The Appalling State of Human Rights in China
What is the state of human rights in China? Recognizing that anyone has the right to note and criticize policies and practices, but only the State Department has the right to advocate for changes in other countries, we now offer an analysis of the very distinct lack of human rights in the areas of freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom from persecution, and what should be the right of access to a judicial system before imprisonment.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), particularly the Destruction of Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types were persecuted and discouraged by the Communists with many religious buildings looted and destroyed. Since then, there have been efforts to repair, reconstruct and protect historical and cultural religious sites.[20] Critics say that not enough has been done to repair or restore damaged and destroyed sites.[21]
The 1982 Constitution technically guarantees its citizens the right to believe in any religion, however this is not to be confused with the general concept of "Freedom of Religion" as is commonly referred to in the West as the right to practice religion in any way you see fit without government interference.[22] This freedom is subject to restrictions, as all religious groups must be registered with the government and are prohibited from having loyalties outside of China. In addition, the communist government continually tries to maintain control over not only religious content, but also leadership choices such as the choosing of bishops and other spiritual leaders. Considering all party leaders must be communist, the ability of such officials to intelligently choose religious leaders is highly questionable. For example, the recently appointed Bishop in China was not appointed by the Pope as has been the Catholic Church's practice up until this time.[23] The government argues that such restriction is necessary to prevent foreign political influence eroding Chinese sovereignty, though groups affected by this deny that they have any desire to interfere in China's political affairs. This has led to an effective prohibition on those religious practices that by definition involve allegiance to a foreign spiritual leader or organization, (e.g. Catholicism - see Catholicism in China) although tacit allegiance to such individuals and bodies inside these groups is not uncommon. "Unregistered religious groups ... experience varying degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression."[24]
Particularly troubling is the lack of transparency involved in recently chosen Tibetan spiritual leaders. China attempts to intervene in the reincarnation of Tibetan spiritual leaders and has indicated it will oversee the search for a new leader after the Dalai Lama passes away. Beijing indicates that spiritual leaders must obtain approval before they reincarnate.[25] Even more troubling is China's dealings with previously identified reincarnations of past leaders. For example, the child who was identified as the new Panchen Lama by Tibetan spiritual leaders was first detained by Chinese authorities and then disappeared. The child has not been seen since, has spent the last 12 years in detention and has effectively been robbed of his childhood. Repeated requests have been made by visitor heads of state, including the Canadian prime minister.[26] Reporters and tourists visiting Tibet note that monasteries are subject to video surveillance. Other examples of the lack of religious freedom are:[27] 1) quotas instituted by Beijing on the number of monks to reduce the spiritual population 2) Forced denunciation of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader or expulsion 3) Government expulsion from monasteries of unapproved monks 4) Forced recitation of patriotic scripts supporting China or expulsion 5) Restriction of religious study before age 18.
Numerous other instances of detention for unpatriotic acts have also been recorded, an example of this would be the detention of monks celebrating the reception of the Medal of Honor by a Tibetan monk.[28] The effects have been drastic, whereas one large temple in Tibet once was a place of worship for over 10,000 monks, it is now only home to 600 and Beijing now restricts total membership in any monastery to 700.[27]
Another instance of religious discrimination is the fact that members of the Communist Party are officially required to be atheists.[29] While many party members privately violate this rule,[30] being openly religious can limit their economic prospects.
The government of the People's Republic of China tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian Churches (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party of China control. It has been claimed by many that the teachings in the state-approved Churches are at least monitored and sometimes modified by the Party.
Because Chinese House Churches operate outside government regulations and restrictions, their members and leaders are sometimes harassed by local government officials. This persecution may take the form of a prison sentence or, more commonly, reeducation through labor. Heavy fines also are not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated in lieu of payment if this is refused or unavailable. Unlike Falun Gong, however, house churches have not officially been outlawed, and since the 1990s, there has been increasing official tolerance of house churches. Most observers believe that the harassment of house churches by government officials arises less from an ideological opposition to religion and support of atheism than out of fears of a center of popular mobilization outside the control of the Communist Party of China.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Political freedom
The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. One of the most famous dissidents is Zhang Zhixin, who is known for standing up against the ultra-left.[31]Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour are widely reported. Freedom of assembly and association is extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources.[32][33]
Political reforms towards better information disclosure and people empowerment is under way. "The Chinese government began direct village elections in 1988 to help maintain social and political order in the context of rapid economic reforms. Today, village elections occur in about 650,000 villages across China, reaching 75% of the nation's 1.3 billion people."[34] In the year 2008, the city of Shenzhen, which enjoys the highest per capita GDP in China, is selected for experimentation. Over 70% of the government officials on the district level will be directly elected.[35]
Tibet
In 1951, the PRC government annexed Tibet, and after the failed uprising of 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. In 1991 he alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":
The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us.[60][61]
In a selection of speeches by the Dalai Lama published in India in 1998, he referred again to a "Chinese apartheid", which he argues denies Tibetans equal social and economic status, and furthers the viewpoint that human rights are violated by discrimination against Tibetans under a policy of apartheid, which the Chinese call "segregation and assimilation".[62][63]
Organ harvesting and extrajudicial execution
In March 2006, The Epoch Times published a number of articles alleging that the Chinese government and its agencies, including the People's Liberation Army, were conducting widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners. It was alleged that practitioners detained in forced labour camps, hospital basements, or prisons, were being blood and urine tested, their information stored on computer databases, and then matched with organ recipients. When an organ was required, it alleged, they were injected with potassium to stop the heart, their organs removed and later sold, and their bodies incinerated.
The first series of allegations were based on apparent eye-witness testimony of two individuals, and directed specifically at the Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital in Shenyang, Liaoning province. The story received some deal of media attention. Within one month, some third party investigators concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support this specific allegation.
Some months after the Sujiatun incident, in July 2006, David Kilgour, a former Canadian Secretary of State, and David Matas, a human rights lawyer, published a report of their investigation into the wider issue of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their report titled "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China" stated that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners are victims of systematic organ harvesting, whilst still alive, throughout China. According to the authors, their report is mostly based on publicly verifiable information. The report concluded that the practice is ongoing.
Their findings have received mixed responses. Sources such as investigative reports from Sky News [81] seemed to corroborate the findings of the Kilgour-Matas reports. The Chinese government categorically denied any mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, and rejected their report in its entirety. A Congressional Research Service said that the report’s key allegations appeared to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations, [82] while the Christian Science Monitor says the report’s evidence is circumstantial but persuasive.[83] The authors maintain that their conclusion has not been refuted.
Falun Gong
On July 20, 1999, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) banned Falun Gong and began a nationwide crackdown on the practice, except in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The actions taken by the Chinese government against Falun Gong are referred to as "persecution" by some overseas governments, international human rights organizations, and scholars.
The crackdown began following seven years of widespread popularity and rapid growth of the practice within mainland China.[93][94] A New York Times article reported that there were 70 million practitioners in China in 1998, a figure coming from the Chinese government.[95][96] A series of appeals and petitions made by practitioners to the authorities in 1999, in particular the 10,000 person gathering at Zhongnanhai on April 25, eventually led to the decision to outlaw and persecute Falun Gong.[97] A World Journal article suggested that certain high-level Party officials had wanted to crack down on the practice for a several years, but lacked sufficient pretext until this time.[97] Jiang Zemin is often considered to be largely personally responsible for the final decision, both by Falun Gong and academics. Possible motives include personal jealously of Li Hongzhi,[98] anger, and ideological struggle.[99] Others implicate the nature of Communist Party rule and a perceived challenge to it as causes for the crackdown.[100] The government explanation for the crackdown was that Falun Gong was "jeopardizing social stability," and "engaged in illegal activities."[101] Legislation to outlaw Falun Gong was created and enforced retroactively.[102]
The Party mobilized every aspect of society to become involved in the persecution, including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families and workplaces.[103] An extra-constitutional body, the "6-10 Office" was created to do what Forbes describes as "[overseeing] the terror campaign."[104] The campaign was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet.[102] Families and workplaces were urged to cooperate with the government's position on Falun Gong, while practitioners themselves were subject to various coercive measures to have them recant their beliefs.[105]
Amnesty International states that the persecution is politically motivated and a restriction of fundamental freedoms. Particular concerns have been raised over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labor, psychiatric abuses,[106][107] and since early 2006, allegations of systematic organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners.[108]
Protests in Beijing were frequent for the first few years following the 1999 edict, though these protests have largely been eradicated.[103] Falun Gong practitioners' presence in mainland China has become more low-profile, often involving methods of informing the general populace through overnight letterbox drops of pro-Falun Gong CD-ROMs. Practitioners have occasionally hacked into state television channels to broadcast pro-Falun Gong materials. Outside of mainland China, practitioners are active in appealing to the governments, media, and people of their respective countries about the situation in China.
Freedom of speech
Although the 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech,[7] the Chinese government often uses the subversion of state power clause to imprison those who are critical of the government.[8] Also, there is very heavy government involvement in the media, with most of the largest media organizations being run directly by the government. Chinese law forbids the advocacy of independence or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling China. Thus references to democracy, the Free Tibet movement, Taiwan as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet. PRC journalist He Qinglian in her 2004 book Media Control in China[9] examined government controls on the Internet in China[10] and on all media. Her book shows how PRC media controls rely on confidential guidance from the Communist Party propaganda department, intense monitoring, and punishment for violators rather than on pre-publication censorship.
Recently, foreign web portals including Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo! Search, and Google Search China[11] have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word "Democracy" from its chat rooms in China. Some North American or European films are not given permission to play in Chinese theatres, although piracy of these movies is widespread.[12]
Darfur
Human rights organizations have criticized China for its supportive relationship with the government of Sudan, which is committing mass killings in Darfur.[111][112] China is Sudan's largest economic partner, with a 40% share in their oil,[113] and also sells Sudan small arms.[114] China has threatened to veto UN Security Council actions to combat the Darfur crisis.[115]
China has responded to these criticisms by arguing that, "As the Darfur issue is not an internal affair of China, nor was it caused by China, to link the two together is utterly unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair."[116]
Rice presses China on human rights
AFP - 1 hour ago
BEIJING (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed China's leaders Monday on sensitive human rights issues, but said she was encouraged by their decision to hold talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys.
So why doesn’t the US put more pressure on China? Perhaps it’s because China holds $502 Billion in US Treasury Securities, which is 22% of our federal debt! In recent years, the US National debt has soared and inflation has stayed relatively low in part because China has been willing to accumulate reserves denominated in U.S. Dollars. Currently, China holds over $1 trillion in dollar denominated assets (of which $330 billion are U.S. Treasury notes).
FURTHER INFORMATION
http://www.hrichina.org/public/index
Human Rights Watch: Asia : China and Tibet
Persecution of Falun Gong
Home | Human Rights Watch
China | Amnesty International
§ MacLeod, Calum, China reviews 'apartheid' for 900 m peasants, Jun 10, 2001, The Independent, London
§ Human Rights in China by China Internet Information Center, under the administration of the China State Council Information Office.
§ Human rights can be manifested differently by XinhuaNet
§ UN Human Development Report 2003 on China by the United Nations Development Programme
§ 2004 Human Rights Report on China by the United States Department of State
§ JURIST China - Chinese law, legal research, human rights
§ Olympic Watch: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008 - Campaign for human rights improvements in China before the 2008 Olympic Games
§ Human Rights In China - International NGO based in New York and Hong Kong
§ Human Rights Watch: China and Tibet
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