Some rather disturbing news on the state of freedom (or lack of) in Godless China.This is the news that the liberal media doesn’t want you to see.These peaceful, freedom loving Atheists never cease to amaze me.
Posted by chinaview on April 21st, 2007
According to China Aid Association (CAA), a massive forced abortion campaign is ongoing in China’s Guangxi Province targeting Christian pregnant women. It’s reported that 61 Christian women were forced to have abortions in 2 days on April 17 and 18. Here’s China Aid Association’s reports.
41 forced abortion on April 17:
Midland, Texas (April 17, 2007)- CAA has learned that a massive forced abortion campaign is ongoing in China’s Guangxi Province(Autonomous Region).
One Christian lady, Ms. Linrong Wei, 7 months preganent, was dragged into the hospital from her home on April 17 at 8:45 AM (Beijing time) by 10 officials from the Population and Family Planning Commsssion in Baise City, Guangxi. Her husband Yage “James” Liang was formerly a pastor in the government-sanctioned TSPM church before he became a House church pastor a year ago.
According to eyewitnesses’ reports to CAA, 40 other preganant women was forcefully moved to the Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City on the same day to perform forced abortion.
Eyewitnesses told CAA that pastor Liang’s wife was pregenant accidentally and they wanted to keep this baby because of Christian principles. Ms. Wei was injected with medicine to induce birth at 11 AM on April 17. Ms. Wei’s hospital bed number is No. 39.
Eyewitnesses report that another woman, 9 months preganent, on bed number 38 was also injected at 12 PM.
One Church leader in that area who has visited Ms. Wei told CAA that these so-called ‘illegal pregnant women” were treated so bad that they were just forced to lay down on the very simple beds in the hospital corridor before the injections were done.
The family planning officials told relatives of the women that their babies will be born and most likely die within 24 hours.
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20 more forced abortion on April 18:
Midland, Texas (April 18, 2007)- The Massive forced abortion campaign continues in Guangxi province. After 41 women were forced to have abortions on April 17, CAA has learned that the Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City performed forced abortions for at least 20 more pregnant women on April 18.
Eyewitnesses report to CAA that at around 5:00pm on April 18, more than 20 more pregnant women were transported into the same hospital by the Family Planning officials. Within 30 minutes, about 10 of them were injected forcefully for an abortion.
This means within last 24 hours, at least 61 babies were killed with forced abortions.
At Bed number 37, Ms. He Caigan was 9 months pregnant. Officials injected her baby’s head and 20 minutes later, her baby stopped moving and died.
About 6am on April 18(BJ time), pastor James Liang’s wife Ms Wei Linrong gave birth to a boy, but he was dead because of the injection. She received three doses of injection-one is to induce the birth and the other two to kill the baby in the womb.
After China Aid reported the forced abortion, many PSB were seen surrounding the section of the hospital where these women are held.
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Posted by chinaview on April 21st, 2007
Reuters, April 19, 2007-
OTTAWA, April 19 (Reuters) – Canada condemned China for jailing a Canadian citizen for life on Thursday and said it was concerned about allegations the man might have been tortured while in prison.
Huseyin (also referred to as Huseyincan) Celil, an ethnic Uighur activist, was imprisoned on charges of separatism and terrorism. China warned Canada not to get involved in what it described as a purely domestic matter.
“It is with deep disappointment that we learn that Mr. Celil has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chinese court,” said Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, complaining Beijing repeatedly refused to let Canadian officials visit the man.
“The government of Canada remains gravely concerned about allegations that Mr. Celil has been mistreated while in Chinese custody and possibly subjected to torture. This could constitute a serious breach of the United Nations Convention against Torture, to which both Canada and China are parties.”
MacKay is due to visit China later this month, where he plans to raise the case of Celil, 37.
A foreign ministry statement said MacKay had expressed his concerns with the Chinese embassy and had also spoken with Celil’s wife — who lives in Canada — “to assure her that Canada will continue to pursue justice for Mr. Celil.”
Canada’s Conservative government has frequently complained about the Chinese human rights record. Last November. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Ottawa would not tone down its criticism to cash in on trade with the Asian superpower.
Beijing accuses Uighur militants of using violence in their struggle to set up an independent East Turkestan state in predominantly Muslim Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and restive Central Asian states.
Celil fled China in the mid-1990s and was later accepted as a refugee in Canada, where he obtained citizenship. He was detained in Uzbekistan in March 2006 when visiting relatives and sent to China last June.
– original from Reuters: Canada condemns China for jailing man for life
Posted in Social, Human Rights, Activist, Xinjiang, NW China, Canada, Law, Politics, People, China, World, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 20th, 2007
Radio Free Asia, 2007.04.20-
KATHMANDU—A Tibetan monk who served 13 years in Lhasa’s notorious Drapchi prison has described how he was tortured by Chinese prison guards in an interview with RFA’s Tibetan service.
“I was detained in Drapchi for 12 years,” Sonam Dorje said. “In April 2005, we were moved from there to Chushul. At that time there were about 100 Tibetan political prisoners. Three soldiers for each prisoner escorted us to the new prison in the middle of the night.”
Dorje, 38, who managed to escape to Nepal en route to the exiled home of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, said the use of torture and solitary confinement was commonplace in the prison.
“We were handcuffed, then they would beat us with a rubber tube filled with sand,” he recalled. “On average we are continuously detained in solitude for about 28 days to a month at a time.”
Prisoners’ health problems
He said the health of most of the prisoners deteriorated quickly as a direct result of the torture sessions and poor diet.
“There was no Tibetan prisoner who did not suffer from kidney disease,” Dorje said. “On a regular basis we were forced to sit on cold concrete floors. So the prisoners were weak and sickly.”
Dorje served a 13-year jail term from June 30, 1992 to June 30, 2005 after taking part in an April 1992 demonstration against Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.
“We were five monks when we protested in 1992. It was during a big meeting when we took Tibetan flags and shouted that Tibet is an independent country and that the Chinese should leave.”
“At that time we were immediately detained by local county police. During detention we were severely beaten and tortured,” he added.
He said the main reasons for the protests were the imposition of China’s one-child policy on Tibetans, severe harships faced by local Tibetan farmers due to Chinese policies, severe shortage of jobs under the pressure influx of Han Chinese into the region, and implementation of patriotic reeducation campaigns in the region’s monasteries.
Electric batons used
He said one of the five, Sonam Rinchen, died in Drapchi under torture.
“When they conducted interrogations, the prisoners would be summoned to the interrogation center. When they didn’t get the answer that they wanted to hear, they tortured us again with a severe beating.”
“Even after the interrogations we would be taken back to our cells where we were tortured once more. They would regularly tie our hands and legs apart and then they would hit us with an electric baton. Most of time they hit us with iron tongs,” he recalled.
“After all this physical torture and mental pain, we could not walk.”
“The conditions in Chinese prisons in Tibet are deplorable,” he said, adding that the torture sessions worsened following his transfer to Chushul prison. “All the food served in jail lacked nutrition. All the vegetables were just boiled in water and served.
Sonam Dorje was originally from Gyama township in Meldrogunkar (Mozhu gongka in Chinese) county, Lhasa prefecture.
He plans to settle in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, since they fled the region following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
– original from Radio Free Asia: Former Tibetan Protest Monk Details Torture in Jail
Related:
– List of China Modern Torture Methods (slideshow)
Posted in Religious, Social, Torture, Tibet, SW China, Tibetan, Human Rights, Law, Politics, Religion, People, China, World, Asia, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 20th, 2007
By Adam Tanner, Reuters, Apr 18, 2007-
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A Chinese couple sued Yahoo and its Chinese affiliates on Wednesday, alleging the Internet firms provided information that helped the Chinese government prosecute the man for his Internet writings.
Wang Xiaoning was sentenced to ten years in prison last year for “incitement to subvert state power” after he e-mailed electronic journals advocating democratic reform and a multi-party system.
His house and computer were searched in 2002.
In the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California, Wang and his wife Yu Ling charged the Internet firms turned over details to prosecutors that helped identify him to authorities.
“While in custody, Plaintiffs were subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including arbitrary, prolonged and indefinite detention, for expressing their free speech rights and for using the Internet to communicate about democracy and human rights matters,” the filing said.
The suit, advanced by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, based in Washington D.C., said Yahoo benefited financially by working with authorities. China is the world’s second largest Internet market.
“Defendants had every reason to know and understand that the electronic communication user information they provided to authorities could well be used to assist in the infliction of such abuses as arbitrary arrest, torture, cruel, inhuman or other degrading threat and prolonged detention and/or forced labor,” it said.
In a statement, Yahoo said it was distressed that Chinese citizens had been sent to prison for expressing their views on the Internet.
“However, the concerns raised about the Chinese government compelling companies to follow Chinese law and disclose user information are not new,” it said. “Companies doing business in China must comply with Chinese law or its local employees could be faced with civil and criminal penalties.”
The lawsuit came on a day Yahoo shares fell more than 11 percent after the Internet firm’s earnings announced on Tuesday fell below expectations.
The suit names Yahoo, its Hong Kong subsidiary and Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce firm, as defendants. California-based Yahoo bought a 40 percent stake in Alibaba for $1 billion in a 2005 deal.
Yahoo said the U.S. government should seek to lobby for political prisoners in China.
“We call on the U.S. Department of State to continue making this issue of free expression a priority in bilateral and multilateral forums with the Chinese, as well as through other tools of trade and diplomacy, in order to help secure the freedom of these dissidents,” the firm said.
– original from Reuters: Chinese couple sues Yahoo for man’s imprisonment
Related:
– Chinese Dissident’s Wife Arrive in US to Sue Yahoo, 07 March 2007
Posted in Social, Human Rights, Law, Economy, Speech, City resident, Dissident, World, Company, Politics, email, News, Yahoo, People, China, USA, Internet | 2 Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 19th, 2007
UK City Nottingham’s newspaper The Evening Post published an report titled “Help free my sister from Chinese labor Camp” on yesterday, telling the story of local resident Jane Liang’s family members in China has been put into labor camp because of their belief, and now asking for international help to rescue them.
Wenjian Liang, 39, Jane Liang’s younger sister, lives in Guangzhou, China, with her husband Zhiyong Lin (photo left).
The couple was taken away from home in Guangzhou on Saturday 10 February by over ten policemen in plain clothes, while her family were spending time together with two other families (including 3 children), ahead of the Chinese New Year.
They all have been sentenced to 2 years in a labour camp, without trial.
They are Falun Gong practitioners.
It’s believed that this arrest resembles numerous recent incidents where the communist regime targets educated Falun Gong adherents who could access the Internet, particularly the blocked Falun Gong and Quitting CCP websites.
And also these arrests are thought to be part of the preparation for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The 2 year sentences effectively putting them away till after the Olympics.
Jane’s family has setup an online petition to secure her sister’s release. Please visit this petition site to show your support.
Please visit Jane’s family petition site to show your support.
Posted in Social, Human Rights, Europe, Falun Gong, SE China, Guangdong, Law, World, Politics, Religion, Family, Women,
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Posted by chinaview on April 18th, 2007
On April 13, the Famous Chinese painter Yan Zhengxue was sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” Said by NTDTV, the global Chinese language TV network. Here’s it’s video report:
Mr. Yan’s defense attorney Li Jianqiang told The Epoch Times that initially Yan had been accused by the court of “subverting state power,” but this charge had been reduced to “inciting subversion of state power.” The court had removed charges of him participating in safeguarding land rights of Zhejiang Province and organizing the farmer’s union, collecting donations for Chinese exile writer Liu Binyan, and his secret membership in China’s Democratic Party.
Yan’s conviction was focused on the charges that he had published articles on overseas websites.
Mr. Yan Zhengxue was born in 1944 in Zhejiang Province, China. In 1962, he was admitted to the middle school affiliated with the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1990, he was elected mayor of Yuanmingyuan artist village which is known as China’s “SOHO.” Many of his artistic works have been displayed in China and internationally, especially those paintings which were created during the time when he was in jail.
On October 18, 2006, Yan’s home was ransacked and he was abducted by the Zhejiang Taizhou State Security Bureau. He was charged on October 25 with the crime of “subversion of state power.”
On the afternoon of April 5, 2007, Taizhou Intermediate People’s Court held a hearing on this case. – According to The Epoch Times’ report.
Posted in Speech, Social, Activist, SE China, Yan Zhengxue, Human Rights, Law, Video, Politics, People, China, Artists, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 17th, 2007
Donna Jacobs, The Ottawa Citizen, Canada, Monday, April 16, 2007-
From the Matas-Kilgour report: “The Organ Transplant Center of the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing boldly states: ‘Our Organ Transplant Center is our main department for making money. This year (2004) there is a chance to break through 30,000,000 yuan (about $3.8 million U.S.).’ “
Mr. Kilgour explains that far from being donors or criminals whose organs are taken after execution, these lucrative organs come from peaceful people who rarely see a court.
He says a Falun Gong practitioner, when asked, will admit to being part of the movement because truth is one of Falun Gong’s principles. Once identified, practioners are sent to work camps, where for 16 hours a day they make items for export, including Christmas decorations and promotional materials for multinationals.
“Their blood is tested and they’re carefully tested medically. We’re convinced that they’re tested so that when a westerner goes to Shanghai No. 1 People’s Hospital for a new kidney, for example, the hospital has a computer bank of all the kidneys available from the practitioners. The turnaround time, thus, from arriving in China, undergoing tissue type tests and getting the organ is two weeks.”
One military doctor tested compatibility of seven kidneys before a successful match for one patient from another Asian country. “Eight human beings died,” says Mr. Kilgour, “so he could get a kidney.”
The two lawyers are by no means alone in their campaign. Manfred Nowak, the UN rapporteur on torture, said two-thirds of people tortured in China are Falun Gong practitioners. In March, an article in the respected Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine found the Matas-Kilgour report “credible” given China’s “remarkable” organ transplant rate.
Doctors in three Canadian hospitals — in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary — have reported about 100 Canadians have gone to China for transplants.
Of China’s recently announced ban on the export of transplanted human organs, Mr. Kilgour says, “Laws in China are often observed mostly in the breach, especially when there are hundreds of millions of dollars involved — as in the case of selling organs from Falun Gong practitioners and executed ‘criminals.’
“We hope it’s not just pre-Olympics spin.”
Mr. Kilgour has campaigned for this cause in Australia with Edward McMillan-Scott, Conservative MP and vice-president of the European Parliament. He believes the campaign has collapsed the Chinese organ transplant market there.
“We’re trying to get citizens, parliamentarians and doctors in all 70 countries where there are Olympic committees to raise these issues,” says Mr. Kilgour. “We’re not calling for an Olympic boycott. If we can just create enough pressure, we think the government of China will stop this terrible practice.”
Yesterday, Mr. Matas and Mr. Kilgour left for Pittsburgh and Cleveland (two major transplant centres in the U.S.), then for Asia and Europe.
Retired indeed.
Donna Jacobs is an Ottawa writer. Her e-mail address donnabjacobs@hotmail.com
– original report from The Ottawa Citizen, titled: New Heights for Human Rights
Posted in Economy, Religious, Social, Human Rights, Genocide, Falun Gong, Beijing Olympics, Labor camp, Organ harvesting, all Hot Topic, Canada, Law, Politics, Health, Religion, News, People, USA, World, Trade, China, medical | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 17th, 2007
By Luis Ramirez, VOA News, 17 April 2007-
A Chinese court has sentenced the son of a prominent Muslim activist to nine years in prison on charges that he engaged in secessionist activities. VOA’s Luis Ramirez reports from Beijing.
The court in the far western Chinese city of Urumqi sentenced Ablikim Abdiriyim to prison Tuesday. Officials said he had instigated and engaged in secessionist activities.
The court accused him of spreading articles on the Internet promoting the secession of Xinjiang, a region that has been under Chinese control for centuries and is home to the Turkish-speaking ethnic Uighur people – most of whom are Muslims.
Ablikim is an ethnic Uighur and son of the exiled dissident Rebiya Kadeer. Kadeer had been jailed for five years on subversion charges before Chinese authorities – under U.S. pressure – sent her to the United States in 2005.
Speaking from her home in the United States, Kadeer told VOA she protests the sentencing of her son.
Kadeer says her son is innocent. She says he never engaged in political activities as the court charged.
International human rights activists have long criticized China for using the war on terror as an excuse to crack down on Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Advocates have condemned what they say is the Chinese government’s harassment of Kadeer’s relatives since her release.
Last month, the group Amnesty International said Ablikim had been beaten in prison and had been denied medical treatment.
Chinese officials have slapped tax evasion charges on two other sons.
U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing had no comment Tuesday on Ablikim’s sentencing.
– original report from VOA News
Posted in Social, City resident, Xinjiang, NW China, Human Rights, Law, Politics, People, China, News | 1 Comment »
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Posted by chinaview on April 16th, 2007
The Tartan, April 16, 2007-
Title: “China’s Genocide: Organ Harvesting on Live Falun Gong Practitioners”
The Basics: Four keynote speakers will address China’s unethical means of extracting organs from prisoners, termed “China’s New Genocide.”
In China, practitioners of the spiritual group Falun Gong endure live organ harvesting in which their organs are extracted and put on the market while the victims are still alive. The speakers will recommend ways for the transplant community, the government, and the general public to take action to stop the current practice.
The event is sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs, Student Senate, and a variety of student organizations from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh.
When: Today at 5:30 p.m.
Where: McConomy Auditorium
– original from The Tartan: Lecture Preview
Posted in Religious, Event, Social, forum, Speech, Falun Gong, Genocide, Human Rights, Law, Health, Religion, News, People, USA, World, China, medical | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 16th, 2007
Reuters, Apr 15, 2007-
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Three Gorges Dam reservoir has been fouled by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage, and more than 600 kilometers of the Yangtze river are critically polluted, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, citing a report.
The joint report by an institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the international WWF organization and the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission also said nearly 30 percent of the river’s major tributaries, including the Minjiang, Tuojiang, Xiangjiang and Huangpu rivers, were seriously polluted.
“The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible,” Yang Guishan, a researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the chief editors of the report, told Xinhua.
“It’s a pressing job to regulate such activities in all the Yangtze drainage areas and promote harmonious development of man and nature.”
China’s environment has suffered for years as the country has chased rapid economic growth, with little official attention given until recently to the threats of unfettered growth to the nation’s air, water and soil.
Last month at the opening session of the National People’s Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao called for economic growth goals to be balanced with protection of the environment.
Cities along the Yangtze annually dump at least 14.2 billion tons of waste into China’s longest waterway — which Xinhua said accounts for 35 percent of the country’s fresh water resources.
The river’s annual harvest of aquatic products dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s, according to the joint study.
It also said the Three Gorges Dam reservoir, the world’s largest water storage facility, was seriously polluted by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage from passenger boats.
– Original report from Reuters: China’s Yangtze river extensively polluted: study
Posted in pollution, River, waste, Three Gorges, water, Economy, Environment, China, Social, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 16th, 2007
The China Scope, 4/13/2007-
In a couple of years, Guangzhou residents may no longer be able to taste locally grown bananas. According to the Guangzhou Science and Technological Association, of the 8,667 hectares that are planted with bananas, over 3,333 hectares are infected with the banana-cancer “Panama Disease,” and it is spreading rapidly.
According to the Director of the Biological Research Office at the Guangzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the epidemic began in 1995. In the early stages, only 5% of the banana trees were infected. The number reached 20% by the second year, and over 40% by the third year. All the banana plantations in Dagang, Dongyong, Zhongshan and Hualong have already been wiped out.
Currently, there is no known cure for the disease. The name is derived from an infection that affected a large area of banana plantations in Panama and Columbia in the early twentieth century. At that time, the disease wiped out over a hundred thousand hectares of banana plantation.
– original report from The China Scope report: Bananas May Become Extinct As “Panama Disease” Spreads Throughout Guangzhou
Posted in disaster, Guangdong, SE China, Social, China, Life, Health, Food, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 15th, 2007
The China Scope, 4/13/2007-
According to the Chinese State Administration of Work Safety, recent accidents in the Wangjiasai Coal Mine and the Baijiao Coal mine (two major national coal mines in Guizhou and Sichuan respectively) have resulted in fourteen deaths.
On March 27, 2007, inadequate safety measures resulted in an explosion at the Wangjiasai Coal Mine, and a similar accident took place on April 1, 2007, at the Baijiao Coal Mine.
According to the State Administration of Work Safety, these two incidents reveal troubling issues related to the safety, work and mining conditions of the nation’s state-owned mines.
Moreover, a total of 2,845 mining accidents were reported in 2006, resulting in 4,746 deaths, or an average of 13 deaths per day.
– original report from The China Scope report: Government Reveals 2,845 Mining Accidents Reported In 2006
Posted in Economy, Rural, Worker, mine accident, Social, Law, Life, People, China, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 15th, 2007
Chinese Activist Hu Jia was put under house arrest on April. 10 by China police, after he released a phone recording – his conversation with detained lawyer Gao Zhisheng – onto the Internet on Apr. 6, reported by the Epochtimes.
In their conversation, lawyer Gao said during his 129-day period of detainment, he suffered different forms of torture carried out by inmates for extended periods of time:
He was handcuffed for totally 600 hours, tied to a specially made iron chair for 590 hours, surrounded by strong light for 590 hours, and was forced to sit on the floor with legs crossed for 800 hours; the longest time he was bound to a chair was 109 hours.
After the phone call with Gao, Mr. Hu Jia immediately called the German Embassy and said he would discuss with them the situation of Gao and his family. His call was monitored, resulting in his arrest.
As an AIDS activist and outspoken human rights advocate, Mr. Hu Jia was detained for 41 days early last year. Then he was under police surveillance for more than 200 days until Feb. 16, 2007 when he was allowed to make a trip to Hong Kong.
Mr. Hu Jia is said to be suffering from Hepatitis B and in the early stage of liver cirrhosis.
For further information, please check this Epochtimes report: Activist Hu Jia now under house arrest
Related:
– China Lawyer Tortured, Forced to Confess To Protect Family, April 10, 2007
Posted in Beijing, Speech, Activist, Hu Jia, Social, Human Rights, Politics, People, China, Law, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 14th, 2007
Human Rights in China (HRIC), April 12, 2007-
Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that over 200 petitioners in Shanghai were detained for one day after protesting the content of an official article reporting the success of the petitioning system. Several petitioners remain in detention following further protests of their treatment.
At around noon on April 11, more than 200 Shanghai petitioners, including Ma Yalian, Chen Enjuan, Sun Xicheng and Xi Guozhen, went to the offices of the official Party paper, Shanghai’s Liberation Daily, to protest an article published on April 9.
The petitioners claimed that the article presented a distorted picture of the actual plight of Shanghai’s petitioners. The article stated that more than 80 Letters and Petitions Offices throughout the city had accepted more than 1.1 million petitions in the year 2006, and that “each and every petition had received due attention and reply.”
The petitioners argued that the Liberation Daily as a mouthpiece of the Shanghai municipal government, ignored the voices of the people, was trying to gloss over problems, and presented a misleading picture to the new Party Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Xi Jinping.
Over 100 police officers reportedly confronted the petitioners and forcibly loaded them into police vehicles. They were taken to a secondary school in Shanghai’s Huangpu District, where they were held until the evening and then released.
The following day, on April 12, around 30 petitioners went to see district head Chen Anjie during his regular public session for petitions, and express their dissatisfaction to him, but no one was willing to meet with them. They proceeded to the district government office, where they were confronted by a dozen police officers.
One petitioner, Chen Suqin, was reportedly knocked unconscious during the confrontation. She was taken to a hospital for treatment, but was then taken away by police.
Two other petitioners, Zhang Hui and Liu Shan, were also detained and at last report have not yet been released.
For the past several years, local Shanghai authorities have been cracking down on petitioners through forcible repatriation, illegal detentions and imprisonment based on trumped-up charges.
According to information collected by HRIC, since 2000, at least 100 petitioners in Shanghai have been detained, sent to Reform Through Labor, or sentenced on criminal charges.
HRIC urges the new Party Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Xi Jinping, who has expressed public concern over the situation of petitioners in Shanghai, to address their complaints and critically reexamine the current policy towards petitioners.
– original report from Human Rights in China: Shanghai Petitioners Detained following Protests
Posted in shanghai, corruption, City resident, East China, Speech, Social, Politics, People, China, Human Rights, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 13th, 2007
You may heard that traditional Chinese culture was deadly destroied by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during a 10-year period of Culture Revolution started from 1966.
Even till today, CCP’s efforts to against traditional Chinese culture still not stopped.
Here’s the news: Chinese officials in New Zealand are exerting pressure on sponsors and VIPs in attempts to block support for an international Chinese cultural show – Divine Performing Arts, which is hosted by independent TV network NTDTV, held at The Civic Theatre in downtown Auckland on Thursday, April 5, 2007.
Here’s an video report about the incident on Youtube:
Some facts about the Culture Revolution:
During the Culture Revolution, “Starting in August 1966, the raging fire of the “Casting Away the Four Olds” burned the entire land of China. Regarded as objects of “feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism,” the Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, Buddha statues, historical and scenic sites, calligraphy, paintings, and antiques became the main targets for destruction by the Red Guards.
Take the Buddha statues for example. There are 1000 colored, glazed Buddha statues in relief on the top of Longevity Hill in the Summer Palace in Beijing. After the “Casting Away the Four Olds,” they were all damaged. None of them has a complete set of the five sensory organs any more.” – On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 6
* Note: “Four Olds” – old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits
Question: Why is Communist China so aggressively against Traditional Chinese culture?
Brief answer: the Communist theory opposes traditional Chinese culture. The traditional Chinese culture is an obstacle to the CCP’s dictatorship and challenges the legitimacy of the CCP rule.
Then: What is the traditional Chinese culture? What is the Communist Party’s Philosophy? Why and how did the CCP destroied traditional Chinese culture?
First, The “philosophy” of the Communist Party completely contradicts the authentic traditional Chinese culture.
“The traditional beliefs of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism offered the Chinese people a very stable moral system, unchangeable “so long as heaven remains.” This ethical system offered the basis for sustainability, peace, and harmony in society.”
“Traditional culture respects the mandate of heaven, as Confucius once said, “Life and death are predestined, and wealth and rank are determined by heaven.” [20] Both Buddhism and Taoism are forms of theism, and believe in the reincarnation cycle of life and death, and the karmic causality of good and evil.
The Communist Party, on the contrary, not only believes in atheism, but also runs wild in defying the Tao and assaulting heavenly principles.
– Confucianism values family, but the Communist Manifesto clearly promulgates abolition of the family.
– Traditional culture differentiates the Chinese from the foreign, but the Communist Manifesto advocates the end of nationality.
– Confucian culture promotes kindness to others, but the Communist Party encourages class struggle.
– Confucians encourage loyalty to the monarch and love for the nation. The Communist Manifesto promotes the elimination of nations. ” – extract from On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
Second, Traditional Culture Is an Obstacle to the CCP’s Dictatorship
“Loyalty in traditional Chinese culture does not mean blind devotion. In the eyes of the people, the emperor is a “son of heaven”—with heaven above him. The emperor cannot be correct at all times.
Therefore there was a need for observers to point out the emperor’s mistakes all the time.
The Chinese chronicle system had historians record all the words and deeds of the emperor. Scholastic officials could become teachers for their sage kings, and the behavior of the emperor was judged by the Confucian classics.
If the emperor was immoral—unenlightened to the Tao, people might rise up to overthrow him, as was the case when Chengtang attacked Jie, or in King Wu’s removal of Zhou. [23] These uprisings, judged from traditional culture, were not considered violations of loyalty or the Tao. Instead, they were seen as enforcing the Tao on behalf of heaven.
The dictatorial CCP could by no means accept traditional beliefs such as these. The CCP wanted to canonize its own leaders and promote a cult of personality, and so would not allow such long-held concepts such as heaven, Tao, and God to govern from above.
The CCP was aware that what it did was considered the most heinous and enormous crime against heaven and the Tao if measured by the standards of traditional culture. They were aware that as long as the traditional culture existed, people would not praise the CCP as “great, glorious, and correct.” Scholars would continue the tradition of “risking their lives to admonish the monarch,” “maintaining justice at the expense of their lives,” and place the people above the rulers. Thus, the people would not become CCP puppets, and the CCP could not force conformity on the thoughts of the masses. ” – extract from On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
Third, Traditional Culture Challenges the Legitimacy of the CCP Rule
“Traditional Chinese culture believes in God and the heavenly mandate. Accepting the mandate of heaven means that rulers have to be wise, follow the Tao and be attuned to destiny. Accepting belief in God means accepting that authority over humanity rests in heaven.
The CCP ruling principle is summarized as, “Never more tradition’s chains shall bind us, arise ye toilers no more in thrall. The earth shall rise on new foundations; we are but naught; we shall be all.” [27]
The CCP promotes historical materialism, claiming that Communism is an earthly paradise, the path to which is led by the pioneer proletarians, or the Communist Party. The belief in God thus directly challenged the legitimacy of the CCP’s rule. ” – extract from On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
For the details about traditional Chinese culture, the Communist Party’s Philosophy, why and how did the CCP destroied traditional Chinese culture, please watch the following youtube video:
First half Second half
Related:
– Leaked Document: Chinese Embassy Tried to Silence TV Network in Canada, April 4th, 2007
Posted in Australia, Social, Human Rights, Speech, Report, Communist Party, the Party Culture, Incident, Chinese Culture, Law, Video, Politics, Religion, People, history, World, China, Culture, News | No Comments »
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Posted by chinaview on April 12th, 2007
By JOSEPH KAHN, New York times, April 10, 2007-
BEIJING, April 9 — Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most outspoken dissidents until his conviction on sedition charges late last year, said in a recorded statement made available over the weekend that while his confession had resulted in a light sentence, it had been made under mental and physical duress.
Mr. Gao’s remarks, recorded by a close friend and offered to journalists in Beijing, were his first public statement since he was convicted in December. He was given a suspended sentence.
His confession brought criticism from some other human rights advocates.
Mr. Gao lives in Beijing with his wife and children. But he said he remained in nearly total isolation, surrounded by plainclothes security forces and forbidden to leave his home, use his telephone or computer or otherwise communicate with the outside world.
He also said that a lengthy confession letter released to the public by the authorities after his conviction, while genuine, had come only after he had been subjected to torture. He said his interrogators repeatedly threatened to punish his wife and children unless he admitted the crimes they said he had committed.
“Although in the past I had some idea of how this group ignores justice, how they nakedly and impudently use evil means to realize their objectives, I really did not understand well enough,” Mr. Gao said, referring to Chinese public security forces.
He said his captors had forced him to sit motionless in an iron chair for extended sessions that totaled hundreds of hours, surrounded him with bright lights and used other torture techniques aimed at breaking his will. He said he had agreed to their terms because they repeatedly intimated that the well-being of his wife and children could not be guaranteed unless he cooperated.
“In the end I decided I could not haggle about my children’s future,” he said.
Mr. Gao, a lawyer, gained prominence among human rights advocates and grass-roots organizers in China and their supporters overseas for his uncompromising denunciations of police and judicial abuses and his scathing open letters to senior Communist Party leaders.
He called attention to what he described as systematic abuses against members of the Falun Gong spiritual sect, which is banned in China. He also helped organize a hunger strike against intimidation tactics used by the country’s State Security forces.
Mr. Gao lost his license to practice law in late 2005, and in August of last year he was arrested while traveling in Shandong Province.
The authorities repeatedly described Mr. Gao’s cooperative attitude in custody. A few months after he was arrested, they released a letter in which Mr. Gao declared that he had severed all ties with his former colleagues working for human rights and that he did not desire to have a defense lawyer represent him in court.
Judicial officials said in announcing the verdict in his case that Mr. Gao not only admitted his own crimes but had also provided information about other outstanding cases.
Those claims prompted a mixed reaction among Mr. Gao’s friends and supporters. Some said they worried that he had betrayed former colleagues and expressed disappointment that he had compromised with the authorities after a short stint in captivity.
Others said they suspected that officials had elicited a confession from him by using extreme pressure and that the public release of documents in his case was intended to ruin his reputation and divide his allies.
Mr. Gao issued his remarks, the first explanation of his confession, through Hu Jia, a longtime friend and fellow human rights organizer who managed to reach him by telephone. Mr. Hu recorded the conversation with Mr. Gao’s consent, according to the tape.
Attempts to reach Mr. Gao directly were unsuccessful.
In the recording, he denied that he had betrayed any secrets that could harm other dissidents. But he acknowledged that he had let down his colleagues by confessing.
“I don’t have the ability to get news from outside, but I bet much of it is about my so-called surrender and open declaration,” he said, referring to documents released by the authorities. “When these matters are raised, my heart is flooded with unbelievable shame.”
He said he had decided to earn a decent living for his family instead of seeking to change China’s political system. “In the future I don’t aspire to be much use to society, but rather to be of more use to my family,” he said.
But he said intensive security had turned his house into a new jail for him and his family, making it impossible for him to earn a living and forcing him to speak out once again.
– original report: China Dissident Says Confession Was Forced
Related:
– Gao Zhisheng: ‘I Will Fight for My Family’s Living Rights’, The Epoch Times, Apr 09, 2007
– Letter Expose Tortures of Chinese Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, April 12th, 2007
Posted in Torture, Speech, Activist, Lawyer, Hu Jia, Gao Zhisheng, Beijing, Social, Family, Politics, People, China, Human Rights, Law, News | 1 Comment »
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Posted by chinaview on April 12th, 2007
Taken away by tens of police to an unknown place in Beijing on August 15, 2006 and was detained till December 22, in a total of 129 days imprison without reason, the well-known Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng:
(photo left: Lawyer Gao Zhisheng; Right: Activist Hu Jia) :
– was called as number “815″, no one was supposed to ask his name; was sent to cell No. 124 on the west side, and slept in the No. 4 bunk.
– was handcuffed for 600 hours
– fixed to a specially made iron chair for 590 hours
– illuminated by strong lights on both sides for about 590 hours
– was forced to sit on the floor cross legged to examine his sins for 800 hours and was forced to wipe down the bunk bed boards 385 times
– Since November 29, Mr. Gao was forced to cooperate with the regime to produce a video for admitting guilt “without pressure,” announcing my declaration “voluntarily,” and re-shooting the interrogation records.
Above maltreatment was first time exposed by Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng in his 3rd letter to rights activist Hu Jia, which was read on the phone by Mr. Gao to Hu, on April 4, 2007 in Beijing, while Mr. Gao is house-arrested and the house being surrounded by over one hundred plainclothes police every day.
Mr. Gao’s first two letters failed to reach Hu Jia due to the Chinese communist regime’s severe suppression and surveillance.
The whole letter, according to the voice record of the comunication between Mr. Gao and China rights activist Hu Jia, can be found from the Epochtimes’ website, titled “Gao Zhisheng’s Letter to Fellow Rights Activist“.
Know more of Gao Zhisheng’s illegal imprison from following youtube video report:
Related:
– China arrests dissident lawyer for subversion, Reuters, Oct 12, 2006
– Chinese Police Detain Prominent Human Rights Lawyer, VOA News, 18 August 2006
Posted in Torture, Speech, Activist, Lawyer, Hu Jia, Gao Zhisheng, Beijing, Social, Video, Politics, People, China, Human Rights, Law, News | No Comments »