Anger over detained Chinese activist reaches capital

(Reuters) – Supporters of a blind legal activist, whose long confinement in his village in east China has sparked widespread anger, petitioned Beijing officials on Tuesday after some said they were beaten when they tried to visit the activist.

In recent months, dozens of supporters have been blocked from visiting Chen Guangcheng, who is under virtual house arrest in his home village in Linyi in eastern Shandong province.

Some of the supporters were beaten by dozens of men in plain clothes while trying to visit Chen on Sunday, and their complaints were later ignored by the local police, said Mao Hengfeng, a petitioner from Shanghai.

China activists clamour for blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng

BEIJING — Chinese activists, organised through the Internet, have stepped up efforts to visit a blind rights lawyer who they said on Friday has been held under illegal house arrest for over a year.

Activists have descended on Dongshigu village in eastern China’s Shandong province calling for the release of Chen Guangcheng, a prominent rights lawyer who was released into house arrest from an over four-year prison sentence last September.

The self-taught blind lawyer was jailed in 2006 for “creating a disturbance” after campaigning against forced abortions and sterilisations under China’s “one-child” family planning policy.

Chen has been championed by human rights organisations and his case has become one of China’s most documented example of alleged rights abuse.

Support Growing for Blind Chinese Rights Activist Chen Guangcheng

News about blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng continues to trouble Chinese and international society.

Chen and his family have been under tight house arrest in their home in Dongshigu Village, Linyi County, Shandong Province since his release from prison over a year ago, with his young daughter Kesi prevented from attending school.

According to information on Twitter, authorities have finally allowed the child to attend a nearby elementary school as a result of public pressure and international attention.

At the same time, troubling rumors have surfaced in the village in early October that Chen may be dead.

An insider, who did not wish to be named, said that the “Free Guangcheng” movement on the Internet, and worldwide attention of Chen’s high profile case, have forced authorities in Linyi to allow Chen’s daughter to attend school. Under the escort of a guard, Kesi went to school on Oct. 16. Authorities also set up a temporary wooden shack at the school entrance to watch her.

He Peirong, a person concerned with Chen’s case, said she was glad about the decision to let Kesi go to school but hoped that the child will have a normal life and will not keep being escorted to and from school. She also hoped that authorities will openly report on Chen’s condition, his medical status and diet, and details about his daughter’s schooling.

Zeng Jinyan, wife of Hu Jia, an environmental and AIDS activist, said on Twitter that it was inappropriate and dangerous for a little girl to be escorted to school by a guard instead of her parent. Zeng referred to the daughter of missing attorney Gao Zhisheng, who was also escorted to and from school by police and suffered much humiliation. This created severe long-lasting mental problem for the girl.

In January and June, He Peirong visited Chen’s family in Dongshigu Village. She had her car smashed, was kidnapped and robbed.

Beginning Sept. 18, many other people, including some reporters, went to Dongshigu Village in groups. They were intercepted, beaten, and robbed.

These people wrote about their experiences on blogs and Twitter and gradually caught the public’s attention. Now there are many Chen supporters, include scholars, writers, businessmen, artists, and college students, according to He.

Meanwhile, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Oct. 5 that some villagers said Chen is already dead. Several media have picked up the news. VOA is attempting to verify Chen’s status.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers said in an Oct. 7 press release: “If Chen is dead, then the Chinese Communist Party is fully responsible for killing him through torture, denial of medical treatment and slow starvation. If Chen is alive, we urgently demand that he and his family be released immediately and unconditionally, for medical evaluation and treatment.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid Association, among others, are leading an international effort to free Chen.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, exposed the systematic use of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization as part of China’s One Child Policy. In August 2006, he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison where he was subjected to torture. After his release on Sept. 9, 2010, his family has been under house arrest that included beatings of Chen and his wife.

Time Magazine named Chen in its “2006 Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” under the category of “Heroes and Pioneers.”

-Source: The Epochtimes

Activist: Child of Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng denied education

BEIJING — A rights activist says the 6-year-old daughter of a blind Chinese dissident has been barred from leaving her house and is unable to attend school.

He Peirong says the daughter of Chen Guangcheng and his wife has not been allowed to leave their house since Feb. 24 and her books have been taken away.

He said Tuesday that Chen’s daughter has not been allowed to attend school since it began last week.

WSJ: China’s Hooligan Government

Chairman Mao said that power grows out of the barrel of the gun, and Chinese authorities have never shied away from using violence against anyone who has stepped out of line. But this wet work was usually sanctioned by quasi-legal procedures and carried out far from the public eye—for instance in the country’s vast system of labor camps.

In recent years, however, thugs acting on behalf of various levels of government have begun openly attacking Chinese who dare to complain, as well as local and foreign journalists who record those grievances. This portends a breakdown in public respect for the state’s authority that will be self-defeating for the central government.

Foreign reporters roughed up near China activist Chen Guangcheng’s home

By Pascale Trouillaud (AFP)-

BEIJING — Foreign reporters were roughed up this week as they tried to reach blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is under house arrest in eastern China, journalists said Wednesday.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer who gained world attention by exposing abuses in China’s “one-child” population control policy, has been under harsh restrictions since completing a more than four-year jail sentence in September.

“We were roughly pushed away from Chen’s home” by about a dozen men, said Brice Pedroletti, a journalist with French newspaper Le Monde.

Chinese Hosting Company Named In Cyber Attacks On U.S. Oil Companies

(The Hosting News) – Song Zhiyue, a technician for the website hosting company Science and Technology Internet, in northeaster Shandong province of China was recently named by McAfee in relation to attack against U.S. oil and gas companies over the past years. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Zhiyue stated over the phone “What? You’re sure it’s my company?”

McAfee’s report found that hackers broke into computers of these companies in the Unites States, Taiwan, Greece, and Kazakhstan and regularly stole private information about bidding, operations, and the company’s finances. Their was no information regarding China’s state owned oil companies benefitting from the attacks or information received.

Chinese Human rights lawyer beaten by police over secret video of his house arrest

Reporters Without Borders, Feb 11, 2011-

A famous self-taught human rights lawyer and free speech activist, Chen Guangcheng, has reportedly been badly beaten by police for circulating a secretly-recorded video showing how he is being held under house arrest in his small farm in the eastern province of Shandong.

He is said to be confined to his bed as a result of the injuries received in the beating but has not been able to receive any medical treatment. His wife, Yuan Weijing, was also beaten.

China: Blind Activist “Beaten Senseless” for Smuggled Video

Women’s Rights without Frontiers-

A new video featuring One Child Policy activist Chen Guangcheng was leaked to the China Aid Association Wednesday, February 9, 2011.  The next day it was reported that Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were “beaten senseless” in retaliation for the release of the video.

Blind activist Chen exposed the systematic use of forced abortion in implementing China’s One Child Policy.  His work has not gone unnoticed by the world.  Time Magazine named him in its list of “2006’s Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” in the category of “Heroes and Pioneers.”  In 2007 he was awarded the Magsaysay award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize.

Exclusive Video Shows China’s Ill Treatment & Illegal Detention of Blind Activist Chen Guangcheng

China Aid Association-

(Washington, D.C. – Feb. 9, 2011) In the first news of blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng in five months, ChinaAid on Wednesday obtained an exclusive video showing the persecution he and his family are suffering at the hands of the Chinese government, which has put him under illegal house arrest since his release from prison.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu, who is currently in D.C., immediately arranged to meet on Wednesday afternoon with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Michael Posner and two deputy secretaries of state to discuss ways to end the persecution of Chen and Christian human rights lawyer Fan Yafeng by the Chinese government in violation of its own laws and disregarding its pledges to the international community to improve its human rights record.

Chronology of Blind Chinese Lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s Case

Human Rights Watch, November 13, 2010 –

Chen Guangcheng is a blind lawyer whom Chinese authorities have repeatedly persecuted for his role in exposing official abuses. Chen was arbitrarily detained in August 2005; his formal detention began on June 10, 2006. On August 24, 2006, he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Chen was released on September 9, 2010, after serving his full sentence, but following his release he and his wife were subjected to unlawful house arrest.

Extreme Measures Used by China to Control Blind Rights Defender Chen Guangcheng

Human Rights in China, Nov. 2, 2010 –

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned more details about the restrictions placed on Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚), the blind Shandong-based rights defender who was released from prison on September 9, 2010. Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing (袁伟静), are not allowed to leave their home, and no one – not even Chen’s mother – has been allowed to visit the couple since early October. Currently, measures similar to martial law have been imposed by the authorities in Chen’s village, Dongshigu, Shandong Province.

Yang Lin (杨林), a Shenzhen-based rights activist, told HRIC that in late October he was blocked from entering Dongshigu when he tried to visit Chen. Villagers told him that the authorities have mobilized more than a hundred people to control the four entrances to the village and monitor Chen’s family around the clock. According to Yang, several security cameras have been installed inside and outside Chen’s home. At night, bright lights mounted outside their home, reaching their bedroom, stay lit. 

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Uses 10,000 River Crabs to “celebrate” forced demolition of his US$1.1 million-dollar-studio in Shanghai

CNNgo.com, Nov. 2, 2010 –

Artist, social commentator and activist Ai Weiwei has announced that in honor of the government-ordered demolition of his new Shanghai studio, he will give 10,000 river crabs (and plenty of baijiu, of course) to his supporters.

According to Ai, he was invited by the city mayor to build a studio in northern area of Shanghai, which he did, constructing a studio worth a reported US$1.1 million. However, following his recent political activities documenting the plight of lawyer Feng Zhenghu and support of Liu Xiaobo, city officials recently declared the structure illegal, condemning it to demolition.

Elementary School Teacher Tortured to Death Within One Month of Detention in Chinese Police Custody

the Falun Dafa Information Center, Oct 29, 2010 –

New York—An elementary school teacher was killed in detention in early October in Shandong province, approximately one month after she was abducted into custody on September 2 for practicing Falun Gong. Over the past eleven years, she and other family members, including her teenage daughter, have been repeatedly detained, tortured, and harassed.

Ms. Hu Lianhua (胡连华) worked as an elementary school teacher in Hebei Province. On August 28th, 2008, Ms. Hu was discovered handing out information about the persecution, and was sent to a detention facility where she was reportedly tortured. Authorities ransacked her home, confiscated electronics, Falun Gong books, and took her son and daughter into detention. Ms. Hu was released only after the torture had rendered her weak and in ill-health.

Blind, “barefoot” Chinese rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng Released after More than 4 Years in Prison

Human Rights in China, September 09, 2010 –

Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚), the blind, “barefoot” lawyer who gained international attention when he was sentenced in 2006 to four years and three months in prison, was released today from the Linyi City Prison, Shandong Province. Chen was first detained in 2006 after filing a lawsuit against the city of Linyi on behalf of its inhabitants over the city’s policy of forced abortions and sterilizations, and was later convicted of “intentional damage of public property” and “gathering people to block traffic.”

Upon Chen’s release, one of Chen’s lawyers, Li Fangping (李方平), summed up Chen’s case: “Illegal detention; conviction based upon fabricated charges; unlawful imprisonment.” Li said, “The case of this blind rights defense lawyer bears witness to the sad state of the rule of law and human rights in China.”

Chen, a self-taught lawyer, has taken on sensitive cases since 1998, including defending the rights of farmers and the disabled. In prison, Chen was subjected to beatings and other abuses, and went on repeated hunger strikes in protest. During Chen’s imprisonment, his wife, Yuan Weijing (袁伟静), was put under house arrest and seldom allowed to visit Chen.

On the national level, over the past four years, the Chinese authorities have tightened control over China’s civil society. The ongoing crackdown has included attacks on lawyers; those who took on cases deemed politically sensitive and those who supported direct elections within lawyers’ associations have been subjected to surveillance, harassment, kidnapping, and detention. Many targeted lawyers had difficulties renewing their licenses to practice, and law firms have even been forced to close down.

Also in recent years, many of those released from prison continue to suffer what New York University China law expert Jerome A. Cohen calls “a new form of very expensive, de facto, legally-unauthorized punishment – indefinite house arrest, perhaps for life.” Cohen said, “I am deeply concerned that following his release, Chen Guangcheng will be subject to this new form of low-visibility punishment, including round the clock and endless isolation enforced by government-hired thugs.”

“The imprisonment of a blind lawyer who was devoted to improving the lives of his countrymen is a stain on the history of the development of the rule of law in China,” said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China. HRIC urges the international community to continue to monitor Chen Guangcheng’s situation and the Chinese authorities to guarantee that both Chen and his family are able to exercise the freedoms protected by the Chinese constitution and international law.

Background on Chen Guangcheng

Chen Guangcheng, born November 12, 1971, and blind since childhood, is a self-taught (“barefoot”) lawyer and activist in Shandong. In 1996, Chen traveled to Beijing to petition on the basis of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons (残疾人保障法) and succeeded in stopping the local government from illegally taxing him on various items. In 1998, he again traveled to Beijing to petition to stop the “two-fields system,” an illegal form of economic exploitation used by local officials. Chen also provided legal advice to the disabled on how to protect their rights, including suing the Beijing metro system to uphold the right of the disabled to ride the metro without charge. He and other human rights lawyers and academics aided villagers in protecting their rights, suing the Linyi municipal authorities over an official policy of forced abortions and sterilizations. In March 2006, Linyi authorities took Chen from his home and held him in an undisclosed location for over three months before formally detaining him on June 10 that year. In August 2006, Chen Guangcheng was convicted of “intentional damage of property” and “organizing people to block traffic,” and sentenced to four years and three months in prison. TIME named him as one of 2006’s “Top 100 People Who Shape Our World.”

– Human Rights in China

China kindergarten knife attack, again: Four dead, 12 injured

DPA via Earthtimes.org, Aug. 4, 2010 –

Beijing – At least four children died and 12 others were stabbed in an attack at a kindergarten in eastern China’s Shandong province, reports said on Wednesday.

The attacker, who was armed with a knife, burst into the unnamed kindergarten in Shandong’s Zibo city Tuesday afternoon, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy quoted a local police official as saying.

The attacker later surrendered to police, Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported.

Chinese state media did not immediately report the incident, which is the latest in a series of attacks at schools and kindergartens in China this year.

At least five similar attacks have been reported, resulting in the death of dozens of children and several teachers.

Following the earlier attacks, the government ordered a review of security at schools, while state media have discussed possible underlying causes of the attacks.

“Apart from adopting forceful security measures, we also need to focus on addressing some deep-rooted causes behind these problems, including handling some social contradictions, resolving disputes and strengthening the role of grassroot mediation,” Premier Wen Jiabao told Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV in May.

– DPA via Earthtimes.org

Former Policeman Faces Trial for Defending his Falun Gong Family members in East China

Press Release, the Falun Dafa Information Center, June 28, 2010 –

Pang Jin with her mother, Cao Junping, and father, Pang Xiaoqian

In 2007, 23-year-old Pang Jin left her home and family in Weifang, China, to pursue her MBA at the University of Missouri.  In the three years since, Jin has watched from thousands of miles away as her mother and aunt were abducted, tortured, and sentenced to 10 years in prison for their peaceful belief in Falun Gong. Now her father, not a Falun Gong practitioner, is facing trial for attempting to defend his wife.

Jin’s mother, Cao Junping, and her aunt, Cao Junfeng, are practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature. They began practicing Falun Gong’s meditative exercises and following its teachings of ‘truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance’ in 1995, and like millions of other Chinese citizens, found in it improved health and peace of mind. After witnessing the changes to her mother’s demeanor, Jin herself eventually took up the practice.

After the Communist Party initiated a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in July, 1999, Jin’s mother was twice imprisoned extra-judicially and tortured for her belief. In the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, on July 29, 2008, she was again abducted by security forces while staying at a friend’s home. Jin’s aunt was similarly abducted from her home on July 9th, 2008.

Both women were held in detention for 15 months.  On October 18, 2009, they were brought before a sham trial. Lawyers and family members were not allowed to witness the trial, and no evidence was presented against them. Under orders from the Communist Party, however, they were sentenced to 10 and 9 years in prison, respectively, simply for practicing Falun Gong.

Jin’s father, Pang Xiaoqian, is an engineer and former employee of the Weifang police department. Although not a Falun Gong practitioner, he was aware of an impending crackdown on Falun Gong in the summer of 2008, and attempted to help his wife go into hiding to avoid arrest. Once she was found and abducted, he came to the defense, attempting to intervene with authorities on her behalf. For that, he was locked up for one month and forced to perform hard labor.

Upon his release, he lost his job with the police department, was denied a travel visa, and faced regular harassment.

Two years later, after imprisoning his wife and sister-in-law, authorities are seeking revenge against Mr. Pang. They have reportedly set a trial date for July 14, 2010, and will try Mr. Pang for “harboring a criminal.” If the trial goes forward, he will face the possibility of several years in prison.

“I never thought this could happen,” says Pang Jin, now 26 and residing in the Washington DC area. “My dad just tried to protect my mom from being hurt and arrested.”

Although her family can no longer afford a lawyer, Jin hopes that intervention from the U.S. government and human rights organizations can stop the trial.

“I feel so guilty that I could not save my mom from being sentenced to 10 years in prison. This time, I can’t just wait to hear the verdict against my dad. I have to do something to change it. I’ve already lost the ability to see and talk to my mom. I can’t lose my dad too.”

Pang Jin can be reached for interviews at (202) 450-8692.

– the Falun Dafa Information Center

Rape, Beatings and Betrayal: Chinese Government’s Way of “Transforming” of Former Tsinghua University Student

Falun Dafa Information Center, May 28, 2010-

NEW YORK – The life of a top student at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University has been ravaged by a decade of rape, torture and betrayals. According to reports recently received by the Falun Dafa Information Center, the once vibrant and brilliant young woman from Shandong Province, Ms. Liu Zhimei (柳志梅), now lives in a hut, regularly wets her bed, and crouches into the corner of her room with clenched fists whenever someone approaches her. Neighbors have seen her running from her home naked and screaming.

“When Chinese authorities talk of ‘transforming’ Falun Gong practitioners, this is what they mean,” says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde. “They abuse and torment healthy, rational people to the point where the victim either completely gives up his or her personal beliefs and submits to the will of the Chinese Communist Party, dies from abuse, or in the case of this young woman, is driven to the edge of sanity and completely robbed of all human dignity. They drive adherents to the point where life is a living hell.”

“Liu’s case is tragic, but sadly, all too common in China…so many lives have been utterly devastated in similar ways amidst the persecution of Falun Gong.”

In 1997, Liu was admitted to Tsinghua University with the highest entrance test scores in all of Shandong Province. Upon arriving on campus, she took up Falun Gong, which was practiced by over 1,000 students and faculty at Tsinghua at the time.

After the campaign to “eradicate” Falun Gong was launched in July 1999, Liu was expelled from school because of her practice. Police detained her on several occasions over the next three years. In custody, she was repeatedly beaten and held for prolonged periods in an isolation chamber. The torture left her with head and chest injuries, a limp in her step, and several missing fingernails.

In November 2002, Liu was “sentenced” in a sham trial to 12 years at the Shandong Province Women’s Prison because of her Falun Gong practice. While at the prison camp, she was pressured by Tsinghua University staff (who would visit her there) and prison officials to become a “helper” – one who helps prison officials coerce and torture steadfast Falun Gong practitioners into renouncing their practice and embracing the CCP’s hardline against Falun Gong – and as a reward, she could return to Tsinghua University as a student.

With the prospect of returning to school before her, Liu agreed. Reports from the prison indicate Liu devised methods for “transforming” fellow Falun Gong practitioners. On occasion, the prison guards coerced her to beat Falun Gong practitioners directly. Liu also began reviewing various subjects in preparation for returning to university. That opportunity, however, never came. As the years wore on inside the prison, she realized the promises of returning to Tsinghua were not true and she fell into despair.

On November 13, 2008, Liu was finally released to her parents’ custody, a mere shadow of the person she was ten years prior.

Liu does not remember her name. She has a large welt around her belly-button and excessive bruising about her buttocks and upper legs. Her breasts sag almost to her waistline though she is not yet 30 years old and she has an extreme deformity in one of her fingers.

Liu often and randomly yells out phrases that provide a glimpse into the torture she faced while imprisoned. While a relative changes her clothing, she will sometimes grab the relative’s hand to her breast and while beating her other breast yell “They beat me here, like this, it hurt so much…” Liu often wets her bed and when approached by someone she doesn’t know, cowers into a corner with fists clenched.

Liu’s mother passed away, in grief over Liu’s imprisonment, in 2007. Liu’s father, Liu Zuorui, had been a Communist Party secretary for the local village. Neighbors report that after Liu returned home, her father often raped her and sold her to other men in the village.

In 2009, local practitioners of Falun Gong took Liu into their home and took turns watching over her. Over several months, Liu showed signs of improvement. She mumbled to herself less and less, stopped wetting her bed, and could even cook simple meals for herself.

On the morning of April 16, 2010, officers from the Bailinzhuang Town Police Station in Laiyang City raided the home of the practitioners taking care of Liu. She, along with four other Falun Gong practitioners, were taken into custody. When interrogated by police, witnesses say she turned into a “completely different person,” professing her “guilt” and extolling the police for abducting her. These witnesses say Liu’s behavior is not uncommon for someone who, after extended periods of torture and pressure, learns to tell police whatever they want to hear in order to avoid further abuse.

Upon discovering she was not mentally stable, the police returned Liu to her father’s home where she remains today.

“Back in 2001, the Washington Post ran an in-depth story on how the Chinese regime was systematically using torture and ‘reeducation’ methods to break Falun Gong practitioners,” says Browde (news). “One of the victims interviewed by the Post concluded after going through the CCP ‘transformation’ process: ‘I have seen the worst of what man can do. We really are the worst animals on Earth.’”

“Liu’s case illustrates what this victim was talking about… the complete destruction of the human spirit. That is the story of Liu Zhimei, and tragically, the story of countless other Falun Gong practitioners who suffer under the CCP’s campaign to ‘eradicate’ Falun Gong.”

Related links:

Washington Post: Torture is Breaking Falun Gong
http://faluninfo.net/article/566/?cid=67

2010 Falun Dafa Information Center Annual Report: “Transformation” and Forced Religious Conversion
http://faluninfo.net/article/1022/

10 Common “Transformation” Tactics
http://faluninfo.net/article/1033/

Ms. Yao Yue, Tsinghua student sent to prison camp for 12 years
http://faluninfo.net/article/758/

– from Falun Dafa Information Center

5 kindergartners, teacher injured in 3rd classroom attack in China in 3 days

By Lauren Keane, Washington Post Staff Writer –

BEIJING — A farmer wielding a hammer injured five kindergartners and a teacher before setting himself on fire Friday, in the third classroom attack in China in three days and the fourth since late March.

State news media played down the latest assault, which occurred in Weifang, a city in the eastern province of Shandong, on the same day as the gala opening of Expo 2010 Shanghai China — an event the government is treating as an opportunity to burnish the country’s image.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that the students were in stable condition at a hospital and that the attacker, 45-year-old Wang Yonglai, had died at the scene. By evening, online links to articles about the incident were either redirected or returned error messages.

Despite the spotty news coverage, the government has gone on the alert in response to the string of attacks, which have left at least eight people dead and dozens injured. The Education Ministry issued an emergency notice Friday requiring outsiders to register before entering schools and ordered school officials to cooperate with local governments to tighten security, Xinhua reported.

All the attacks occurred in China’s eastern coastal provinces, prompting concerns about a copycat effect. On Thursday, a man wielding a knife forced his way past a security guard at a kindergarten in Taixing, in Jiangsu province, and slashed at least 28 children before being subdued. Two teachers and a security guard also were injured, according to Xinhua.

On Wednesday, a man stabbed 15 students and a teacher with a knife in an elementary school in Leizhou, in Guangdong province. The suspect was later identified as a former local teacher with a history of mental illness.

That attack coincided with the execution of the perpetrator of the first of the attacks, a 42-year-old surgeon who killed eight schoolchildren with a knife and injured five others in Nanping, in Fujian province, on March 23.

Public reaction to the attacks has been strong, highlighting concerns about rising violence in China and spurring debate about its underlying causes. Some observers have suggested that the violence reflects a society in transition that lacks an effective social safety net, outlets for people to express their grievances and adequate treatment programs for the mentally ill.

Xinhua reported that Wang, the attacker in the latest case, was distraught after local police told him that his house had been built illegally and would be razed.

Zhou Yingjie, a columnist for the China Economic Times, said in a blog posting that strengthening school security was only a stopgap measure and would not address the root cause of the attacks. He advocated an effort to remedy social inequities, quoting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao: “Social justice is much brighter than the sun.”

– The Washington Post

21 dead babies dumped in east China river, some in “hospital waste” bags

Jane Macartney, Beijing , The Times, Mar. 31, 2010-

Jining City, Shangdong Province, China

The bodies of 21 babies who apparently died in hospital have been found in a river in eastern China.

Residents made the discovery on Monday while some of them were fishing in the river near a bridge in Shandong province. One man told a local television station: “We noticed that something had been washed up against the bank. At first I though they must be plastic dolls. But when I got closer I saw they were real babies.”

Another resident gestured to a tiny body, wearing only a nappy, lying on the muddy bank. “I couldn’t believe that they were real but they were. And as I walked along I saw more and more.”

At first they saw only eight corpses but they found more when they scoured the river. Several were in plastic bags. By Tuesday morning local authorities had found 21 dead infants.

Local police and health officials said that they had started an investigation and several staff from the Jining hospital had been suspended. Two mortuary workers were reported to have been detained yesterday.

It is not known how many of the babies were girls or boys and what the motive for dumping the bodies was. Eight of the babies had pale green hospital tags looped around their ankles. These identified three as having been admitted to the emergency room of the Jining Medical College Hospital and five as being cared for in the same hospital. The 13 other bodies had no form of identification.

Another villager said: “The ones in the bags are very small but look at that baby. It must be at least three months old. It measures 60cm (24in) and you can see that it even has hair.”

Some of the babies were jumbled together on the bank in yellow plastic bags stamped with the words “hospital waste”. One girl lay on her back with her romper suit torn in half and covered in mud.

A villager bent over one body to show the hospital tag taped to the ankle. He said: “This is a baby boy. His name is given as Man Hongmei and he was born in April 2009.” The tag carried his mother’s name and his weight and size at birth.

Residents complained that the dumping of the bodies risked contaminating their drinking water from the river as well as their duck farms. One middle-aged man said: “Whoever did this has no morals.”

The local authorities collected the bodies yesterday morning, gathering up more from the river and bringing them to the bank in the carrier bags in which they had been thrown away.

A television presenter attacked those responsible. He said: “Where do these babies come from? From which damned hospital? Why do I say hospital? Because they were thrown out as hospital waste.”

In an unusually emotional outburst for Chinese television, he said: “These infants never had a chance to walk on this earth and that is already their tragedy. But shouldn’t you then dispose of them properly instead of just tossing them out? These people have the hearts of dogs. They are hateful and contemptible.”

– The Times

China’s Missing Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng

By JEROME A. COHEN and BETH SCHWANKE, Via New York Times, March 18, 2010 –

Peter Gao is six and wants to be an astronaut. If you ask him why, he’ll explain that he wanted to be a lawyer, but the Chinese government “really hates lawyers.” He’s pretty sure that it likes astronauts.

The Chinese government “disappeared” Peter’s father, Gao Zhisheng, on Feb. 4, 2009. According to various Chinese officials over the past year, Mr. Gao is, “in Beijing,” “gone missing,” “where he should be,” “working in Urumqi,” the capital of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Province, and now “sentenced for subversion.”

We call on the Chinese government to stop stalling and produce Gao Zhisheng: a literal case of habeas corpus.

Mr. Gao’s efforts as one of China’s leading human rights lawyers made his latest detention inevitable. In 2006, after representing individuals persecuted by the government for their religious beliefs, Mr. Gao was convicted of “inciting subversion” and began serving a suspended sentence under 24-hour police surveillance — and harassment.

In 2007, after he wrote an open letter to the U.S. Congress detailing human rights violations in China, authorities again detained and tortured him.

Mr. Gao’s publicly released account of this torture, which included toothpicks in his genitals and electric shocks, ends with the admonition of authorities not to tell anyone of his torture — or be killed.

Mr. Gao’s extraordinary journey to become “China’s conscience” and a recurring nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize began in his family’s traditional home. After time as a coal miner and in the People’s Liberation Army, Mr. Gao took his legal exams without the benefit of university. The government later named him one of China’s 10 best lawyers. And, despite the risks, he began defending those people the government persecutes.

Perhaps even more extraordinary is the Chinese government’s failure to officially acknowledge Mr. Gao’s detention. It’s unmistakable that Beijing is increasing its crackdown on political dissidents; however, the Chinese government’s complete abandonment of even the pretext of the rule of law with regards to Mr. Gao’s detention is unprecedented.

Retired Teacher Cited in Missing Lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s Letter Dies From Torture in China Custody

Press Release, The Falun Dafa Information Center, Mar. 14, 2010 –

NEW YORK— An elderly Falun Gong practitioner, who was cited as a torture victim by prominent attorney Gao Zhisheng in an open letter to China’s leaders, died in January due to injuries incurred in custody. Ms. Liu Lihua (刘丽华), 61, is the second of Gao’s interviewees known to have subsequently died from abuse in custody. Gao himself has been “disappeared” by Chinese security forces since February 2009.

Ms. Liu, a retired teacher from Shandong, died on January 28, 2010, after her release in September from a detention center, where she had been severely abused. Police detained her on March 24, 2009 as she was talking about the persecution against Falun Gong in public.

“During the time I was in prison, the guards employed absolutely inhumane means to torture me,” Liu told Gao Zhisheng in 2005, as cited in his open letter to Communist Party leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao urging them to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

“Once I was continuously handcuffed for as long as 43 days. With both of my hands cuffed behind my back, I was hung on a metal door and was beaten,” Liu reportedly said (full testimony).

Ms. Liu is the second of Gao’s interviewees whose death due to subsequent abuse in custody the Falun Dafa Information Center has documented. In 2007, Ms. Wang Yuhuan, a well-known Falun Gong adherent from Changchun died in police custody (news). In a December 2005 letter, Gao had detailed sexual assault and electrocution with batons that Wang had been subjected to in a mountain torture chamber outside the city.

“No one who has not personally experienced such pain can imagine how much it hurts,” Wang reportedly said of the abuse at the time.

Since February 2009, Gao’s own whereabouts have remained unknown, with many observers and acquaintances fearing he has been tortured and possibly killed (Washington Post op-ed by Gao’s wife). In recent years, Gao has been featured on the cover of the New York Times and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work protecting and speaking out for the gamut of China’s persecuted citizens, including Falun Gong practitioners. Shortly prior to his abduction, Gao had published a detailed account of severe abuse suffered during a previous detention, including being shocked with electric batons on his genitals (news).

Additional Details on Ms. Liu’s Death

Photo: Forced demolition in China

Armed police supervise a forced demolition in eastern China's Pingdu city, Shandong province. (Rights Protection Net)