“He was on hunger strike twice and force fed,” one source told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case. It was unclear how long the hunger strike lasted.

“He was not tortured, but fell ill and was taken to a hospital in Beijing for treatment,” the source said, declining to provide details of Bo’s condition and whereabouts which have been kept under wraps since his downfall.

[…] The recent lack of information about the case – Bo has not been seen in public since last March – harms the government’s credibility in the eyes of the people, said Bao Tong, the most senior official jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen protests.

“It’s not normal, too much time has past,” Bao told Reuters, referring to the lack of information from the government about the case.

“This is not good for the party’s image. They have not thought about this clearly. If they are able to properly deal with a big shot like Bo Xilai then they will increase people’s trust in the party,” he added.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989, Bao Tong, Bo Xilai, hunger strike, justice, rumors, Tiananmen, trials, trust
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Kalsang Kyab, 24, set himself ablaze in front of a Chinese government office in Kangtsa town, raising slogans for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the exiled head of Kirti Monastery. He passed away at the site of his protest.

The Dharamshala based Kirit Monastery in a late night release said Kalsang Kyab carried out his protest at around 6:30 pm (local time).

“Kalsang Kyab doused his body with kerosene as he walked towards the local government office building, raising slogans,” Kirit Monastery said citing sources in the region. “Upon reaching the office building, he then set himself ablaze and continued to raise slogans.”

The Chinese government’s blackout of independent media in Tibetan areas makes independent verification of reports from the region difficult or impossible. Even the number of self-immolations is uncertain: according to activist group Rangzen Alliance and writer Woeser [zh], the current total is 92. (Woeser’s tweet states 91, but predates news of the latest incident.) A post by Woeser written on August 1st and translated at High Peaks Pure Earth explains part of the discrepancy.

U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported four arrests following student protests on Monday. Independent experts quoted by the similarly funded Voice of America suggested that the self-immolations have moved into a new phase in recent weeks, with activists describing this as an attempt to sway the recently installed Party leadership in Beijing.

[Columbia University's Robert] Barnett says the first phase of self-immolations began last year with monks and nuns trying to protect their monasteries from security crackdowns.

The second wave, which he says occurred for most of the past year, involved individuals in small towns sharing sympathy with those monks and nuns.

“But now in this phase we have laypeople staging these immolations in ways that are much more determined in an attempt to get a response from Chinese authorities, by having immolations in clusters, very close together, many on the same day or within a few days and many in the same place,” said Barnett.

James Leibold, a Tibet analyst for Australia’s Latrobe University in Beijing says that a broader segment of the Tibetan community is also involved in the latest protests.

[…] But Leibold says so far there is no indication that the government has changed its position on Tibet.

“Sadly, we hear the same rhetoric coming out of Beijing, and Chinese officials continually blaming a few black hands for collaborating with the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan community to stir up trouble and to damage China’s ethnic unity and harmony. There’s just absolutely no will, it seems, to admit a failure of policy,” he said.

In a further broadening of the protest movement, Phayul reports that coordinated hunger strikes have broken out across Tibetan areas:

More than 60 Tibetans from different walks of life began their solidarity hunger strike in their evening of November 26 in their respective places. According to Kanyag Tsering, an exiled monk who has been closely monitoring the situation inside Tibet, the Tibetans will end their hunger strike in the morning of November 28.

The campaign is being observed in various cities across the tradition boundaries of Tibet.

“The simultaneous hunger strike is being carried out in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, Drango, Jomda, Zachukha, Tridu, Sertha, Siling, Rebkong, Kardze and Trindu in China,” Tsering told Phayul. “They have also been offering prayers for the self-immolators.”

According to the same source, the Tibetans taking part in this campaign come from different walks of like and are “highly educated.”

“The participants in the solidarity campaign include government officials, writers, monks, and businessmen.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Dalai Lama, hunger strike, media censorship, Robert Barnett, self-immolations, student protests, Tibet, United States, Voice of America, Woeser
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The deceased, a 30-year-old man identified as Qi Changjiang, was arrested on July 26th for allegedly selling counterfeit tax receipts around Beijing’s Zhongguancun high-tech neighborhood. According to Qi’s wife, Zhu Zufen, this was the second time that he had been arrested for selling fake tax receipts. For his previous offense, he had received ten months of forced labor.

Zhu told the newspaper that after her husband’s arrest, she and a lawyer went to the jail, which denied that her husband was in their custody. Zhu said that she was confused, because what the jail said contradicted information given her by the police in Haidian as well as those back in their hometown in Anhui Province.

It was only on September 17 that she received any further word about Qi, in the form of a notification about his death.

Records kept by the medical department of Haidian Jail revealed that Qi had been fasting since August 6. During that time, Qi occasionally took porridge and soybean milk but refused to talk. He was fed through a tube and was given intravenous infusion of fluids.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: crime, hunger strike, prison
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Over the past two years, China has escalated beatings, imprisonment and harassment of dissenters: intellectuals, social and economic justice activists, journalists and even farmers who attempt to present their grievances to authorities.

Many Westerners might never have heard about the recent attacks if not for the response of a diverse group of Beijing activists. Gao Zhisheng, a prominent defense attorney, organized a symbolic 48-hour hunger strike to protest the attacks; soon he was under house arrest with as many as 100 policemen surrounding his home.

Other prominent activists, including Hu Jia, a young AIDS advocate and former television editor, quickly joined him in solidarity. The idea spread, with activists from more than 20 provinces reportedly volunteering to fast for 24-48 hours each.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: activists, Gao Zhisheng, hunger strike, protests
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Chinese police have rounded up at least eight democracy campaigners involved in hunger strikes that have spread to more than 16 provinces, a leading activist said on Friday.

Most of those detained in the past 10 days had gone on hunger strikes to protest what they call increasingly violent harassment of dissidents by the government, Gao Zhisheng, a Beijing-based lawyer, told Reuters by telephone.

“It’s because we have made the government look really bad by the hunger strikes,” Gao said of the reason for the round-up. “And its only way to resolve differences with its own people is violence.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defending rights, Gao Zhisheng, hunger strike
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