Specific Findings and Recommendations
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Executive Summary Macau Became a Special Administrative Region
Executive Summary Macau became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on December 20, 1999. Macau's status, since reverting to Chinese sovereignty, is defined in the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration (1987) and the Basic Law, Macau's constitution. Under the concept of “One Country, Two Systems” articulated in these documents, Macau enjoys a high degree of autonomy in economic matters, and its economic system is to remain unchanged for fifty years. The Government of Macau (GOM) maintains a transparent, non-discriminatory, and free-market economy. The GOM is committed to maintaining an investor-friendly environment. In 2002, the GOM ended a long-standing gaming monopoly, awarding two gaming concessions to consortia with U.S. interests. This opening has encouraged substantial U.S. investment in casinos and hotels, and has spurred exceptionally rapid economic growth over the last few years. Macau is today the undisputed gaming capital of the world, having surpassed Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue in 2006. U.S. investment over the past decade is estimated to exceed US$10 billion. In addition to gaming, Macau is positioning itself to be a regional center for incentive travel, conventions, and tourism. The American business community in Macau has continued to grow. In 2007, business leaders founded the American Chamber of Commerce of Macau. 1. Openness to, and Restrictions Upon, Foreign Investment Macau became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on December 20, 1999. Macau's status, since reverting to Chinese sovereignty, is defined in the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration (1987) and the Basic Law, Macau's constitution. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
LEGAL ADVOCACY and the 2011 CRACKDOWN in CHINA: ADVERSITY, REPRESSION, and RESILIENCE
1. All persons are entitled to call upon the assistance of a lawyer of their choice to protect and establish their rights and to defend them in all stages of criminal proceedings. 2. Governments co railtoroype and subject to their jurisdiction, tion rat erna ion without distinction of any kind, such as discrimination based on race, colour, ethnic origin, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationalt or social origin, property, birth, economic or i in n yf , to other disadvanptaged persons. Professional o r t o associations of lawyers shall cooperate in the organization and provision of services, facilities and other resources. 4. Governments and profnessional associations ofm lawyers shall promote e o m t programmes to inform the public about their rights and duties under the law and the important role of lawyers in protecting their fundamene tal freedoms. Special attenintion should be given to ac v g and rld e h i e assisting the poor and other disadvantagedo a persons so as to enable them to assert their rights and where necessary call upon the assistanh ce of lawyers. 5. Governments shae ll ensure that all w t e r n c h m s t u c e t e r s p p f , p o o o s e persons are immediately informed by the competein t authority of their right to be assisted by a lawyer of their own choice upon arrest or detention or when charged with a crimu en r cef . 6. r r g agin o o t i pe p e r e s r e l h Any such persons who do not havee a lawyer shall, in a all cases in which the interests of justice so require, be entitled to have a lawyer of experience and competence commensurate with the h u t l i m s a t h nedn to them in order to prov ofo pay for such services. -
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. -
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. -
Rights Defence Lawyers As Dissidents in Contemporary China
International JournalRights of Defence China LawyersStudies as Dissidents in Contemporary China 325 Vol. 3, No. 3, December 2012, pp. 325-344 Rights Defence Lawyers as Dissidents in Contemporary China Feng Chongyi*, Colin Hawes** and Gu Ming*** University of Technology, Sydney Abstract Rights defence lawyers in contemporary China have attracted tremendous attention. Their supporters take them as a leading force for social and political change toward justice, the rule of law and democracy, whereas the hardliners of the ruling Chinese Communist Party regard them as a dangerous hostile force of political dissent. In this article, we will trace the resumption and development of the legal profession in China since the 1980s after its forced disappearance for three decades. Then we will explore the emergence of a group of “rights defence lawyers” in the context of recent economic, social and political changes. The article will end with a discussion about the potential role of rights defence lawyers in China’s social and political transformation. We argue that the name “rights defence lawyer” reflects the current politically charged environment for the legal profession in China and the dual identities of socially concerned lawyers as both legal professionals and rights advocates. We also argue that lawyers in China become political dissidents when defending clients whose rights are violated by the party- state and power holders, and that, in response to political persecution, rights defence lawyers have interacted with other lawyers, other rights activists and the wider society to advance their causes of bringing about justice, the rule of law and democratic political reforms in China. -
China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) 2018 Human Rights Report
CHINA (INCLUDES TIBET, HONG KONG, AND MACAU) 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. Ultimate authority rests with the CCP Central Committee’s 25-member Political Bureau (Politburo) and its seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping continued to hold the three most powerful positions as CCP general secretary, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Civilian authorities maintained control of security forces. During the year the government significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Authorities were reported to have arbitrarily detained 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities. Government officials claimed the camps were needed to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism. International media, human rights organizations, and former detainees reported security officials in the camps abused, tortured, and killed some detainees. Human rights issues included arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; arbitrary detention by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; political prisoners; -
The Case and Treatment of Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Hearing Congressional-Executive Commission on China
THE CASE AND TREATMENT OF PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER GAO ZHISHENG HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION FEBRUARY 14, 2012 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 74–543 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 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 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS House Senate CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Cochairman Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana FRANK WOLF, Virginia CARL LEVIN, Michigan DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California EDWARD R. ROYCE, California JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon TIM WALZ, Minnesota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio JAMES RISCH, Idaho MICHAEL HONDA, California EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS SETH D. HARRIS, Department of Labor MARIA OTERO, Department of State FRANCISCO J. SA´ NCHEZ, Department of Commerce KURT M. CAMPBELL, Department of State NISHA DESAI BISWAL, U.S. Agency for International Development PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director LAWRENCE T. LIU, Deputy Staff Director (II) CO N T E N T S Page Opening statement of Hon. Chris Smith, a U.S. Representative from New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................ 1 Brown, Hon. Sherrod, a U.S. Senator from Ohio; Cochairman, Congressional- Executive Commission on China ........................................................................ 4 Wolf, Hon. Frank, a U.S. Representative from Virginia; Member, Congres- sional-Executive Commission on China ............................................................ -
How Can We Make the Government to Be Accountable? a Case Study of Macao Special Administrative Region
How can we make the government to be accountable? A Case Study of Macao Special Administrative Region Eilo YU Wing-yat and Ada LEI Hio-leng Department of Government and Public Administration University of Macau Introduction Accountability, which refers to the answerability and responsibility of government officials, is generally considered essential to the achievement of good governance (Moncrieff, 1998). However, the operationalization of accountability is an unresolved issue. In other words, the question of how we make officials truly answerable and responsible to the people is still under debate. Rodan and Hughes (2014) summarize four approaches to understanding the constitution of accountable government: namely, liberal accountability, democratic accountability, moral accountability, and social accountability. Accordingly, accountability is the interplay between government officials and the people through these four approaches, which can help us to understand the extent to which officials are answerable to and sanctioned for their acts. Thereby, accountability may not have a real operational definition because, by nature, it is contextual and shaped through government-mass interactions. This paper aims to understand accountability by examining the case of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) through an application of Rodan and Hughes’ four approaches to accountability. Its main purpose is to study the political interplay between the Macao people and government for the purpose of making a more accountable government. Its argument is that liberal and democratic accountabilities are not well institutionalized in Macau and that, instead, the MSAR government relies mainly on moral accountability to socialize the public. Leaning toward the liberal approach, the MSAR government has been trying to socialize the moral standards of the Macao masses in order to guide the public’s demand for accountability.