AI: Host Feb. 11 DC Rally Calling on China to End Human Rights Abuses Before the Olympics

Local DC Activists Will Gather Across From White House on February 11

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amnesty International USA
members and other activists will gather in Lafayette Park at 12:00 p.m. on
Monday, February 11, 2008 to urge Chinese authorities to end human rights
abuses prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Participants will display signs calling on President Bush to advance
human rights in China as the Olympic Games approach.

Speakers include Amnesty International USA's advocacy director for Asia
T. Kumar and a former Chinese political prisoner.

   EVENT: Rally to End Human Rights Abuses in China Before the Olympics

   DATE: Monday, February 11th, 2008

   TIME: Beginning at 12:00pm

   LOCATION: Lafayette Park, southeast quadrant

   1608 H Street, NW

   Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact the AIUSA media office at 202-544-0200
x302.

Amnesty Int. China Campaign

AI: Human Rights in China

© AAP

China has emerged as a powerful force on the world stage. It is now the fourth largest economy in the world, Australia's biggest trading partner and plays a lead role in global politics and economics. But despite the political and economic triumphs, human rights are still not part of China in 2007.

Continue reading About the campaign

blog

China unexpectedly releases ‘spy’ and traps another blogger

• Published on 6/02/2008
• by: Sophie

In April 2005 Ching Cheong, Hong Kong based Chief China correspondent of the Straits Times was accused of spying for Taiwan and sentenced to 5years in prison. Last night, with no warning - Ching Cheong was released.

Continue reading China unexpectedly releases ‘spy’ and traps another blogger

This is not Olympic footage. Mother and child under house arrest.

• Published on 24/01/2008
• by: Sophie

A Channel 4 report shows Zeng Jinyan and her 8 week old daughter through the window of their Beijing apartment. Jinyan's husband Hu Jia was taken from the couple's home on 27 December 2007. He is still being held incommunicado and based on Chinese Government claims that he was "inciting subversion of state power".

Continue reading

HRW:With Six Months to Go, Countdown is No Cause for Celebration

China: Crackdown Violates Olympic Promises

(New York, February 6, 2008) – Human Rights Watch News: With just six months to go before the Olympics open in Beijing on August 8, a systematic crackdown on dissent has significantly worsened respect for fundamental rights in China, Human Rights Watch said today.

Beijing has given virtually no signs that it intends to keep the promises made to the international community in exchange for hosting the Games. Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch

Related Material Beijing 2008: China's Olympian Human Rights Challenges Special Focus HRW World Report 2008: Democracy Charade Undermines Rights: Press Release, January 31, 2008 HRW World Report 2008: Events in China in 2007 Press Release, January 31, 2008 How Not To Fight HIV/AIDS: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Mistakes in China Commentary, January 28, 2008 Free Email Newsletter

“Beijing has given virtually no signs that it intends to keep the promises made to the international community in exchange for hosting the Games,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “On the contrary, we have witnessed a systematic effort to silence, suppress and repress Chinese citizens who are trying to push the government into greater respect for fundamental rights.”

Human Rights Watch pointed to a growing pattern of using loosely defined subversion charges to suppress dissidents and activists ahead of the Games. On February 4, the writer Lü Gengsong was sentenced to four years in prison for “inciting subversion against state power,” becoming the sixth high profile dissident in less than a year to be arrested or sentenced under these charges.

The other cases include:

• Hu Jia, a leading human rights activist, was formally arrested on January 30. Hu, who had become a principal source of information about the situation of human rights defenders inside and outside China, was taken away by the police from his home on December 27, 2007, shortly after he gave testimony via webcam to the European Parliament in which he expressed his desire for 2008 to be “the year of human rights in China.” Hu Jia, who has so far been denied contact with his lawyers on the grounds that his case involves “state secrets,” faces up to five years of imprisonment.
  
  
• Chen Shuqing, a dissident writer and member of the banned Chinese Democratic Party, was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in August 2007.
  
  
• Yang Chunlin, an activist from Heilongjiang province, was arrested in July 2007 for his involvement in a petition, “We Want Human Rights, not the Olympics,” which was signed by farmers protesting land seizures. He is currently awaiting trial.
  
  
• Yan Zhengxue, a writer from Zhejiang province, was sentenced to three years in jail in April 2007 for having “used the internet, discussion forums and speeches to publish distorted facts, attack and vilify the state power, and incite subversion of state power and overthrow of the socialist system.”
  
  
• Zhang Jianhong, a poet and political essayist, was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in March 2007 for publishing more than 100 “articles defaming the Chinese government and calling for agitation to overthrow the government.”
  

Human Rights Watch said that the increasing use of subversion charges, a state security offense, to silence dissent is consistent with official statistics from the Ministry of Justice, which reflect an almost 20 percent increase between 2006 and 2007 in state security convictions.

“Charging people with ‘inciting subversion’ has become the weapon of choice to silence dissent ahead of the Games,” said Richardson. “Hu Jia’s only ‘crime’ was to speak honestly about the tightening chokehold on dissent ahead of the Games, and his arrest sends a stark message to other Chinese activists: lie low ahead of the Olympics or face the consequences.”

In another disturbing development, Human Rights Watch said that the repression of dissidents and human rights activists has broadened in recent months to include systematic intimidation, surveillance, and confinement of dissidents’ close relatives. Such tactics keep the dissidents’ cases out of sight and prevent relatives from mounting legal challenges.

Since the arrest of Hu Jia on December 27, the police have confined Hu’s wife, fellow activist Zeng Jinyan, and their 2-month-old daughter to the couple’s home and cut their telephone and internet connections. Yuan Weijing, the wife of jailed blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, is under permanent surveillance and has been prevented from traveling; Ye Guozhu, the brother of activist Ye Guoqiang who is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for organizing protests against Olympics-related forced evictions, is also under police surveillance, and was detained at least one time under subversion charges.

In addition to the sharp deterioration of the situation of human rights defenders and dissidents, Human Rights Watch also noted a host of serious and uncorrected problems linked to the preparation of the Games, including forced evictions, land seizures, suppression of petitioners, closure of migrant children schools, heightened internet censorship, and the use of “hard-strike” anti-crime campaigns to prepare the eviction from Beijing of undocumented rural migrant workers, beggars, vagrants, and sex workers.

“Repression will only increase through the opening of the Games unless foreign governments, the International Olympic Committee, and national Olympic committees make it clear to China that such abuses are a threat to the success of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing,” Richardson said. “International silence in the face of these Olympics-related human rights violations is tantamount to giving the Chinese government a green light to intensify its pre-Olympic crackdown.”

NZ Athletes Banned From Having Political Opinion at Olympics

By Charlotte Cuthbertson and Matthew Little Epoch Times Wellington Staff

Feb 04, 2008

OLYMPIC OPINION: A poster used by the 'Free Tibet' campaign used to highlight human rights abuse under the communist regime in China. NZ Athletes are being told to keep quiet about the rights abuses while at the Olympics this year. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

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The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) will prohibit New Zealand athletes from making political comments at Olympic venues in Beijing.

This follows an announcement from the Belgium Olympic Committee last week saying, "Not a single participant in the Games will be allowed to give a political opinion at the Olympic venues."

Belgium athletes are also prohibited from wearing any insignia protesting China's human rights violations.

NZOC Secretary General Barry Meister said they, "will absolutely tell their athletes they will not be allowed to have a political opinion at the Olympics."

He said New Zealand athletes will sign a contract to that effect before departing for Beijing this year – as they do every Olympics.

The Canadian and United States Olympic committees will not follow Belgium's example and have said they will not put any restrictions on what their athletes can and cannot say in relation to China.

Meister said the Olympic Movement has done an incredible amount of good work around the world, and have been a "force for good" in every country they have been held, including Moscow and Berlin.

He said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) never stated they awarded the Olympics to Beijing on the proviso of an improved human rights record, but that, "it was about opening doors".

Meister said it was up to governments and politicians to deal with human rights issues, saying, "We don't have discussions around those things."

The Olympics were awarded to China July 13, 2001, and at that time IOC director general Francois Carrard highlighted the human rights issues in China.

"We are totally aware at the IOC, there is one issue on the table ... and that is human rights. Human rights is a very serious issue in the entire world. It is not up to the IOC to interfere in this issue, but we are taking the bet that seven years from now, we sincerely and dearly hope we will see many changes."

Michael Craig, chair of Canadian-based China Rights Network, a coalition of 11 rights organizations that includes Amnesty International and Students for a Free Tibet said the Olympics were the opportunity to improve the human rights situation in China.

"To my mind the IOC has an obligation to challenge China because China made all these promises in order to get the Games—and China obviously has not followed through on those promises."

"When governments or sports bodies fail to speak up about human rights in China and then go there and treat the situation as though it's completely normal they are in fact endorsing human right abuses and repression. So that, in fact, is what I think the Belgian government is doing," said Craig.

Amnesty International is concerned that the human rights situation has actually deteriorated in many ways since China was granted the Olympics.

According to Amnesty International the increased persecution of human rights defenders and journalists was of particular concern.

In one report, Amnesty International said the Chinese regime introduced legislation that would increase the freedom of foreign journalists but that this was done "against a background of increased official controls over the distribution of foreign news within China and a renewed crackdown on domestic journalism, including print, broadcast and online media."

Amnesty International New Zealand spokesperson Margaret Taylor said they are about to launch their six-month Olympic campaign.

She said the campaign would focus on the areas of the death penalty, fair trials, arbitrary detention, human rights defenders, and media and Internet freedom.

"We welcomed the Olympics Olympics in China – on the basis that human rights improved," she said.

Ms Taylor said New Zealand athletes and sporting bodies can expect to hear from Amnesty in the next few months to ensure that athletes are "fully aware" of the human rights situation in China.

Olympic Watch spokesperson Peter Kutilek said that the crackdown on media is "a most distressing issue," given that Beijing promised complete media freedom by the time of the Olympics.

"That's something that the International Olympic Committee, national Olympic committees, Olympic sponsors and athletes have the right and responsibility to speak about and they should," said Kutilek.

Kutilek condemned Belgium's intention to censor athletes. "It is certainly sad when anyone tries to limit the freedom of speech, whether it's the Chinese government or the Olympic committee."

But Kutilek said Belgian athletes need not stop themselves from speaking on human rights issues because those topics do not fall within the arena of "political opinion" that Belgium has prohibited the athletes from speaking about. "Human rights are not a political issue," he said.

"Human rights are something outside and beyond politics and the athletes and the Olympic committees should speak about their concerns about human rights being violated in China, especially in relation to the Olympic Games," he said.

"We're not saying what party should rule China, we're just saying human rights need to be respected in China and human dignity needs to be respected in China. Human dignity is one of the key Olympic values. If human dignity is not respected in China then athletes have the right and responsibility to speak out about it."

Kutilek added that it is particularly important for Olympic committees and athletes to speak out on human rights violations directly connected to the Olympics, such as the massive number of forced evictions that have taken place in Beijing so that Olympic venues or related businesses could be built.

Edward McMillan-Scott, a British politician and European Parliament vice president, was disappointed when he heard of Belgium's censorship of it's athletes.

"This is part of the sad capitulation by governments around the world to China's economic weight," he said.

"Most human beings recognize that China is also the world's worst tyranny. The Olympic Games offered China the chance of reform but this has been replaced by a massive crackdown on all forms of dissent including religious expression."

McMillan-Scott, who previously called for Britain to boycott the Olympics said, "We will be appealing to the Belgian Parliament for an urgent debate on the [Olympic committee's] decision."

China’s dangerous nobodies

by Guy Sorman

Daily Times: The regime’s true ambition is to invent an alternative to Western democracy: an enlightened despotism under the tutelage of a meritocratic Communist Party. The Olympic Games are being designed to promote this alternative model

Ever since their reinvention by Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games have always been politicised. The first took place in 1896 in Athens in order to embarrass the Turks still occupying Northern Greece. The Berlin Games in 1936 celebrated the triumph of Nazi ideology. The Seoul Games in 1988 opened the door to South Korea’s democratisation.

This summer’s Olympics in Beijing will be no less political, but will it resemble Berlin or Seoul? Will it mark the apotheosis of an authoritarian regime or the beginning of its demise?

Many optimistic observers of China, often mollified by their close relations with the Communist regime, bet on a soft transition from despotism toward an open society, but recent events don’t support such a benign interpretation. Since the beginning of this year, repression of human rights activists, lawyers, and bloggers has been harsher than ever.

The exact number of democratic dissidents who have been incarcerated, or worse, is unknown. There is no way to account for ignored victims, or why some are condemned to death and shot. We don’t know how many are sent without trial to “re-education centres.” In the absence of reliable statistics, let us focus on two iconic figures of China’s pro-democracy movement: Hu Jia and Chen Guancheng.

Last December 27, 20 armed police officers used extreme physical violence to arrest Hu Jia in front of his wife and their two-month-old baby, acting as if he could offer real resistance. But Hu Jia is a diminutive young man of 34 who suffers from a severe liver ailment. Moreover, he is a committed believer in non-violence, an admirer of the Dalai Lama, a disciple of the Mahatma Gandhi, and a sincere Buddhist.

Why is the mighty Chinese Communist Party deploying all of its powers to kidnap — no word better describes what happened — such a tiny enemy? The Party accuses him of “subversion,” but he broke no laws, does not head a counter-revolutionary army, and was not on the verge of toppling the Party.

Hu Jia’s political actions are much more modest than that. In 2000, he abandoned his studies at Beijing University when he learned that thousands of Henan peasants were dying from AIDS after having sold their blood to local traffickers. Since the beginning of this epidemic, his main activity has been the distribution of medicine and moral comfort in the doomed villages of Henan.

Hu Jia’s charitable work is not facilitated by the local authorities, who bear some responsibility in this epidemic; moreover, with NGOs being forbidden in China, Hu Jia can act only by himself. Indeed, if he were to build any kind of organisation to support his charity, he would be violating the law.

But the eye-opening tragedy of the Henan victims caused Hu Jia to understand that it arose from the absence of human rights in China. So he started a Web site that acts as a chat room for Chinese scholars sharing his concern. This Web site, now closed by the government, has also reported on the fate of Chen Guangcheng.

Chen, a blind peasant and self-taught lawyer, had protested in 2005 against the kidnapping of some 3000 women in his hometown of Linyi. The women were sterilised or forced into having abortions in order to stabilise the population increase in the region. As this extreme violence violates Chinese law, Chen petitioned the central government — the only legally recognised form of protest in China. When carrying his petition to Beijing, escorted by a tiny group of lawyers, Chen was accused of disrupting traffic on the city’s clogged roads and condemned to four years in jail.

Why do such moderate actions, rooted in the Chinese moral tradition, provoke such dramatic repression? Hu and Chen clearly respect the law. They don’t call for revolution. True enough, they talk to foreign journalists who report their actions; however, such contact is not illegal.

But the Party is haunted by the Soviet precedent. No Chinese Sakharov or Solzhenitsyn will be allowed to tarnish the “success” of the Party. The incarceration of Hu Jia and Chen Guangcheng is a clear signal that no democratisation process will start in China outside of the Party’s control.

When the Chinese leaders mention democracy in official declarations, they mean “organised” democracy, from the top down. Any attempt at democratisation by civil society will thus be crushed in its infancy.

China is clearly not on the path toward a Western-style democracy, and economic growth will not be a prelude to a free society so long as the Party can prevent it. The regime’s true ambition is to invent an alternative to Western democracy: an enlightened despotism under the tutelage of a meritocratic Communist Party. The Olympic Games are being designed to promote this alternative model.

How legitimate is this model? The Party’s 60 million members, nearly all males and city dwellers, would probably approve, as might the 200 million Chinese who share the profits of rapid economic growth. But what do one billion people living in utter poverty (300 million on less than one dollar a day) and deprived of any rights think of this enlightened despotism? No one knows, because they cannot express their wishes.

Perhaps Hu Jia and Chen Guancheng represent this silent billion more than the Party does. That would explain why the Party has crushed them — and why any decent participant in this summer’s Olympics should demand their immediate release. — DT-PS

Guy Sorman is a French philosopher, economist, and the author of many books. His book about China, Empire of Lies will be published this year

HRW: China shirking Olympic pledge, pressure needed

Thu Jan 31, 2:21 PM ET View HRW 2008 World Report here.

NEW YORK (AFP) - China is shirking its pledge to improve human rights for the Olympic Games and world pressure is needed to force Beijing to comply, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The New York-based rights group said that rather than improve human rights, China's preparation for the Games had actually brought about new violations, such as the eviction of residents for Olympic construction, appalling working conditions at Games venues and tighter controls on government critics.

"Despite China's official assurances that hosting the 2008 Olympic Games will help to strengthen the development of human rights in the country, the Chinese government continues to deny or restrict its citizens' fundamental rights," the group said in a statement as it issued its World Report for 2008.

The Olympics were are an "historic opportunity for the Chinese government to show the world that it can make human rights a reality for its ... citizens," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.

The group said "sustained international pressure" around the Games "could push Chinese leaders to better respect human rights in China."

HRW's report detailed Chinese violations in areas ranging from freedom of expression to women's and children's rights.

"Official efforts to rid Beijing of undesirables ahead of the Olympics have accelerated the eviction of petitioners -- citizens from the countryside who come to the capital seeking redress for grievances ranging from illegal land seizures to official corruption," it said.

The Olympics has also set off a construction boom, drawing in an estimated one million migrant workers who toil in conditions that are harsh and unsafe, with them often unable to access public services, the group said.

Video: Let's Give China Everything

There are nine videos in this outstanding series which together are over two and half hours in duration.

However, one can watch each segment in under 10 minutes.

If you have limited time, then watch the first video Let's Give China Everything

China is exploiting universities in Canada, U.S. Britain, Australia, Japan etc., as they have since China's spy master Kang Shen came up with the idea to use student spies in the 1950s to acquire technology.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TIOC1&p=r

Rabbi: Jews Must Lead Condemnation of China

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Rabbi David Druckman, the Chief Rabbi of the northern city of Kiryat Motzkin and an outspoken opponent of Land of Israel withdrawals, says Jews must take the lead in condemning China for its murder of prisoners of conscience in order to harvest their organs.

"The atrocity is so great," Rabbi Druckman says on a recently released video, "that there are simply no words to express it. From a certain standpoint it is even worse than what the Nazis did... to cut organs from people under the cover of medical help for other people is simply astonishing and shocking from every human vantage point."

"It is especially incumbent upon us as Jews to lead the campaign that expresses total disgust at this phenomenon," Rabbi Druckman says. "Especially us, the Jewish Nation, that suffered the crimes of the Nazis, may their names be blotted out, and those of the Communists under Stalin - who can stand by and comprehend the world's silence at all this?"

Israeli Petition Against Chinese Cruelty
Three months ago, over 220 Israeli rabbis, academics and politicians signed a petition calling for an end to the atrocities taking place in China. Among the signatories were 8 Knesset Members (Hendel and Levy from National Union, Melchior and Cabel from Labor, Kachlon of Likud, and Oron, Gal'on and Vilan of Meretz).

Over 40 rabbis signed, including Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Shlomo Aviner, Yuval Cherlow, Shmuel David of Afula, as well as Temple Mount loyalist rabbis, Moshe Feiglin and leaders of his Jewish Leadership group, and more.

Chinese Torture
China is accused of holding thousands of political prisoners without trial, beating and torturing people who protest being thrown out of their homes, employing slave labor for their mass manufacturing industries, and more. Among the most persecuted groups are the Falun Gong, which numbers at least 70 million members in China alone. Tens of thousands of practitioners of the Falun Gong system of meditation and character-building are ruthlessly persecuted by the government, including having organs removed from their bodies while still alive.

The CIPFG - Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China - has begun a campaign against holding the 2008 Olympics in China. "It will be a stain on the history of the Olympic Games and a disgrace to mankind if these games and these crimes against humanity are held at the same time in China," the organization states.

In the video-taped speech, Rabbi Druckman says that one of the seven Noachide commandments that the Jews are bidden to disseminate in the world is not to murder: "We as Jews must therefore stand at the front lines of this war, and employ every possible tactic in order that the world expunge atrocities such as this."

"When there is evil in the world," he continues, "every person with a human conscience, and every person with intelligence, must protest against it... Jewish Law requires of us to spread values of faith in the Creator and of maintaining the human image throughout the world. The same Torah that tells us to keep the Sabbath and to eat only Kosher food, also requires that we influence all of mankind - as is written, 'From Zion shall go forth Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem.'"

"We have to get our outraged objections, as people and as Jews, out to the world in every way possible... In this age of media, there are many methods, such as the torch passing through the countries of the world and will soon get to our region as well, ending with a giant rally here in Israel [on Feb. 18 - ed.]. It is obvious that we all support this initiative and welcome it. We must also do whatever will result in a sharp condemnation of these animals that are doing these things in China. This will help raise the standard of the entire human race in the world, and the more the world improves and becomes more gentle, this will bring us closer to the Redemption and the arrival of the Just Redeemer."

Religious - Not Just in Dress, but in Thought
"I believe that behind the description we carry of 'religious people' there is also real content - not just outer covering, but a genuine way of looking at the world... Certainly this is so in the Jewish faith, whose teachings about ethics and kindness have no rivals... Certainly one who sees himself as a religious person, not just in title but in essence, must join up with activities of this type."

Rights advocates cut off, confined

China moves to quash dissent as Games near

By Jim Yardley New York Times News Service / January 30, 2008

BEIJING - When state security agents burst into his apartment on Dec. 27, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype, the Internet-based telephone system. Hu's computer was his most potent tool. He disseminated information about human rights cases, peasant protests, and other politically touchy topics even though he often lived under de facto house arrest.

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Hu, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City. She blogged about life under detention, while he videotaped a documentary titled "Prisoner in Freedom City." Their surreal existence seemed to reflect an official uncertainty about how, and whether, to shut them up.

That ended on Dec. 27. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting state power while Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci. Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed. Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely 2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.

For human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Hu's detention is the most telling example of what they describe as a broadening crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to stage the Olympic Games in August. In recent months, several dissidents have been jailed, including a former factory worker in northeastern China who collected 10,000 signatures after posting an online petition titled "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics."

"This is a coordinated cleansing campaign," said Teng Biao, a legal specialist who has known Hu since 2006. "All the troublemakers, including potential troublemakers, are being silenced before the Olympic Games."

With fewer than 200 days before the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies, Beijing is in the full throes of preparations. Roads and subway lines are being completed, and the city's new sports stadiums are nearly finished. But with more than 20,000 journalists expected for the Games, Beijing is also tightening controls over information.

Early this month, authorities announced that only state-sanctioned companies would be allowed to broadcast video and audio files on the Internet, although the practical effect of this edict remains unclear. China has also extended a crackdown on Internet pornography and "unhealthy" content that some rights groups consider a tool for arresting online dissidents. China has jailed 51 online dissidents - more than any other country - and last year blocked more than 2,500 websites, according to Reporters Without Borders, a press-freedom advocacy group.

Hu used his own website to post updates about other dissidents or peasant protests. He also did not hesitate to describe his semiregular encounters with the police and state security officers assigned to monitor him.

"The police force mobilized is much, much larger than before," Hu told Agence France-Presse in October as the Communist Party clamped down on dissidents during an important political meeting. "Now, they just arrest people very publicly and arbitrarily, without the necessary legal procedures."

Last year, Hu became involved in the case of Yang Chunlin, the former factory worker who organized the "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics" petition drive as part of an effort to help local farmers seek legal redress over confiscated land. Yang was arrested last summer and charged with subverting state power, according to human rights groups.

Hu told Agence France-Presse that Yang's arrest was part of a government effort to "clean up" politically touchy cases before the Games.

"I'm helping Yang Chunlin to hire a lawyer," Hu said. "The authorities have threatened Yang's family and relatives. Yang's wife dares not speak to anyone because of the threats."

Hu also participated via Webcam in a European Union parliamentary hearing in November in Brussels about human rights. He said China had failed to meet its Olympic promise of improving human rights.

Rebecca MacKinnon, who teaches journalism and media studies at the University of Hong Kong, said that any Olympic host country faces domestic critics of the Games and that such dissent is usually freely discussed in the public arena. She said efforts by security agencies to round up critics and other dissidents made the Communist Party look insecure and would backfire in the court of international opinion.

Others who have been detained in recent months include Liu Jie, a protester of land issues in Beijing; Gao Zhisheng, an outspoken lawyer; and Lu Gengsong, an online dissident in Zhejiang Province.

"It shows that China is once again shooting itself in the foot," said MacKinnon, a cofounder of Global Voices Online, a nonprofit forum for bloggers.

"This is very predictable," she added. "Hu Jia is not an opponent of the Olympics. He has just been saying: 'We have problems. Our government needs to address them. As an Olympics host, we need to be treating our people better.' "

If the authorities hoped Hu's arrest would bring more silence, the opposite has happened. More than 60 intellectuals signed a public petition calling for his release.

Prince Charles used in campaign to boycott Beijing Olympics

Guardian UK: Free Tibet Campaign urging public figures to stay away

Owen Bowcott - Monday January 28, 2008 -

Prince Charles won't be going to Beijing in August. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Prince of Wales' decision not to attend the Beijing Olympics is being used as the launchpad for an international campaign to persuade public figures to boycott the games.

Prince Charles has confirmed to the London-based Free Tibet Campaign that he has no plans to attend the opening ceremony in the Chinese capital. The Prince has not received a formal invitation but has recently been courted by the Chinese Ambassador in London in a bid to improve relations.

Prince Charles' public support for the Dalai Lama, Tibet's independent spiritual leader, and his disparaging remarks about Chinese officials at the handover of Hong Kong have been a public embarrassment for Beijing. In leaked diaries, written during in 1997, the Prince notoriously referred to senior Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks".

The Free Tibet Campaign, which opposes the Chinese occupation of the Himalyan country, is not calling for athletes to stay away from the summer's Olympics. But it is hoping to encourage public figures to declare that they will stay away in protest at human rights abuses and China's refusal to grant Tibet independence.

"We are not calling for any sort of boycott by the athletes, they have been training for years," said Anne Holmes, director of the Free Tibet Campaign. "What we would like to see is as many as possible high profile public figures making a principled decision to stop at home - and watch it on TV. We would hope this would include Gordon Brown, who has been invited to go back to Beijing for the Olympics. We can't say what Prince Charles is thinking but Clarence House [the Prince's London residence] has written back to us to confirm that he is still very friendly towards Tibet."

The Prince has met the Dalai Lama several times. In a letter to the campaign, Clive Alderton, his deputy private secretary, confirmed the Prince would not attend the opening ceremony. "As you know, His Royal Highness has long taken a close interest in Tibet and indeed has been pleased to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama on several occasions," he wrote. "You asked if the Prince of Wales would be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His Royal Highness will not be attending the ceremony."

Publication of the letter is likely to be regretted by the government, which has attempted to build strong economic and cultural ties with the China. A spokeswoman for Clarence House told The Guardian yesterday: "There are no current plans for [the Prince] to go to the Olympics. As a rule he doesn't attend. He went when the Princess Royal was competing in Montreal in 1976. The Prince of Wales ... takes an interest in the siuation in Tibet and he hopes as long term peaceful solution will be reached after some dialogue."

Both Princess Anne, who is president of the British Olympic Association, and Prince Edward are likely to go to Beijing.

Last month Tibetan exiles failed to convince the International Olympic Committee that they should allow their athletes to compete as an independent national team under the title 'Team Tibet'. The country has been occupied by Chinese troops since 1950.

China’s Genocide Olympics

Op-Ed Columnist

by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: January 24, 2008 in the New York Times

The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party, celebrating the end of nearly two centuries of weakness, poverty and humiliation.

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Instead, China’s leaders are tarnishing their own Olympiad by abetting genocide in Darfur and in effect undermining the U.N. military deployment there. The result is a growing international campaign to brand these “The Genocide Olympics.”

This is not a boycott of the Olympics. But expect Darfur-related protests at Chinese Embassies, as well as banners and armbands among both athletes and spectators. There’s a growing recognition that perhaps the best way of averting hundreds of thousands more deaths in Sudan is to use the leverage of the Olympics to shame China into more responsible behavior.

The central problem is that in exchange for access to Sudanese oil, Beijing is financing, diplomatically protecting and supplying the arms for the first genocide of the 21st century. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, officially selling $83 million in weapons, aircraft and spare parts to Sudan in 2005, according to Amnesty International USA. That is the latest year for which figures are available.

China provided Sudan with A-5 Fantan bomber aircraft, helicopter gunships, K-8 military training/attack aircraft and light weapons used in Sudan’s proxy invasion of Chad last year. China also uses the threat of its veto on the Security Council to block U.N. action against Sudan so that there is a growing risk of a catastrophic humiliation for the U.N. itself.

Sudan feels confident enough with Chinese backing that on Jan. 7, the Sudanese military ambushed a clearly marked U.N. convoy of peacekeepers in Darfur. Sudan claimed the attack was a mistake, but diplomats and U.N. professionals are confident that this was a deliberate attack ordered by the Sudanese leaders to put the U.N. in its place.

Sudan has already barred units from Sweden, Norway, Nepal, Thailand and other countries from joining the U.N. force. It has banned night flights, dithered on a status-of-forces agreement, held up communications equipment and refused to allow the U.N. to bring in foreign helicopters. The growing fear is that the U.N. force will be humiliated in Sudan as it was in Rwanda and Bosnia, causing enormous damage to international peacekeeping.

Another possible sign of Sudan’s confidence: an American diplomat, John Granville, was ambushed and murdered in Khartoum early this month. Many in the diplomatic and intelligence community believe that such an assassination could not happen in Khartoum unless elements of the government were involved.

Chinese officials argue that they are engaging in quiet diplomacy with Sudan’s leaders and that this is the best way to seek a solution in Darfur. They note that Sudan has other backers, and that China’s influence is limited.

It is true that since the start of the “Genocide Olympics” campaign (www.dreamfordarfur.org) a year ago, China has been more helpful, and it’s only because of Chinese pressure on Khartoum that U.N. peacekeepers were admitted to Darfur at all. But the basic reality is that China continues to side with Sudan — it backed Sudan again after it ambushed the U.N. peacekeepers — and Sudan feels protected enough that it goes on thumbing its nose at the international community.

Just a few days ago, Sudan appointed Musa Hilal, a founding leader of the Arab militia known as the janjaweed, to a position in the central government. This is the man who was once quoted as having expressed gratitude for “the necessary weapons and ammunition to exterminate the African tribes in Darfur.”

Other countries also must do much more, but China is crucial. If Beijing were to suspend all transfers of arms and spare parts to Sudan until a peace deal is reached in Darfur, then that would change the dynamic. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan would be terrified — especially since he is now preparing to resume war with South Sudan — and would realize that China is no longer willing to let its Olympics be stained by Darfuri blood.

Without his Chinese shield, Mr. Bashir would be more likely to make concessions to Darfur rebels and negotiate seriously with them, and he would no longer have political cover to resume war against South Sudan. That would make long-term peace more likely in Darfur and also in South Sudan.

I’m a great fan of China’s achievements, and I’ve often defended Beijing from unfair protectionist rhetoric spouted by American politicians. But those of us who admire China’s accomplishments find it difficult to give credit when Beijing simultaneously underwrites the ultimate crime of genocide.

China deserves an international celebration to mark its historic re-emergence as a major power. But so long as China insists on providing arms to sustain a slaughter based on tribe and skin color, this will remain, sadly, The Genocide Olympics.

You are invited to comment on this column at Mr. Kristof’s blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground.

Human rights questions remain for China

by Niall Fraser

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- With a year to go before the 2008 Olympics get under way, questions linger over China's efforts to improve its human rights record.

Observers and pressure groups have criticized the efforts of the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since Beijing won the bid in 2001, rejecting assertions by both that the Games will lead to lasting positive change in the world's most populous nation.

After praising Beijing's preparations as "excellent across the board," the IOC official charged with overseeing Beijing's preparations, Hein Verbruggen, sparked further anger from advocacy groups with his recent comments that, "...the way the Games are being used as a platform for groups with political and social agendas is often regrettable.''

The International Federation for Human Rights claimed his remarks will "embolden'' hard-line elements within the Chinese Communist Party to ignore international pressure over human rights promises. But the IOC says, there is a widespread misconception that a list of "human rights promises'' was ever sought by the IOC in the first place.

"There were some declarations made by senior Chinese leaders in Beijing who raised the human-rights question proactively and talked about how the Games would be part of the process to help human rights development," says IOC's director of communications Giselle Davies,. "But that was never a [piece of] criteria on which the IOC judged and assessed Beijing's bid.

"The IOC decision is not made in a political or social context. It is very much based around what is a coming together at a sporting event and everything for which that can be a catalyst for," Davies adds.

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And that, she believes, is a force for good. "The IOC fundamentally believes that the world will look back and see the Games as a key moment along a period of change and development for good in China," she says.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has sharply criticized Beijing. On Thursday, the organization said China's government has failed to live up to pre-Olympics promises of greater human rights freedoms and has instead clamped down on domestic activists and journalists, according to reports from The Associated Press.

"The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems, but China's leaders apparently don't realize authoritarian crackdowns are even more embarrassing," Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement carried by the AP

On first glance it would appear Beijing is sensitive to certain international concerns. In June, Chinese officials and the IOC moved quickly to launch an investigation into allegations by the advocacy group Playfair 2008 that four official souvenir makers were using child labor. Earlier that month, Beijing took the landmark step of allowing the mother of a victim of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown to mark the anniversary of his death publicly.

But others believe that since 2001 there has been a tightening of controls on political dissent and freedom of speech, as Beijing has sought to contain the social and political fall-out from the country's breakneck economic development.

The IOC says, for example, that the Olympic Games has led to improvements in China's labor system in which workers endure long hours in harsh conditions for less than the legal minimum wage.

Han Dongfang, the Hong Kong-based labor rights activist for the China Labour Bulletin organization, which monitors workers' rights in China, insists "It's about markets and it's about cheap labor ... Labor rights have become worse over the past few years.''

He says that any real change in China can only come from the inside as a result of pressure from workers and the development of free trade unions and the right to collective bargaining -- and not from international pressure.

"The Chinese leadership does not care about international pressure. It is not China who is knocking at the door of the international community looking for favors -- it is the other way around,'' Han says.

The IOC says "enormous'' progress has been made in terms of the freedom the news media will have to report on the Olympics, following the 2001 pledge by the secretary general of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee Wang Wei. "We will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China," he said at the time.

Not so, says veteran China scholar Willy Wo Lap Lam, author of the recently published "Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era."

"The police and secret police departments in every city have lists of dissidents and 'dangerous' people who are not supposed to talk to the western media," Lam says.

"So, instead of following these Western reporters around, the police will simply post more 'guards' outside the dwellings of 'suspect' people in each city and county. They will ensure they can't talk or work with western journalists.''

Professor Joseph Cheng of Hong Kong's City University agrees with Lam. "China's only concern as far as the Olympics is concerned is to showcase itself to the international community. To this end it will treat foreign journalists and visitors very well - but all the troublemakers will 'disappear'," he says.

"Twenty years ago they put trouble-makers under harsh house arrest or worse. Today, they give them a holiday. Either way, they won't be speaking to foreign journalists.''

Lam adds that any pledges Beijing did actually make does not necessarily mean human rights will improve. "The main pledges made by Beijing are clearing up the environment and curbing traffic jams. Both of these are achievable through draconian methods," Lam says.

Furthermore, while the world-at-large may be expecting an Olympics-led metamorphosis, the reality is very different, he says.

"Beijing will not relax controls over dissidents, NGOs as well as 'agitators' for Tibet or Xinjiang. There will be tighter surveillance of potential troublemakers," Lam says.

"The South Korean Olympics in 1988 marked the beginning of genuine political liberalization. For China, it is a very different story. The Chinese Communist Party sees the Games as an opportunity to show the world China's great achievements in the economy and infrastructure and to demonstrate their diplomatic clout. Internally, the Games will help the Party foster 'internal cohesiveness' using national pride to justify the Party's ruling status.

"No Chinese Communist Party leader wants to use the Games as a juncture to push forward reforms.''

Belgian athletes barred from raising issues in Beijing

No politics at Olympics

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Belgian athletes will be prohibited from raising human rights or other political issues at Olympic venues during the Beijing Games. Outside the sports venues and Olympic village, however, they will be free to speak their mind.

The Belgian Olympic Committee said Wednesday it would issue a strict code of conduct for athletes competing in Beijing.

"Not a single participant in the games will be allowed to give a political opinion at the Olympic venues (e.g.: competition sites and the Olympic village)," the committee said in a statement.

The committee also ruled that Olympic athletes would be barred from wearing any distinctive insignia protesting China's human rights record.

However, the committee said athletes would be free to talk about "issues that are personally relevant" outside the Olympic venues and during the six-month run-up to the games.

As the games draw near, the issue of human rights in China is increasingly prominent in the European media and several Olympic committees are pondering how to address the issue.

Last week, the Dutch government said China's human rights record must improve and that the Beijing Olympics should be used as an opportunity to press for change. China has already come out against raising political issues during the games.

In Europe, several activists have called for a boycott of the games to protest China's human rights record. Protests usually center on the treatment of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, which is banned in China, and activists defending the cause of an independent Tibet.

The Belgian committee said it was "utterly convinced that the games would have a positive influence on the social development of a country like China."

Power of the sports boycott

by Edward McMillan-Scott

Yorkshire Post, UK - THE Government wants it both ways on sport boycotts. It is trying to ban Zimbabwe's cricket team from a UK tour but wants to hang on to Zimbabwe – and other sympathetic African countries especially South Africa – for the 2012 London Olympics.

In a world clamouring for democracy and the universal value of human rights, Britain could give a lead by arguing for a switch of all future games to Athens, home of the Olympics and a 2004 spectacular (and saving us £10 billion in the process) – as well as saying no to Zimbabwe's cricketers.

Unlike sanctions, boycotts work and yes, sport, politics and religion are inevitably mixed.

"The situation in Zimbabwe is obviously deeply concerning. I think that bilateral cricket tours at the moment don't send the right message about our concern", foreign secretary David Miliband said the other week.

But in a House of Lords debate on human rights in China, in which Moscow Olympics silver medallist Lord Moynihan referred to my Beijing boycott campaign, government spokesman Lord Malloch-Brown sidestepped the issue, although every speaker referred to China's ghastly record, of an order of magnitude greater than Zimbabwe's.

The Mugabe regime has "cleared" nearly 100,000 homes, allowed mass hunger, destitution of the economy and is guilty of scores of deaths.

When ITV broadcast a series of horrifying reports from Zimbabwe last autumn, the government began all sorts of back-stairs deals, some through sports bodies, to put off the cricket tour.

The truth is that sport is now a high-profile commercial activity with an unprecedented impact on the public.

So much so that Pope Benedict recently gave football his blessing and said: "Soccer should increasingly become a tool for the teaching of life's ethical and spiritual values".

In 2001, making his pitch for the 2008 Olympics, bid spokesman Liu Jingmin argued that: "By allowing Beijing to host the games you
will help the development of
human rights".

Even though article one of the Olympic Charter insists on "universal fundamental ethical principles" the crackdown by Beijing on dissidents and religions has continued with increased severity.

Last month, the European Parliament unanimously expressed "serious concern" and invited the IOC to make its own assessment of China's compliance with its pledges. Maybe sponsors VISA, Coca Cola and Kodak could ask the questions.

On December 27, Hu Jia, an environmental activist who has publicised Beijing's appalling air quality and the demolition of hundreds of thousands of homes to make way for the Olympics, was taken from his home by 20 policemen.

Another noted dissident, Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng – sometimes called China's Lech Walesa – has disappeared in similar circumstances after an open letter criticising Olympic corruption. I had been in regular contact with both.

Gao is best known for his report on the regime's vast brutality against the Falun Gong "Buddha school" spiritual movement.

Harry Wu, an exiled dissident, runs a US research foundation which estimates that there are about 1,100 penal camps in China's Laogai system with an estimated 6.8 million inmates, most detained without trial.

The UN's torture specialist, Austrian jurist Manfred Nowak, says the majority are Falun Gong practitioners, being "re-educated"
or tortured to recant. Survivors have told me of SS tactics.

At least 3,000 have died under torture since the crackdown on Falun Gong's 70 million practitioners began in 1999 – for no other reason than its popularity as a health-promoting activity.

They are probably the reason why China is switching this month from executions by a shot in the head to lethal injections, as I am told this preserves prisoners' bodies better as a quarry for the army's lucrative organ transplant industry.

Would the 1936 Berlin Olympics have taken place if the world had known about the Nazi's camps?

US Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter said of Jan Karski's
reports about the SS camps: "I did not say that this young man was
lying. I said that I was unable to believe what he told me. There is
a difference."

It is time for the civilised world to wake up to what is really happening in the hidden China, a terror state like no other, which has killed some 80 million of its own people since 1949. Nor should we ignore China's role in Sudan's genocide or her support for other vile African regimes – like Zimb
abwe.

An Olympic boycott was imposed against South Africa by the IOC itself in 1964 because of apartheid; it worked. In 1980, the US and 60 other countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; within three years the USSR was crumbling.

Those who argue against boycotts say that "being there" matters more: I disagree, it just gives comfort to tyrants.

In 1987, President Reagan bluntly told the South Korean junta that, unless it brought in democracy, the US would boycott the 1988 Seoul Olympics: democracy was introduced.

It is time to stop the humbug in this globalising world: sports boycotts work. And it is time to stop the suffering in both China and Zimbabwe.


Edward McMillan-Scott is Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and Humber and is vice-president of the European Parliament and founder of the EU Democracy and Human Rights Initiative

The full article contains 880 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Last Updated: 18 January 2008 8:59 AM

Make a difference and tell a friend

Thanks Suren for sending me this email. I couldn't agree more. Please send it to 10 people to make a difference.

Dear Friend:

Every four years the world looks forward to the Olympics because it is the grand stage that showcases the world’s best sporting talent. The Olympics also brings the world together as one because it is the celebration of the free spirit, international brotherhood and freedom.

Unfortunately, the Beijing Olympics 2008 has come under a cloud because it goes against the basic Olympic spirit of one world, and its gross violations of Human Rights. The communist regime was granted the right to host the Olympic Games after it pledged to adhere to the Olympic charter and improve its human rights record. Instead, its human rights abuses have worsened.

The regime’s brutal violation of human rights is demonic. An estimated 100 million Falun Gong practitioners and their families are subject to the most inhuman persecution. (Falun Gong is a mind and body spiritual practice which is practiced in over 80 countries but is banned in China).The communist regime uses Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience as a living organ pool for its lucrative organ transplantation industry. It continues its brutal repression of Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Uighurs, rights advocates, reporters and defense lawyers. And it supports other totalitarian regimes in perpetrating slaughter upon their citizens –- in Darfur, Burma, Zimbabwe, and North Korea.

The same regime that produces hazardous goods that harm or kill children and uses slave labor to produce those goods, lies about SARS and bird flu, and systematically perpetrates forced abortion, torture, brainwashing, and killing. With no rule of law, and money as the only religion, jungle law prevails. Ruthlessness and widespread corruption have created a morally bankrupt state that imperils the world.

Please ask yourself, does a regime responsible for such atrocities be awarded the honor of hosting the Olympic Games? The world cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by the Nazis.

No athlete wants a black out of a sporting event that is an ultimate dream. It is precisely this aspect that the Chinese communist regime wants to exploit. For a Kenyan Olympian and marathon world-record holder, to save her people from a home turned into a killing field is more important than winning gold. She has called for a boycott of the Olympics. And so have a lot of like minded athletes from all over the world joining in to appeal.

It will be prudent for the Chinese Communist Party not to shrug off this issue. Because, in a similar scenario where human rights were trampled, the 1980 Moscow Olympics was boycotted by no less than 67 nations out of 147 nations to compete.

So if you feel the outrage, remember to copy this email and send it to least 10 people and also send it to the President, Hon. Jacques Rogge, President, International Olympics Committee:
email: jacques.rogge@ioc.olympic.org

You will be giving Mr. Jacques Rogge a chance to make amends and reconsider his decision. He will at least not have to live with a regret all his life and you will help him change the course of history and save himself from being branded an 'Enemy of the People'.

China blogger beaten to death

via Dvorak Uncensored Published on January 12th, 2008

Posted by McCullough in General

CNN.com

Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China’s Xinhua news agency reports. The killing has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government. The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them. Police have detained 24 municipal inspectors and are investigating more than 100 in the death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, Xinhua reported on Friday. On Monday Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes.

A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said. When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said. Qi Zhengjun, chief of the urban administration bureau in the city of Tianmen, lost his job over the incident, Xinhua reported Friday. “Wei is the first ‘citizen journalist’ to die in China because of what he was trying to film,” the group said in a statement. “He was beaten to death for doing something which is becoming more and more common and which was a way to expose law-enforcement officers who keep on overstepping their limits.”

China repression

Times Colonist: Published: Friday, January 11, 2008

The International Olympic Committee is not the only one worried about Beijing's ability to host the Olympics. Go ask the Falun Gong, Christians, Uyghurs and Tibetans to see what they have to say about years of languishing in jail for their beliefs. Freedom fighters and reporters are in the same boat.

The IOC should make sure that Beijing stops using the Olympics as a tool of repression ahead of the Games.

Marie Beaulieu
Victoria

Blogger Boycott

Thanks Caoimhin's for your effort at exposing the human rights abuses by the Communist Party ahead of the Olympics. "Blogger Boycott" sounds great and I'm with you! Please post this logo on your blog and read all about it...

Original source: As a follow up on yesterday’s article, "One World, One Dream", I would like to continue in the effort to publicize China’s human rights violations before the start of the Olympic Games in August.

This graphic and the concept were created by Faithmouse. The idea is to post this graphic on your site and to link to all the others (or as many as you can) who do the same. This crosslinking should boost the graphics’ rating on Google and other search engines thereby raising awareness to the suffering caused by the Chinese government.

Below are the blogs that are joining together for this cause and I will be adding more when others let me know of their participation. Visit Faithmouse for the image and to sign on to the list of bloggers who are trying to make the world a better place. Let me know when you post it!

Faithmouse, SFO Mom, Blogs4Brownback, 50 Days After, Kaj, The Good Life, Cooper, Lina Lamont Fan Club, Kaj la hundo, Scarlett Crusader, Your blog here!

Cat:

Politics, Culture, Caoimhin, Health, Irish Culture, Irish Politics, Honesty, misc, All posts, Web/Tech | Time: 9:05 pm (UTC+8)

Hu Jia arrested, Beijing “is ignoring promises made to get the Games”

AsiaNews.it: 01/07/2008 12:29 - The world renowned activist, who for years has been fighting against the spreading of AIDS, was arrested on December 27th and is now in prison accused of subversion. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders accuse China of its ferocity against dissidents and asks for a revision of the law which punishes subversion against the State, a smoke screen which hides abuse and violence.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – The Chinese government “continues to break those promises made to the world to obtain the Olympic Games” and in particular “it is ignoring peoples human rights, using a law as a repressive instrument and censorship as a way to safeguard its own image”. This is why, “all Chinese dissidents ask that concrete steps are taken, which show Beijing’s goodwill: a revision of the infamous article 105 of the penal code”.

This was carried in a statement released this morning by Chinese Human Rights Defenders (Chrd). According to the text, “the arrest of the well known anti-Aids activist Hu Jia, which took place December 27th last, shows that charges of subverting the State, punished by art. 105, serve as a smoke-screen to cover internal criticism of the government”.

Hu Jia is world renowned for his battle to fight the spread of HIV AIDS within the country, a problem the government tries to ignore. Moreover, Hu, has always been active in informing the press regarding the arrest of other activists and has gathered precious information regarding the situation of political detainees. His wife has also been under police surveillance for some time now.

Having lived mostly under house arrest or residential surveillance in the two years leading up to the detention; a few days ago, about 30 police officers broke into Hu Jia’s home and took him away. His wife, fellow activist Zeng Jinyan, is now under house arrest. At least 10 security personnel guard her home. According to his arrest warrant, Hu was detained on article 105. suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.”

The Chrd statement maintains that these charges, “show that the law has become an instrument which police use to do what they want. If the government wants to make the world believe in the promises it made then it really has to re-address the text of the law and specify what “subversion” means. Only then will abuse of power and the violation of human rights be avoided”.

The reference is to promises made by the Foreign Minister to the International Olympics Committee during the run up to the assigning of the 2008 Olympics: China committed itself to improving the human rights situation in the country, to reduce pollution and to review its stance on Tibet. So far these promises have been simply ignored.

Chrd underlines that the situation, “is getting worse: currently there are 41 cases of arbitrary and unjustified arrests of Human Rights activists all according to article. 105. As the Games approach it can only be summarised that the grip is tightening even more; anyone who dares criticise the government or denounce the current climate in China risks prison”.

Pasadena: Video--Human Rights Hypocrites

Site Linking to this Video--please share with your friends!

View an awsome video on the debacle about the Rose Parade Tournament's Communist Float vs the American Human Rights Torch Relay Float. Beijing won--with 200 performers surrounding their $400,000 Olympic float - Made in America! And we have Pasadena's Mayor Bogaard to thank for that one! After he heard testimonies of persecution from the Falun Gong members--who are tortured and even killed in China to coerce them to give up their beliefs or are forced to give their organs to profit the corrupt regime--Bogaard referred to them as allegations! That speaks volume. That's not all, the human rights activists from various organizations protesting this float of shame were accused of playing a political role. Actually the fact that the Communist float was invited to be in the parade in the first place by the Mayor is nothing but short of political. Let's keep on shining the light on Beijing's worsened human rights record and failure to keep their promise. Let's remind everyone that the Chinese regime is unfit to host the Games and that the Games are used as a tool of repression!