Against a backdrop of rapid socio-economic change and modernization, China continues to be an authoritarian one-party state that imposes sharp curbs on freedom of expression, association, and religion; openly rejects judicial independence and press freedom; and arbitrarily restricts and suppresses human rights defenders and organizations, often through extra-judicial measures.

The government also censors the internet; maintains highly repressive policies in ethnic minority areas such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia; systematically condones—with rare exceptions—abuses of power in the name of “social stability” ; and rejects domestic and international scrutiny of its human rights record as attempts to destabilize and impose “Western values” on the country. The security apparatus—hostile to liberalization and legal reform—seems to have steadily increased its power since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China’s “social stability maintenance” expenses are now larger than its defense budget.

At the same time Chinese citizens are increasingly rights-conscious and challenging the authorities over livelihood issues, land seizures, forced evictions, abuses of power by corrupt cadres, discrimination, and economic inequalities. Official and scholarly statistics estimate that 250-500 protests occur per day; participants number from ten to tens of thousands. Internet users and reform-oriented media are aggressively pushing the boundaries of censorship, despite the risks of doing so, by advocating for the rule of law and transparency, exposing official wrong-doing, and calling for reforms.

China’s state media has responded to the report with a flurry of indignation, as HRW’s Nicholas Bequelin noted:

此地无银三百两： People’s Daily and China Daily have published a total of 10 (!) articles on Human Rights Watch (@hrw) in one week.

— Nicholas Bequelin 林伟 (@Bequelin) January 31, 2012

(“此地无银三百两”: “No 300 taels of silver here”; to draw attention to something by denying it.)

People’s Daily, for example, suggested that criticism of China’s rights record arose from Western insecurity:

It seems that some Western countries and NGOs have set out to attack China over its human rights issues. They first assume that human rights are being ignored, then seek evidence from rumors, and make speculations to blindly accuse China of violating human rights with the real purpose of distorting China’s international image ….

Why does the West still hold a prejudice against China’s human rights? The only reason is that the Cold War mentality and ideological hegemony still prevails. As long as China is a socialist country, the West will insist on distorting its image and see China as a threat to the Western system.

Since the end of the Cold War, the West has been too boastful of its political system, believing it is the only system that has universal value in the world.

China’s significant economic progress has stirred Western anxieties. Distorting China’s human rights becomes the only political choice.

Elsewhere, People’s Daily also criticised the report for failing to acknowledge China’s progress in legal reform. From Xinhua:

The World Report “gave no word on the great progress in terms of China’s judicial reforms that have been demonstrated in the Criminal Procedural Law draft amendment,” the article said.

Legal experts say the draft amendment will help improve the protection of criminal suspects’ human rights, by preventing judges from accepting confessions from tortured suspects and giving these suspects more defense options.

In fact, the report does acknowledge the amendment, but reiterates concern at the prospect of legalised enforced disappearances:

In August 2011, in an effort to … improve the administration of justice, the government published new rules to eliminate unlawfully obtained evidence and strengthened the procedural rights of the defense in its draft revisions to the Criminal Procedure Law. It is likely it will be adopted in March 2012.

However, the draft revisions also introduced an alarming provision that would effectively legalize enforced disappearances by allowing police to secretly detain suspects for up to six months at a location of their choice in “state security, terrorism and major corruption cases.” The measure would put suspects at great risk of torture while giving the government justification for the “disappearance” of dissidents and activists in the future. Adoption of this measure—which is hotly criticized in Chinese media by human rights lawyers, activists, and part of the legal community—would significantly deviate from China’s previous stance of gradual convergence with international norms on administering justice, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1997 but has yet to ratify.

See more on CDT.

People’s Daily also objected to the report’s claim that “the government continues to build a ‘new socialist countryside’ [in Tibet] by relocating and rehousing up to 80 percent of the TAR population, including all pastoralists and nomads.” From Xinhua:

The People’s Daily article, jointly published by two Tibet experts, said the HRW’s conclusion was groundless and contradictory to basic facts.

The two authors, Zhang Ming, or Lorong Dramadul, with the China Tibetology Research Center, and Professor Yang Minghong with Sichuan University, hoped that their experiences and observations from over 20 years of field research in Tibet could help clarify the misunderstandings.

They cited official statistics and said that in 2011, 1.85 million Tibetans, or 61 percent of the total population, had settled in permanent residences.

“No more than 150,000 people, or less than 5 percent of the Tibetan population, had left their original residence,” the experts wrote.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Pan Xizhe’s op-ed at China Daily accused Human Rights Watch of sloppy methodology and political motivations:

At first glance, Human Rights Watch appears to be keen on the protection of international human rights. But it actually carries out its work with double standards and bias. Its observations lack political neutrality and its research methods are questionable. The organization’s employment of unqualified workers has also hurt the credibility of its report. Human Rights Watch should reflect inward before passing on judgment to others.

The media and international observers have long criticized Human Rights Watch for passing judgment of human rights conditions of a country or region through tinted lens. It turns a blind eye to human rights issues in some countries while criticizing others vehemently. The Sunday Times quoted a human rights insider in the United States as saying that the organization caters its reports to the US government, which greatly affects its objectivity ….

In the China portion of its report, Human Rights Watch used expressions such as “estimate”, “possibly”, and “probably”. It criticized China’s judiciary system, religious institutions, regional autonomy by ethnic groups, family planning policy as well as foreign and economic policies.

The US section of the report, which criticises the Obama White House’s failure to pursue Bush administration officials for approving the use of torture and decries America’s “abusive” counterterrorism policies, growing poverty and world-leading prison population, can be read here.

While the World Report looked back at 2011, at The Diplomat, HRW’s Phelim Kine looks ahead to 2012:

These cases represent more than the Chinese government’s well-documented contempt for freedom of expression explicitly guaranteed in Article 35 of the Constitution. They are also clear efforts to breed fear and sow silence among China’s beleaguered community of human rights defenders and civil society activists. The aim: to ensure that the 12-month senior Communist Party leadership transition this year proceeds without public challenges to the Party’s 61-year monopoly on power. China’s President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are preparing to step aside for a new generation of leaders, widely touted to be Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, in a secretive political succession that won’t be complete until in March 2013 ….

The government’s overriding obsession with maintaining its monopoly on power make it likely that these abuses will continue under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Foreign governments could help reverse this trend and give support to Chinese who want a more accountable government by more vigorously engaging the government on such violations. Thirty years since the launch of China’s economic reform and opening, a decade after China entered the World Trade Organization, and five years since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the deterioration in respect for human rights and rule of law in China should be of serious concern for all countries seeking long-term, sustainable and mutually-beneficial bilateral relations with China.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, criminal procedure law, disabled, human rights watch, industrial pollution, leadership transition, legal reform, Li Keqiang, migrants, minorities, press freedom, religious freedom, Tibet, women, Xi Jinping
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Tibetan sources in exile said at least one man was reported killed and many more were injured when police opened fire on Tibetan protesters who tried to stop them from detaining a person who had put up a poster challenging Chinese rule.

[...]Ngaba is one of several Tibetan-populated regions of western China that have been rocked in recent years by protests, including 17 self-immolations, against rule by Beijing.

The poster declared that “Tibetans will never abandon their struggle and will continue to organize more campaigns until the demands of Tibetans who have self-immolated are met,” Tsering and Yeshe said.

An article in The New York Times mentions press restrictions in the area:

Foreign journalists in Sichuan who tried to drive to the affected region were turned back at security checkpoints that had been erected more than 60 miles from where the shootings took place. One overseas activist group, Free Tibet, said its informants in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, had reported a heavy increase in Chinese security forces there as well.

Lobsang Sangay, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile released a video to the AFP, calling on the international community to intervene on behalf of Tibetans in China.

In a recently published interview on the Houston Chronicle’s website, Lobsang Sangay spoke to the English-speaking international community about Tibetan self-immolations. He talks about what is leading Tibetans to take such drastic measures, and the Buddhist view of self-immolation as an act of protest:

Q: Why are monks and nuns self-immolating in Tibet?

A: Repressive policies of China have pushed them to the brink of desperation. Members of the Communist Party of China dictate what monks and nuns should do, how they should pray, and who should be allowed into the monasteries.

[...]

Q: Does Buddhism allow self-immolation?

A: It’s a complex issue. One could refer to Jataka tales, which concern the previous births of the Buddha. In one story, the Buddha, in a previous incarnation, gives up his body to feed a starving tigress and her four cubs. Some other stories also talk about self-sacrifice by the Buddha.

Although suicide is violent and prohibited in Buddhism, some Buddhists believe it depends on the motivation. If you do it out of hatred and anger, then it is negative. But if you do it for a pure cause … it’s such a complex theological issue. You can’t go either way or have a definitive answer. But the action is tragic, so painful.

New Tang Dynasty TV posted a video today, in which they outline a policy that will bring an abundance of CCP symbols to Tibetan populated areas. From the transcript:

January 22nd, 2012, the eve of Chinese New Year. Chinese officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region held a ceremony to unveil a portrait of four Communist leaders: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. They go on to state that they will send these portraits, as well as Communist flags, to villages, homes, and temples in the region.

[...]In December 2011, authorities in Tibet introduced the “Nine Must-Haves” policy. It dictates nine items that all temples must display or carry portraits of Communist leaders, the Communist flag and a copy of the state-run People’s Daily.

Crazy Crab, the artist responsible for the Hexie Farm satirical cartoons, has been aiming many of his recent pieces at the situation in Tibet. His latest addition ridicules the “Nine-Must-Haves” policy:

For translations of Chinese Twitter comments about the protests in Tibet, see Oiwan Lam’s recent post for Global Voices. Also see previous coverage of Tibetan protests, via CDT.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: police violence, protest, self-immolation, Tibet, tibet protest
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

It appeared that at least two people had been hit by gunfire, and one of those might have been killed, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for International Campaign for Tibet, which is based in Washington. Ms. Saunders said the group had spoken to at least two sources.

Another group, Free Tibet, said it had confirmed reports that a Tibetan woman was shot. There were unconfirmed reports that many others were also hit, said Stephanie Brigden, the director of the group, which is based in London. Security officials in the area could not be reached for comment on Saturday night.

The violence took place in the town of Aba, known in Tibetan as Ngaba, a focal point for protests against Chinese rule and the scene of civilian deaths during a widespread Tibetan uprising in 2008. Since then, it has been the site of at least 11 self-immolations, some of them fatal. Those setting themselves on fire have mainly been monks, nuns or former members of the clergy. The monks in Aba who set themselves on fire all come from the Kirti Monastery, where anger has grown over Chinese repression of religious practices.

The self-immolation on Saturday was the 16th since March 2011, when Phuntsog, a monk at Kirti, set himself on fire and died. The wave of self-immolations in the past year was preceded by that of one monk from Kirti in the spring of 2009. In total, at least 12 Tibetans have died through self-immolation since 2009, if the death on Saturday is confirmed. Scholars of modern Tibet say the self-immolations represent a new and disturbing protest strategy among the clergy.

AP has more in the incident:

Woeser, a Beijing-based Tibetan poet and activist, posted accounts of the unrest on Twitter that were similar to those reported by the groups.

“A young Tibetan person self-immolated … the local area has erupted in public protests and marches, and they have been met with military police fire and suppression. There are Tibetan casualties,” she wrote. Like some Tibetans, Woeser uses just one name.

The claims could not be independently confirmed. Calls to Aba county’s police bureau rang unanswered. A man who answered the phone Sunday at the Aba prefecture government said they hadn’t received any reports about a self-immolation or clashes and then hung up. People answering the phones at the lower Aba county and township governments also said they had no information.

Heavy security has turned Aba and the surrounding area into a virtual restricted zone since an anti-government uprising across Tibetan communities in 2008, and foreign reporters have had little or no access.

Read more about Kirti Monastery and self-immolation by Tibetans, as well as other recent protests in Tibet and Tibetan regions, via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kirti monastery, police violence, self-immolation, Tibet, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

That day, I woke up at about 6.30am and knew what I had to do. I’d seen the news of the brothers and sisters inside Tibet burning themselves, and I knew that is what I needed to do to get the world’s attention.

[...]Before leaving home, I put a statement on Facebook and then I left. I was not frightened. I felt proud to be doing something for my nation. I was ready to die.

[...]I suffered bad burns and I still have some dressings on one leg. There will always be scars there, of course. But I did not die. All the same, I would be ready to do it again. That is how strongly I feel about the situation there in Tibet.

In a recent post on her personal blog, Mumbai based journalist Priyanka Borpujari mentions Sherab Tsedor and the importance of Facebook in keeping the Tibetan community in Mumbai connected:

[...]On November 4, 25-year-old Sherab Tsedor had set himself on fire outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, in solidarity with the 11 monks who had immolated themselves. Alert cops managed to rush him to a hospital. Today, Tsedor updates his progress in healing on Facebook.

“Facebook is one of the best mediums for us in Mumbai to stay connected,” said Dolkar Tenzin. She created the ‘Tibetan Mumbaikars’ community page on Facebook, and updates it with news and events pertaining to Tibet.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: protest, self-immolation, Tibet, tibet protest
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese state media confirmed the incidents occurred in the traditionally Tibetan region of Sichuan.

London-based Free Tibet group said the men were protesting over Chinese rule.

A 22-year-old former monk was taken to hospital with serious burns after setting himself alight at a crossroads in Sichuan’s Aba prefecture, China’s Xinhua news agency said.

Another former monk died after burning himself to death in a hotel around the same time, Xinhua said.

AP has more details about the incident and its aftermath:

U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Asia said hundreds of angry Tibetans forced police to hand over the remains of the 42-year-old monk, named Sopa, then carried them through the streets in Dari county in Qinghai province.

It said the monk died Sunday morning after drinking and throwing kerosene over his body. Radio Free Asia quote a source as saying Sopa’s “body exploded in pieces” before police took it away.

Two other men set themselves on fire Friday in Sichuan province. At least 15 monks, nuns and former monks are now believed to have set themselves on fire in the past year. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Radio Free Asia said police first refused to give up the body but relented after “the protesters smashed windows and doors of the local police station,” according to another source.

The Dalai Lama has blamed recent self-immolations on China’s policies toward Tibet, but researchers at the Sichuan Tibetology Research Center have claimed that the Dalai Lama enticed these men to commit the self-immolations. China Daily adds:

“The several self-immolation cases recently were committed by people who previously had got punished for their wrongdoings such as whoring, gambling and burglary, or deep in debt because of gambling,” said Gang Zheng, a Tibetology expert with the Sichuan Tibetology Research Center.

The Dalai Lama was trying to make this serve his political purposes, said Yi Fei, another Tibetology expert with the center.

The two most recent self-immolations were both former monks who had resumed a secular life. According to state media, these two former monks had been accused of being involved in the theft of a Buddha statue in Kirti Monastery. The Times of India reports:

The official media quoted a government-run think-tank as saying those indulging in self-immolation were former monks, who had been found to be involved in several cases of wrongdoing including stealing and whoring. The dead monk had stolen the statue of Buddha at the Kirti Monastery, it said.

This is a new form of accusation against monks, who had earlier been accused of anti-national and anti-social activities.

Investigations by local officials showed that the former monks, as the State-run Xinhua News Agency described them, had clashed with local authorities in recent months. It did not explain why they has lost their status as monks, but it is possible that pro-government forces in the Kirti Monastery in Aba Country, had removed them for anti-government behavior.
 

The Wall Street Journal looks at the epidemic of self-immolations and revisits the monasteries where a nun and a monk both set themselves on fire last year:

On Sunday, a separate Xinhua article, which made no mention of the self-immolations, said that senior Tibet officials pledged stepped-up efforts to strengthen the management of monasteries, saying that promoting harmony in Tibet is a priority because it concerns the stability of the nation.

In one incident in November, Palden Choetso, a 35-year-old nun at the Gaden Choeling nunnery, doused herself in gasoline, gulped several mouthfuls, and set herself ablaze, according to accounts by her fellow nuns.

Shortly afterward, friends of the Tibetan nun found a list of names pinned above her bed in the small wooden hut where she lived. Ms. Palden was compiling a tally of Tibetans who had set themselves on fire, all in the same corner of western Sichuan, in protest of China’s policies in the region—adjacent to the Tibet Autonomous Region and heavily populated by ethnic Tibetans. Among the names was Tsewang Norbu, 29, a monk at the local Nyitso monastery.

In Daofu, where Ms. Palden and Mr. Tsewang self-immolated, they have become martyrs to some. Their photographs are displayed in the town’s homes. A video circulating on the Internet shows Ms. Palden’s body engulfed in flames; as she struggles to stay upright, a woman runs toward her and casts a white scarf at her feet in a gesture of respect.

UPDATE (Jan. 9, 4:15 PST): The New York Times has more details about the weekend’s self-immolations:

Analysts who sympathize with ethnic Tibetans’ criticism of Beijing’s conduct say this month’s deaths underscore that the crackdown has failed to quell Tibetans’ demands for greater religious and political latitude. While most suicide victims were young monks, Sopa, who self-immolated on Sunday morning in Qinghai Province, was a 42-year-old senior clergyman. Like many Tibetans, he went by one name.

His death indicates that suicide is increasingly accepted as an expression of political opposition among Tibetans and that the government’s harsh response has only made it more popular, Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher in Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview.

“We clearly see this form of protest is resonating within the Tibetan community,” he said. “The government is trying to prevent these incidents by strengthening control, but too much repression and control is what provokes these acts. So it is a vicious circle.”

Read more about the recent self-immolations via CDT.

© melissa chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Kirti monastery, self-immolation, Sichuan, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Party members are required to be atheists and must not believe in religion or engage in religious practice, said Zhu Weiqun, a member of the party’s Central Committee and executive vice director of its United Front Work Department in charge of dealings with nonparty groups ….

“Voices have appeared within the party calling for an end to the ban on religion, arguing in favor of the benefits of religion for party members and even claiming the ban on religion for party members is unconstitutional,” Zhu said.

“In fact, our party’s principled stance regarding forbidding members from believing in religion has not changed one iota,” he said.

Many religious practitioners outside the Party, meanwhile, face continued pressure. Last week the AP reported the shutdown of a public Christmas party in Xitan, Zhejiang:

The Xintan [sic] Village Church, in a video posted on YouTube, said the local government authorized the event. But a higher-level official in charge of religious affairs said the believers were asked a day earlier to cancel because regulations forbid worship outdoors and Buddhists in the community complained.

“We told them that any outdoors event of a religious nature is strictly banned from being organized, and that’s what it states in the government rule on religion,” said Zeng Jianhua, deputy director of religious affairs in Ruian city, which oversees Xintan.

Ruian has become home to makers of toys and Christmas ornaments. Xintan bills itself as “Christmas village.” Local factories produced more than $78 billion, or 500 million yuan, in Christmas products this year, prompting local officials to stage a Christmas arts and culture fair last Saturday in celebration. That inspired the Xintan Village Church to hold its own nighttime Christmas party Tuesday, the church statement said.

Video, via Shanghaiist:

Also last week, Christian organisation CHINAaid announced an unprecedented National Day crackdown on a house church in Lhasa, in which 11 members were detained for almost a month. The group published the account of Song Xinkuan, “a Chinese citizen & Christian believer”:

At the NSPA (National Security Protection Agency) office, the officer I met at the very beginning and his young coworker said they would interrogate me according to the law and I was demanded to truthfully answer the questions they were going to ask. I said, “Christianity is a legal religion. Why do you keep saying that we (Christians) are illegal?” They would not allow me to defend or explain for myself and insisted that I answer their questions. In the meantime, another office joined the interrogation, and then the female boss joined us too. The questions they asked became so strange that I did not have answers for them. They asked about some people and events that I had no knowledge of, and they emphasized repeatedly that Christianity is not only illegal in Tibet, but also is an alleged cult that undermines ethnic unity and social stability. I had to state repeatedly that Christianity is a legal religion anywhere in China and I asked them how it had become illegal in Lhasa, Tibet or even an alleged cult?

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Christianity, Christmas, religious freedom, religious persecution, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

On the evening of December 14, yesterday, the Han students showed how awesome they are. 3,000 guys from male dormitories 1, 2, and 3, all wearing their school uniforms, surrounded the Tibetan students’ dormitory and attacked. In fighting that lasted all night, the Tibetan dormitory was destroyed, the doors and windows completely smashed. The Tibetan classrooms were also ruined. A bunch of Tibetan students were beaten badly enough to be sent to the hospital. The police came but couldn’t control the situation, so over 1,000 riot police were sent in. They dispersed the students with tear gas. The Han students didn’t hesitate to smash the police and teachers’ cars. The principal got on the loud speaker to beg the students to calm down and leave the scene, but no one gave a damn. The Han and Tibetan students at the Railroad Engineering School really hate each other. Those several hundred Tibetan students are so full of themselves. Last night was an important victory for the Han students, because the school picked up all of the Tibetan students, and of course there were a bunch of Tibetan students who got seriously beaten up. Our slogan last night was loud and clear: beat the Tibetans, get extra credit.

The outcome of last night’s battle was the destruction of the Tibetan students’ dormitory and classrooms, plus a lot of police vehicles and teachers’ cars. The school is under martial law now. You can get in but you can’t get out. Last night’s battle was seriously bloody.

Today at noon after the Han students ate lunch the Tibetan students came for their lunch. All of the sudden, someone yelled that there were Tibetans in the cafeteria. We fought again, trapping the Tibetans in the cafeteria. I predict that tonight will be another sleepless night of battle. The Han students are formidable!!! Beat the Tibetans, wear your school uniform, and get extra credit.

Update: See a report from RFA which interviews officials, students and others about the violence.

© fionasmith for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | 25 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chengdu, ethnic tensions, students, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Tibet, Tibet protests, video
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

“When we see reports of lawyers, artists and others who are detained or ‘disappeared,’ the United States speaks up both publicly and privately,” Clinton said in a speech at the East-West Center think-tank shortly before a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi ….

As Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Honolulu for the summit, Clinton said the US was “alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng.”

“We continue to call on China to embrace a different path ….”

A senior US official said that Clinton also brought up the cases directly with Yang, but also sought cooperation on a range of issues including Iran amid new charges the Islamic regime is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders has published a new report on Chen’s case:

Based on interviews with a number of activists involved in the current campaign to free Chen, CHRD traces the genesis of this remarkable mobilization, which has spread beyond the small circle of human rights activists: citizens from all walks of life are undertaking trips to Dongshigu Village and participating in online activities in an effort to draw attention to Chen’s situation. Drawing on the meaning of Chen’s given name, they have coined the slogan for their movement from which this report takes its name: “Let there be light, let there be sincerity!” (要有光，要有诚).

In this report, CHRD outlines the horrendous conditions of the house arrest to which Chen and his family have been subjected following his release from Linyi Prison in September 2010. It details how the treatment of Chen violates Chinese law and the international human rights standards which the Chinese government has vowed to uphold. The report shows how both central and local governments have completely failed in their duty to protect the rights of Chen and his family, and how this has emboldened local officials by tacitly approving the abusive measures they have employed.

Attempted visits to Chen in the village of Dongshigu where he is being held continue to meet with resistance, often violent. The BBC’s Michael Bristow describes his own recent encounter:

The three men acted swiftly and efficiently – they had a job to do. They yanked open the car door, barked a few orders and then snatched equipment from out of our hands: cameras, mobile phones and recording devices. We were told to stay put while one man radioed for help ….

When the BBC visited, it was clear the men who stopped us were well drilled and organised – although it was impossible to say who had hired them.

There appeared to be a chain of command: one man took took some money from our car and put it into his pocket, before someone else told him to put it back.

The men wore plain clothes, showed no identification and refused to answer questions about who they were. They did not ask before taking what they wanted.

After searching our equipment they gave it back and then told us to leave the village.

An anonymous letter has been circulated to local residents, encouraging them to support Chen. But many villagers, wary of further trouble, have simply burned it. From Radio Free Asia:

“Nov. 12, 2011 is Chen Guangcheng’s birthday,” said the letter, which was sent to an unknown number of households in Chen’s home county of Yinan this week. “There will continue to be large numbers of people trying to get through to visit him.”

“We will not stand idly by and watch this happen,” it said. “Unite in support of Chen Guangcheng!” […]

Wang [Xuezhen, a Shandong-based rights activist] said that many villagers had burned the letter, titled “Telling the elders about their fellow countryman,” as soon as they saw what it said.

“Local government propaganda has been telling them that there are enemy forces at work, which is why so many people have been set to guard a single man.”

“They have previously said that Chen Guangcheng is a spy for the United States, so those people are very frightened, and they burned the letter as fast as they could.”

See also more recent news on Chen Guangcheng and the situation in Tibet, and warnings of proposed changes to Chinese law that would give detentions such as Chen’s “a thicker veneer of legality”.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apec, BBC, Chen Guangcheng, espionage, Hillary Clinton, house arrest, self-immolation, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The Dalai Lama has slammed censorship in China as “immoral”, following accusations that the Chinese government blocked him from traveling to South Africa to celebrate Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader spoke with Tutu on Saturday, answering questions via a video link, instead of attending an event to honour the South African anti-apartheid activist a day after his birthday ….

The Dalai Lama told Tutu when asked why the Chinese feared him that “some Chinese officials describe me as a demon so naturally some fear about the demon.”

He said hypocrisy and telling lies had unfortunately become part of life in “the communist totalitarian system” and people who spoke truthfully and honestly sparked discomfort.

The Telegraph also reports that the Dalai Lama urged China to put its judicial system up to international standards:

China clearly had the potential to take “a constructive role” in the world, said the Dalai Lama.

“Respect, trust from the rest of the world is very necessary. For that reason, transparency is very essential,” he added.

See also Dalai Lama Cancels Highly Charged South Africa Trip and Two More Self Immolations Near Kirti Monastery One Possibly Fatal, via CDT.

© melissa chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, South Africa, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall