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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
News Flash
3 June 2009
China: Harassment of activists escalates ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary
Chinese authorities have stepped up curbs on dissenting voices and escalated censorship of activists throughout the country, a day before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
“Cutting off communication and preventing movement will not stop activists from fighting for their rights and will not stop people from marking the 20th anniversary of the crackdown,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “The quest for truth will only be fuelled by excessive harassment.”
Over the past few days, Amnesty International has received reports of serious harassment of human rights activists:
- In Beijing, HIV/AIDS activist, Wan Yanhai, was forced to travel to the northern city of Changchun ahead of the anniversary. Police officers knocked at his door and requested he leave to “avoid possible conflict”. He refused but was forced to board a train to leave the capital with his family.
- On 3 June, Zeng Jinyan, carrying her infant daughter, attempted to leave home to attend her mother’s birthday celebration. Five policemen roughly pushed her back inside and told her she was not allowed to leave the house in the coming days.
- On 3 June, in Hangzhou, police officers gathered outside the house of human rights activists Wen Kejian and invited him for a “talk”.
- On 2 June, two police officers and four “Neighbourhood/Residential Committee” members were stationed outside the Shanghai-based reproductive rights activist, Mao Hengfeng’s house. They forced her back inside after she attempted to leave and told her she was forbidden to go out until the 4 June anniversary was over.
- On 2 June, in Inner Mongolia, internal security police reportedly took away internet writer Tian Yongde at around 3:30pm, while he was visiting his mother in hospital. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
- On 1 June, police took up positions outside the houses of lawyers Jiang Tianyong and Li Xiongbing, and other police drive them wherever they go.
- At midnight on 2 June, lawyers Lan Zhixue and Tang Jitian were discussing a case in the offices of an NGO. When they were leaving in the early hours of 3 June, police took the two lawyers in for questioning. They have not yet been released.
- In order to limit communication between activists and internet campaigners, Chinese authorities shut down Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail.
Background
Amnesty International has documented at least one hundred cases of activists who have been detained briefly or faced violence from authorities in 2009 as they defended land rights, housing rights and labour rights. Signatories of the Charter 08, a petition calling for legal and political reforms, continue to face questioning.
Recently, lawyers have been threatened with denial of the licenses in retaliation for their work on human rights defence cases. On 31 May, at least 18 lawyers still had not received their license renewals by the 6pm deadline. These lawyers, from eleven different law firms, are involved in defending and providing legal aid to Tibetans who were detained in connection with March 2008 protests, Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders detained for exercising freedom of expression, families of victims of the Sichuan earthquake, families of victims of poisoned milk powder scandal and other public interest cases. Some of them have called for democratic election of Beijing lawyers Association executive committee members and are thus being targeted.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Newsflash
Date: 13 January 2009
China: Female activist should be released immediately
The Shanghai Public Security Bureau today detained human rights activist Mao Hengfeng and sentenced her to seven days administrative detention.
Mao Hengfeng and her daughter were taken by police from outside the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress meeting on 12 January. They were there with 100 other Shanghai residents attempting to ask the congressional representatives to address the issue of forced evictions and other human rights abuses in the city. The police had sealed off the venue and the protestors were held at a distance. Mao Hengfeng shouted: ‘Shanghai representatives, you should serve your people. Come listen to us! We want democracy and freedom, and an end to torture!’
The police seized Mao Hengfeng and her daughter, together with several other protesters, and drove them to an unknown detention facility. At midnight everyone else was sent home, but Mao was transferred to Daqiao police station. The police then issued a notice to her family stating that she will be held for seven days for ‘disturbing public order’.
After visiting Mao Hengfeng earlier today, her family say that the police had not fed her, and it was obvious from her appearance that she had been beaten.
“Mao Hengfeng is being arbitrarily detained for exercising her right to protest peacefully. She should be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.
Background
Since 2004, Chinese authorities have repeatedly detained Mao Hengfeng for her work defending women’s reproductive rights and housing rights. In January 2007, she was sentenced to two and half year’s imprisonment for “intentionally damaging property”. She was released on 29 November 2008. While in prison she was tortured. She is now suffering from high blood pressure, constant pain from injuries caused by torture, a skin infection from unsanitary conditions in detention and chronic stomach ache. Since her release, the authorities have been closely monitoring her.
I received the news of the releases of three prisoners of conscience from Amnesty International. If you ever wonder about who is the woman in the header image of this blog, that’s Mao Hengfeng.
Mao Hengfeng was released on November 29, 2008 after two-and-a-half years in prison. She is in very poor health as a result of frequent torture; she now suffers from hearing loss, high blood pressure and chronic stomach pains, among other ailments. Mao was ill-treated right up to the day of her release and has suffered mentally as well as physically. She has considered suicide, but was encouraged by messages of international support, including those from Amnesty International members. Mao is currently resting and receiving medical treatment. She is still considered to be at high risk of detention, and AI will continue to monitor her situation.
Ye Guozhu was released on October 15, 2008. His brother, Ye Guoqiang, said that Ye Guozhu was forced to sign an agreement accepting compensation for his eviction. Ye was threatened with new charges and continued detention if he did not sign, and was pressured into stating that he did not require a lawyer during his time in custody. During his four years in prison, Ye Guozhu’s health has deteriorated. He was forbidden from seeing his elderly mother and father, and his mother died while he was in custody. Ye has been exhausted by his ordeal and is currently resting and receiving medical treatment.
Bu Dongwei, also known as David Bu, was released from the Tuanhe “re-education through labor” (RTL) facility in mid-July, approximately 4 months before the end of his term. Bu Dongwei was serving a two-and-a-half year sentence in connection with his activities as a member of the Falun Gong movement, which is banned in China. Bu has now left China and rejoined his wife in the LA area.
March 8th is the annual International Women’s Day. This year’s UN theme is “Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls.” I had volunteered to table with my Amnesty group at a local event today but my significant other got sick so I stayed home. I did, however, forwarded to my fellow Amnesty member a petition (PDF file) for Mao Hengfeng who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison this past December.
Mao’s story is a demonstration of courage against China’s One Child Policy which leads to forced abortion and sterilization of women. A mother of twin girls, Mao got pregnant with her third child and she refused to have an abortion. She was forced into a psychiatric hospital where she was injected with various drugs. She gave birth against all odds but she was dismissed from her job for missing 16 days of work. Although she won an appeal under China’s labor law and got reinstated to her job, her employer appealed the ruling. Mao was pregnant with her fourth child during the appeal and the judge told her that he would rule in her favor if she terminated this third pregnancy. Mao terminated her pregnancy against her wishes but the court ruled against her anyway. Since then, she has been actively petitioning to the authorities about family planning and housing issues. She was sent to re-education through labor in 2004 and experienced torture and abuse during numerous detentions and in RTL camp.
The last draw came when the police detained her in May 2006 and placed her under “soft detention” at a guesthouse in Shanghai where she was beaten. She broke two table lamps in protest of her treatment. The authorities took advantage of the situation and sentenced her to prison under the charge of “intentionally destroying property.” AI raised her status to prisoner of conscience and posted an appeal for her release.
Related links:
- AI (2004): Protester against forced abortion sent to prison camp
- Human Rights in China: Mao Hengfeng Sentenced to 2-1/2 Years for Breaking Lamps
- AIUSA: Women’s Human Rights
The annual session of the National People’s Congress is going to start on next Monday March 5th. A few campaigns are sending out special messages this week to target the annual meeting. First off, Ding Zilin, leader of the Tiananmen Mothers sent an open letter to Human Rights in China calling on the NPC to allow discussion and publication of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 (HRIC press release in English and Simplified Chinese with full text of the letter). And today, Amnesty International released a new report on the discrimination and abuse of migrant workers in China (report summary in Simplified Chinese). The Foreign Ministry was quick to respond that the government is working on the problems.
Internally, there is a focus on the re-education-through-labor system in which police can send those who have committed minor crimes to special RTL centers up to four years. Many activists have experienced this system including Mao Hengfeng who continuously petitioned the authorities after she was forced to have an abortion and lost her job. A discussion has been going around advocating for abolishment or a new form of the system. The timing is interesting because AI released a memorandum about RTL last May directing towards the State Council and the Legislative Committee of the NPC. May be the migrant workers will be the hot button for the NPC in 2008.
The NPC will definitely attract attention from the press inside and outside of China. A warning was sent to China’s executives of broadcast media back in January to ensure the media would not stir any commotion during the NPC meeting and later the 17th annual National Congress of the Communist Party of China (which is held every 5 years, unlike the NPC sessions that are held in March every year). But good news went to the overseas journalists who will be allowed to interview NPC deputies directly.
Related news and links:
- AI (press release): The human cost of the economic ‘miracle’ (Simplified Chinese version)
- AI (special feature): China’s growing underclass
- AIUSA: Amnesty International’s New Report Reveals the Human Cost of the China Economic “Miracle”
- The Boston Globe: Report: China’s migrants face abuse
- BBC News: China ‘facing migrant underclass’
- BBC News: ‘People with no value’
- China Daily: New law to abolish laojiao system
- BBC News: China reviews ‘re-education’ law
- Washington Post: Broadcast Media in China Put On Notice
- NPC (English site): NPC session a prelude to Olympic-driven media transparency
- People’s Daily: Overseas journalists allowed to directly interview NPC deputies, CPPCC members
Update (3-3-2007)
- China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: transcript of Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang’s Regular Press Conference on March 1, 2007 (Simplified Chinese version)
- National Labor Committee: Reports and slideshows of factories in China
News came out yesterday about the overturn of the prison sentence of Chen Guangcheng. Blind since he was a child and learned about law through auditing college classes, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of local villagers in their attempt to sue the local authorities for carrying out forced abortions and sterilizations. He became well-known outside of China when Time Magazine featured him as one of the “TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World” in May 2006 under the category of “Heroes & Pioneers” among Bono, Bill Clinton, and others.
And there have been many news articles about him since local officials trapped him in his home beginning in September 2005 and later detained him.
Related news:
- BBC News:
- Amnesty International – Press Release: Chen Guangcheng is prisoner of conscience
The overturn of his sentence is a surprise because this doesn’t happen often in China. Once a person is sentenced, his/her appeal would most likely be denied. It will be interesting to see how this case develops.
Related news:
- BBC News: China overturns activist sentence
- Radio Free Asia: Appeals Court Overturns Blind Chinese Activist’s Guilty Verdict
- AIUSA Press Release: Amnesty International USA Statement on Chen Guangcheng Case in China
In case you are wondering whether forced abortions and sterilizations are really happening in China, check out the case of Mao Hengfeng.
