DOCSLIB.ORG

Amnesty International

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Amnesty International amnesty international PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA No Improvement in Human Rights: The Imprisonment of dissidents in 1998 4 March 1999 AI Index: ASA 17/14/99 Despite the marking of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1998 and despite the recent signing by China of the two United Nations Covenants on Human Rights there are still no guarantees for the Chinese people that they will not be detained or arrested for seeking the freedoms of association and expression enshrined in the UN Declaration. In the past twelve months, many scores of people throughout China have been detained, harassed and imprisoned solely for exercising these rights. The Chinese government’s signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in October 1998, the visits to China of American President Bill Clinton, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson were heralded as triumphs for diplomacy and human rights ‘dialogue’. International opinion began to suggest that the Chinese authorities were making improvements in human rights. However, as the prospect of international censure recedes and the international spotlight faded, the Chinese authorities once again began to crack down on dissidents and activists. During the last few weeks of 1998, over 29 dissidents were detained, four leading dissidents sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment and several other dissidents and labour activists have been sentenced to re-education through labour terms and lengthy terms of imprisonment. Since October 1998 when China signed the ICCPR it is estimated that over 80 dissidents have been detained and at least 15 high profile dissidents have been given heavy prison sentences or assigned to re-education through labour. The Chinese authorities have rushed through the trials of three key dissidents who had attempted to openly set up a political party.1 The trials of Wang 1 Throughout China dissidents in various provinces have been attempting to register the party locally. Each attempt has been met with refusal and the detention/harassment of the activists. According to the constitution of the Party there is no reference made to it seeking the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party. Youcai, Xu Wenli and Qin Yongmin took place on 17 and 21 December. Each trial lasted only a few hours. These are the first very high-profile dissidents to be tried under the new “national security” provisions of the Criminal Law, which replaced the provisions on “counter-revolutionary crimes” after the law was revised in 1997 (which came into force in October 1997). The three trials took place in three different provinces, barely three weeks after the defendants were detained, on 30 November 1998. The speed with which the defendants were brought to trial and the harassment of the chosen defenders made it impossible for them to hire lawyers of their choice and to prepare a proper defence. Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin did not have lawyers - only Xu Wenli had a lawyer, appointed by the state. The trials and the sentences given to these dissidents and many others not highlighted in this document show very clearly that the repeal of the old provisions on ‘counter- revolution’ have not lead to any meaningful reform of the law itself. Instead it is clear that the new charges regarding activities allegedly violating ‘state’ or ‘national security’ are being used instead for the continuing repression and imprisonment of dissidents and political activists. Unofficial Groups Many of those detained in 1997 have been detained in connection with their support for a small but growing number of unofficial political groupings or parties. Among recent groupings, the most organised and widespread seems to be the Chinese Democratic Party (CDP) which was initially founded in Zhejiang province by a group of dissidents; Wang Youcai, Wang Donghai and Lin Hui. The first arrests of members of the CDP began on 10 July 1998 within hours of the first application to register the CDP. The arrests of party members started a chain of protests within China from other dissidents, many of whom were themselves later harassed, questioned or detained. Members in other provinces also began to try to legally register provincial branches of the CDP and were themselves detained or arrested. According to Statements received the Chinese Democratic party’s main aims are “Freedom, Democracy, Justice and Peace” by "non-violent, rational and peaceful methods". In the application to register the group in Shanghai, it was stated that the CDP will ‘continue to recognize ‘ the Chinese Communist Party as the ruling party. According to Chinese law, all independent groups must be registered. Under the Chinese Constitution “citizens of the people’s republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.” 2 and could therefore organise themselves into groups. In practice however this is not the case. 2Article 35, Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (1982). In October 1998, the same month that it signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines the right to freedom of association, the Chinese government revised several laws on the registration of groups which had the effect of increasing the limitations on this right. 3 These laws cover the whole of Chinese society. They increase the legal requirements and time necessary for establishing a social group, they allow the authorities more leeway to forbid the registration of selected groups, forbid any involvement of people who have ever had their political rights removed, and increase the controls which can be placed on the groups by their official government ‘sponsors’. The new laws also specify the amount of ‘legitimate’ funds a new group should have. The term ‘legitimate ‘ is not clear and the authorities could use this clause to interfere with and stop the running of a group. Under Chinese laws, receiving funds from “harmful to state security” or “hostile” individuals and groups outside the country may be considered a criminal offense. Related charges have been used against many of the dissidents who have been recently sentenced such as Wang Youcai who was accused of, amongst other things, colluding with overseas hostile organisations and ‘accepted overseas assistance to engage in activities for the purpose for subverting state power’. Other groups which have emerged in the past twelve months include the China Development Union and its sister organization the China New Development Strategy Research Institute4. The leader of this grouping of self styled "moderates", reformist writer, Peng Ming, led weekly discussions in their Beijing office on reform issues. In October he was briefly detained and allegedly ordered to dissolve the Institute. Still optimistic about his future at that time he told a journalist: " If the authorities cannot tolerate a moderate like me, does China still have hope?"5. On 23 November Peng Ming and six other members were detained and the Beijing Bureau of Civil Affairs "disbanded" the organization, claiming it was an un approved and unregistered body and equipment was confiscated from the office. On 26 November Beijing Dongcheng District Court reportedly accepted a lawsuit filed by Peng Ming against the Bureau for unlawfully closing the group. Two months later, on 25 January 1999, Peng was detained by the police for allegedly 'buying sex' from prostitutes, in what he and his family assert was a set-up. On 26 February his family were informed that he had been assigned to 18 months' re-education through 3On October 25, 1998, China’s State Council promulgated new Regulations on the Registration and Management of Social Groups. It also promulgated the Provisional Regulations on the Registration and Management of People-Organized Non-Enterprise Units and another law, the Provisional Regulations on the Registration and Management of Institutional Units is expected. 4Reportedly, the Institute was initially sponsored in late 1997 by the official China International Culture Broadcast Centre, affiliated to the Ministry of Public Security, and the Union was registered in Hong Kong in 1998. 5Reuters 8.11.98 labour for prostitutes and their clients (shouke jiaoyang) for "suspected involvement in hiring prostitutes". They were reportedly not informed of his whereabouts. Several other dissidents have been sent to re-education through labour camps for similar alleged offences in the past few months including Wei Quanbao and Zhang Lin who were both assigned to three years' re-education through labour for various alleged offences including hiring prostitutes. Other similar new groups include the ‘Economic and Social Rights Promotion Association’ headed by Leng Wanbao and An Fuxing, the China Human Rights Monitor which involved Qin Yongmin and others who have also been detained, and the ‘Corruptive Behaviour Observers’ headed by An Jun in Henan province which was ordered by the authorities to shut down all its activities in October 1998. In addition to the detention and arrests of political activists many others have also been the victims of the Chinese authorities unwillingness to respect the human rights of their citizens. Many others working for freedom of association, the right to hold strikes and form trade unions, people who have been supporters of democracy activists and those exercising their right to participate in elections have all been harassed, detained or imprisoned. This document and the following cases outline some illustrative examples of the people being sentenced to imprisonment for daring to call for freedom of association or the freedom to have independent trade unions and even for exercising the freedom to use the Internet. It does not cover the cases of people detained for exercising their right to freedom of religion or those belonging to minority groups. WANG YOUCAI Wang Youcai, 32 years, a former student leader in Beijing in 1989, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was sentenced on 17 December 1998 to eleven years imprisonment and three years deprivation of political rights for the crime of "Subverting State Power" .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Standoff at Tiananmen: Recollections of 1989: the Making of Goddess of Democracy
    2019/4/23 Standoff At Tiananmen: Recollections of 1989: The Making of Goddess of Democracy 更多 创建博客 登录 Standoff At Tiananmen How Chinese Students Shocked the World with a Magnificent Movement for Democracy and Liberty that Ended in the Tragic Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. Relive the history with this blog and my book, "Standoff at Tiananmen", a narrative history of the movement. Home Days People Documents Pictures Books Recollections Memorials Monday, May 30, 2011 "Standoff at Tiananmen" English Language Edition Recollections of 1989: The Making of Goddess of Democracy Click on the image to buy at Amazon "Standoff at Tiananmen" Chinese Language Edition On May 30, 1989, the statue Goddess of Democracy was erected at Tiananmen Square and became one of the lasting symbols of the 1989 student movement. The following is a re-telling of the making of that statue, originally published in the book Children of Dragon, by a sculptor named Cao Xinyuan: Nothing excites a sculptor as much as seeing a work of her own creation take shape. But although I was watching the creation of a sculpture that I had had no part in making, I nevertheless felt the same excitement. It was the "Goddess of Democracy" statue that stood for five days in Tiananmen Square. Until last year I was a graduate student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where the sculpture was made. I was living there when these events took place. 点击图像去Amazon购买 Students and faculty of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is located only a short distance from Tiananmen Square, had from the beginning been actively involved in the demonstrations.
    [Show full text]
  • 28. Rights Defense and New Citizen's Movement
    JOBNAME: EE10 Biddulph PAGE: 1 SESS: 3 OUTPUT: Fri May 10 14:09:18 2019 28. Rights defense and new citizen’s movement Teng Biao 28.1 THE RISE OF THE RIGHTS DEFENSE MOVEMENT The ‘Rights Defense Movement’ (weiquan yundong) emerged in the early 2000s as a new focus of the Chinese democracy movement, succeeding the Xidan Democracy Wall movement of the late 1970s and the Tiananmen Democracy movement of 1989. It is a social movement ‘involving all social strata throughout the country and covering every aspect of human rights’ (Feng Chongyi 2009, p. 151), one in which Chinese citizens assert their constitutional and legal rights through lawful means and within the legal framework of the country. As Benney (2013, p. 12) notes, the term ‘weiquan’is used by different people to refer to different things in different contexts. Although Chinese rights defense lawyers have played a key role in defining and providing leadership to this emerging weiquan movement (Carnes 2006; Pils 2016), numerous non-lawyer activists and organizations are also involved in it. The discourse and activities of ‘rights defense’ (weiquan) originated in the 1990s, when some citizens began using the law to defend consumer rights. The 1990s also saw the early development of rural anti-tax movements, labor rights campaigns, women’s rights campaigns and an environmental movement. However, in a narrow sense as well as from a historical perspective, the term weiquan movement only refers to the rights campaigns that emerged after the Sun Zhigang incident in 2003 (Zhu Han 2016, pp. 55, 60). The Sun Zhigang incident not only marks the beginning of the rights defense movement; it also can be seen as one of its few successes.
    [Show full text]
  • Tragic Anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre
    TRAGIC ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1989 TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS AND MASSACRE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JUNE 3, 2013 Serial No. 113–69 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 81–341PDF WASHINGTON : 2013 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:13 Nov 03, 2013 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\_AGH\060313\81341 HFA PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S.
    [Show full text]
  • Urgent Action
    Further information on UA: 138/16 Index: ASA 17/4360/2016 China Date: 30 June 2016 URGENT ACTION FIVE ACTIVISTS RELEASED, SIX STILL DETAINED Five activists have been released on bail, but six remained detained for commemorations of the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. They are at risk of torture and other ill- treatment. During the months of May and June, a total of eleven activists from Beijing, Sichuan and Chongqing have been detained after commemorating the 27th Anniversary of Tiananmen crackdown. On 21 June, Ma Qing from Sichuan were released on bail; she was originally detained for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for promoting on WeChat an advertisement for a baijiu, a popular alcoholic drink, with a label that read, “Remember, Eight Liquor Six Four” echoing the date of June 4, 1989. The label also has the picture of the iconic “tank man”. Four activists from Beijing, Xu Caihong, Ma Xinli, Liang Taiping, Li Wei were released on bail on 29 June. They were criminally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after their gathering in Beijing to commemorate the anniversary. Authorities have hunted down activists who organized commemoration activities for the Tiananmen crackdown. Six activists remained in detention, including Zhang Baocheng, Zhao Changqing, Fu Hailu, Luo Yaling, Luo Fu Yu and Zhang Junyong. Zhang Baocheng and Zhao Changqing, criminally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, are still detained in Fengtai District Detention Centre in Beijing; while Fu Hailu, Luo Fuyu and Zhang Junyong, who were involved in the bajjiu case and were each criminally detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, are currently detained at Chengdu City Detention Centre.
    [Show full text]
  • Testimony of Zhou Fengsuo, President Humanitarian China and Student Leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Demonstrations
    Testimony of Zhou Fengsuo, President Humanitarian China and student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations Congressman McGovern, Senator Rubio, Members of Congress, thank you for inviting me to speak in this special moment on the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre. As a participant of the 1989 Democracy Movement and a survivor of the Massacre started in the evening of June 3rd, it is both my honor and duty to speak, for these who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and democracy of China, for the movement that ignited the hope of change that was so close, and for the last 30 years of indefatigable fight for truth and justice. I was a physics student at Tsinghua University in 1989. The previous summer of 1988, I organized the first and only free election of the student union of my department. I was amazed and encouraged by the enthusiasm of the students to participate in the process of self-governing. There was a palpable sense for change in the college campuses. When Hu Yaobang died on April 15, 1989. His death triggered immediately widespread protests in top universities of Beijing, because he was removed from the position of the General Secretary of CCP in 1987 for his sympathy towards the protesting students and for being too open minded. The next day I went to Tiananmen Square to offer a flower wreath with my roommates of Tsinghua University. To my pleasant surprise, my words on the wreath was published the next day by a national official newspaper. We were the first group to go to Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu Yaobang.
    [Show full text]
  • Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2003: China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau)
    Page 1 of 66 China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 25, 2004 (Note: Also see the section for Tibet, the report for Hong Kong, and the report for Macau.) The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which, as directed by the Constitution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP or Party) is the paramount source of power. Party members hold almost all top government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with the 24-member political bureau (Politburo) of the CCP and its 9-member standing committee. Leaders made a top priority of maintaining stability and social order and were committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. Citizens lacked both the freedom peacefully to express opposition to the Party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of government. Socialism continued to provide the theoretical underpinning of national politics, but Marxist economic planning has given way to pragmatism, and economic decentralization increased the authority of local officials. The Party's authority rested primarily on the Government's ability to maintain social stability; appeals to nationalism and patriotism; Party control of personnel, media, and the security apparatus; and continued improvement in the living standards of most of the country's 1.3 billion citizens. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, in practice, the Government and the CCP, at both the central and local levels, frequently interfered in the judicial process and directed verdicts in many high-profile cases.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Authoritarianism and the Global Threat to Free Speech Hearing
    DIGITAL AUTHORITARIANISM AND THE GLOBAL THREAT TO FREE SPEECH HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 26, 2018 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available at www.cecc.gov or www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 30–233 PDF WASHINGTON : 2018 VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:25 Dec 16, 2018 Jkt 081003 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\USERS\DSHERMAN1\DESKTOP\VONITA TEST.TXT DAVID CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS Senate House MARCO RUBIO, Florida, Chairman CHRIS SMITH, New Jersey, Cochairman TOM COTTON, Arkansas ROBERT PITTENGER, North Carolina STEVE DAINES, Montana RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio TODD YOUNG, Indiana TIM WALZ, Minnesota DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California TED LIEU, California JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon GARY PETERS, Michigan ANGUS KING, Maine EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS Not yet appointed ELYSE B. ANDERSON, Staff Director PAUL B. PROTIC, Deputy Staff Director (ii) VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:25 Dec 16, 2018 Jkt 081003 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 C:\USERS\DSHERMAN1\DESKTOP\VONITA TEST.TXT DAVID C O N T E N T S STATEMENTS Page Opening Statement of Hon. Marco Rubio, a U.S. Senator from Florida; Chair- man, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ...................................... 1 Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, a U.S. Representative from New Jer- sey; Cochairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China .................. 4 Cook, Sarah, Senior Research Analyst for East Asia and Editor, China Media Bulletin, Freedom House ..................................................................................... 6 Hamilton, Clive, Professor of Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University (Aus- tralia) and author, ‘‘Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia’’ ............
    [Show full text]
  • 1989 Tiananmen Square: a Proto-History
    1989 Tiananmen Square: A Proto-History Karman Miguel Lucero April 4th, 2011 Thesis Seminar Professor: Mae M. Ngai Second Reader: Dorothy Ko Word Count: 19,883 1 Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the advice, wisdom, and assistance of several individuals. I would like to thank my fellow students at Tsinghua University for providing me with source materials and assisting me in developing my own historical consciousness. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professors Tang Shaojie and Hu Weixi, not for their direct involvement with this project, but for their inspiring commitment to academic integrity and dedication to the wonderful possibilities that can result from receiving a good education. I owe much gratitude to Columbia Professor Lydia Liu, who not only offered her invaluable advice, but also provided me access to sources that are a critical component of this paper. Thank you to Ouyang Jianghe for his time and wisdom as well as to Qin Wuming (pseudonym), for letting me read his deeply moving essay. A special thank you goes to Mae M. Ngai, my senior thesis seminar professor, who has helped me throughout this process and shared in the excitement. Thank you to Dorothy Ko and Lisa J. Lucero for their priceless feedback and to Madeleine Zelin and Andrew Nathan for their advice. The passion and integrity of my various history teachers and professors have inspired me and contributed a great deal to my appreciation of history. Thank you in particular to Liu Lu, Volker R. Berghahn, and Gray Tuttle at Columbia University , each of whom really inspired my appreciation for the craft of history.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Repression of Chinese Students After Tiananmen A
    University of Nevada, Reno “To yield would mean our end”: The Political Repression of Chinese Students after Tiananmen A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Katherine S. Robinson Dr. Hugh Shapiro/Thesis Advisor May, 2011 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by KATHERINE S. ROBINSON entitled “To Yield Would Mean Our End”: The Political Repression Of Chinese Students After Tiananmen be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Hugh Shapiro, Ph.D, Advisor Barbara Walker, Ph.D., Committee Member Jiangnan Zhu, Ph.D, Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph. D., Associate Dean, Graduate School May, 2011 i ABSTRACT Following the military suppression of the Democracy Movement, the Chinese government enacted politically repressive policies against Chinese students both within China and overseas. After the suppression of the Democracy Movement, officials in the Chinese government made a correlation between the political control of students and the maintenance of political power by the Chinese Communist Party. The political repression of students in China resulted in new educational policies that changed the way that universities functioned and the way that students were allowed to interact. Political repression efforts directed at the large population of overseas Chinese students in the United States prompted governmental action to extend legal protection to these students. The long term implications of this repression are evident in the changed student culture among Chinese students and the extensive number of overseas students who did not return to China.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legacy of Tiananmen: 20 Years of Oppression, Activism and Hope Chrd
    THE LEGACY OF TIANANMEN: 20 YEARS OF OPPRESSION, ACTIVISM AND HOPE CHRD Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) Web: Hhttp://crd-net.org/H Email: [email protected] THE LEGACY OF TIANANMEN: 20 YEARS OF OPPRESSION, ACTIVISM AND HOPE Chinese Human Rights Defenders June 1, 2009 Twenty years since the Tiananmen massacre, the Chinese government refuses to accept responsibility, much less apologize or offer compensation, for killing, injuring, imprisoning and persecuting individuals for participating in peaceful protests. The number of the victims, and their names and identities, remain unknown. Families continue to be barred from publicly commemorating and seeking accountability for the death of their loved ones. Activists are persecuted and harassed for independently investigating the crackdown or for calling for a rectification of the government’s verdict on the pro‐democracy movement. Many individuals continue to suffer the consequences of participating in the pro‐democracy movement today. At least eight individuals remain imprisoned in Beijing following unfair trials in which they were convicted of committing “violent crimes”. Those who were released after long sentences have had difficulty re‐integrating into society as they suffer from continued police harassment as well as illnesses and injuries resulting from torture, beatings and mistreatment while in prison. Many of those injured have had to pay for their own medical expenses and continue to struggle as the physical and psychological scars leave them unable to take care of themselves or to work. Some who took part in the protests still find it difficult to make ends meet after they were dismissed from comfortable jobs or expelled from universities after 1989.
    [Show full text]
  • China Democracy Party
    Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of... https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=4... China: China Democracy Party (CDP) [also called the Democracy Party of China], including membership, structure, and leadership; activities; treatment by Chinese authorities of party members and family members (2018–September 2020) 1. Background The website of the UK branch of the CDP indicates that the CDP was founded by a group of democracy activists in June 1998 (CDP, UK Branch n.d.a). The same source notes that the CDP was "suppressed" by Chinese authorities later the same year and that its members were imprisoned (CDP, UK Branch 20 June 2004). The source states that "[a]ll members in China have gone underground" (CDP, UK Branch 20 June 2004). According to sources, the CDP is banned (US 11 Mar. 2019, 60; AP 12 Jan. 2020). According to the website of the UK headquarters of the CDP, "key members" of the CDP include the following: Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin, Wang Youcai, Cha Jianguo, Zhu Zhengming, Zhu Yufu, Mao Qingxiang, Liu Xianfu, Gao Hongming, He Depu, Liu Shizun, Wu Yilong, Xu Guang, Yu Wanbao, Chen Shuqing, Wang Peijian, Cheng Fan, Sun Youping, Hu Mingjun, Wang Sen, Li Dawei, and Xu Wanping (CDP, UK Branch n.d.a). The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019 states that the CDP "remained banned, and the government continued to monitor, detain, and imprison current and former CDP members" (US 11 Mar. 2019, 60). 2. Objectives of the CDP The website of the headquarters of the CDP in the UK states that the CDP "believes in and champions a multi-party constitutional democracy, as well as a fair and democratic election process" (CDP, UK Branch n.d.a).
    [Show full text]
  • Rough Justice in Beijing: Punishing the "Black Hands" of Tiananmen Square
    UCLA UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal Title Rough Justice in Beijing: Punishing the "Black Hands" of Tiananmen Square Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7zz8w3wg Journal UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, 10(1) Author Munro, Robin Publication Date 1991 DOI 10.5070/P8101021984 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ROUGH JUSTICE IN BEIJING* Punishing the "Black Hands" of Tiananmen Square Robin Munro** 1. INTRODUCTION During late spring and early summer, namely, from mid-April to early June of 1989, a tiny handful of people exploited student unrest to launch a planned, organized and premeditated political turmoil, which later developed into a counterrevolutionary rebel- lion in Beijing, the capital. Their purpose was to overthrow the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and subvert the so- cialist People's Republic of China.... In order to achieve thorough victory, we should mobilize the people completely, strengthen the people's democratic dictator- ship and spare no effort to ferret out the counterrevolutionary rioters. We should uncover instigators and rebellious conspira- tors, punish the organizers and schemers of the unrest and the counterrevolutionary rebellion ...and focus the crackdown on a handful of principal culprits and diehards who refuse to repent.' (Chen Xitong, Mayor of Beijing, on June 30, 1989.) In late 1990, the Chinese government brought formal charges against several dozen of the most prominent leaders of the May- June 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. Trials held in the first two months of 1991 have resulted in sentences rang- ing from two to thirteen years for students and intellectuals.
    [Show full text]