Human Rights Conditions of Dissidents in China

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has done little to ameliorate conditions of human rights like freedom of speech and publication since the 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy movement. Instead, under the ruling of former dictator, Jiang Zemin, things turned out to be worse. Over 500 dissidents who took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstration are still in prison; at least 910 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death; tremendous volume of helpless civilians have been losing their housing during the crazy land circle movement and quite a few of them have to commit suicide to protest against governmental violence...

The new state leader, Hu Jintao, has taken his power since late December 2002. Have human rights conditions got better under his leadership? According to Amnesty International, "there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for Internet-related offences, an increase of 60 per cent in 2003 as compared to the previous year's figures... Many have been denied due process and some have been tortured or ill-treated in custody." Thus, we believe Hu has started another dictatorship which has deteriorated and will continue to deteriorate the human rights conditions in China.

This report will discuss the human rights conditions of Chinese dissidents under the ruling of the new state leader, which means that we will mainly focus on events that happened in 2003.

New state leader and his iron fist

Just as I pointed out in a web article, the ability and the power of a younger dictator are generally far below his precedents. In consideration of that he must unconditionally follow the so-called Three Represents Thought, the new ideology established immediately before he took his power, it was impossible for him to carry out so-called New Deal as highly expected by many scholars and dissidents. Instead, he revealed his weakness in many aspects. For example, the new president, Hu Jintao, extolled Mao Zedong, the first CCP dictator and also the evil of evils in history, as a national hero and savior in the commemoration of his 110th birthday in December 2003 simply because Hu had to use the dead to rule the living despite that Mao ought to be responsible for almost all major national disasters in China since 1949. Because Hu and former dictators shared the same goal, i.e., to make CCP a permanent monopoly of state affairs, therefore, his weakness, his education and his painful experience in the ruthless struggle of past years for his leadership all decided the outcome that he must be more insidious and ironhanded than an old dictator if hoping to be at the highest position in the rest of his life.

Before Hu Jintao took his power in late December 2002, the CCP regime used to take Chinese political prisoners as hostages to bargain with western countries for some insidious interest. Thus, it was not strange that one or several political prisoners would be released a few days before, say, an important state visit. Now, no political prisoner is released at all. Instead, the regime takes the chance to defy Chinese dissidents and international society by imposing stronger iron fist on dissidents.

According to different sources of statistics, including Amnesty International's reports, there were more than 50 dissidents being secretly arrested, kidnapped, prosecuted and sentenced in 2003 for so-called "state security", "subversion of government", "espionage", "revealing state secrets", "illegally gathering information for overseas organizations", and even "plotting terroristic actions". The following are a few examples.

He Depu was sentenced on December 14, 2003 to eight years' imprisonment for "subversion". The evidence against him included membership of the banned China Democracy Party (CDP), sending a letter to President Bush and posting essays on websites abroad calling for greater democracy and the release of a number of arrested dissidents. He had been forced to stand motionless for 85 days during detention. His health has reportedly deteriorated while in prison; he has lost a lot of weight and is suffering from hepatitis without any medical treatment.

On the World Human Rights Day, December 10, 2003, Li Zhi was sentenced at Dazhou, Sichuan to stay in jail for eight years for the same charge, "subversion of state power". He was originally a financial official of the local government. It is said that he discussed the corrupt issues of Chinese officials at an overseas Internet forum in July 2003. It is said also that he sent an article about corrupt issues to overseas by email. His case is so typical in China. It taught us lessons once again about popular political violence and that the sheer bravado of the regime's anti-corrupt campaign is just deception and turns out to be a political show or a tool for leaders at different levels to defeat their political enemy within CCP.

On December 8, 2003, Yan Jun was sentenced in Xi'an, Shan'xi, to two years in jail for "subversion of state power". It happened only five hours after Chinese Premier Minister, Wen Jiabao, landed on the land of the United States to have his formal state visit to this great nation. It was also on that day that all major Internet news providers in China were coerced to sign up "Internet News Information Service Self-Discipline Pledge" and "obey government administration and public supervision voluntarily".

Dr. Yang Jianli, a US permanent resident, has been in secret custody in China for almost two years. Although he was prosecuted on August 4, 2003 for a framed charge, "espionage", most Chinese dissidents abroad expected his release in December 2003 when Chinese Premier Minister, Wen Jiabao, was on his state visit to the United States. However, CCP regime denied improving its image of a human rights killer. He is still in custody with his sentence unannounced, and his family has never been allowed to see him yet.

Huang Qi is very special for being the first in China to be arrested in June 2000 for posting articles about human rights and political issues on his own website. He was sentenced on May 9, 2003 to five years' imprisonment for "inciting subversion". The prosecution cited evidence including reference to the posting of the names of individuals imprisoned following the crackdown of 1989 pro-democracy movement on the Internet. According to Reporters without Borders, he was reportedly placed in solitary confinement and then moved to a punishment cell. He is in poor health.

Compared to other individuals detained or imprisoned, Dr. Wang Bingzhang's case provides stronger evidence to expose to the world the preponderant determination of CCP regime to suppress Chinese dissidents wherever they are. Wang has been a spiritual leader of overseas Chinese dissidents since 1982 when he finished his Ph.D. study in medical science in Canada and gave up at once his enviable career as a hopeful surgeon in order to pursue democracy and freedom for Chinese people. When visiting Vietnam to meet some dissidents from mainland China in June 2002, the US permanent resident was kidnapped by Chinese secret agents and then taken to China secretly. After in secret custody for half a year, he was convicted on spying and terrorism charges in Shenzhen, Guangdong on February 10, 2003, and was sentenced to life in prison, the severest punishment China ever made on any dissident. Placed in solitary confinement and forbidden reading Bible as a Christian, he had to be on a hunger strike for better treatment in December 2003. He is in poor health.

What happened in 2004? In this January, Liu Jingsheng's family was refused by the CCP regime to visit him during Chinese Spring Festival at the jail where the dissident has been imprisoned for 12 years. Another dissident, Wang Youcai, also was denied to accept his family's visit. Liu's application for medical treatment outside jail was rejected once again in despite of his poor health.

On February 17, 2004, the arrest of the detained dissident, Du Daobin, was officially announced. It was a signal that the CCP regime would further tighten its suppression of dissidents since there had been thousands signing online petition for his release.

In brief, it is likely that the 50 dissidents secretly kidnapped, arrested and put into jail are a fraction of the real number of people arbitrarily detained across China in 2003. For most of them, their crime framed by the regime was unexceptionally "subversion of state power" (as we know, subversion of state power is really a part of human rights), which has caused immense fear among people not only because it is the serious crime in China but also because it badly affects the survival of one's family.

In further consideration of Beijing's Saddam-favored propaganda in the Iraqi War and the falsehood concerning Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which caused the death of hundreds all over the world, we have to conclude that the horrible era of a new dictatorship has begun in China.

Internet and Chinese dissidents

It is well-known that people in China have no freedom of speech and publication as ensured by UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Concretely speaking, public media like newspaper, magazine, radio and TV station are all state-run and under the control of CCP regime. Thus, it is impossible to publish on those media any article criticizing government and corrupt officials. Having lived in such a depressing environment for decades, there is no doubt that people would warmly welcome the advent of the Internet age since the easily accessible Internet could provide a hopeful channel to give voice to their opinions and feelings.

However, like all other authoritarian regimes, Beijing immediately realized that the Internet had put an unprecedented threat against its power. Thus, it has issued the toughest regulations in the world to control the Internet since 1994. For example, those providing "state secrets" to overseas organizations and individuals over the Internet can be sentenced to death.

In addition to legislation, Beijing also carries out the most extensive censorship of the Internet in the world. It demands that all communication on the Internet pass through government-controlled routers. It also demands that Internet news and information providers sign up "Internet News Information Service Self-Discipline Pledge" and "obey government administration", and all Internet cafes install surveillance software. Therefore, the regime is able to monitor and control activities of Internet users.

Nevertheless, the tightened censorship and surveillance can never give Beijing enough confidence in controlling the Internet. Thus, Beijing invested $800 millions from 2000 in a giant project, Golden Shield, aiming to build a nationwide network of remote surveillance that links national, regional and local security agencies together. The surveillance system enrolls over 20,000 network police. It not only provides immediate access to records of all citizens, but also works as a huge filter and firewall to the outside Internet to prevent people from obtaining and disseminating "harmful" information in the global Internet.

Consequently, the Internet has gradually become a major battle field where China's security police find new dissidents. As you can see from the appendix of this report, almost each dissident arrested and imprisoned was accused of writing and posting articles in the Internet. According to Amnesty International, "there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for Internet-related offences, an increase of 60 per cent in 2003 as compared to the previous year's figures."

Summary

From the above facts, we conclude that the change of state leaders did not matter while we had made no progress in democracy and freedom of speech, publication and association. In practice, the first year under a new state leader is just the beginning of further continuous deterioration of human rights conditions in China.

Therefore, Chinese dissidents are doomed to face more fatal dangers in years ahead. We strongly call for international society's attention on the growing number of individuals being detained and imprisoned for doing nothing more than peacefully expressing their views and opinions in the Internet so far since the change of state leaders, and had better try hard to help us improve China's human rights conditions.

Appendix