CHINA COUNTRY ASSESSMENT October 2001 Country Information and Policy Unit CONTENTS 1. SCOPE OF DOCUMENT 1.1 - 1.5 2. GEOGRAPHY 2.1 - 2.26 Geographical area 2.1 - Jiangxi province 2.2 - 2.16 Population 2.17 Names / Surnames / clan names 2.18 - 2.20 Language 2.21 - 2.26 3. HISTORY 3.1 –3.54 pre-1993: 3.1 - 3.2 1966-76 Cultural Revolution 3.3 - 3.5 1978-89 and economic reform 3.6 - 3.9 1989 Tiananmen Square 3.10 - 3.12 Post-Tiananmen 3.13 -3.14 1993-present: 3.15 - 3.33 Crime and corruption 3.15 - 3.24 Criminal activity 3.25 - 3.28 Government leadership 3.29 Economic reform 3.30 - 3.34 Currency 3.35 1999: Anniversaries 3.36 - 3.37 International relations 3.38 - 3.39 "One country, two systems" issues 3.40 - 3.54 Relations with Taiwan 3.40 - 3.43 Hong Kong: 3.44 - 3.46 Elections 3.47 Dissidence 3.48 -3.50 Mainland born children 3.51 Vietnamese boat people 3.52 Macao 3.53 - 3.54 IV: INSTRUMENTS OF THE STATE 4.1 - 4.49 Government and the Constitution 4.1 - 4.20 Political structure 4.4 General overview 4.6 - 4.10 Village committees 4.11 - 4.19 Neighbourhood committees 4.20 Legal framework 4.21 Criminal Law 4.23 Criminal Procedure Law 4.25 State Compensation Law 4.25 Regulation changes 4.28 Appeals 4.29 Land law 4.34 Security situation 4.37 - 4.33 Shelter and investigation 4.38 Re-education through labour 4.39 Police 4.40 - 4.46 Armed Forces, Military conscription and desertion 4.47 - 4.49 5. HUMAN RIGHTS: SPECIFIC GROUPS 5.1- 5.249 Overview of human rights. 5.1 - 5.6 Registration of societies 5.7 - 5.20 Political dissenters 5.24 - 5.30 Dissident organisations 5.31 -5.41 Religious freedom 5.42 - 5.46 Christians 5.47 - 5. General 5.47 - 5.50 Protestant Christians 5.51 - 5.56 Catholic Christians 5.57 - 5.61 Christian influenced groups 5.62 - 5.77 Sects 5.78 - 5.204 Falun Gong 5.81 - 5.226 Overview 5.81 Nature of the movement 5.82 - 5.96 Organisation of the movement 5.97 - 5.89 Organisation of the movement in Fujian Province 5.107 - 5.91 Membership 5.109 - 5.96 Key events in the history of the Falun Gong movement 5.114 - 5.98 Chinese authorities' ban 5.116 - 5.118 Demonstrations and protests 5.138 - 5.100 Detentions, trials and sentences 5.143 - 5.108 Prison camps 5.1 - 5.153 Deaths in custody 5.158 - 5.161 Key Development 1: the Hong Kong Issue 5.162 - 5.176 Key Development 2: The Beijing Immolations 5.177 - 5.201 Protest outside China 5.202 Falun Gong ban's effect on other groups 5.209 Zhong Gong 5.210 Other qigong groups 5.214 - 5.218 Other unregistered religious organisations 5.219 - 5.194 Asylum cases 5.195 - 5.196 Views of commentators on future developments 5.197 - 5.204 Muslims 5.227 - 5.236 Buddhists 5.237 - 5.239 Taoists 5.240 - 5.249 Religious activity in Fujian Province 5.250 - 5.252 Other unregistered religious groups 5.253 - 5.254 Ethnic minorities 5.255 - 5.301 - general information 5.255 Zhuang / Chuang 5.256 - 5.258 Miao (Hmong) 5.259 - 5.260 Manchu 5.261 - 5.262 Mongols 5.263 - 5.266 Uighur 5.267 - 5.277 Koreans 5.278 - North Koreans 5.279 - 5.280 Hui 5.281 - 5.283 Yi (Lolo) 5.284 - 5.286 Tujia 5.287 She 5.288 - 5.289 Uzbeks 5.290 Tibetans 5.291 - 5.301 Women: 5.297 - 5.302 Abduction 5.297 Marriage 5.299 Divorce 5.301 ACWF 5.302 Children 5.303 - 5.313 Orphanages and child welfare system 5.305 - 5.313 Educational system 5.314 Homosexuals 5.315 - 5.318 Healthcare and medical issues 5.319 - 5.325 People with disabilities 5.326 AIDS and HIV 5.327 6. HUMAN RIGHTS: OTHER ISSUES 6.1- 6.133 Penal conditions: 6.1 - 6.2 Torture 6.3 - 6.5 Death penalty 6.6 Organ removal 6.7 One child policy 6.8 - 6.40 Policy 6.8 - 6.11 Implementation 6.12 - 6.16 Actual implementation and practice 6.17 - 6.37 Female infanticide 6.27 Other social problems associated with policy 6.31 "Black children" 6.37 Population Census 6.38 Freedom of speech and press 6.41 - 6. Freedom of assembly: 6.48 - 6.49 Trades unions 6.50 - 6.52 Freedom of movement: 6.53 - 6.78 Hukou System "Iron rice bowl" 6.53 - 6.54 Floating population 6.55 - 6.56 Hukou (residency status documentation) 6.57 - 6.78 Emigration: 6.79 - 6.133 General information on Chinese emigration patterns 6.79 - 6.86 Legal emigration 6.87 - 6. Illegal emigration 6.90 - 6.133 Dover deaths 6.90 - 6.79 Pacific coast cases 6.95 - 6.84 People smugglers (Snakeheads) 6.100 -6.93 Snakehead / officials collusion 6.109 Chinese authorities' approach 6.110 - 6.97 Fraudulent documentation 6.113 Routes used 6.118 People smugglers and Fujian province 6.120 Additional information since Dover deaths 6.121 - 6143 Returnees 6.144 - 6.156 ANNEX A: PROMINENT PEOPLE, POLITICAL DISSIDENTS, POLITICAL DISSIDENT GROUPS ANNEX B: CHRONOLOGY ANNEX C: GLOSSARY OF CHINESE TERMS ANNEX D: GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH TERMS AND ACRONYMS ANNEX E: BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. SCOPE OF DOCUMENT 1.1 This assessment has been produced by the Country Information & Policy Unit, Immigration & Nationality Directorate, Home Office, from information obtained from a variety of sources. 1.2 The assessment has been prepared for background purposes for those involved in the asylum determination process. The information it contains is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to catalogue all human rights violations. It concentrates on the issues most commonly raised in asylum claims made in the United Kingdom. It represents the current assessment by the Immigration & Nationality Directorate of the general socio-political and human rights situation in the country. 1.3 The assessment is sourced throughout. It is intended to be used by caseworkers as a signpost to the source material, which has been made available to them. The vast majority of the source material is readily available in the public domain. 1.4 It is intended to revise the assessment on a 6-monthly basis while the country remains within the top 35 asylum producing countries in the United Kingdom. 1.5 The assessment will be placed on the Internet at the Home Office website (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/). An electronic copy of the assessment has been made available to the following organisations: Amnesty International UK Immigration Advisory Service Immigration Appellate Authority Immigration Law Practitioners' Association Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants JUSTICE Medical Foundation for the care of Victims of Torture Refugee Council Refugee Legal Centre UN High Commissioner for Refugees 2. GEOGRAPHY Geographical Area 2.1. The People's Republic of China (PRC) covers 9,571,300 sq km of eastern Asia, with Mongolia and Russia to the north; Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan to the north-west; Afghanistan and Pakistan to the west; India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to the south; and Korea in the north-east. It has a long coastline on the Pacific Ocean. There are 4 municipalities - Beijing (Peking) (the capital), Shanghai, Tianjin (Tientsin) and Chongqing - and 22 provinces, of which the largest (by population) are Henan (Honan), Sichuan (Szechwan), Shandong (Shantung), Jiansu (Kiangsu) and Guangdong (Kwangtung). There are 5 autonomous regions - Guangxi Zhuang (Kwangsi Chuang), Nei Monggol (Inner Mongolia), Xinjiang Uygur (Singkiang Uighur), Ningxia Hui (Ninghsia Hui) and Xizang (Tibet) - as well as, from 1 July 1997, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong, and from 20 December 1999, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Macau. [1a] <> 2. Conditions in Jiangxi Province, PRC 2.2. Economic difficulties Jiangzi Province, located in Central Eastern China, is held to be one of the poorest provinces of the Chinese heartland. Population of about 41.5 million (1997), the provincial capital in Nanchang. Principle economic activity is agriculture. The average disposable income of each individual, per annum, is around Yuan 2,000 (£150). [13b] The city of Shanghai has started to run "hardship summer camps" for relatively wealthy urban children, to learn "discipline" from the rural poor, with the camps set up in Jiangxi Province. [10av] 2.3. The combination of poverty and agricultural dependence of the province has meant that the area has been very sensitive to the economic restructuring of PRC and current downturn. Three effects of this can be identified as a) migration out of Jiangxi b) a period of socio-economic re-adjustment, and c) measures taken by local officials and local reactions, with the three strands closely interwoven. 2.4. Migration There has been a long history of internal migration from Jiangxi to the coastal provinces, particularly Fujian. Jiangxi migrants in the 1990s formed part of the "floating population" of the coastal provinces, and seen as both necessary and socially destabilising by the authorities. [20j] 2.5. Jiangxi has been accused of being a "dumping ground" for people displaced the Three Dams project. There has been further displacement within Jiangxi with large scale dam and flood relief projects. [10au] 2.6. Farmers Agriculture, the mainstay of Jiangxi, has been hit by a spate of crop failures, haphazard flood / drought relief that has resulted in disaster for individuals, and general disenchantment with rural life. In August 2000, it led to a farmers' tax revolt, where 20,000 withheld taxes as a complaint against arbitrary local taxes.