human rightsJuly 2001: 'If C h i n a wins the O l y m p i c s, it will make progress on the promotion of human rights'.
April 2008: The terror goes on...
They promised progress but, as Edward Cody in S h a n g h a i reports, human rights activists face brutal persecution
* Edward Cody, Washington Post
* The Observer,
* Sunday April 13 2008
Z h e n g E n c h o n g is a self-taught lawyer and a dogged human rights activist. In many countries, he would be considered a gadfly. But in C h i n a, during this O l y m p i c year, he is treated like a threat to national security.
One police surveillance camera captures on tape whoever enters or leaves his Shang hai apartment. Another monitors whoever presses the elevator button. A third records people in the building's elevator. Lest the cameras prove unreliable, plainclothes police officers lounge in one corner of Z h e n g's landing throughout the day, smoking, sipping tea and playing cards.
Often, Z h e n g said, they prevent him from leaving his building. When he tried in February to go out to buy dumplings, the guards beat him up. In recent months, he said, they have been allowing him to attend church services most Sunday mornings. But sometimes not. He never knows exactly why. 'That's the way things are for me,' he said, smiling haplessly as if embarrassed by his fate. 'It's been going on for the last two years.'
As B e i jing prepares to host the O l y m p i c G a m e s in August, the grinding controls imposed by the C h i nese government on Z h e n g and other civil rights activists over the last decade are coming under growing scrutiny abroad. C h i n a's security forces have extensive experience and little legal restriction in suppressing dissent.
But domestic challenges to C o m m u n i s t rule are playing out today within a rising international debate over what place C h i n a's human rights record should have in the O l y m p i c s. B e i j i n g insists that the G a m e s should have nothing to do with politics. Foreign activists, however, argue that the desire to celebrate athletic achievement should not be a reason for the world to ignore the dark side of C h i n e s e policies.
But while much focus has been on C h i n a's record in T i b e t, little mention is being made of the daily challenges - from monitoring to arrest - risked by Z h e n g and any of C h i n a's 1.3 billion residents if they question the party line.
Z h e n g, a 57-year-old native of S h a n g h a i, first encountered trouble during the C u l tural R e volution at the age of 17. He was sent to far northern Hei long jiang province, just south of what was then the Soviet Union, interrupting his secondary school studies.
When he arrived back in S h a n g h a i six years later, he had no diploma and no place to live. Z h e n g quickly caught up with his studies, however, and entered F u d a n University to study economic administration. Before the Eighties were out, he had also taught himself law and qualified for a licence to practise. Sensitised by his past, he started defending S h a n g h a i families expelled from their homes to make way for the explosive development that would turn the city into C h i n a's largest, richest and most modern. 'Why did I worry about those people who lost their homes?' Z h e n g asked, sitting in his living room in front of a wall full of legal manuals and case files. 'Because I had the same experience.'
F e n g Z h e n g h u, a friend and fellow activist, said Z h e n g started out like any other lawyer, but began to see his clients' problems as the result of government corruption and misconduct. As a result, F e n g said in an interview, Z h e n g gravitated increasingly towards human rights cases and confrontation with S h a n g hai authorities.
His tactic was to use the letter of C h i n e s e law, which offers broad guarantees in theory, to harass city officials who were seeking to plough ahead with their development deals. By asserting that the deals were often driven by officials' desire for self-enrichment, Z h e n g became known as an adversary up and down the S h a n g hai government and party bureaucracy.
'In such cases, it's their own interests they are protecting,' F e n g said. 'Why are they so concerned? It's just speaking out and writing articles, right? Well, it's because people respond to these ideas. They want change. They can produce a lot of pressure on the government.'
Z h e n g converted to Christianity along the way and started attending services at a Wes le yan church about a 15-minute walk from his home. His wife, J i a n g Mei li, also became a member. Their faith, Z h e n g said, has given them values that inform his legal activism.
In recent years, several dozen lawyers have made it their business to use C h i n e s e law to defend people against the government. Like Z h e n g, a number have suffered retaliation.
One, L i H e p i n g, was kidnapped and beaten in September. His car was recently rammed by a police vehicle as he took his son to school. Another, T e n g B i a o, was kidnapped for about 40 hours last month, presumably because of his friendship with H u J i a, the internet essayist who was sentenced on 3 April to three and a half years in prison. G a o Z h i s h e n g, a lawyer who became famous defending practitioners of the spiritual movement F a l u n G ong, has been under house arrest for months.
In defending homeless families caught up in land confiscation, Z h e n g got into trouble by suggesting publicly that corruption had infected senior officials in the S h a n g hai leadership.
He specifically pointed a finger at H u a n g J u, a former mayor who rose to the Polit buro's elite Stand ing Commi ttee; C h e n L i a n g yu, the S h a n g h a i party secretary; and two sons of J i a n g Z e m i n, the national party leader and President before H u J i n t a o. 'Corruption is a large-scale problem in C h i n a,' Z h e n g said. 'But the biggest problem of all is corruption in land seizures. So that's why they're always after me.'
The S h a n g h a i authorities acted first to invalidate Z h e n g's law licence. Undeterred, he kept taking cases. Then came the criminal prosecution. Z h e n g had been given a New C h i n a News Agency dispatch describing the S h a n g h a i land disputes. Unknown to him, he said, it was an 'internal' article, distributed only to officials above a certain level. He gave the dispatch to local reporters for the B B C and Agence France-Presse and faxed a copy to a US-based human rights organisation.
For that, he was convicted of revealing state secrets and sentenced to three years in prison. After serving his time, he was released in 2006. That, he said, was when the surveillance cameras were installed and plainclothes police from the local Pub lic Sec urity Bur eau were stationed on the landing.
The Z h a bei District Pub lic Sec urity Bur eau, queried by telephone, said it knew nothing about the team monitoring Z h e n g. 'Don't disturb us,' a woman said before hanging up. An official at the city Public Security Bureau's information office said he would investigate and call back, but did not.
Z h e n g also has been unable to return to work because of the restrictions, which include disabling his land line and mobile phones. He said he relies on his wife's pension and contributions from sympathetic lawyers in B e i jing and the C h i n a Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group in H o n g K o n g.
Police cited Z h e n g as a suspect because his wife's younger brother has been accused of evading taxes on an adjacent apartment, F e n g said. He has repeatedly been called in to testify. 'But the more they try to pressure him, the more he sticks his neck out,' F e n g said, smiling.
In what was interpreted as a gesture of US government support, Z h e n g's daughter, Z h e n g Z h a o j i a, 22, was granted a US visa last year and has gone to the United States to study. 'We are dismayed by the restrictions on Mr Z h e n g's freedoms, including his inability to leave his residence and meet with other people,' the US Consulate here said in a statement.
Long after Z h e n g's accusations irritated officials, party secretary C h e n was fired and tried for massive corruption; he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment on Friday. H u a n g J u died of cancer last year, but his secretary, W a n g W e i g o n g, was taken into custody on charges of corruption in the same case. The S h a n g hai government, however, still appears to be concerned with Z h e n g. A pair of civilian officials visited him on Wednesday last week, he said, and urged him not to post anything on the internet about the troubles in T i b e t because of the 'sensitive situation'. On Friday, the plainclothes police squad upbraided him for trying to leave for the evening services at the church down the street.
'Why are you trying to surprise us?' he quoted them as saying, suggesting that they had orders that the Sunday morning leave was all he was going to get.
The rights champion
-----------------------------------
Y a n g C h u n l i n
Jailed for five years for subversion
-----------------------------------
An unemployed former factory worker from Hei long jiang province, Y a n g C h u n l i n, who was jailed for five years for subversion, was accused of accepting money from foreign organisations, writing critical articles and organising a petition for farmers who had lost their land to developers. The petition said: 'We don't want the O l y m p i c s, we want human rights.' His sister, Y a n g C h u n p i n g, said: 'He might have criticised the party and some officials, but all he did is improve the development of democracy. What he said is based on freedom of speech.'
The husband and wife activists
---------------------------------------------------------
H u J i a and Z e n g J i n y a n
Jailed for subversion and under house arrest respectively
---------------------------------------------------------
Internet essayist H u J i a, 34, has received much international attention since his jailing, with critics of C h i n a alleging that his sentence is part of a crackdown to silence dissent before the O l y m p i c s. H u J i a was jailed for posting articles on overseas websites, including one criticising C h i n a for breaking its promise to improve human rights ahead of the O l y m p i c s, and for interviews he gave to foreign journalists. Although Prime Minister W e n J i a b a o has denied a crackdown on dissidents, the cases of H u and Y a n g C h u n l i n - jailed for five years - have drawn condemnation. H u first rose to prominence as an Aids campaigner, later fighting for democratic rights, religious freedom and self-determination for T i b e t.
His wife, Z e n g J i n y a n, who has been under house arrest since he was seized in December, is a prominent activist in her own right and a prolific internet blogger, documenting a wide range of rights violations in C h i n a and the government's attempt to whitewash them.
About this article [note: the Guardian (Observer) Unlimited Site might be inaccessible from C h i n a]:
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday April 13 2008 on p37 of the World news section.
April 2008: The terror goes on...
They promised progress but, as Edward Cody in S h a n g h a i reports, human rights activists face brutal persecution
* Edward Cody, Washington Post
* The Observer,
* Sunday April 13 2008
Z h e n g E n c h o n g is a self-taught lawyer and a dogged human rights activist. In many countries, he would be considered a gadfly. But in C h i n a, during this O l y m p i c year, he is treated like a threat to national security.
One police surveillance camera captures on tape whoever enters or leaves his Shang hai apartment. Another monitors whoever presses the elevator button. A third records people in the building's elevator. Lest the cameras prove unreliable, plainclothes police officers lounge in one corner of Z h e n g's landing throughout the day, smoking, sipping tea and playing cards.
Often, Z h e n g said, they prevent him from leaving his building. When he tried in February to go out to buy dumplings, the guards beat him up. In recent months, he said, they have been allowing him to attend church services most Sunday mornings. But sometimes not. He never knows exactly why. 'That's the way things are for me,' he said, smiling haplessly as if embarrassed by his fate. 'It's been going on for the last two years.'
As B e i jing prepares to host the O l y m p i c G a m e s in August, the grinding controls imposed by the C h i nese government on Z h e n g and other civil rights activists over the last decade are coming under growing scrutiny abroad. C h i n a's security forces have extensive experience and little legal restriction in suppressing dissent.
But domestic challenges to C o m m u n i s t rule are playing out today within a rising international debate over what place C h i n a's human rights record should have in the O l y m p i c s. B e i j i n g insists that the G a m e s should have nothing to do with politics. Foreign activists, however, argue that the desire to celebrate athletic achievement should not be a reason for the world to ignore the dark side of C h i n e s e policies.
But while much focus has been on C h i n a's record in T i b e t, little mention is being made of the daily challenges - from monitoring to arrest - risked by Z h e n g and any of C h i n a's 1.3 billion residents if they question the party line.
Z h e n g, a 57-year-old native of S h a n g h a i, first encountered trouble during the C u l tural R e volution at the age of 17. He was sent to far northern Hei long jiang province, just south of what was then the Soviet Union, interrupting his secondary school studies.
When he arrived back in S h a n g h a i six years later, he had no diploma and no place to live. Z h e n g quickly caught up with his studies, however, and entered F u d a n University to study economic administration. Before the Eighties were out, he had also taught himself law and qualified for a licence to practise. Sensitised by his past, he started defending S h a n g h a i families expelled from their homes to make way for the explosive development that would turn the city into C h i n a's largest, richest and most modern. 'Why did I worry about those people who lost their homes?' Z h e n g asked, sitting in his living room in front of a wall full of legal manuals and case files. 'Because I had the same experience.'
F e n g Z h e n g h u, a friend and fellow activist, said Z h e n g started out like any other lawyer, but began to see his clients' problems as the result of government corruption and misconduct. As a result, F e n g said in an interview, Z h e n g gravitated increasingly towards human rights cases and confrontation with S h a n g hai authorities.
His tactic was to use the letter of C h i n e s e law, which offers broad guarantees in theory, to harass city officials who were seeking to plough ahead with their development deals. By asserting that the deals were often driven by officials' desire for self-enrichment, Z h e n g became known as an adversary up and down the S h a n g hai government and party bureaucracy.
'In such cases, it's their own interests they are protecting,' F e n g said. 'Why are they so concerned? It's just speaking out and writing articles, right? Well, it's because people respond to these ideas. They want change. They can produce a lot of pressure on the government.'
Z h e n g converted to Christianity along the way and started attending services at a Wes le yan church about a 15-minute walk from his home. His wife, J i a n g Mei li, also became a member. Their faith, Z h e n g said, has given them values that inform his legal activism.
In recent years, several dozen lawyers have made it their business to use C h i n e s e law to defend people against the government. Like Z h e n g, a number have suffered retaliation.
One, L i H e p i n g, was kidnapped and beaten in September. His car was recently rammed by a police vehicle as he took his son to school. Another, T e n g B i a o, was kidnapped for about 40 hours last month, presumably because of his friendship with H u J i a, the internet essayist who was sentenced on 3 April to three and a half years in prison. G a o Z h i s h e n g, a lawyer who became famous defending practitioners of the spiritual movement F a l u n G ong, has been under house arrest for months.
In defending homeless families caught up in land confiscation, Z h e n g got into trouble by suggesting publicly that corruption had infected senior officials in the S h a n g hai leadership.
He specifically pointed a finger at H u a n g J u, a former mayor who rose to the Polit buro's elite Stand ing Commi ttee; C h e n L i a n g yu, the S h a n g h a i party secretary; and two sons of J i a n g Z e m i n, the national party leader and President before H u J i n t a o. 'Corruption is a large-scale problem in C h i n a,' Z h e n g said. 'But the biggest problem of all is corruption in land seizures. So that's why they're always after me.'
The S h a n g h a i authorities acted first to invalidate Z h e n g's law licence. Undeterred, he kept taking cases. Then came the criminal prosecution. Z h e n g had been given a New C h i n a News Agency dispatch describing the S h a n g h a i land disputes. Unknown to him, he said, it was an 'internal' article, distributed only to officials above a certain level. He gave the dispatch to local reporters for the B B C and Agence France-Presse and faxed a copy to a US-based human rights organisation.
For that, he was convicted of revealing state secrets and sentenced to three years in prison. After serving his time, he was released in 2006. That, he said, was when the surveillance cameras were installed and plainclothes police from the local Pub lic Sec urity Bur eau were stationed on the landing.
The Z h a bei District Pub lic Sec urity Bur eau, queried by telephone, said it knew nothing about the team monitoring Z h e n g. 'Don't disturb us,' a woman said before hanging up. An official at the city Public Security Bureau's information office said he would investigate and call back, but did not.
Z h e n g also has been unable to return to work because of the restrictions, which include disabling his land line and mobile phones. He said he relies on his wife's pension and contributions from sympathetic lawyers in B e i jing and the C h i n a Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group in H o n g K o n g.
Police cited Z h e n g as a suspect because his wife's younger brother has been accused of evading taxes on an adjacent apartment, F e n g said. He has repeatedly been called in to testify. 'But the more they try to pressure him, the more he sticks his neck out,' F e n g said, smiling.
In what was interpreted as a gesture of US government support, Z h e n g's daughter, Z h e n g Z h a o j i a, 22, was granted a US visa last year and has gone to the United States to study. 'We are dismayed by the restrictions on Mr Z h e n g's freedoms, including his inability to leave his residence and meet with other people,' the US Consulate here said in a statement.
Long after Z h e n g's accusations irritated officials, party secretary C h e n was fired and tried for massive corruption; he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment on Friday. H u a n g J u died of cancer last year, but his secretary, W a n g W e i g o n g, was taken into custody on charges of corruption in the same case. The S h a n g hai government, however, still appears to be concerned with Z h e n g. A pair of civilian officials visited him on Wednesday last week, he said, and urged him not to post anything on the internet about the troubles in T i b e t because of the 'sensitive situation'. On Friday, the plainclothes police squad upbraided him for trying to leave for the evening services at the church down the street.
'Why are you trying to surprise us?' he quoted them as saying, suggesting that they had orders that the Sunday morning leave was all he was going to get.
The rights champion
-----------------------------------
Y a n g C h u n l i n
Jailed for five years for subversion
-----------------------------------
An unemployed former factory worker from Hei long jiang province, Y a n g C h u n l i n, who was jailed for five years for subversion, was accused of accepting money from foreign organisations, writing critical articles and organising a petition for farmers who had lost their land to developers. The petition said: 'We don't want the O l y m p i c s, we want human rights.' His sister, Y a n g C h u n p i n g, said: 'He might have criticised the party and some officials, but all he did is improve the development of democracy. What he said is based on freedom of speech.'
The husband and wife activists
---------------------------------------------------------
H u J i a and Z e n g J i n y a n
Jailed for subversion and under house arrest respectively
---------------------------------------------------------
Internet essayist H u J i a, 34, has received much international attention since his jailing, with critics of C h i n a alleging that his sentence is part of a crackdown to silence dissent before the O l y m p i c s. H u J i a was jailed for posting articles on overseas websites, including one criticising C h i n a for breaking its promise to improve human rights ahead of the O l y m p i c s, and for interviews he gave to foreign journalists. Although Prime Minister W e n J i a b a o has denied a crackdown on dissidents, the cases of H u and Y a n g C h u n l i n - jailed for five years - have drawn condemnation. H u first rose to prominence as an Aids campaigner, later fighting for democratic rights, religious freedom and self-determination for T i b e t.
His wife, Z e n g J i n y a n, who has been under house arrest since he was seized in December, is a prominent activist in her own right and a prolific internet blogger, documenting a wide range of rights violations in C h i n a and the government's attempt to whitewash them.
About this article [note: the Guardian (Observer) Unlimited Site might be inaccessible from C h i n a]:
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday April 13 2008 on p37 of the World news section.
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