Anti-graft Activists in China Pay Heavy Price

Chinese citizens who take the anti-corruption campaign of President Xi Jinping to heart by blowing the whistle on graft are likely to pay a high personal price, according to analysts.

Blind Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng Says China Can’t be Trusted

LONDON: “Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai” may be the flavour in Delhi after the recent visit of Chinese premier Li Keqiang. However, a strong word of caution has come from one of China’s most wanted men Chen Guangcheng.

Chen, a blind activist who became an international hero after he became the first person to escape house arrest in Beijing for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations in the country and eventually slipping out of China to take refuge in US, told TOI in a rare interview that “Chinese government can’t be trusted. Chinese people aren’t like that but the government’s word can never be trusted. It is an authoritarian regime.”

Snubbed by Cameron, Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng Accuses UK of Kowtowing to China

• Chen Guangcheng is in UK to receive award for exposing ‘gendercide’
• But request to meet with the Prime Minister has been snubbed
• Human rights campaigner says David Cameron is kowtowing to Beijing

A blind anti-abortion activist forced to flee China after suffering years of torture and persecution has accused the British government of running scared from Beijing.

Chinese Activist beaten for daring official to swim in polluted river

A Chinese farmer who dared a local environment official to swim in his province’s polluted rivers has been badly beaten in an attack his family says was linked to his activism.

Chen Zuqian, from the township of Banqiao in Zhejiang province, was one of a number of farmers and business people who publicly offered money to government officials to swim in  rivers to highlight the sorry state of China’s waterways.

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng urges U.S. no compromise on human rights

Dissident Chen Guangcheng voiced confidence Tuesday that China’s political system will eventually open up as he urged fellow activists and the United States not to compromise on human rights.

In an address in the US Capitol complex, the blind self-taught lawyer offered his most philosophical remarks yet about China since he dramatically escaped house arrest last year and was allowed to leave for New York.

“There has never been a dynasty that was able to achieve longevity through forceful oppression,” Chen said, quoting a Chinese proverb that “if you carry the hearts and minds of the people, you will carry all below Heaven.”

Chinese medias quiet on Ai Weiwei

While the twists and turns in the case of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and his tax demand are being closely followed by Western media, they are making no headlines in China.

Some 30,000 supporters have made small donations to Ai to help him pay a huge fine imposed by the authorities, which is seen by activists as part of a government effort to silence the outspoken artist.

But the official media have made almost no mention of the case in recent days.

A notable exception is the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, which has published commentaries in both Chinese and English questioning the level of domestic support for him.

Sad Day in Vietnam as Falun Gong Radio Broadcasters Jailed in Show Trial

NEW YORK--A Vietnamese court sentenced two Falun Gong practitioners to jail Thursday for broadcasting uncensored news programs via radio into China, according to their lawyer and media reports. Meanwhile, police reportedly beat and detained other Falun Gong practitioners who had quietly gathered outside the courtroom for a sit-in to protest the trial.

Mr. Vu Duc Trung, a 31-year-old CEO of a high-tech company, and his 36-year-old brother-in-law Mr. Le Van Thanh were sentenced in Hanoi to 3 and 2 years in prison, respectively. The pair have been in custody for 17 months, which will be subtracted from their sentence. The trial lasted half a day and sources close to the case say the verdict appeared to have been predetermined in advance.

“I said Vietnam does not have any law that bans Falungong, so we cannot put them on trial,” their lawyer Tran Dinh Trien told Agence France Press.

China: Government’s Enforced Disappearances a Growing Threat

(Hong Kong) – Enforced disappearances by the Chinese government’s security agencies have soared as a means to silence perceived dissent, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference in Hong Kong. The government has failed to address the growing problem and is instead attempting to effectively legalize that unlawful practice through a revision to the country’s Criminal Procedure Law, Human Rights Watch said.

Under international law, a state commits an enforced disappearance when its agents take a person into custody and then deny holding the person or fail to disclose the person’s whereabouts. Family members and legal representatives are not informed of the person’s whereabouts, well-being, or legal status. “Disappeared” people are often at high risk of torture, a risk even greater when they are detained outside of formal detention facilities such as prisons and police stations.

“Despite a few weak gestures of disapproval, the Chinese government has largely ignored or tacitly approved the security agencies’ proclivity for enforced disappearance and ‘black jails,’” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “That inaction has encouraged China’s security agencies to increasingly make enforced disappearances their tactic of choice. The proposed legal revisions are a clear indication of the government’s intentions.”

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s wife says supporters’ money will help them fight $2.4M tax bill

BEIJING — Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s wife said Thursday that they will contest a $2.4 million tax bill that they see as government harassment and use money collected from supporters to proceed with an appeal.

The Beijing tax bureau is demanding that the dissident artist pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines. Ai denies tax evasion. As of Wednesday, Ai had received 6,725,139 yuan from thousands of people wanting to help pay the bill that they see as unfair, he wrote online Thursday.

Ai, an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist, was detained for nearly three months earlier this year during an overall crackdown on dissent. The detention and subsequent claims of tax evasion have been interpreted by activists as a way to punish him for his often-outspoken criticism of the authoritarian government.

China’s Ai Weiwei receives support from fellow activist over tax bill

(CNN) — Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has received support and financial aid from a fellow activist after Beijing this week ordered him to pay 15 million yuan ($2.3 million) in back taxes.

Prominent Chinese human rights campaigner Hu Jia, who was released from jail in June after serving a 3 1/2-year sentence for “inciting to subvert state power,” posted the offer on his Twitter account.

“I sent 1,000 RMB ($157) to AiWW as a response to authority’s tax verdict. My great gratitude and respect for what he has done,” Hu wrote.

The message was also posted on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site akin to Twitter, asking for people’s support.

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

Freed China dissident Yang Maodong was tortured in custody, say rights groups

A Chinese dissident writer who was freed this week after five years in jail for alleged illegal business activities has said he was wrongly imprisoned and subjected to treatment “beyond people’s imagination”.

Yang Maodong said the charges against him were trumped up and that during his time in custody his interrogators questioned him only about his pro-democracy activities, and not business matters.

“I am innocent,” he said. “It’s a political case and I was called a political prisoner in the places where I was detained. All of this is political persecution of me because I promoted democracy.”

Chinese internet activist Wang Lihong faces up to five years in prison for ‘creating a disturbance’

(Guardian)– Protesters gathered outside a Beijing court on Friday as a Chinese internet activist went on trial in a case the demonstrators see as a warning shot to other rights campaigners.

Wang Lihong faces up to five years in prison for “creating a disturbance”. She was detained in March amid a sweeping crackdown on the rights movement, apparently triggered by government fears of protests inspired by the Arab spring.

RSF: Communist Party celebrates longevity, but Chinese activist says it has gone deaf

As China’s Communist Party celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding today, beginning with a flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square attended by 30,000 people, Reporters Without Borders insists that the toll from the crackdown of the past 90 days outweighs all the achievements of the past 90 years that the party has been proclaiming.

“The party’s efforts to present a festive image of national cohesion are designed to hide a disturbing deterioration in freedom of expression and information, especially during the last five months,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The ceremonies and political speeches must not be allowed to eclipse the wave of arrests of dissidents and human rights lawyers, and the censorship in Inner Mongolia.

Freed China critic Hu Jia says wants to resume activism

BEIJING — Prominent Chinese dissident Hu Jia wants to resume his activism but he is weighing up the impact on his family, according to his first reported comments since being released from prison at the weekend.

During a phone interview with Hong Kong’s Cable TV, Hu stressed the importance of “loyalty to morality, loyalty to the rights of citizens”.

“You should be loyal to your conscience,” he said in a broadcast aired late Sunday.

One of China’s leading rights activists and government critics, Hu returned to his Beijing home early on Sunday, his wife Zeng Jinyan said on Twitter, after completing a more than three-year sentence for subversion.

Chinese Officials Beat Activist Chen Guangcheng and His Wife, Group Says

BEIJING — Details are emerging about the apparently brutal detention of one of China’s most important legal activists, the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng.

Mr. Chen was released from jail last year after serving a 51-month sentence for disturbing public order and destroying public property — charges linked to his uncovering of forced sterilizations and abortions in the eastern Chinese city of Linyi.

But since his release, he has been under “ruanjin,” or “soft detention,” a kind of house arrest increasingly being used by the authorities to silence people who have not violated the law. The authorities once celebrated Mr. Chen, a 39-year-old self-taught lawyer, as a symbol of the country’s efforts to build a legal system, but they turned against him when he used the law to protest government abuse. Earlier this year, a video was smuggled out showing the circumstances of his detention. Reporters who tried to visit him were turned away by undercover police officers who had encircled his home.

U.S. Chinese Democracy Leader Liu Gang Says Wife a Communist Party Spy

(Epochtimes)– A former leader of the 1989 Tiananmen student movement has accused his wife of being a spy for the Chinese Communist Party in a series of Twitter posts and online blog entries over the weekend. His wife denies the accusation.

Liu Gang lives in exile in the United States and is a member of the overseas Chinese democracy movement. He met his wife four years ago online, and in their first face-to-face meeting she proposed marriage.

Since she was young, pretty, a graduate from a top business school in the United States, and a manager in a major firm, he agreed—he later said he thought her sudden proposal to him was “the American way.” Her name is Guo Yinghua, but in his Twitter messages Liu now calls her “Officer Guo.”

China Human Rights Briefing May 18-25, 2011

Highlights

10-Year Sentence for “Inciting Subversion” Issued to Lü Jiaping: CHRD has learned that 70-year-old dissident and military scholar Lü Jiaping (吕加平) was handed a severe 10-year sentence on May 13 after being convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” by the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court. Lü’s family was barred from attending the trial and also unable to hire counsel to defend him. The harsh sentence is believed to be related to Lü’s writings about former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江泽民).

CHRD Report on Internet Censorship Documents Escalating Struggle Between Government, Netizens: On May 20, CHRD released a report on the current state of internet restrictions in China and the methods being used by netizens to circumvent this encroachment on their rights. The report examines major online incidents from the past two years, discusses methods the government has used to tighten control over the internet, anti-censorship strategy among netizens, and give practical advice to netizens to circumvent censorship. For the full text of this report, in Chinese, please click here.

Amnesty Annual Report 2011- China

The Chinese government responded to a burgeoning civil society by jailing and persecuting people for peacefully expressing their views, holding religious beliefs not sanctioned by the state, advocating for democratic reform and human rights, and defending the rights of others. Popular social media sites remained blocked by China’s internet firewall. The authorities continued to repress Tibetan, Uighur, Mongolian and other ethnic minority populations. On the international stage, China grew more confident and more aggressive in punishing countries whose leaders spoke publicly about its human rights record.

Background

Authorities holding Mongolian human rights activist Hada’s wife and son

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the trumped-up charges of “illegal business activities” and “drug possession” that the Chinese authorities have brought against the wife and son of Hada, the Mongolian human rights activist who should have been released last December on completing a 15-year jail sentence.

In an interview for the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre on 4 May, Hada’s sister-in-law, Naraa, revealed that Hada’s wife, Xinna, and his son, Uiles, are being held in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, and that they were formally charged on 17 January. Arrested in early December, their only crime was to support Hada in his fight to defend his basic rights.

Torture Fears for Chinese Detainees

As U.S. officials head to China for a dialogue on human rights, a Chinese rights group has warned that 17 people—including artist Ai Weiwei—who are being held incommunicado in a recent crackdown on dissent are at risk of being tortured.

“They are at high risk of torture or other mistreatment while held illegally incommunicado,” the China Human Right Defenders (CHRD) group said in a statement on its website.

Top of the list was prominent artist and social critic Ai, whose family has had no official word on his whereabouts after he was detained at a Beijing airport on April 3.

39 Individuals Affected by China’s Crackdown Following Call for “Jasmine Revolution” (Name list)

The Chinese government has criminally detained a total of 39 individuals since mid-February after anonymous calls for “Jasmine Revolution” protests first appeared online. As of today, six of the criminally detained have been formally arrested, three have been sent to Re-education through Labor (RTL) camps, 14 have been released (out of which nine have been released on bail to await trial) while 16 remain detained.

In addition, two people have been placed under residential surveillance while about 17 activists remain missing.

China Human Rights Briefing April 13-19, 2011

Highlights

Activist Ni Yulan Becomes Latest Victim of “Jasmine” Crackdown:

CHRD learned this week that housing rights activist and former lawyer Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) has been criminally detained in Beijing for “creating a disturbance.” CHRD has now documented the criminal detention of 39 dissidents and activists as part of the current crackdown, launched by the government to suppress potential “Jasmine Revolution” protests. Another 18 individuals remain missing after being taken away by police. Some, such as human rights lawyer Teng Biao (滕彪) and activist and IT expert Gu Chuan (古川), have now been missing for two months.

Wuhan Dissident Li Tie Faces Decade in Prison as “Subversion” Trial Opens: Wuhan City activist and dissident Li Tie (李铁), arrested last fall on the charge of “subversion of state power,” was tried this week in Wuhan City Intermediate Court. Prosecutors asked the court for a ten-year sentence for Li; the hearing ended without a verdict. Li was represented in court by a police-appointed lawyer, as attorney Jin Guanghong (金光鸿), hired by Li’s family, disappeared shortly before the case.

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