3/27/2008

Ναι στούς Ολυμπιακούς...Οχι στα Εγκλήματα



ΝΑΙ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΟΥΣ

ΟΧΙ ΣΤΑ ΕΓΚΛΗΜΑΤΑ

Με αφορμή τις εκδηλώσεις της Αφής της Ολυμπιακής Φλόγας και της παράδοσής της στους Κινέζους αντιπροσώπους (24-30 Μαρτίου) που θα γίνουν στη χώρα μας νοιώθουμε το χρέος να σας ενημερώσουμε –πέρα από τις πασίγνωστες καταπατήσεις ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων (Θιβέτ, Νταρφούρ κ.ά.)– για την άγρια δίωξη του Φάλουν Γκονγκ (ή Φάλουν Ντάφα) που συνεχίζεται τα τελευταία 9 χρόνια στην Κίνα. Το Φάλουν Γκονγκ είναι μια ήρεμη εξάσκηση διαλογισμού που βασίζεται στις αρχές Αλήθεια, Καλοσύνη, Ανεκτικότητα και λόγω των εκπληκτικών αποτελεσμάτων του στην υγεία και την ηθική βελτίωση, από το 1992 που δημοσιοποιήθηκε μέχρι το 1999, απέκτησε 100.000.000 ασκούμενους μόνο στην Κίνα.

Ήταν τότε που το καθεστώς το κήρυξε παράνομο και εξαπέλυσε μια απίστευτης αγριότητας καθολική δίωξη. Ταυτόχρονα ξεκίνησε μια τεράστια συκοφαντική προπαγάνδα που γρήγορα επεκτάθηκε και εκτός συνόρων. Μέχρι σήμερα εκατομμύρια είναι αυτοί που έχουν βασανιστεί, βιαστεί και κακοποιηθεί με διάφορους τρόπους. Έχουν αναφερθεί 3.146 θάνατοι από βασανιστήρια (έως 27/3/2008) με τον αριθμό να αυξάνεται σχεδόν καθημερινά. Σε 200.000 με 1.000.000 υπολογίζονται αυτοί που παραμένουν σε στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης και φυλακές ενώ αμέτρητοι είναι οι αγνοούμενοι και αυτοί που εκδιώχθηκαν από τη δουλειά ή το σχολείο τους. Αμέτρητες επίσης είναι οι οικογένειες που διαλύθηκαν και τα ορφανά που έμειναν στο δρόμο. Σαν να μην έφταναν αυτά, τον Μάρτιο του 2006 αποκαλύφθηκε και αποδείχτηκε (http://organharvestinvestigation.net/) ότι μεγάλα νοσοκομεία στην Κίνα, με την στήριξη του καθεστώτος, εμπορεύονταν όργανα τα οποία αφαιρούσαν από ασκούμενους του Φάλουν Γκονγκ και μάλιστα όσο αυτοί ήταν ζωντανοί! Κατόπιν έκαιγαν τα πτώματα για να εξαφανίσουν τα ίχνη.

Είναι πραγματικά κρίμα να μεταλαμπαδεύουμε το φως των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων σε μια χώρα όπου η λέξη «ανθρώπινο δικαίωμα» είναι χωρίς νόημα και η ανθρώπινη ζωή είναι μόνο πηγή εκμετάλλευσης και κέρδους. Είναι πραγματικά κρίμα να μη δημοσιοποιούνται και να μην γνωρίζει ο κόσμος αυτά τα πράγματα διότι δυστυχώς πολλές κυβερνήσεις σε όλο τον κόσμο βάζουν τα οικονομικά και άλλα συμφέροντα πιο πάνω από την ανθρώπινη ζωή. Οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες είναι ένα μεγάλο στοίχημα για το κινέζικο καθεστώς. Μέσα από τη λάμψη τους, θέλει να αναβαπτιστεί και να δείξει ένα ευπρεπές πρόσωπο αποτρέποντας την προσοχή του κόσμου από τα αποτρόπαια εγκλήματα. Όταν λάμψει η αλήθεια και όλα αυτά τελειώσουν θα είναι σοκαριστικό για τους ανθρώπους το πόσο πόνο και πόση φρίκη έχει σκορπίσει αυτό το καθεστώς.

Τελειώνοντας, θα θέλαμε να διευκρινίσουμε πως:

= Δεν είμαστε ενάντια στην Κίνα ούτε ενάντια στον κινεζικό λαό και τον πολιτισμό του, αφού το Φάλουν Γκονγκ είναι κομμάτι του κινεζικού λαού και του πολιτισμού του.

= Δεν είμαστε ενάντια στους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες του 2008.

Είμαστε ενάντια στις παραβιάσεις των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων και στα εγκλήματα που συντελούνται.

Αυτό που ζητούμε ξεκάθαρα είναι να σταματήσει αυτή η δίωξη τώρα.

Στα πλαίσια αυτά σάς παρακαλούμε να υπογράψετε στην παρακάτω διεύθυνση, την έκκλησή μας για τον τερματισμό της δίωξης του Φάλουν Γκονγκ: http://www.falundafa.gr/petition.html

Με ειλικρινή εκτίμηση,

Ελληνική Ένωση Φάλουν Ντάφα

Αθήνα, 27 Μαρτίου 2008

Προς τον Δήμαρχο

Θέμα: ΝΑΙ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΟΥΣ - ΟΧΙ ΣΤΑ ΕΓΚΛΗΜΑΤΑ

Με αφορμή τις εκδηλώσεις που θα γίνουν στη χώρα μας (24-30 Μαρτίου) για την Αφή της Ολυμπιακής Φλόγας και την παράδοσή της στους Κινέζους αντιπροσώπους που θα έρθουν στην Ελλάδα, νοιώθουμε το χρέος να σας ενημερώσουμε για ορισμένα τραγικά γεγονότα που συμβαίνουν εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια στην Κίνα – τη χώρα που έχει αναλάβει να φιλοξενήσει τους προσεχείς Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες. Κάποια από αυτά είναι πολύ γνωστά, όπως η κατάληψη του Θιβέτ, η συνεχιζόμενη γενοκτονία στο Νταρφούρ του Σουδάν με την υποστήριξη της Κίνας και άλλα πολλά. Το πιο άγριο όμως και πιθανώς το πιο άγνωστο από όλα αυτά είναι η δίωξη του Φάλουν Γκονγκ. Στους προσεχείς Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες απαγορεύεται η είσοδος στη χώρα σε οποιονδήποτε έχει σχέση με το Φάλουν Γκονγκ. Απαγορεύεται κάποιος να φέρει κάποιο αντικείμενο, που να περιέχει οτιδήποτε του Φάλουν Γκονγκ. Το Φάλουν Γκονγκ απαγορεύεται ακόμη και να αναφερθεί στην Κίνα, εκτός αν είναι να κατηγορηθεί.

Τι είναι όμως το Φάλουν Γκονγκ και γιατί το κινέζικο καθεστώς το διώκει με τόση μανία; Το Φάλουν Γκονγκ (ΦΓ) ή αλλιώς Φάλουν Ντάφα είναι μια αρχαία κινέζικη μέθοδος διαλογισμού, που στηρίζεται στις αρχές Αλήθεια, Καλοσύνη, Ανεκτικότητα, τις οποίες δέχεται ως τις βασικές ποιότητες του Σύμπαντος. Αυτοί που το ασκούν είναι απλοί καθημερινοί άνθρωποι οι οποίοι προσπαθούν στην καθημερινή τους ζωή να εφαρμόζουν αυτές τις αρχές. Τα αποτελέσματα αυτής της μεθόδου είναι εντυπωσιακά όσον αφορά την ψυχική, πνευματική και σωματική κατάσταση του ανθρώπου. Αμέτρητες είναι οι περιπτώσεις όπου άνθρωποι θεραπεύτηκαν από ανίατες ασθένειες, αλλάζοντας τον τρόπο σκέψης τους και ακολουθώντας αυτή την προσέγγιση. Αυτό είχε σαν αποτέλεσμα μέσα σε λίγα χρόνια, εκατομμύρια άνθρωποι να ασκούνται. Περίπου 70 με 100 εκατομμύρια ήταν ο ανεπίσημος υπολογισμός.

Τα οφέλη ήταν πολλά και για το ίδιο το καθεστώς, αφού η ηθική βελτίωση βοηθούσε στη σταθερότητα της κοινωνίας και η υγεία στην εξοικονόμηση τεράστιων οικονομικών πόρων. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, τον Ιούλιο του 1999, το καθεστώς με επικεφαλής τον τότε πρόεδρο Τζιανγκ Ζεμίν, θεωρώντας απειλή αυτούς τους ανθρώπους και πέρα από τον έλεγχό του, κήρυξε παράνομο το Φάλουν Γκονγκ. Από εκείνη τη στιγμή εξαπολύθηκε μια απίστευτης αγριότητας δίωξη και ξεδιπλώθηκε μια άνευ προηγουμένου προπαγάνδα με σκοπό την δαιμονοποίηση του ΦΓ στη συνείδηση των απλών ανθρώπων. Η συκοφαντική προπαγάνδα δεν άργησε να βγει και εκτός συνόρων.

Η δίωξη εξακολουθεί, και αποτελεί την πιο μαύρη σελίδα της νεότερης ιστορίας της Κίνας. Οι πληροφορίες δεν είναι πολλές αλλά αρκετές για να λάβει κάποιος μια σχετικά καλή εικόνα της κατάστασης. Αυτοί που παραμένουν σε στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης είναι μεταξύ 200.000 με 1.000.000. Εκατοντάδες χιλιάδες έχουν βασανιστεί, βιαστεί, κακοποιηθεί και έχουν υποστεί πλύση εγκεφάλου. Μέχρι σήμερα (21/3/2008) έχουν αναφερθεί 3.144 περιπτώσεις αποδεδειγμένων θανάτων από βασανιστήρια http://library.minghui.org/category/32,96,,1.htm και ο αριθμός αυξάνεται σχεδόν καθημερινά. Άγνωστος παραμένει ο αριθμός των αγνοουμένων. Αμέτρητοι είναι αυτοί που εκδιώχθηκαν από τη δουλειά ή το σχολείο τους, αμέτρητες οι οικογένειες που διαλύθηκαν και τα ορφανά που έμειναν στο δρόμο. Η αγριότητα είναι πρωτοφανής. Σαν να μην έφταναν αυτά, τον Μάρτιο του 2006 αποκαλύφθηκε ότι μεγάλα νοσοκομεία στην Κίνα, με τις ευλογίες του καθεστώτος εμπορεύονταν όργανα τα οποία αφαιρούσαν από ασκούμενους του Φάλουν Γκονγκ και μάλιστα όσο αυτοί ήταν ζωντανοί! Κατόπιν έκαιγαν τα πτώματα για να εξαφανίσουν τα ίχνη. Στην σχετική έρευνά τους http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ δύο πασίγνωστοι Καναδοί δικηγόροι, οι κκ. Ντέιβιντ Κίλγκουρ (πρώην υπουργός Εξωτερικών του Καναδά) και Ντέιβιντ Μάτας (δικηγόρος ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων) αποδεικνύουν ότι δυστυχώς πράγματι αυτό γινόταν.

Είναι πραγματικά κρίμα να μεταλαμπαδεύουμε το φως των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων σε μια χώρα όπου η λέξη «ανθρώπινο δικαίωμα» είναι χωρίς νόημα και η ανθρώπινη ζωή είναι μόνο πηγή εκμετάλλευσης και κέρδους. Είναι πραγματικά κρίμα να μη δημοσιοποιούνται και να μην γνωρίζουμε αυτά τα πράγματα διότι δυστυχώς πολλές κυβερνήσεις σε όλο τον κόσμο βάζουν τα οικονομικά και άλλα συμφέροντα πιο πάνω από την ανθρώπινη ζωή και αξιοπρέπεια. Οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες είναι ένα μεγάλο στοίχημα για το κινέζικο καθεστώς. Μέσα από τη λάμψη τους, θέλει να αναβαπτιστεί και να δείξει ένα ευπρεπές πρόσωπο αποτρέποντας την προσοχή του κόσμου από τα αποτρόπαια εγκλήματα. Όταν λάμψει η αλήθεια και όλα αυτά τελειώσουν θα είναι σοκαριστικό για τους ανθρώπους το πόσο πόνο και πόση φρίκη σκόρπισε αυτό το καθεστώς.

Τελειώνοντας, θα θέλαμε να διευκρινίσουμε πως:

= δεν είμαστε ενάντια στην Κίνα. Ούτε ενάντια στον Κινέζικο λαό και τον πολιτισμό του, γιατί το Φάλουν Γκονγκ είναι κομμάτι του Κινέζικου λαού και του Πολιτισμού του.

= δεν είμαστε ενάντια στους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες του 2008.

Είμαστε ενάντια στις παραβιάσεις των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων και στα εγκλήματα που συντελούνται.

Αυτό που ζητούμε ξεκάθαρα είναι να σταματήσει αυτή η δίωξη όσο πιο γρήγορα γίνεται, και στα πλαίσια αυτά:

= θέλουμε να σας παρακαλέσουμε να υπογράψετε την έκκλησή μας για τον τερματισμό της δίωξης ενάντια στο Φάλουν Γκονγκ στην Κίνα:

http://www.falundafa.gr/petition.html

Είμαστε στην διάθεση σας για περισσότερες πληροφορίες.

Τηλέφωνα επικοινωνίας:

Κώστας Τσόλης 6947 421621

Φωτεινή Μπακατσιά 6973 579932

Σας ευχαριστούμε για την υποστήριξη σας εκ των προτέρων

O Διεθνής Τύπος είναι συγκλονιστικός στις αποκαλύψεις του....

Αυτή τη φορά δε πρέπει να κλείσουμε τα μάτια...


The Sadistic Torture of Falun Dafa Practitioners in the Dalian Forced Labor Camp (Photos)
Both male and female Falun Dafa practitioners detained in forced labor camps in China are being sadistically tortured. What happened to Qu Hui is only one example of the ruthless persecution.

It is a common phenomenon in forced labor camps in China for detainees to be shocked with electric batons and abused sadistically. Even though international human rights organizations and people of good will have been appealing for so long, brutality still occurs frequently. Last year, Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong's face was severely disfigured after being shocked for several hours with electric batons at Longshan Forced Labor Camp. When her burned face, full of blisters, was revealed to the public over the internet in July 2004, people from all walks of life were stunned. Several days ago, a more terrifying case of sadistic torture was exposed on the Minghui website. It is about what happened to a Falun Gong practitioner named Qu Hui during his detention in Dalian Forced Labor Camp. He was disabled because of torture, and his penis festered after electric shocking. His cervical vertebra was fractured, leaving him a paraplegic now for four years. The pictures linked at the end of this article are graphic and not suitable for children to view.

High Resolution PictureHigh Resolution Picture
Qu Hui and his family before the persecution
High Resolution Picture
Qu Hui after four years being paralytic

According to a report from the Falun Dafa Information Center, Qu Hui's experience is only one of the numerous persecution cases that occurred in Dalian City. A report on December 2003 indicated that many sadistic means of abuse that are not known to the public are employed in Dalian Forced Labor Camp. Witnesses have provided details of 47 different kinds of brutal torture methods. It has been confirmed that six people have died of torture.

Phone interview with people from Pulandian Mental Hospital: Qu Hui does not have a mental problem

A reporter from the Epoch Times made a phone call to Pulandian Mental Hospital, one of the locations where Qu Hui had been held and persecuted. The person who answered the call could clearly remember how Qu Hui was brought to the hospital four years ago. The interviewee said that Qu Hui stayed there for over two months. When the reporter asked whether Qu had had some medical treatment in the hospital, the interviewee replied "He did not talk a lot. All he did was meditation. He did not take any medicine or much food. By the way, why should he take medicine if he did not have any health problems?"

The interviewee also said that doctors did not do any tests on Qu Hui when he was in the hospital. When the reporter asked, "Do you think he has any mental problems?" The interviewee answered, "No. We only monitored him." After that, he added, "A healthy person should not be kept in a mental hospital. Later on, he was sent to Dalian Forced Labor Camp."

People with mental problems should not be sentenced to forced labor camp or prison. The reporter asked further, "If he did not have mental illnesses, he should not have been sent to Pulandian Mental Hospital. It is contradictory." The interviewee said, "I don't understand it."

The reporter made a phone call to Dalian Gynecology & Obstetrics Hospital, inquiring about Liu Xinying, Qu Hui's wife and a nurse at the hospital. The reporter was told that, "She hasn't come back to work yet." And somebody from the Nursing Section of the hospital asked the reporter, "What do you want from her?"

Qu Hui had written an article: Only the Demons from Hell View Torture as Fun

According to news from the Minghui website, 35-year-old Qu Hui went to Beijing with his wife to appeal for Falun Dafa in January 2000. At Tiananmen Square, he was beaten up by policemen. On April 13, 2000, Qu Hui was subjected to forced labor, brainwashing, and torture in Dalian Forced Labor Camp. His penis festered after prolonged electric shocking, his cervical vertebra were fractured in a very high position and he has become a paraplegic. In the end, when he was at his last gasp of life, he was carried out of the labor camp.

On November 19, 2002, Qu Hui published an article on Minghui describing the torture he suffered in the forced labor camp. He revealed that policemen in the Dalian Harbor Detention House instructed criminal detainees to beat him, and that while he was in Pulandian Mental Hospital he was detained together with patients who had a history of violent behavior and murder.

He described that, "Practitioners lay along the corridor in disorder after torture. Some were vomiting white foam. Some were moaning. It was miserable. At 9:00 p.m., I was dragged to that horrifying room. The policemen tortured me till 8:00 a.m. the next day. I couldn't remember how many electric batons they had changed. The rubber batons made me black and blue, bruised all over. My muscles in the buttocks became festered and my knees were swollen after the beating. My cervical vertebra was broken and I kept spitting blood. I lost consciousness many times..."

Qu Hui recalled how doctors participated in the persecution. He wrote, "Every time when I woke up, a doctor named Han Qiong from the labor camp would do an examination on me and then say, 'It's OK. The beating can go on.' I will never forget a policeman named Qiao Wei who is extremely brutal. He grinned hideously and said to people near him while he was beating me, 'I haven't had so much fun for many years.'"

Qu Hui said, "Only demons would treat torturing people as fun."

Sadistic abuse in Dalian Forced Labor Camp

According to a report from Falun Dafa Information Center in December 2003, terror and violence has always been employed in Dalian Forced Labor Camp.

The report indicated that on the afternoon of March 19, 2001, Zhang Baolin, the vice director of the labor camp at the time, instructed a group of "helpers" [who were designated to supervise the behavior of practitioners] to brutally torture Falun Gong practitioners: Mr. Cong Wei had his clothes stripped off, his hands tied behind his back. They threw him to the ground and shocked him with six electric batons simultaneously.

Mr. Liu Yonglai was subjected to more inhumane torture. The guards shocked him with electric batons deliberately on the perineum, head, neck and mouth. The smell of burned flesh filled the whole room.

The report also provided the details of eight female Falun Gong practitioners who were subjected to ruthless sadistic torture during the process of "being reeducated" in the labor camp.

Ms. Fu Shuying, in her sixties, was tied up with her limbs stretched out in different directions. The "helpers" inserted a long wooden strip into her vagina, which led to serious infection.

27-year-old Cheng Hui and 30-year-old Sun Yan were tied up with their limbs stretched out as well. "Helpers" penetrated their vaginas with very long wooden strips causing serious bleeding. In addition, three other female practitioners were subjected to torture as well. Their vaginas were stuffed with chili pepper water, which caused extreme pain. In two other cases, "helpers" inserted a bathroom brush into the two female practitioners' vaginas and caused heavy bleeding internally.

Dalian official television stations help the persecutors spread lies

Although the situation inside the forced labor camps is so bad, the public has no way to be aware of the truth. On June 29, 2003, Dalian TV Station broadcast a program named "New Vision," in which officers from Dalian Forced Labor Camp and "helpers" from several forced labor camps told lies openly to the public about their purpose of "educating" Falun Gong practitioners and how they "kindly" treated Falun Gong practitioners in the process of "education."

Hao Wenshuai, president of the Forced Labor Camp said openly that the report on Minghui was fabricated. He told the audience, "There are absolutely no such things occurring in the detention center."

After the program was broadcast, local Falun Gong practitioners spoke out to clarify the truth, since several Dalian practitioners such as Wang Qiuxia, Sun Lianxia and Liu Yonglai were tortured to death in the forced labor camp. Many others who knew the truth also denounced the television program for being full of lies.

Στίς φυλακές της Κίνας η Τέχνη ...βασανίζεται....

Στη Κίνα σαπίζουν στίς φυλακές οι καλλιτέχνες για τις Ιδέες τους.Στη Κίνα δεν αρμόζουν οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες.Η Ολυμπιακή φλόγα...τρμοσβύνει...

Mr. Zhang Zhong, 35, Died in the Harbin City Police Hospital in Heilongjiang Province (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zhang Zhong, 35, lived in Hongguang Village, Taiping Town, Bayan County, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. He was an employee of the Lamadian Chemicals Company, Daqing City. He died on October 16, 2006, in the Harbin City Police Hospital.

Mr. Zhang Zhong's wife is also an Falun Dafa practitioner, and is currently detained in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Labor Camp (formerly the Harbin City Drug Rehabilitation Center).

Mr. Zhang Zhong

After the tapping into cable TV in Changchun City was successfully done in 2002 by practitioners in Changchun, Mr. Zhang Zhong was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was detained in the Daqing City Prison until July 2002, where he went through inhuman tortures. His health was ravaged, as he experienced problems with all of his major internalorgans, experienced muscular atrophy all over the body, partial paralysis, difficulty breathing, and lapsing into unconsciousness for long periods of time. His blood pressure was 40-50 mm, and he was as thin as a skeleton. The prison released him for medical treatment when they saw that he was dying.

An emaciated and dying Mr. Zhang Zhong after being tortured in the Daqing City Prison (July 2004)

Helped by fellow practitioners, Mr. Zhang Zhong studied the Fa, and soon he could do the exercises. His dying body recovered in only one month. In order to avoid being arrested again, he was forced to leave home to live out of town.

On August 10, 2006, Mr. Zhang Zhong went to visit friends in the Honglang Garden Neighborhood in Harbin City, and was arrested by policemen from the Haxi Station in Nangang District and the Dongli District Department. He was detained in the Nangang District Police Department, where he was cruelly tortured.

After more than ten days, Mr. Zhang Zhong was transferred to the Harbin City Police Hospital. His friends went to visit him at the end of September, but they were not allowed to see him. Guards said that Mr. Zhang was in fine health and asked his friends for his family's phone numbers.

Mr. Zhang Zhong was closely watched by a prisoner in the hospital, but if he was not sick, why did they keep him in the hospital?

At around 9 a.m. on October 16, 2006, the hospital asked Daqing City Prison to notify Mr. Zhang Zhong's parents that he died. His parents arrived at the hospital at 3 p.m. on the same day, but the hospital did not issue a death certificate or notice and refused to let the family see his body. Ten days after his death, his family was still denied the right to see his body.

A number of questions have to be raised about this case.

  1. Why did they not let Mr. Zhang Zhong use the closer hospital, since the Nangang District Police Department is much closer to the Harbin City Medical University Hospital, and Harbin City Police Hospital is located in another District ‘V Daili District?
  2. Why did they not let friends and family see him, and why was he in the hospital when the doctor said he was not sick?
  3. Why were they using a prisoner to watch over him in the hospital?
  4. Why did they not notify his family and employer when he was dying, but waited until after he died?
  5. Why did they not issue a death certificate, and why did they not let his family see his body?
  6. Why did the guard Xin say that Mr. Zhang Zhong was fine, just 2 weeks before he died?

We believe that Mr. Zhang Zhong was killed by the Nangang District Police Department and the Harbin City Police Hospital.

Mr. Zhang Zhong was a very energetic young man. He cultivated Falun Dafa, was very kind, and always thought of others first. His mother is living on intravenous injection due to the heavy blow of this tragic news.

Posting date: 10/29/2006
Original article date: 10/29/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 10/27/2006
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/26/141071.ht




China sentenced 37 people to prison on charges of promoting the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement through gatherings and handbills, the government's Xinhua News Agency has reported.

China sentenced 37 people to prison on charges of promoting the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement through gatherings and handbills, the government's Xinhua News Agency has reported.

The sentences of up to 10 years were given by five courts in and around Beijing, Xinhua said in a brief report. It was unclear why the rulings came on the same day.

One suspect, Xue Hairong, received a seven-year sentence from Beijing's number one Intermediate Court on charges of downloading articles about Falun Gong from the Internet to reproduce and distribute.

The court gave shorter sentences to four others, Xinhua said.

The rest were sentenced by four courts in the city's suburbs for allegedly organizing illegal gatherings and printing and distributing Falun Gong materials. Court officials who could be reached refused comment.

Chinese authorities have reacted angrily to international criticism of their sometimes brutal 19-month crackdown on the sect, saying other countries have also suppressed "evil cults." Beijing accuses Falun Gong of causing the death of 1,660 people by opposing modern medicine.

Falun Gong drew millions of followers in the 1990s with a mix of calisthenics, meditation and an eclectic mix of Buddhism, Taoism and the teachings of founder Li Hongzhi, a former government clerk now in the United States.

The group was outlawed after more than 10,000 members staged a surprise protest around the leadership compound in Beijing in April 1999 to win official recognition. The show of organizational prowess apparently convinced Beijing the sect had become a threat to Communist Party rule.

Human rights monitors say at least 112 people have died in the crackdown. Falun Gong puts the figure at 155, and on Friday claimed four more deaths.

The group's Web site said electricity plant employee Ren Pengwu, 33, was beaten to death by police in north-eastern Heilongjiang province.

It also alleged Shang Shuichi, aged about 50, died from police abuse in late February in Henan Province, Liu Zhifeng died 13 days after arrest in Sichuan province and Xu Guangdao died last month after beatings by Beijing police.

The claims could not be independently verified. A Heilongjiang policeman who did not give his name confirmed that Ren died in custody February 21, but said the cause was a heart attack.

Shang Shuichi died at home a "couple of months" after his release from a labor camp in eastern Tianjin city, said a Henan policeman surnamed Li. The cause of his death is still under investigation.

A man at Sichuan's Public Security Bureau said he had no knowledge of the Liu case. Beijing police were unavailable for comment.

The Brutal Torture and Death of Mr. Lei Ming, Who Broadcast Truth Clarification Videos in Changchun City in 2002 (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Lei Ming, 30 years old, lived in Baishan City, Jilin Province. He worked with other practitioners, and successfully broadcast the truth clarification videos about Falun Gong on a cable TV network in Changchun City on March 15, 2002. The videos exposed the lies fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Jiang Zemin's regime. This helped many people awaken from the bombardment of the CCP's lies about Falun Gong.

Mr. Lei was illegally arrested after Jiang's regime issued the order "kill without pardon." After he was savagely tortured in Tiebei Detention Center, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Changchun City Intermediate Court. He was sent to Jilin Prison, where he was subjected to the "Stretching Bed" torture and other cruelties, in addition to around-the-clock brainwashing, threats, and intimidation. These gross abuses led to disability in both legs and muscle atrophy. He could not walk, could not take care of himself, and also had severe, active tuberculosis. Jilin Prison officials sent Lei Ming back to his family in November 2004 when he was on the brink of death. He weighed only about 77 pounds, and he was extremely weak. The local police and prison officials constantly harassed him at his home after his release. He went into exile to avoid the harassment and died on August 6, 2006.

Mr. Lei Ming passed away on August 6, 2006

Torture at Division 1 at the Changchun City Police Department

Police and other officials first arrested Mr. Lei for broadcasting the truth clarification video on March 15, 2002. They took him to Qingming Street Police Station in Changchun City. He was later sent to Changchun City Police Department, where the police brutally shocked him with electric batons. They eventually transferred him to the No. 1 Division of the Changchun City Police Department where officers Liu Huibin, Jiang Tao, Gao Hang, Jiang Bo, and section head Gao persecuted him.


Lei Ming in illegal detention, March 2002

The police placed Mr. Lei on a Tiger Bench, tied his legs and tightened the rope, inserted a metal bar through the holes in the two armrests, and locked the bar in place. They handcuffed him behind his back over the chair back with his armpits pressed against the chair back. They then put a leather belt through the handcuffs and through the lower column of the chair legs and upwards. Two officers violently yanked the belt downward while another officer fiercely kicked the handcuffs to increase the pain.

More officers besieged Mr. Lei and slapped his face. Two officers, each carrying an electric baton, removed his clothes. They proceeded to shock his neck, mouth, thighs, chest, genitals, and anus, making Lei Ming scream in pain. The police did not stop until the charge in the electric batons had run out.

Photos Reenactment photos of the tortures experienced by Mr. Lei

While they recharged the electric batons, another two officers wrapped Lei Ming's head in a plastic bag. They tightened the bag opening around his neck, so no air could enter. Mr. Lei almost suffocated. They loosened the bag and tightened it again after he had taken just a few breaths. They repeated this until the batteries in the electric batons were fully charged. Another two officers joined in and began shocking Mr. Lei. They also took a screwdriver, heated it on the stove, and burned his neck with it until pieces of charred flesh and skin peeled off.

Three photos Reenactment photos of tortures experienced by Mr. Lei

Lei Ming gritted his teeth to bear the pain. The police shocked the fresh burn wounds on his neck with electric batons and then poured water down his neck. The pain was unimaginably excruciating. The police covered his head with a big metal bucket and banged the bucket as hard as they could with a huge metal bar, producing a deafening noise. The police also inserted a wooden stick into his anus before shocking his anus with an electric baton to cause even more pain.

Within four or five hours, the bones in Mr. Lei's arms and wrists were pulled out of joint. His clothes were soaked with sweat. One officer took Mr. Lei's hands, which were cuffed behind his back, and raised them as far as he could, forcing Mr. Lei's chest to press against his thighs and making the metal bar grind against his stomach. They kept him in this torturous position for about five minutes. His right arm was dislocated at the shoulder joint from being forcefully jerked upwards, and his right forearm turned black and was disabled, swinging listlessly in the air. Both of his hands were swollen, and his fingers were two to three times their original size.

Reenactment photos of tortures used on Lei Ming

The police took turns torturing Mr. Lei for four days around the clock. They eventually took him to Tiebei Detention Center where, on arrival, he was told to take off his clothes for a physical inspection. The guards at the detention center saw that he was severely wounded and refused to accept him. However, officers from the city police department talked them into accepting him.

After Lei Ming had entered the cell, he was first told to take a shower and get a haircut. When he took off his clothes and his injuries were revealed, all the prisoners were shocked. He had black electric shock wounds and burn wounds on his neck and the rest of his body, along with scars on his wrists, arms, and ankles. The injuries were horrific. The head prisoner said, "Before I saw this, I did not believe that Falun Gong was severely persecuted! Now I totally believe it, and I also believe that the CCP will collapse, for such a ruthless regime cannot last."

Persecution at Jilin Prison

Mr.. Lei was held at Tiebei Detention Center in Changchun City for more than six months, and, as stated above, Changchun City Intermediate Court sentenced him to 17 years in prison. He was sent to Jilin Prison on October 25, 2002, and held in Group 1 of Prison Ward 4, now called Ward 7. Several inmates brutally beat him on the first day. They tried to force him to write a guarantee statement, flicked his eyeballs, and crushed his testicles. He protested the cruel treatment. Group head Song Yufeng and guard Liu Tiejun sent him to the Strictly Controlled Team for more intense persecution.

The officials used a special bed to stretch Lei Ming, which immobilized him for seven days, inflicting great physical pain. After that, they forced him to sit on a small bench from 4:50 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily. They gave him only a small bun and a bowl of vegetable broth for each meal.

Lei Ming's health deteriorated after five months of torture in the Strictly Controlled Team, and his weight dropped from 143 to 72 pounds. He could hardly walk and was sent back to the regular section of the prison.

Mr. Lei's weight dropped from 143 to 72 pounds

The officials saw Mr. Lei reading Teacher's articles on February 18, 2004. Guards Song Yufeng, Liu Tiejun, and Yu Zhongze sent him once again to the Strictly Controlled Team and held him there for four-and-a-half months. During this period, officers Li and Wang from the Education Section probed and pressured Mr. Lei every day for the source of Teacher's article, which caused him to vomit blood for a long time. He was severely emaciated.

Mr. Lei Ming was carried back to the regular prison cell on July 2, 2004. He was skeleton-like and could not walk or take care of himself. He developed symptoms heart disease, acute, active tuberculosis, and several other illnesses. The authorities sent him to the Jilin Prison Hospital on November 8, 2004, and transferred him two days later to the Changchun Labor "Re-education" Hospital where he stayed for four days. After that, Mr. Lei was transferred to the Jilin Railroad Hospital where he remained for 15 days. The prison authorities refused to pay the medical fees because they thought he was not going to live very long. They didn't want to take responsibility for his death and released him on medical parole in 2004. He was already on the brink of death.

Mr. Lei Ming passed away in exile as a result of the ruthless persecution

Lei Ming was carried home from prison. Although only 30 years old, his legs were disabled and the muscles atrophied, the result of barbaric torture, and he could not walk. He also had severe tuberculosis and could not take care of himself.

The local police and prison authorities frequently harassed Mr. Lei at his home to further persecute him. He had no other choice but to go into exile. He weighed only 72 pounds when he left prison and was bedridden. He coughed constantly and had difficulty breathing. He could not sleep at night and had to sleep partially sitting up. If he lay flat, he would choke on phlegm. He could not eat much at all, and he was skeleton-like. He finally passed away at 7:00 a.m. on August 6, 2006.

Falun Gong practitioners walk through streets and villages to distribute flyers and post banners. They endure pain and suffering with fortitude. They risked their lives to broadcast videos to clarify the truth about Falun Gong and to reveal the beauty of Dafa. At the same time they are exposing the bloody persecution that is "top secret" and heavily guarded by the CCP. They awaken people's conscience and kindness within their hearts.

As Fa rectification rapidly pushes forward, the wicked Chinese Communist Party will completely disintegrate in the near future, and the history books will record the magnificent acts of Dafa practitioners rescuing sentient beings.

Posting date: 9/9/2006
Original article date: 9/9/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/9/2/136907.html

Mental Torture and Murder in the CCP's Persecution of Falun Gong -Part 3 (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) (Continued)

"The target of a "100% transformation rate" forces practitioners to make a choice between giving up their beliefs and sustaining endless, cruel physical and mental persecution. For the firm faith-holder, giving up faith means the death of spirit, while enduring endless, cruel persecution may eventually mean death of the body. From any perspective, Jiang's regime is intentionally attempting to destroy all Falun Gong practitioners."

--- Author

3. Hard Methods of Mental Persecution

In order to deceive the public, the CCP spent a large sum of money to build garden-like prisons and labor camps especially designed to be appear innocuous, and even pleasant, to outside visitors, while it boasts the "reform" of Falun Gong practitioners resembles "spring breezes and rain". In fact, the CCP uses violence, torture and murder to pursue its desired "reform rate."

"Stewing the eagle"

The guards at the Xin'an Labor Camp in Beijing told Falun Gong practitioners, "We'll treat you like spies until you suffer a nervous breakdown and reform."

In order to force Falun Gong practitioner Li Deshan, an outstanding teacher from Dezhou City, Shandong Province to reform, guards at the Wangcun Labor Camp in Shandong Province cuffed his hands and feet to two neighboring beds and pulled the beds apart, which nearly tore his body apart. Another torture Li Deshan suffered is the so-called "Half-flying." His arms were stretched out with his hands chained to a metal bed frame. He was hung up like this with only his toes barely touching the floor for half a month. Mr. Li was also constantly shocked with electric batons. He was jailed in a solitary confinement, monitored by criminals, allowed only one to two hours of sleep every day for half a year, and criminals slapped his face if he closed his eyes. When his mind was not clear due to sleep deprivation, they ordered Li Deshan to read material that had been written to defame Falun Gong and recorded his words; then they finally let him go to sleep. When he woke up with a clear mind, they played his recording in public. Li Deshan denied making the statement, so the policemen deprived him of sleep and forced him to read the materials again when his mind was not clear, and recorded it and played it again. After repeatedly going through mind-numbing torment, he firmly upheld his belief until he died.

Practitioner Luo Qingshu, in her 80s, was handcuffed and hung up for a long time at the Gongjiawan Legal Training School in Lanzhou City. She was coerced to write "guarantee statements." Her legs swelled and appeared translucent; she could not even remove her sweatpants and could not bend her legs. Deep and long cracks appeared on her thighs and calves; her hands looked like balls from the swelling and she could not bend her fingers. Once, she was hung up for 12 days nonstop. She was not allowed to sleep. They let her down only when she was on the brink of death. Guard Qi slapped her face until blood came from her nose and mouth, and her face became swollen and looked deformed. Qi screamed, "If you don't listen to the Communist Party and don't reform, I'll hang you up hundreds of times, skin you and pull out your tendons."

In November 2003, practitioner Li Mingtao from Handan City was detained in a small dark room at the Beijiao Prison in Shijiazhuang City because he held onto his belief. He was tortured with "taming the eagle" and savage beatings. Guards from the Education Section "advised" him, "Don't be stubborn! How can you practice [Falun Gong] when you are in a prison? If you don't write a guarantee statement, don't you know this is a coercion reform agency?" Li Mingtao insisted, "We are not doing anything wrong by practicing Dafa and by being good people." Guard Zhao Jun hammered metal nails underneath Li Mingtao's fingernails. Six months later, Li Mingtao's fingers were still ulcerated and seeping pus.

The Beijing Judicial, Law and Administration Net reported how Li Jirong, head of Division 4 of the Beijing Women's Labor Camp reformed Falun Gong practitioner Du, "After 16 day-and-night continuous work, Du wrote a 'break away statement'."

At the Dongshan District Legal Education School in Guangzhou City, each day loudspeakers blast slandering propaganda at illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners at a deafening volume and forbid the practitioners to sleep.

Torture

A large amount of evidence shows horrific tortures are used at labor camps, detention centers, prisons, mental hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers and brainwashing classes, without exception. More than 100 torture methods from the past, present, from inside and outside of China are used to brutalize Falun Gong practitioners who want to be good people.

Shocking with multiple high-voltage electric batons at the same time: the body parts shocked include mouth, head, face, chest, breasts, other private parts, and others; various kinds of handcuffs and shackles and hanging-up; various sticks, clubs and whips including rubber clubs, spiked stick, leather whip, copper wire whip, steel bar, etc; hammering bamboo sticks and metal nails into the practitioners' fingers, so deep they reach the practitioners' bones; pinching the practitioners' flesh with pliers; force-feeding pepper water, concentrated salt water and feces through a large-diameter plastic tube; pouring cold water all over the practitioners in the winter, strip the practitioners of their clothes and throwing them outside; force the practitioners to stand under the sun in the heat of summer, burn them with hot iron rods; forbidding restroom use; dungeon, water dungeon, Tiger Bench, Death Bed, sitting on small stools and in metal chairs, solitary confinement cell; rape, gang rape and other sexual abuse of female Falun Gong practitioners.

Reenactment of hang-up and electric shock

Reenactment of "Quartering"

Authorities oat the Sanshui Labor Camp in Guangdong Province used "five horses splitting the body" in forcing Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief. It works like this: handcuff and shackle the practitioner and pull them in four different directions. On January 2, 2003, guard Zhang Wujun, together with several inmates under his order, handcuffed practitioner Huang Zhufeng's four limbs and stretched them hard in four directions simultaneously, which made Huang Zhufeng to dislocate his shoulders and his hands were covered in blood. Twenty-eight days later the muscles on his arms atrophied.

Following is the account from graduate student Zhao Ming at Trinity College in Dublin:

"...They ordered me not to sleep for two days and coerced me to 'reform.' After I refused, they tied my arms, upper body, legs, and feet to the bed plank. Then they put a rope across my mouth and tied down my head this way ...They shocked me all over my body with at least six electric batons, each one capable of releasing tens of thousands of volts of electricity.

My entire body started to twitch and jerk fiercely. It was tremendously painful. I was short of breath and felt my throat dry up. I breathed with difficulty. From time to time they would stop to maintain my acuity to pain and tried to force me to sign some statements. Policeman Liu Guoxi was very experienced in using the electric batons. He held an electric baton in each hand and rolled the batons against my chest, using the wires to shock me. My ears were filled with the cracking of electric baton touching the flesh, and the air was filled with the scorched smell of flesh; each air particle was filled with violence and evil...

They never stopped. With tremendous physical and mental torment, I almost could no longer maintain a clear mind and reasoning. [It lasted] until I agreed to reform." (more details, please see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/6/14/23085.html)

At the secret torture chamber on Jingyue Mountain, Jingyuetan, Changchun City, Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Zhikui was stripped naked. His hands were cuffed behind his back on a Tiger Bench; the guards repeatedly yanked his cuffed hands from behind him in front of his body; [in the process] his bones cracked and broke; tendons and bones were exposed on his ankles in his painful struggle, because his feet were shackled. The guards burned his entire back with cigarettes and candles until it turned black, and then they poured hot wax on his back until not a single intact piece of skin could be found. He refused to renounce his belief, even when the guards shocked his genitals, and the guards finally smashed the tip of his penis...

34-year-old Liu Haibo, a doctor from CT Section at the Luyuan District Hospital had a very long electric baton inserted into his anus, which directly shocked his internal organs until he died...

At least 23 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in an attempt to "reform" them at this torture chamber.

Reenactment painting of burning

Reenactment painting of Tiger Bench

Wang Yuhuan, a 60-year-old woman was illegally detained and held in labor camp(s) nine times within six years by the Changchun police because she persisted in her belief in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. She was tortured on the Tiger Bench for three days and two nights and was otherwise savagely tortured every five minutes. The guards poured boiling or freezing water on her after she lost consciousness, and they continued to torture after she came to; they shocked her head and face until they were scorched; they burned her eyes with cigarettes and stabbed the inside of her ears with thin bamboo sticks, which pierced her eardrums and caused permanent hearing loss...More horrific: the guards stripped Wang Yuhuan who is of similar age as the guards' parents and other female Falun Gong practitioners naked; they spread the practitioners' arms and legs, tied them to hard wood planks for 26 days and insulted them in every way possible.

Yang Guang was tortured in the two years between January 2000 and March 2002. The torturers were Liang, head of Division 1 of the Changchun Police Department and his subordinates. They shocked him with electric batons, tortured him on the Tiger Bench and put him in a straitjacket, the Big Hang-up [In this torture, the practitioner is hung up by his cuffed hands and his feet just off the ground], tried to suffocate him by wrapping his head in a plastic bag and force-fed him alcohol. The beating caused him to lose hearing in his left ear and lose function in his arms, and his lower body became paralyzed. He was illegally sentenced to 15 years in prison. They took him to the section for old and disabled detainees at Jilin Prison. He was held at a "naked division" where the detainees are kept out of the sunlight all year long; their lower bodies are always bare, and they live in filthy feces and urine.

Chang Xuexia, a quiet woman from Dalian City, was sent to the Dalian Labor Camp again in January 2003 because the morally bankrupt people wanted to "reform" her. Division head Wan Yalin ordered inmates to strip her naked, hang her up, beat and kick her, pinch her nipples, pluck her pubic hair, and savagely stab her vagina in a sawing motion with a large shoe brush...

The perpetrators tortured practitioner Ms. Wang Lijun by pulling a knotted rope back and forth across her genitals, causing them to swell. They also broke a wooden handle of a broom and inserted the sharp end into her vagina, causing massive bleeding. Her lower stomach and genitals swelled tremendously. These brutes, completely devoid of human nature, used such torture on unmarried female practitioners!

Reenactment photo: stabbing vagina with shoe brush

These mind-numbing tortures exceed human imagination and defy any description. The 100% reform of Falun Gong practitioners is forcing each practitioner to choose between giving up their belief and enduring constantly escalating brutal persecution. For a determined cultivator, giving up his belief means spiritual death, while enduring constantly escalating persecution very likely leads to physical death. From any perspective, the CCP and Jiang's regime are clearly trying to wipe out Falun Gong.

(To be continued)

Posting date: 5/16/2006
Original article date: 5/16/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/3/9/122252.html


Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα και Φυλακές στη Κίνα... Δημοσιογράφοι χωρισ σύνορα...










China

Area: 9,598,050 sq.km.
Population: 1,304,196,000
Language: Mandarin
Head of state: Hu Jintao

China - Annual report 2005

The government continued its privatisation of the media and kept up its ruthless harassment of reformist journalists. The written press, experiencing competition for the first time, took some chances but was monitored and sanctioned by the propaganda department. With at least 27 journalists in prison, China was at 1st January 2005, the world’s largest prison for journalists.

"China is deprived of the right to press freedom, does not permit political divergence and bans all media independence. Its political progress lags well behind its economic development and evolving attitudes," said the intellectual Liu Xiaobo, winner of the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France 2004 press freedom award.
A flourishing written press is monitored by the Propaganda Department, now renamed the Publicity Department. Newspaper editors enjoy every freedom to boost profits, through advertising, updating their publications or even raising capital on the stock exchange. But they have to fall in with the orders of the communist party and ensure that their staff operate a system of self-censorship.
The Beijing Youth Daily, China’s second highest circulation newspaper was quoted on the Hong Kong stock exchange in December 2004. But the newspaper remains under the control of the Communist Youth League. Its editor explains its success thus, "As long as we respect the law, we can report on what interests people." This forced privatisation has pushed more than 600 publications into closure while the system of compulsory subscriptions to the official press is on its way out.



The government has deployed huge resources to maintain the monopoly of state radio and television CCTV and the press agency Xinhua. Systems such as a "great wall of sound" allowing it to scramble international radio were stepped up. With the help of French company Thalès, ALLISS aerials were set up in every corner of the country to block foreign radio waves. The few Chinese television stations that criticise the government, on cable or satellite, have been harassed. New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV), accused of supporting the Falungong movement, has been targeted by the Beijing authorities since its launch in February 2002. The operator of New Skies Satellites buckled under constant pressure and ended the channel’s broadcasts in China. And Chinese diplomats leaned on their French counterparts once NDTV was again beamed into Asia via the Paris-based Eutelsat W5 satellite. In July, the administration launched a campaign against the installation of illegal satellite dishes to block broadcast of "reactionary, violent and pornographic" programmes. Thousands of dishes have already been removed from homes.

Fear is also a useful instrument of control for the communist party. Such was the case with the arrest of management figures on the reformist daily Nanfang Dushi Bao that sent a shock wave through the profession. The nearly six months of detention experienced by Cheng Yizhong, star editor of this bold Guangdong-based newspaper, reminded everyone of the lines not to cross. The newspaper had carried an investigation about a student who was tortured to death in a Guangdong police station and revealed a new case of the Sars epidemic in the city without waiting for official permission. Cheng Yizhong was released but expelled from the communist party and did not get his job back. Two of his colleagues, Yu Huafeng and Li Minying, who were handed down harsh prison sentences, are still in prison.
National and international protests probably contributed to the release in 2004 of Liu Jingsheng, founder of the underground review Tansuo (Exploration), after 12 years in prison, and that of South Korean photographer Jae-hyun Seok, sentenced to two years for his coverage of North Korean refugees in China, and the reduction in sentence for journalist Wu Shishen sentenced to life imprisonment in April 1993, on the orders of the former president Jiang Zemin for having "illegally divulged state secrets".
On the other hand, nothing could prevent journalist Yu Dongyue, detained after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, from descending into madness. A former fellow inmate, who fled China, said the journalist had been tied to an electric post and left in the hot sun for several days and then held in solitary confinement for two years.

Police continued to harass dissident journalists, including Shi Tao who was arrested on 24 November 2004 for having "divulged confidential state intelligence". Police raided his home without official authorisation, arrested him and seized his computer and papers. Before leaving they warned his wife not to tell anyone, particularly not the media, or her husband would be maltreated.
The most common sanctions are dismissal or being sidelined at work. This was the experience of Xiao Weibi, editor of the magazine Tong Zhou Gong Jin, who was sacked in September for carrying an interview with a former communist party leader in Quangdong, who backed political reform. Five of the six members of the magazine’s advisory committee resigned in protest. Wang Guangze, of the bi-weekly Ershiyi shiji jingji baodao, was sidelined by the newspaper on 23 November, after returning from a visit to the United States.
Defamation cases and physical attacks are a new means of applying pressure favoured by local authorities and private companies. Dozens of journalists have been brought before the courts or received visits from henchmen when they show too much interest in investigating fraud in a country that is riddled with corruption.

Press freedom’s number one enemy is however the Publicity Department, which is under the direct control of the communist party central committee. Unable to censor everything, it regularly orders journalists not to write about the more sensitive political and social issues. It is also responsible for ensuring silence on the major taboo subjects. Fifteen years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, it is still forbidden to use the term "4 June" in the press or online. Censors have their fingers permanently on the off switch ready to cut off foreign television broadcasts. At any mention of the event, or indeed many other subjects, screens are blacked out in hotel rooms and homes of foreign residents - the only ones to have legal access to TV channels such as CNN or BBC. Numerous events attracted censorship last year and included pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, the serial killer Ma Jiajue, rioting between Han Chinese and Muslims in Henan Province, strikes in the north-east and so on...
The Publicity Department also aims to keep dissident and other intellectual critics out of the press through a blacklist. In November, it ordered the official media not to publish articles from six reformist political commentators, particularly Jiao Guobiao, who in March posted an online tract in which he said, "The Propaganda Ministry has become a bastion of stupidity and of China’s most retrograde forces (...) If it is allowed to do damage with impunity, it will delay the progress of Chinese political culture and completely discredit millions of Chinese intellectuals. That is why one should rise up against the Propaganda Ministry and attack it".
With three years to go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the Chinese authorities have not always kept their promise to allow foreign journalists to work freely. As well as blocking dozens of foreign news site, public security closely watches foreign correspondents and has no hesitation in arresting, threatening or striking those who violate the sacrosanct "Guide for correspondents working in China". In August, journalists working for British daily The Guardian and Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat were arrested for breaching Article 15 of the guide that bans conducting interviews without prior authorisation. In February, police just outside Beijing arrested a crew from French TV channel France 2 for filming poultry immunisations during the bird flu epidemic. Before releasing them, police forced them to sign a paper in which they acknowledged they had been "filming secretly". Police beat up foreign press photographers covering a football match in August.
The Beijing authorities have also attempted to get the Hong Kong media to fall into step with the rest of China. Since October, the Chinese national anthem has been played for every news bulletin. Threats against three well known radio presenters, with links to the democratic opposition, forced them to resign at the start of the year.
Despite everything, the press has grown bolder in challenging officials about social issues and disasters such as the death of 166 miners in Shaanxi Province in November. "Why are the unions struck dumb when there are accidents in the mines?" asked a headline in the daily Dahe Bao in Henan Province.
Courageous editors have been urging their reporters to shake off their fears. Before his arrest, Cheng Yizhong rallied his staff with the following remarks: "Our work has nothing of the commonplace about it. Our cause is to move heaven and earth (...) It is a steep road to the pinnacle of the Chinese press. Our ambition, our extraordinary idealism clashes with the ugliness and dirtiness of social reality." But fear stalked the profession again after the conviction on 20 October for "divulging state secrets" of Zhao Yan, who worked with the US daily, the New York Times, previously a respected journalist on the weekly Reform in China. He risks the death penalty.

In 2004...

- 17 journalists were arrested
- 65 media censored
- 3 repressive laws passed

Personal account

"China denied freedom of expression"

Former university professor Liu Xiaobo has one unshakeable view: China’s press has to turn itself into a counter-balance to the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party. It is his belief in this universal principle that fuels his tireless struggle, his calls for the release of imprisoned journalists and dissidents and his posting of articles online, in Hong Kong newspapers and in Chinese newspapers abroad. He was the 2004 laureate of the Reporters Without Borders and Fondation de France press freedom prize.

Even though China’s communist powers are shifting, at least in their public statements, from rejecting to recognising human rights, China’s human rights record cannot give rise to any optimism. Especially where press freedom in concerned, China remains a police state that holds a media monopoly and keeps a tight rein on public opinion.
China is denied freedom of expression, does not allow political divergence and bans all media independence. Its political progress lags well behind its economic development and evolving attitudes. The country is caught between two extremes, not only that of wealth and poverty but also between its politics and its economy. It is in a dangerous state that is worsening daily. It is a situation on which Chinese people themselves must reflect but which also demands the attention of the international community.
Faced with the complexities of modern international relations and China’s fast growing economy, some politicians in western countries - both cradle and defenders of freedom - have abandoned their principles for the pursuit of profit. At a time when, awed by the scale of the Chinese market and the lure of profit, they forget China’s disastrous human rights situation, Reporters Without Borders fights tirelessly for the ideal of universal justice that is the defence of press freedom. Through your actions, you have shown yourselves worthy of your name, in your belief that press freedom has no borders and that its defence and the fight against the notion of ’an offence of opinion’ have no borders either.
You have never stopped caring about Chinese prisoners of conscience. You have encouraged Chinese people who dare to speak the truth in the face of a dictatorial power.
In the official Chinese media, friends who have dared speak out have been sentenced by the Communist power. But thanks to the globalisation of the news and the Internet they have won the support, praise and blessing of civil society and international opinion. The prize that I receive today, even if awarded to me personally, is more particularly a prize awarded to the cause of press freedom in China.
China’s freedom has to be the fruit of the efforts of Chinese people themselves but it cannot happen without the continued support of international justice. To finish, I would like to stress this: Whoever wants to fight for freedom under a terror regime, must first speak out publicly in order to conquer his inner terror. You must never turn yourself into a dumb subject, only capable of submitting to force but become a citizen knowing how to express himself independently. Faced with a strong power that forbids freedom, it is essential to become a free man, so as to speak and to act.

China Cyber-dissident Gets 6 Years in Prison For Views His Express

Posted by chinaview on March 19, 2007

Reporters Without Borders, 19 March 2007-

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay on learning that cyber-dissident Zhang Jianhong, who is also known by the pen-name of Li Hong, was sentenced today to six years in prison by a court in Ningbo, in the eastern province of Zhejiang. He has appealed against the sentence.

A member of the Chinese branch of the independent writers association PEN, Zhang was arrested in September 2006 and was charged the following month with “incitement to subvert the state’s authority” for calling for political reform in articles posted on the Internet. Two other cyber-dissidents who were arrested six months ago, Chen Shuqing and Yang Maodong, are still awaiting trial.

“This verdict is sadly yet another example of the judicial system being used by the political authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is outrageous that cyber-dissidents get severe prison sentences just for the views they express. Yet again, they are being made to pay a heavy price for their commitment. After Zhang’s conviction, we fear that the same fate is in store for Chen and Yang.”

According to the New China news agency, Zhang was convicted of writing “articles defaming the Chinese government and calling for agitation to overthrow the government.” The court said it was showing clemency to the defendant, who posted around 100 articles on the Internet from May to September 2006, because he expressed remorse during the trial.

Aged 48, Zhang founded the literary website Aiqinhai.org in August 2005 and was its editor until the authorities shut it down in March 2006. He also wrote regularly for sites such as Boxun and The Epoch Times. He already spent a year and a half in a reeducation-through-work camp for “counter-revolutionary propaganda” after getting involved in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Chen’s case has been sent back to the police for further investigation. A member of the banned China Democracy Party (CDP), he was charged on 17 October 2006 with “incitement to subvert the state’s authority.” He was already detained for four months in 1999 for helping to create the CDP.

Better known as Guo Feixiong, Yang was arrested on 14 September 2006. A lawyer, writer and human rights activist, he has been accused of “illegal business activity.” He was previously arrested for “disturbing the peace” after a rally on 13 September 2005 in the village of Taishi (in Guangdong province).

- original report from Reporters Without Borders









China: One dream, One prison

Posted by chinaview on January 14, 2008

by Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4, UK, 11 Jan 2008-

She’s the Chinese blogger who’s been dubbed “Tiananmen 2.0″ and was selected for the TIME 100 list of heroes and pioneers. Lindsey Hilsum writes on the day she had to shout to Zeng Jinyan through a barred window.

I last saw Zeng Jinyan in December, a month after her baby was born. Jinyan is a sparrow-like woman, who looks even younger than her 24 years. She was in love.

Her mother looked on indulgently as Jinyan told my friend Bessie and me how beautiful the baby was, how perfect, how exceptional - until she giggled in embarrassment at her own enthusiasm.

We saw her again today.

She stood at the window of her fourth floor flat, behind the burglar bars, holding herZeng Jinyan and her baby sleeping daughter and shouting to us below. We couldn’t go in, because Jinyan is now under house arrest.

(photo by Channel 4)

Her slightly nerdy-looking bespectacled husband, Hu Jia, was arrested on December 27th and charged with “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge known as “counter revolution” in the bad old days.

Jinyan said the police cut her telephone line, and took her computer, mobile phone and bank card. Her mother is able to go and buy food, but they’re running out of cash. Friends who try to bring things for the baby are blocked.

For several days, the police camped in her flat - she protested and now they’re outside the door, day and night.

It’s hard to see how this couple, who seem like rather earnest and maybe naïve students, are a threat to the Chinese state. Hu Jia, who’s 33, started by campaigning for people with AIDS. Jinyan was catapulted into the spotlight in 2006, soon after their marriage, when he was first arrested.

She started a blog about her quest to find her husband and suddenly she was more famous then he. In 2006, Time magazine put her in their top 100 influential people in the world.

The Chinese government targets Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan because they join the dots. They use the internet to express their opinion that issues like land rights and AIDS are indivisible - the fundamental problem in China is the abuse of power by the state and Communist Party officials.

The government can tolerate isolated protests, but it knows that if one angry community makes common cause with another, that could become a nation-wide movement. The only national organisation allowed in China is the Party.

The Chinese government is determined to show China in a good light during the Olympics this August. The slogan is “One World, One Dream”, the idea that China is a leader amongst civilised peoples, a full member of the community of nations.

It’s all about giving a good impression - there are campaigns to stop taxi drivers from eating garlic, and pedestrians from spitting in the street.

Earlier this week we watched Olympic hostesses being put through their paces - learning to smile showing only six to eight teeth, stand up straight (with an English grammar book on their heads) and bow while presenting a medal.

The government’s fear is that people like Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan will spoil the party by presenting a bad image of China to the world - their solution is to lock them up.

But that will cause far more trouble. The images which will resonate around the world are not the identikit young women in immaculate uniforms learning to walk gracefully, but one young woman holding a tiny baby, shouting through the bars that they took her husband away and have imprisoned her at home.

Annual Press Freedom Report 2008

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS CRITICISES LACK OF PUBLIC COMMITMENT TO PRESS FREEDOM AND FEARS ANTI-MEDIA VIOLENCE IN COMING MONTHS

The plight of journalists in 98 countries reviewed.

Reporters Without Borders today accused public officials around the world of "impotence, cowardice and duplicity" in defending freedom of expression.

"The spinelessness of some Western countries and major international bodies is harming press freedom," secretary-general Robert M鮡rd said in the organisation's annual press freedom report, out today (13 February) and available at www.rsf.org. "The lack of determination by democratic countries in defending the values they supposedly stand for is alarming."

He charged that the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva had caved in to pressure from countries such as Iran and Uzbekistan and expressed concern at the softness of the European Union towards dictators who did not flinch at the threat of European sanctions.

The report's introduction listed problems expected in the coming year, especially physical attacks on journalists during key elections in Pakistan (18 February), Russia (2 March), Iran (14 March) and Zimbabwe (29 March).

The worldwide press freedom organisation voiced concern about the safety of journalists covering fighting in Sri Lanka, the Palestinian Territories, Somalia, Niger, Chad and especially Iraq, where it said "journalists continue to be buried almost every week."

It also protested against censorship of new media (mobile phones transmitting photos and film and video-sharing and social networking websites) and highlighted media repression in China in the run-up to the Olympic Games there this summer.

"Nobody apart from the International Olympic Committee seems to believe the government will make a significant human rights concession before the Games start," it said. "Every time a journalist or blogger is released, another goes into prison. () China's dissidents will probably be having a hard time this summer."

The report includes surveys of press freedom in every region of the world over the past year and chapters on 98 countries, including European Union members and the United States.

A press conference to introduce the report will be held in Washington on 13 February in the presence of journalists from Iraq, China, Eritrea and Pakistan. Another will be held in Berlin with Russian and Zimbabwean journalists.

See below for download of these documents:

  • The press comunique about the annual report
  • The general introduction of the report
  • Europe chapter
  • Asia chapter
  • Africa chapter
  • America chapter
  • Mideast chapter

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_Intro Americas eng.doc37.5 KB
AR8Africaintro.doc37.5 KB
AR8-Asiantro.doc38.5 KB
AR8-EuropeIntro.doc33 KB
AR8-MEastIntro.doc35 KB
CP RA 08 Eng.doc31 KB
Intro RA 08 Eng.doc37.5 KB

China Human Rights Fact Sheet

March 1995

Human rights violations in the People's Republic of China (PRC) remain systematic and widespread. The Chinese government continues to suppress dissenting opinions and maintains political control over the legal system, resulting in an arbitrary and sometimes abusive judicial regime. The lack of accountability of the government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) means that abuses by officials often go unchecked. This fact sheet identifies the most common types of abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association and violations specific to women.

  1. Controls on Expressions and Associations
  2. Torture and Ill-Treatment of Prisoners
  3. Lackof Judicial Independance and Due Process
  4. Death Penalty
  5. Tibet
  6. Women
  7. Resource List

Controls on Expressions and Associations

The PRC detains individuals for exercising their rights to freedom of association, freedom of religion and freedom of expression, including the right to impart and receive information, and other basic rights. The total number of persons in China detained without charge, sentenced administratively to reeducation or reform camps, or held by other means, solely for peacefully exercising these rights is unknown. However, that figure is estimated to be far in excess of the approximately 3,000 individuals that the PRC currently acknowledges imprisoning for "counter-revolutionary" or political crimes. Many of those detained are held under circumstances that constitute clear violations of due process. Such violations include lengthy detention without charge or trial and depriving defendants of access to legal counsel.

Restrictions on Independent Organizing: Although the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of association and assembly, national regulations severely limit association and give the authorities absolute discretion to deny applications for public gatherings or demonstrations. In practice, only organizations that are approved by the authorities are permitted to exist, and any organization that is not registered is considered "illegal." In this manner, independent advocacy on labor, human rights, environmental, development or political issues is effectively outlawed. The CCP-controlled labor union and women and youth organizations are the only permitted avenues for organizing in these areas. Unofficial labor groups have been a particular target for suppression. In December 1994, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court imposed severe sentences of between 15 and 20 years' imprisonment on three prisoners of conscience, convicted of "leading counter-revolutionary organizations." The sentences, based on the defendants' alleged formation of non-government-approved organizations, were the harshest delivered to political dissidents in recent years.

On 4 June, 1994, the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, China promulgated new implementing regulations for the 1993 State Security Law. The repressive new measures threaten the few legal means of operation left to democracy and human rights activists, independent religious adherents and other independent voices, by criminalizing: contact with and funding from foreign organizations defined as "hostile"; the publication or dissemination of "written or verbal speeches" or "using religion" to carry out activities "which endanger state security;" and the creation of "national disputes." The regulations also give state security officials virtually unlimited power to detain individuals, confiscate property and determine what constitutes a "hostile" organization.

Restrictions on Free Speech and the Media: Although the PRC's 1982 Constitution guarantees citizens freedom of expression and of the press, its preamble mandates adherence to "four basic principles"-- the CCP's leadership, socialism, dictatorship of the proletariat and Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought. In practice, the PRC employs a wide range of controls that violate the right to free expression and interfere with independent media. These include severe restrictions on contact between foreign news media and Chinese viewed by the government as critical of the regime. An extensive censorship bureaucracy licenses all media outlets and publishing houses and must approve all books before publication.

The primary mechanism of control over the news media and publishing is self-censorship. Chinese journalists, editors and publishers are expected to make the information they disseminate conform to CCP Propaganda Department guidelines. For example, news coverage is required to be "80% positive and 20% negative." Sanctions for infringements range from official criticism of the coverage to the demotion, firing or imprisonment of the individuals responsible and the closing or banning of the offending publication.

Dissidents who make their opinions known to the foreign media are often subject to threats, detention, harassment, intensive surveillance or imprisonment. During 1994, at least 20 Chinese writers, journalists, editors and publishers were persecuted in connection with their work. Also during the year, foreign correspondents from the British Broadcasting Corporation, Newsweek, Reuters, United Press International, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, U.S. television networks (NBC, CBS) and other foreign media outfits were detained and interrogated by PRC police regarding their work as journalists, including the interviewing of Chinese dissidents and students and filming in Tiananmen Square. Police also banned broadcasts of CNN in Beijing hotels for five days surrounding the fifth anniversary of the 4 June 1989 military crackdown on democracy demonstrators.

Suppression of Religious Freedom: The PRC prohibits all religious activities outside establishments registered under the official branches of four state-recognized religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam), established by the PRC government during the 1950s, through which Chinese and Tibetan religious adherents are required to practice their faith. Individuals conducting or participating in public worship without government authorization, including Catholics loyal to the Vatican and Protestants who worship in house churches, have been arrested, detained, placed under close police surveillance or internal exile, fined and, in some cases, tortured. PRC police have also confiscated religious literature and church property, and human rights organizations have documented the closure of hundreds of house churches since 1989.

China's laws restricting contact with foreign coreligionists, prohibiting parents from exposing children under the age of 18 to religion, and outlawing nongovernment-controlled churches violate the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. In January 1994, the PRC government increased restrictions on religious practice by foreigners in China through State Council Decrees 144 and 145. Decree 144 states that foreign nationals may bring in religious materials only "for their own use," and bans materials deemed "harmful to the public interest." The decree also prohibits evangelizing, establishing religious schools and other missionary activities. Decree 145 gives authorities substantial leeway in restricting religious activities deemed harmful to "national unity" or "social stability," and limits the practice of religion by foreign nationals to state-sanctioned places of worship.

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Torture and Ill-Treatment of Prisoners

Torture of detainees is endemic in Chinese detention centers and prisons. Although China became party to the UN Convention Against Torture in 1988, the government has not taken effective measures to diminish the risk of prisoners being tortured or ill-treated. Despite strong evidence of torture in several cases of death in custody, state prosecutors have refused to release autopsy results to families or to initiate investigations. In many detention centers, beatings, inadequate food and poor hygiene appear to be a routine part of the process of eliciting confessions and compliance from detainees. Such treatment is applied to ordinary prisoners as well as political detainees.

According to prisoner reports, methods commonly used by guards include: beatings using electric batons; rubber truncheons on hands and feet; long periods in handcuffs and/or leg irons, often tightened so as to cause pain; restriction of food to starvation levels; and long periods in solitary confinement. Furthermore, corrupt authorities at detention centers, prisons and labor camps have extorted large sums of money from families of detainees for the state's provision of "daily supplies" and "medical expenses."

Despite continuing efforts by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations, PRC officials have not agreed to allow open and unannounced visits to prisoners. PRC authorities acknowledge that there are some 1.2 million prisoners and detainees in China.

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Lack of Judicial Independance and Due Process

Few legal safeguards exist in China to ensure fair trials, and the judicial system is controlled at every level by CCP political-legal committees that may determine the outcome of cases before the court hears evidence presented at trial. Legal scholars within China have called for an end to this widespread practice of "verdict first, trial second." With the political-legal committees exercising extensive control, detainees are highly unlikely to receive fair, impartial hearings that are free from official manipulation.

China's Criminal Procedure Law provides for detainees to have access to lawyers no later than one week before trial. However, even this minimal protection is not always observed. Prisoners typically cannot call witnesses for the defense or question witnesses against them. In politically sensitive cases, lawyers have been instructed that they may enter a not-guilty plea only if they get approval from the judicial administration. Even in death-penalty cases, appeals are usually cursory, and defendants may have only several days to file an appeal.

Arbitrary Detention: In addition to judicial convictions, PRC authorities consistently use administrative procedures to detain hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Tibetans each year.

Individuals sentenced administratively by police are not charged or brought before a judge, thereby denying them access to a lawyer and the right to defend themselves. The majority of these individuals are ordinary people, but democracy and human rights activists, independent religious adherents and worker-rights advocates are also frequently detained in this way.

The most common forms of administrative detention are:

1) "reeducation through labor," under which police, without trial, can send individuals to labor camps for up to four years; and

2) "shelter and investigation," under which police can detain people without charge or trial for up to three months, a time limit that is routinely ignored.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has determined that the practice of "reeducation through labor" is "inherently arbitrary" when intended for "political and cultural rehabilitation." According to PRC government sources, 100,000 people are sent to "reeducation through labor" camps and one million are "sheltered" each year.

Conditional Releases with Continued Deprivation of Rights: The PRC infrequently has released political prisoners of conscience before the completion of their sentences, predominantly as a result of international pressure. However, those released have been forced into exile, subjected to continuing police surveillance and harassment or, in some cases, detained again for alleged violations of the restrictive conditions of parole or new "crimes" of free expression. Many former prisoners of conscience are not granted the identity cards necessary to gain employment or travel without express official permission.

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Death Penalty

During the past two years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of the death penalty in China. This growth in the number of death sentences and executions is partly due to anti-crime campaigns launched by the government. Defendants can be put to death for criminal offenses, including nonviolent property crimes such as theft, embezzlement and forgery. In 1993, 77% of all executions worldwide were carried out in China. On a single day, 9 January 1993, 356 death sentences were handed down by Chinese courts; 62 executions took place that day. During that year alone, 2,564 people were sentenced to death. At least 1,419 of them are known to have been executed. The total number of death sentences and executions is believed to be higher. Defendants do not always have access to lawyers, and when a lawyer is available, he or she usually has no more than one or two days to prepare a defense. Death sentences have been imposed based on forced confessions and are often decided in advance of the trial by "adjudication committees," thereby circumventing defendants' rights to a fair and public hearing and presumption of innocence.

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Tibet

In Tibet, hundreds of Tibetans have been incarcerated for peacefully expressing their political and religious beliefs. Conditions in prisons are reported to be dismal, with numerous accounts of torture and ill-treatment. In particular, PRC law enforcement officials have perpetrated violent acts against Tibetan women in detention centers and prisons. Buddhist nuns and lay women have been subject to torture or violent, degrading and inhuman treatment, including assault, rape and sexual abuse. In June 1994, one Tibetan nun died while in custody, reportedly as a result of a beating by guards. PRC authorities also have severely restricted religious practice; out of the 6,000 Buddhist monasteries that were destroyed by the PRC since its 1949 invasion of Tibet, only a few hundred have been rebuilt.

PRC policies, including population transfers of hundreds of thousands of Chinese into Tibet, threaten to make Tibetans a minority in their own land and to destroy Tibetans' distinct national, religious and cultural identity.

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Women

The Chinese Constitution and other laws provide equal rights for men and women in all spheres of life, including ownership of property, inheritance and educational opportunities. Equality between the sexes has been a part of the CCP's agenda from its early days, and women's rights are perceived to be in a separate category from human rights. Therefore, women's organizations in China, even though they remain under CCP control, are able to advocate effectively on some issues involving abuses of women's human rights. However, when women's rights or interests conflict with Party or government policy, the latter takes precedence. This means, for example, that abuses related to the family planning policy are not reported in the media or discussed publicly. Information about other issues, such as the extent of domestic violence, trafficking in women or abuses directed at lesbians, is effectively prevented by the CCP's injunction that most news should be positive. Thus, the controls on freedom of expression and association, which so affect democracy and human rights activists, have a strong impact on women's human rights as well.

Violence Against Women: According to some researchers, spousal abuse is far too common and, in many parts of the country, still socially acceptable. However, comprehensive statistics about the extent of domestic violence are not available or have not been made public. The official All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) has been studying this problem and seeking solutions.

Few battered women have the opportunity to escape abuse, because shelters and other resources are not available. Women are under considerable social pressure to keep families together regardless of the circumstances. Legal action is not taken against batterers unless the victim initiates it, and if she withdraws her testimony, the proceedings are ended.

Abduction and Trafficking of Women: Trafficking and sale of women as brides or into prostitution is a serious problem in certain parts of China, and Chinese women have been sold into brothels in Southeast Asia. The PRC government has enacted various laws to combat the sale of women, but the statistics released by the government do not reliably indicate the scale of the problem. PRC officials stated that there were 15,000 cases of kidnapping and trafficking in women and children in 1993. Yet according to one estimate, 10,000 women were abducted and sold in 1992 in Sichuan Province alone.

Until recently, the authorities have not prosecuted men who purchase women as wives; thus, the trade has continued unabated. Official action to rescue victims of trafficking is generally initiated only if a complaint is made by the woman or her family. Local officials often turn a blind eye, even formally registering marriages into which the woman has been sold.

Discrimination in Employment and Education: The PRC ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980 and enacted the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests in 1992. However, open discrimination against women in China has continued to grow during the period of reform of the last 15 years.

According to PRC government surveys, women's salaries have been found to average 77% of men's, and most women employed in industry work in low-skill and low-paying jobs. An estimated 70 to 80% of workers laid off as a result of downsizing in factories have been women, and, although women make up 38% of the work force, they are 60% of the unemployed. At job fairs, employers openly advertise positions for men only, and university campus recruiters often state that they will not hire women. Employers justify such discrimination by saying that they cannot afford the benefits they are required to provide for pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants.

The proportion of women to men declines at each educational tier, with women comprising some 25% of undergraduates in universities. Institutions of higher education that have a large proportion of female applicants, such as foreign language institutes, have been known to require higher entrance exam grades from women.

Although China has a law mandating compulsory primary education, increasing numbers of rural girls are not being sent to school. Rural parents often do not want to "waste" money on school fees for girls who will "belong" to another family when they marry. According to official statistics, about 70% of illiterates in China are female.

Violations Resulting from Family Planning Policy: The Chinese Constitution mandates the duty of couples to practice family planning. Since 1979, the central government has attempted to implement a family planning policy in China and Tibet that the government states is "intended to control population quantity and improve its quality." Central to this initiative is the "one child per couple" policy. Central authorities have verbally condemned the use of physical force in implementing the one-child policy; however, its implementation is left to local laws and regulations.

To enforce compliance, local authorities employ incentives such as medical, educational and housing benefits, and punishments including fines, confiscation of property, salary cuts or even dismissal. Officials also may refuse to issue residence cards to "out of plan" children, thereby denying them education and other state benefits.

Methods employed to ensure compliance have also included the forced use of contraceptives, primarily the I.U.D., and forced abortion for pregnant women who already have one child. In Zheijang Province, for example, the family planning ordinance states that "fertile couples must use reliable birth control according to the provisions. In case of pregnancies in default of the plan, measures must be taken to terminate them." As an official "minority", Tibetans are legally allowed to have more than one child. However, there have been reports of forced abortions and sterilizations of Tibetan women who have had only one child. There are also reports of widespread sterilization of certain categories of women, including those suffering from mental illness, retardation and communicable or hereditary diseases. Under previous local regulations superseded by the 1994 Maternal and Infant Health Care Law, such sterilization was mandatory in certain provinces. Under the new law, certain categories of people still may be prevented from bearing children.

Violations Against Female Children: The one-child policy, in conjunction with the traditional preference for male children, has led to a resurgence of practices like female infanticide, concealment of female births and abandonment of female infants. Female children whose births are not registered do not have any legal existence and therefore may have difficulty going to school or receiving medical care or other state services. The overwhelming majority of children in orphanages are female and/or mentally or physically handicapped.

The one-child policy has also contributed to the practice of prenatal sex identification resulting in the abortion of female fetuses. Although the government has outlawed the use of ultrasound machines for this purpose, physicians continue the practice, especially in rural areas. Thus, while the average worldwide ratio of male to female newborns is 105/100, Chinese government statistics show that the ratio in the PRC is 114/100 and may be higher in some areas.

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This fact sheet was prepared by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. It is based on information provided by Amnesty International-USA, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Human Rights in China, the International Campaign for Tibet, the Puebla Institute and the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights. The accompanying resource list provides contact information for these organizations.


RESOURCE LIST

Amnesty International-USA

prengel@aiusa.usa.com

304 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20003

TEL: 202/544-0200 FAX: 202/546-7142

Contact:

  • Pat Rengel, Legislative Counsel
  • Estrellita Jones, Government Program Officer/Asian Affairs

Committee to Protect Journalists

cpj@igc.apc.org

330 Seventh Avenue, 12th Floor

New York, NY 10001

TEL: 212/465-1004 FAX: 212/465-9568

Contact

  • Vikram Parekh, Regional Coordinator for Asia

Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

fxbcen@harvarda.harvard.edu

Harvard School of Public Health

8 Story Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

TEL: 617/496-4370

FAX: 617/496-4380

Contact

  • Sofia Gruskin, Research Associate
  • Reed Boland, Harvard Law School (617/495-9623)

Human Rights in China

hrichina@igc.org

485 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10017

TEL: 212/661-2909

FAX: 212/972-0905

Contact

  • Xiao Qiang, Executive Director
  • Sophia Woodman, Publications Director

Human Rights Watch/Asia

hrwnyc@hrw.org

485 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10017

TEL: 212/972-8400

FAX: 212/972-0905

Contact

  • Sidney Jones, Executive Director
  • Mickey Spiegel, Consultant

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