CHINA ASSESSMENT April 2000 Country Information and Policy Unit CONTENTS I SCOPE OF DOCUMENT 1.1 - 1.5 II GEOGRAPHY 2.1 - 2.3 III: HISTORY 3.1 - 1966-76 Cultural Revolution 3.1 - 3.2 1978-89 and economic reform 3.3 - 3.9 1989 Tiananmen Square 3.10 - 3.12 Post-Tiananmen 3.13 1993-present: 3.15 Crime and corruption 3.15 - 3.17 Government leadership 3.18 Economic reform 3.19 - 3.20 1999: Anniversaries 3.21 - 3.22 International relations 3.23 - 3.24 Relations with Taiwan 3.25 - 3. Hong Kong: 3.28 Elections 3.29 Dissidence 3.30 Mainland born children 3.33 Vietnamese boat people 3.34 Macao 3.35 - 3.36 IV: INSTRUMENTS OF THE STATE 4.1 - 4.21 Government and the Constitution 4.1 - 4.4 Legal framework 4.5 Criminal Law 4.7 Criminal Procedure Law 4.8 State Compensation Law 4.11 Regulation changes 4.12 Appeals 4.15 Security situation 4.17 Shelter and investigation 4.18 Re-education through labour 4.19 1 Land law 4.20 - 4.21 V: HUMAN RIGHTS: SPECIFIC GROUPS 5.1 Overview 5.1 - 5.5 Political dissenters 5.6 Dissident organisations 5.10 Religious freedom 5.14 Christians 5.18 Sects 5.20 Falun Gong 5.23 Falun Gong - Name 5.24 Falun Gong - Organisation 5.25 Falun Gong - Membership 5.26 Falun Gong - Events 5.28 - 5.36 Falun Gong - Organisation of the Movement in Fuijan Province 5.37 Muslims 5.40 - 5.41 Buddhists 5.42 - 5.46 Ethnic minorities 5.47 Tibetans 5.48 Uygurs 5.50 Mongols 5.51 Women: 5.52 Abduction 5.54 Divorce 5.55 ACWF 5.56 Children 5.57 - 5.59 Homosexuals 5.60 - 5.61 People with disabilities 5.62 VI: HUMAN RIGHTS: OTHER ISSUES 6.1 Penal conditions: 6.1 Torture 6.1 Death penalty 6.3 Organ removal 6.4 One child policy 6.5 - 6.12 Freedom of speech and press 6.13 - 6.17 Freedom of assembly: 6.18 Trades unions 6.20 Freedom of movement: 6.21 Iron rice bowl 6.21 Floating population 6.23 Emigration 6.24 Returnees 6.26 Pacific coast cases 6.28 People smugglers (Snakeheads) 6.32 ANNEX A: PROMINENT PEOPLE ANNEX B: CHRONOLOGY ANNEX C: GLOSSARY 2 ANNEX D: BIBLIOGRAPHY I. 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. 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 (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/cipu1.htm). 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 II GEOGRAPHY 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 3 (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. The total population exceeds 1.2 billion. [1] 2.2. Most of the Chinese asylum seekers in the United Kingdom are from Fujian province. Some areas in Fujian and neighbouring coastal provinces have a long tradition of migration and may have over 10% of their population living abroad, substantial foreign exchange earnings, access to high seas transport and large numbers of returned migrants living in the community.[2a,11c] 2.3. The principal language is putonghua (Standard Chinese/Northern Chinese/Mandarin). Local dialects are spoken in the south and south-east. The Tibetans, Uygurs, Mongols and other groups have their own languages. Putonghua is taught in the schools throughout China, but local dialects are commonly spoken. For example, Fuzhou (capital of Fujian province) has its own dialect, quite different from the national language, and different again from the dialect in southern Fujian. Cantonese, and subdialects of Cantonese, is commonly spoken in Guangdong province. The transcription of Chinese ideographs into the Roman alphabet leads to significant variances in spelling, although China does have a standard system, pinyin, which is used both in China and internationally.[1,2a]. III HISTORY 3.1. The People's Republic of China was established on 1 October 1949 after a protracted and bitter civil war between the communist forces led by Mao Zedong and the nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek. PRC is now one of the few remaining communist one party states left after the end of the Cold War.[3a] 3.2. In 1959, after the catastrophic failure of his 'Great Leap Forward' economic policies, Chairman Mao relinquished the post of Head of State and was replaced by Liu Shaoqi. During the following three years, as many as 25 million (some say 40 million) people died as a result of famine, drought, floods, withdrawal of Soviet aid and the policies of the Great Leap Forward. Under Premier Zhou Enlai, who was acting in conjunction with Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and others, the economy gradually recovered. However, the pattern of rule in China, through extensive social control and political campaigns and purges emphasising class struggle rather than the application of law, was established.[1,3a] The Cultural Revolution 1966-76 3.3. Chairman Mao, who had retained his positions within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966. This mass movement to radicalise Chinese society created intense factional struggle within the CCP. Red Guards, who followed the fanatical 'cult of Mao' and were given an open hand to smash the "four olds" (old ideas, old customs, old culture, old habits), were responsible for widespread anarchy and violence against the civilian population. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping (General Secretary of the CCP) were disgraced, and Mao had to turn to the army to restore order.[1,3a] 3.4. The years before Mao's death in 1976 were characterised by an increasingly intense struggle for succession within the CCP. Premier Zhou Enlai died in January 1976 and was replaced by Hua Guofeng. Deng Xiaoping, having been rehabilitated only in 1975, was again dismissed from his posts in the Central Committee. Mao died in September that year. His widow, Jiang Qing, and three associates ('the gang of four') tried unsuccessfully to seize power. Hua Guofeng 4 succeeded Mao as CCP Chairman, and Deng Xiaoping was restored to his posts the following year.[1] 3.5. Although the worst abuses of the Cultural Revolution had subsided by 1970 this phase of China's history only officially ended when final judgement on the Cultural Revolution took place at the sixth plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1981, which saw the beginning of the era of economic reform under Deng Xiaoping.[3a] 1978-1989 and economic reform 3.6. In 1978-79 a campaign for democratic reform and human rights, involving posters and demonstrations, took off in Beijing. It became known as the Democracy Wall Movement. The Movement was initially encouraged by Deng Xiaoping as a means of putting pressure on his political opponents; when his aims were achieved he suppressed the Movement. In March 1979 Democracy Wall leading figure Wei Jingsheng was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for "counter-revolutionary" crimes.[3a] 3.7. In September 1982 the CCP was reorganised and the post of Party Chairman abolished. The following year a purge of the Party was launched, aimed at removing the 'Maoists' who had risen to power during the Cultural Revolution, and those opposed to the pragmatic 'open door' policies of Deng. China's new Constitution restored the office of Head of State, and in June 1983 Li Xiannian became President of China. Later that year the Party launched a major operation to combat crime and a campaign against 'spiritual pollution', involving censorship to limit the effects of Western cultural influences.[1] 3.8. Reorganisation of the CCP and the government, and a programme of social reform aimed at modernising the economy and developing China's external relations, continued through the mid- 1980s.