changchun Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp
- Changchun City, Jilin Province, northeast China

12. Shandong Zibo Wangcun Labor Camp
- Zibo City, Shandong Province, east China

A few more will be added on the list later.

China: 20 Falun Gong Adherents Persecuted to Death In June 2007

(excerpt) Falun Dafa Information Center, 8/7/2007-

NEW YORK – During the month of June, the Falun Dafa Information Center has recorded the deaths of 20 Falun Gong adherents as a result of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of the practice.

Some of the deaths took place as early as January 2007 but only became known in June due to the difficulties and dangers involved in obtaining such sensitive information from inside China…….

Below are a few of the death cases compiled during the month of June:

1. Teacher Dies from Torture and Neglect

Wei Fengju was a well-respected teacher at Dongfeng County’s No. 4 Middle School in Jilin province. She started practicing Falun Gong in the late 1990s.

On December 30, 1999, five months after the communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong, she went to Beijing to petition to Chinese government to reverse its policy. She was illegally sentenced to the First Division of the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp for a year where she was forced to work for 17 to 20 hours a day and was shocked with electric batons on her breasts and mouth causing her mouth to become disfigured.

After being released in March 2001, police continued to harass her and her school refused to reinstate her. Her husband divorced her, leaving the unemployed Wei alone to care for their 15-year-old son. In January 2002, Wei was arbitrarily arrested again and sent to Changchun city’s Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp for over three years.

In October 2005, she was again sent to Heizuizi, this time for one and a half years. While she was detained, her mother passed away, but Wei was not allowed to attend the funeral. The camp also never allowed her 70-year-old father to visit her.

After the prolonged detention, Wei began feeling severe pain in her abdomen and could not eat. She asked to see a doctor, but her request was denied and labor camp officials neglected her.

(photo: Wei Fengju, before being tortured (top), and on July 11, 2007, the day before she passed away (below) )

She was released on April 30, 2007, extremely emaciated. Her condition rapidly deteriorated and blood began appearing in her urine.

She died at 4:15 p.m. on July 12, 2007, at the age of 50.

Officials responsible for Ms. Wei’s death:

Zhang Baocheng, the local political-legal committee secretary: 86-437-6216968, 86-437-6210265
Zhang Zhiting, Dongfeng Police director: 86-437-6222794, 86-13904375928 (Cell)
Pan Dong, Dongfeng County Police Deputy director: 86-437-6224393, 86-13504375166 (Cell)
Li Wensheng, director of the Dongfeng 610 Office: 86-13504372728 (Cell)
Gu Jiahai, National Security Team Chief: 86-13904371222 (Cell), 86-437-6215022

2. Woman tortured to death after Family Told She Would Not be Released before the Olympics

Wang Minli, 43, was the former secretary of the Communist Youth League at the Jilin City Fur Factory in Jilin province. She had been arrested and persecuted many times since 1999. A United Nations Special Rapporteur had previously called for her rescue on May 21, 2003.

On March 15, 2007, Wang was arrested again by a group of officers from the National Security Division at Changyi District Police Department led by Du Xingze. They detained her at the Yueshan Road Police Dog Training Base in Jilin city where National Security agents beat her. They poured mustard oil in her eyes, causing blindness in one eye, and broke one of her legs by beating her with wooden sticks.

Her family went to the National Security Division following her arrest to inquire about her condition. The officials said they would neither sentence her nor would they release her until after the 2008 Olympic Games.

Wang suddenly died at 2:00 p.m. on June 19, 2007.

3. 58-year-old Woman tortured to death after Two Weeks in Custody

Falun Gong practitioner Fu Guiju, 58, died on June 18, 2007. She was a retiree from the Zhangjiakou city Petroleum Corporation in Hebei province. For eight years she and her husband suffered from beatings and persecution in and out of detention centers.

On May 12, 2007, when Fu was reading a Falun Gong book inside the home of an elderly fellow practitioner, authorities suddenly arrived and seized them. Fu was locked up at the Shisanli Detention Center in Zhangjiakou city. She was tortured severely until her life was in danger.

On May 21, 2007, her family members were allowed to take her home. Before she was able to recover, however, Meng Gang, Guo Long and other officers from the Qiaoxi District Police Department kidnapped her from her home on the morning of June 4.

On June 19, 2007, the South Mingde Police Station notified her family that Fu had died the previous day.

According to insiders, the Shisanli Detention Center officials ordered Fu to be force-fed. This torture method involves prison guards or inmates inserting a hard plastic tube through the nose or the mouth, down the throat, and into the stomach. Then various solutions ranging from diluted porridge to salt water to human urine and feces are poured down the tube and into either the stomach or the lungs, depending on how the tube is inserted.

Approximately ten percent of all recorded deaths of Falun Gong practitioners from torture in custody have come as a result of this torture method. While details remain incomplete, it appears that this was the cause of Fu’s death as well.

Responsible individuals and organizations:

Zhangjiakou City Police Department: 86-313-8681234, 86-313-8688888
Command Center: 86-313-8682110
Zhangjiakou City Qiaoxi Police Station head: Zhang Yifan
Security Division head, Zhong Senlin: 86-313-8687325 (Cell)
Procuratorate head in the Qiaoxi district, Zhangjiakou city, Zhang Liang: 86-13703136881 (Cell), 86-313-8038126 (Office), 86-313-4081158 (Home)
South Mingde Police Station: 86-313-8072502 (head Meng Gang; deputy head Guo Long)
Xinhua Street Police Station: 86-313-8032977
Zhangjiakou City Detention Center head, Cui Weidong: 86-313-4021947

- Original report from FalunInfo.net : Countdown to Olympics Fails to Stop Killing in China

China Arrests 4 Underground Catholic Priests

Press Release, Cardinal Kung Foundation, July 28, 2007-

Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A.  —  In the afternoon of July 24, 2007, at the home of a Catholic faithful in the Ximeng (錫盟) region of Inner Mongolia (內蒙古), three underground Roman Catholic priests from Xiwanzi (西灣子), Hebei (河北), were arrested by eight civilian-clothed policemen, because they refused to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and because they are loyal and obedient to Pope Benedict.

They were hiding in Inner Mongolia in order to avoid the arrests, but they were finally hunted down by the Security Police.

The names of these three priests are:

Father LIANG Aijun (梁愛軍), 35 years old, Chong Li county (崇禮縣), Hebei (河北).

Father WANG Zhong (王忠), 41 years old, Gu Yuan county (沽源縣), Hebei (河北).

Father GAO Jinbao (高金寶), 34 years old, Shang Yi county, Hebei (河北).

During the initial phase of the arrest, the priests were locked up in an iron cage. They were not allowed to talk to anyone. Water brought to them was refused by the police. They have now all been transferred to an undisclosed location.

In addition, a fourth priest, Father CUI Tai (崔太) of Shuangshu Village (雙樹村), Zhuolu County (琢鹿縣), 50 years old, was involved in a minor motorcycle accident in early July, 2007. After the accident was resolved, the authority transferred him to the public security and religious bureau. He has been detained in the Zhuolu County detention cell ever since.

Father CUI has also refused to register with the Patriotic Association. He belongs to the diocese of Xuanhua (宣化教區), Hebei.

Joseph Kung, the President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: “In his China letter published about a month ago on June 30, Pope Benedict, apparently referring to the Patriotic Association, said: ‘the proposal for a Church that is ‘independent’ of the Holy See, in the religious sphere, is incompatible with Catholic doctrine.’ The Pope continued to say: ‘Many bishops have undergone persecution…..lay faithful….even paying a personal price for their faithfulness to Christ.’ The Pope also assured the Chinese government that Catholics can also be “good citizens” and respectfully asked the Chinese government to guarantee them ‘authentic religious freedom.’”

“Let us not forget that there are, as far as we know, still five bishops in jail; many other bishops are under house arrests and severe surveillance; and approximately 15 priests and some Catholic lay persons – an unknown number of them – are also in jail. While we need to ‘love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us,’ as Pope Benedict told us in his China letter, we also need to awaken the world to the ongoing persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China. The freedom-loving and powerful countries of the world should take into greater consideration – consistently, and persistently, and not haphazardly – all human rights violations in China when forming and implementing their political and commercial decisions in relation to China.”

“In the meantime, we urge the Chinese government to take steps immediately to stop all persecution throughout China and release all Roman Catholic bishops and clergy together with those faithful of other faith from prisons as a goodwill gesture to Pope Benedict and to restore the world confidence in its leadership.”

- Press release from  CardinalKungFoundation.org : Four underground priests are arrested

China: Cyber-dissident beaten in prison by inmates at behest of guards

Reporters Without Borders, 9 July 2007-

Guo Qizhen, a cyber-dissident who was arrested on 12 May 2006 and was sentenced to four years in jail for “inciting subversion of state authority,” was beaten by fellow-inmates in his cell in Shijiazhuang prison (in the northern province of Hebei) at the behest of the prison’s guards. His wife said she found him covered with bruises when she was finally able to visit him on 18 June, after two months of being refused permission by the prison authorities.

Guo had a broken leg at the time of his arrest and has not received adequate treatment in prison. His health had deteriorated considerably.

Four-year jail sentence against cyber-dissident Guo Qizhen

Reporters Without Borders has condemned a four-year jail sentence handed down to cyber-dissident Guo Qizhen, a human rights activist, after he was found guilty of “incitement to subversion”, the eighth such conviction against a journalist or cyber-dissident this year.

Guo, 49, was sentenced on 16 October 2006 for having posted articles on foreign-based websites denouncing the government’s crackdown on fundamental freedoms.

“President Hu Jintao is following as repressive a policy against the Internet as his predecessor Jiang Zemin,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

“China is today fully integrated into the consultations of nations but this country does not respect the international promises it makes relating to respecting human rights and freedom of expression,” said the organisation.

Guo’s lawyer, Li Jianqiang, said that the court in Cangzhou in Hebei province, central China had also deprived his client of his political rights for three years. He added that Guo had been allowed to speak at length during the hearing and he even voiced his confidence in the court which was trying him.

His wife, Zhao Changqing, told Reuters that her husband’s conviction was illegal and that she would appeal.

Among a large number of articles critical of the government which Guo posted on foreign-based sites, was one in which he said it was time for the Chinese people to “sound the knell of this dire regime”. His arrest, on 12 May 2006, appeared to be linked to his joining a “rotating” hunger strike started by lawyer Gao Zhisheng to protest at human rights violations in China.

China is by far the world’s largest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents, with 72 such people in its jails. Eight of them have been sentenced during 2006 to up to ten years in prison for “espionage” or “subversion”.

- original report from Reporters Without Borders: Cyber-dissident Guo Qizhen beaten in prison by inmates at behest of guards