Falun Gong (Fulan Dafa)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CHINA Country of Origin Information (COI) Report COI Service 20 December 2013 CHINA 20 DECEMBER 2013 Contents Preface Paragraphs 1. MAP ........................................................................................................................ 1.01 Human Rights 2. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 2.01 3. SECURITY FORCES .................................................................................................... 3.01 Police ..................................................................................................................... 3.04 People‘s Armed Police (PAP) ............................................................................. 3.04 Chengguan Urban Management Law Enforcement ........................................... 3.07 Armed forces ........................................................................................................ 3.08 Human rights violations by security forces ....................................................... 3.09 Arbitrary arrest and detention ............................................................................. 3.09 Torture ................................................................................................................ 3.13 Extrajudicial killings ............................................................................................ 3.19 4. AVENUES OF COMPLAINT ........................................................................................... 4.01 Petitioning the government ................................................................................. 4.01 Black jails .............................................................................................................. 4.10 5. LEGAL ISSUES .......................................................................................................... 5.01 Double Jeopardy .................................................................................................. 5.01 Body doubles/stand-ins ....................................................................................... 5.02 6. PRISON CONDITIONS ................................................................................................. 6.01 Administrative detention/labour camps ............................................................. 6.06 Punishment of minor offences and Re-Education through Labour (RTL) ........... 6.06 Other forms of administrative detention .............................................................. 6.15 7. POLITICAL AFFILIATION ............................................................................................. 7.01 Freedom of political expression .......................................................................... 7.02 Freedom of association and assembly ............................................................... 7.06 Civil disturbances ............................................................................................... 7.11 Opposition groups and political activists .......................................................... 7.17 China Democracy Party (CDP) .......................................................................... 7.24 Tiananmen Square activists ............................................................................... 7.28 8. BANNED RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL GROUPS ............................................................... 8.01 Overview ............................................................................................................... 8.01 Falun Gong (Fulan Dafa) ...................................................................................... 8.08 Origins and support ............................................................................................ 8.19 Treatment of Falun Gong practitioners‘relatives ................................................. 8.20 9. TIBET ....................................................................................................................... 9.01 Human rights in Tibet ........................................................................................... 9.03 Tibetan self-immolations .................................................................................... 9.17 Political prisoners held in Tibet .......................................................................... 9.24 10. FAMILY PLANNING (“ONE CHILD POLICY”) ................................................................... 10.01 Family Planning Law and other regulations ...................................................... 10.08 ii The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 10 October 2012. 20 DECEMBER 2013 CHINA Enforcement ......................................................................................................... 10.15 Forced abortion/sterilisation ............................................................................... 10.20 Penalties for non-compliance ............................................................................. 10.28 Family planning regulations in Fujian ................................................................ 10.32 Family planning regulations in Guangdong ....................................................... 10.34 Ethnic minorities .................................................................................................. 10.35 Family planning in rural and urban areas .......................................................... 10.36 11. MEDICAL ISSUES ....................................................................................................... 11.01 Overview of availability of medical treatment and drugs .................................. 11.01 Traditional medicine ............................................................................................. 11.04 HIV/AIDS ................................................................................................................ 11.05 Anti-retroviral therapy ........................................................................................ 11.09 Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS ..................................................... 11.11 Discrimination against people with Hepatitis B ................................................... 11.16 Mental health ........................................................................................................ 11.18 12. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT .......................................................................................... 12.01 Exit and entry ........................................................................................................ 12.02 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 10 October 2012. iii 20 DECEMBER 2013 CHINA Preface I This Country of Origin Information (COI) report has been produced by the COI Service, Home Office, for use by officials involved in the asylum/human rights determination process. The report provides general background information about the issues most commonly raised in asylum/human rights claims made in the United Kingdom. The main body of the report includes information available up to 10 December 2013. The report was issued on 20 December 2013. ii The report is compiled wholly from material produced by a wide range of external information sources and does not contain any Home Office opinion or policy. All information in the Report is attributed, throughout the text, to the original source material, which is made available to those working in the asylum/human rights determination process. iii The report aims to provide a compilation of extracts from the source material identified, focusing on the main issues raised in asylum and human rights applications. In some sections where the topics covered arise infrequently in asylum/human rights claims only web links may be provided. It is not intended to be a detailed or comprehensive survey. For a more detailed account, the relevant source documents should be examined directly. iv The structure and format of the report reflects the way it is used by Home Office decision makers and appeals presenting officers, who require quick electronic access to information on specific issues and use the contents page to go directly to the subject required. Key issues are usually covered in some depth within a dedicated section, but may also be referred to briefly in several other sections. Some repetition is therefore inherent in the structure of the Report. v The information included in this report is limited to that which can be identified from source documents. While every effort is made to cover all relevant aspects of a particular topic it is not always possible to obtain the information concerned. For this reason, it is important to note that information included in the report should not be taken to imply anything beyond what is actually stated. For example, if it is stated that a particular law has been passed, this should not be taken to imply that it has been effectively implemented unless stated. Similarly, the absence of information does not necessarily mean that, for example, a particular event or action did not occur. vi As noted above, the report is a compilation of extracts produced by a number of information sources. In compiling the report no attempt has been made to resolve discrepancies between information provided in different source documents though COI Service will bring the discrepancies