The National People’s Congress has passed a controversial amendment to China’s Criminal Procedure Law which will, if faithfully implemented, strengthen suspects’ rights in ordinary—i.e. non-political—cases. But other provisions allow key protections to be discarded in cases relating to terrorism, corruption or “national security”—a term which, in China, can cover activities ranging from membership of unauthorised political groups to poetry composition.
Some initial reactions from Twitter:
CPL reflects balance of power in pol institutions: Security apparatus did not get everything they wanted, but still increase their powers.
— Nicholas Bequelin 林伟 (@Bequelin) March 14, 2012
(See ‘Legalizing the Tools of Repression‘ for context.)
The threat of up to six months of incommunicado detention in a police ‘guesthouse’ now hangs over the head of every government critic. Grim.
— Nicholas Bequelin 林伟 (@Bequelin) March 14, 2012
当不义写进法律，则反抗就成为义务。
— 北风（温云超） (@wenyunchao) March 14, 2012
Wen Yunchao: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
包括秘捕条款在内许多侵犯人权行为的刑诉法，最终以赞成2639 反对160 弃权57获得通过。这些短视的橡皮图章共同构筑的疯狂，会被经济不景气这个即将到来的大浪掀得东倒西歪。再严苛的管控，都无法解决制度不良造成的就业形势艰难、贫富差距加大、通货膨胀攀升等要命大难题
— 冉云飞 (@ranyunfei) March 14, 2012
Ran Yunfei: “The Criminal Procedure Law, whose secret detention provisions contain numerous infringements of human rights, has finally passed with 2,639 votes for, 160 against, and 57 abstentions. The madness that these short sighted rubber-stampers have built together will be wrecked by the coming wave of economic recession. The perilously great problems that have arisen from systemic failures—poor employment prospects, an expanding gap between rich and poor, rising inflation, and so on—cannot be resolved by means of ever-harsher controls.”
历史上最长的年头是1984，苏联在1984徘徊了74个春夏秋冬。我共朝的1984也已持续63个四季。“严冬已经来临，春天还会远吗？”
— Hu Jia 胡佳 (@hu_jia) March 14, 2012
Hu Jia: “The longest year in history is 1984. In the Soviet Union, 1984 dragged on for 74 springs, summers, autumns and winters. Under our current dynasty, it’s already lasted 63 years. ‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’ [the closing line of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind‘]”
For more on the amendment, see CDT’s previous coverage: most recently, ‘Does China’s New Detention Law Matter?‘, ‘Al Jazeera: Inside China’s “Black Jails”‘ and ‘Chatting with China’s Security Apparatus‘.
See also some satirical cartoons on the subject: ‘Article 73 in an Iron House‘, ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…’ by Hexie Farm for CDT, and another at Hexie Farm’s own site.
