China has been a member of the ILO since its founding in Closed trial proceedings and trial procedures that unfairly disadvantage criminal suspects and defendants continue to contravene protections in both Chinese and international law. Public security administrative powers remain unchecked despite growing media coverage and public controversy. Chinese and international media reported on various criminal justice policy developments during this reporting year, including reforms to stem the use of coerced confessions, to limit the number of executions, and to address public dissatisfaction with public security authorities.
The Chinese government adopted legislation and regulations that signal new challenges for human rights advocates and reformers within the justice system. Public security officers continued to engage in extralegal tactics such as harassment, assault, kidnappings, and illegal detention in order to punish Chinese citizens who expressed dissent or sought to defend their rights and the rights of others.
When Zhao refused to comply with the public security officers because the summons did not specify a charge, the police officers added "provoking an incident" to the summons. Shanghai public security officers reportedly detained, threatened, and placed under surveillance housing petitioners that sought to exercise their constitutional right to petition. Lawyers and rights defenders who took on "sensitive" cases or who became involved with "sensitive" issues during the past year were harassed, abducted, or beaten by public security officers or unidentified personnel working under the direction of, or with the knowledge of, the public security bureau.
In November , public security officers detained Jiang Tianyong, a prominent human rights lawyer, for more than 13 hours, after he and other activists gathered outside the U. Embassy for a possible meeting with President Obama. Although China officially claims to have outlawed torture in with amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law and the Criminal Law, torture and abuse by law enforcement officers remain widespread.
Public security officers have allegedly employed various torture measures, including beatings, electric shock, cigarette burnings, and sleep deprivation.
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In May, the China Daily reported that officials in Shangqiu city, Henan province, admitted police officers had tortured criminal suspect Zhao Zuohai into confessing to a murder. In June, the Procuratorial Daily reported that the "wrongful case of Zhao Zuohai" had sparked a "great amount of public concern," particularly over the causes behind such an injustice. During this reporting year, Chinese authorities announced new measures intended to limit inmate abuse and police torture by improving the criminal justice system. This is counter to provisions under Article 14 3 d of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in but has not yet ratified.
Most Chinese defendants confront the criminal process without the assistance of an attorney. In late and early , the case against prominent Beijing-based lawyer Li Zhuang and its handling figured prominently in national Chinese news and in ongoing debates over Article Chinese lawyers and criminal defendants continue to face numerous obstacles in defending the right to a fair trial. Closed trials, political influence, and a lack of transparency in judicial decision-making remain commonplace within the justice system.
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Arbitrary detention in China takes many forms and continues to be used widely by Chinese authorities to quell local petitioners, government critics, and rights advocates. Arbitrary detention includes various forms of extralegal detention, such as "black jails" hei jianyu ; "soft detention" ruanjin , a form of unlawful home confinement; reeducation through labor, an administrative detention of up to four years for minor crimes; and forcible detention in psychiatric hospitals for nonmedical reasons.
Another form of extralegal detention—shuanggui often translated as "double regulation" or "double designation" —is used by the Communist Party for investigation of Party members, most often officials in cases of suspected corruption. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention defines the deprivation of personal liberty to be "arbitrary" if it meets one of the following criteria: 1 there is clearly no legal basis for the deprivation of liberty; 2 an individual is deprived of his liberty for having exercised rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights UDHR and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICCPR ; or 3 there is grave noncompliance with fair trial standards set forth in the UDHR and other international human rights instruments.
The "soft detention" that numerous human rights defenders, advocates, and their family members are subjected to has no basis in Chinese law and constitutes arbitrary detention under international human rights standards. In late April , for example, public security officers held housing rights advocates and victims of forced evictions under "soft detention" at their homes in order to prevent them from drawing attention away from the Shanghai World Expo.
Strategically posted surveillance cameras ensure that no one in the vicinity can escape police eyes. Zheng, who is 60, only leaves when summoned by police and has been summoned at least 77 times since for interrogations that are intimidating and occasionally physically abusive.
His home has been searched 11 times, and five computers have been confiscated. He generally has no Internet access, and his phone is monitored when not disconnected. Petitioners and activists across China continue to face the threat of police surveillance and home confinement for criticizing government policies, challenging officials, and advocating for human rights.
Huang Yuqin, a Shanghai resident whose home was demolished on March 2, , was placed under "soft detention" and prevented from leaving her home on at least one occasion. Public security officers continue to use the reeducation through labor RTL system to silence critics and to circumvent the criminal procedure process.
RTL is an administrative measure that allows Chinese law enforcement officials to order Chinese citizens, without legal proceedings or due process, to serve a period of administrative detention of up to three years, with the possibility of up to one-year extension. During this reporting year, the Commission observed numerous accounts of RTL orders violating the legal rights of Chinese citizens, specifically their rights to a fair trial and to be protected from arbitrary detention.
On April 13, , the Shanghai RTL Committee ordered Shanghai petitioner Chen Jianfang to serve one year and three months of RTL for committing "acts disruptive to social order," after he participated in a peaceful protest outside of Peking University on April 17, Human rights advocates and legal experts within China have been calling for an end to RTL for decades. In , another public call to end RTL came in the treatise Charter 08, which was signed initially by Chinese intellectuals, human rights advocates, and others.
The Charter states: "All persons should be free from unlawful arrest, detention, summons, interrogation, and punishment.
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The system of reeducation through labor should be abolished. During this reporting year, Chinese authorities continued to use "black jails" hei jianyu , secret detention sites established by local officials, to detain and punish petitioners who travel to Beijing and provincial capitals to voice complaints and seek redress for injustices.
Inside the black jails, detainees are denied access to legal counsel and in most cases, contact with family and friends. A November Human Rights Watch HRW report detailed condi-tions at the black jails: "Detainees are kept under constant surveillance, and subject to often arbitrary physical and psychological abuse including beatings, sexual violence, threats and intimidation. The Chinese government continues to deny the existence of black jails. In November , Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang told reporters: "I can assure you there are no so-called black jails in China.
We put people first, and we are an administration for the people. Black jails arose as a substitute for the dismantled "custody and repatriation" shourong qiansong centers that had been used to detain petitioners and undocumented migrants until the centers were abolished in According to the HRW report on black jails, guards at the detention centers "routinely subject [the] detainees to abuses including physical violence, theft, extortion, threats, intimidation, and deprivation of food, sleep, and medical care.
During this reporting year, the Commission observed reports by international and domestic Chinese media organizations on black jails, as well as on the network of personnel that intercept and abuse petitioners. The Oriental Outlook report stated there were at least 73 black jails in Beijing alone. Chinese human rights observers stated that this was the first time an official, high-level magazine acknowledged the existence of black jails; however, the article did not appear to influence official statements on the existence of black jails or prompt official calls to abolish the detention centers.
Shuanggui investigations often precede formal Party disciplinary sanctions or the transfer of suspects to law enforcement agencies, if there has been a violation of the criminal law. Although those under investigation are reportedly held under conditions preferable to police detention, in , Professor Jerome Cohen pointed out that the suspects are "generally held incommunicado and denied some of the protections to which criminal suspects are entitled at least in principle.
With official sources reporting an increase in violent crime and escalating social tensions with high-profile school attacks, Chinese officials launched anticrime campaigns across China during the reporting year. In addition to the national "strike hard" campaign, provincial, municipal, and lower level governments also undertook anticrime and anticorruption campaigns. Launched in June , the Chongqing anticrime campaign continued to capture national publicity and lead to numerous high-profile trials and arrests.
By April , Chongqing authorities had arrested 14 high-ranking officials and more than 3, others in the crackdown. While officials alleged that Li urged his client to make false claims of torture by police and directed a lawyer to make claims in support of the allegations, various Chinese lawyers have asserted "that the prosecution of Li is a political vendetta because he, unlike most of the other defense lawyers, fought hard for his client. At the same time, however, Chinese scholars and lawyers have expressed concern that efforts to satisfy public resentment and meet anticrime targets have led to procedural inconsistencies and wrongful convictions.
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Jiang Ping, former President of the China University of Politics and Law, strongly criticized the handling of the Li Zhuang case in an essay widely circulated online, stating "[n]o matter what you think about it, from the most basic level, procedural justice was violated. The article states "the procedural rights of criminal suspects and defendants to a certain extent are deprived—which is not consistent with the spirit of the rule of law.
During this reporting year, Chinese authorities denied medical parole and adequate medical treatment to those within the prison system, particularly human rights advocates. The U. Authorities first diagnosed Zhang with advanced-stage muscular dystrophy in , after determining that he was "suffering from muscle contractions and spasms of the hands and feet, and gradual weakening of his entire body.
In December , China gained international attention for executing British defendant Akmal Shaikh, the first EU national to be executed in China since , after refusing to allow Shaikh to be examined by a doctor. Lethal injection was legalized in China as an alternative to execution by firing squad in the Criminal Procedure Law. In December , Liaoning province became the first province to adopt lethal injections as the sole form of execution. After several reports on the handling of suspicious detention center deaths, the Ministry of Public Security released new guidelines on management and education in deten-tion centers.
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II 1 , art. The first case that came to light in involved the death in February of year-old Li Qiaoming at a detention center in Yunnan province, which was initially explained by officials to have resulted from fatal injuries sustained during a game of "hide-and-seek" duo maomao with other inmates. The media and blogosphere spread news of the case. Internet users expressed anger over the death and the unconvincing explanation given by the officials, and called for an investigation.
Article 42 of the Law on Lawyers states that lawyers must fulfill their obligations to provide legal aid services. Unregistered groups risked harassment, detention, imprisonment, and other abuses, as did members of registered groups deemed to deviate from state-sanctioned activities. As leadership in the State Administration for Religious Affairs SARA changed in the past year, 3 authorities continued to affirm policies of control over religion. Despite articulating a "positive role" for religious communities in China, officials did not then use the notion of this "positive role" to promote religious freedom, but rather used the sentiment to bolster support for state economic and social goals.
The government continued to use law to control religious practice rather than protect the religious freedom of all Chinese citizens.
Both include, for example, limits on the activities of clergy and other religious workers that were absent from the earlier provincial legal measures they replace. The Chinese government and Communist Party exercise control over the doctrine and religious practices of Han Buddhists in non-Tibetan areas in much the same manner as they do for other religious communities.
During this reporting year, the government continued to control the institutions and religious practices of Buddhists in an effort to bring them into conformity with Party goals and policies. The government requires Buddhist groups and religious personnel to register with the Buddhist Association of China BAC 15 in order to practice their religion and hold religious services legally, 16 and authorities tend to allow a wider scope of activities for Buddhist groups that work more closely with them.
Local authorities continued to monitor and control unregistered Buddhist groups and activities during this reporting year, labeling certain groups "cult organizations" and characterizing unapproved religious practices as inconsistent with legal measures. For example, the government continued to enforce a ban against at least one Buddhist group that it has designated a "cult organization": a Taiwan-based sect known as the Quan Yin Method Guanyin Famen. In addition, the government continued to harass or detain some members of both communities, which are estimated to equal between 4 million and 12 million believers.
For example, since the s, the Chinese Government has denied members of the Chinese official church the freedom to recognize the authority of the Holy See to select Chinese bishops. In January , CPA Vice Chair Liu Bainian called on Chinese Catholics to "continue to raise high the banner of loving the country and loving religion, [and] insist that the independent, autonomous, self-managing church be unwavering. At least 40 unregistered Chinese bishops are in detention, home confinement, or surveillance, are in hiding, or have disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
After public security officials held underground bishop An Shuxin in custody for 10 years, he joined the CPA in July If there must be unity, it must come through the government and the [CPA]. Authorities restricted the freedom of Catholics to visit the Sheshan Marian shrine, in Shanghai municipality, during the period surrounding the Shanghai World Expo. The Shanghai World Expo, held from May to October , became the latest in a series of events that the Chinese government has seized upon as justification for ongoing "security" crackdowns that aim to ferret out and punish Falun Gong practitioners.
In the lead up to and during the Shanghai Expo, authorities conducted propaganda campaigns deriding Falun Gong, carried out strict surveillance of practitioners, detained and imprisoned large numbers of practitioners, and subjected some who refused to disavow Falun Gong to torture and other abuses in prison and reeducation through labor facilities. Authorities also continued to arbitrarily imprison Falun Gong practitioners in cases unrelated to the Shanghai Expo.
The government has not ceased its harassment and intimidation of lawyers who defend Falun Gong clients in the Chinese judicial system, which the Commission first reported in its report. Local governments throughout the Shanghai municipal area reported mobilizing security forces to target Falun Gong practitioners in preparation for the Shanghai World Expo. The crackdown against Falun Gong carried out in the name of providing security for the Shanghai Expo extended well beyond the Shanghai municipal area into surrounding provinces hundreds of miles away from the Expo site.
In April , officials in Fuzhou city, the capital of Fujian province, announced a "large dragnet investigation" during the period of the Shanghai Expo that would "strengthen monitoring and control of Falun Gong practitioners" and "ensure that they do not have contact with people from the outside. The 6—10 Office—an extralegal, Party-run security apparatus created in June to implement the ban against Falun Gong— spearheaded the Shanghai Expo crackdown against Falun Gong.
Beyond the Shanghai Expo crackdown, government reports from elsewhere in China indicate that the 6—10 Office continues to expand its activities to punish Falun Gong practitioners, whom authorities sometimes describe as "diehard" 88 or "obsessed," 89 and close potential openings for the movement to grow. The Ministry of Commerce reported in November that a county-level commerce bureau in Hunan province had established an internal " work leading group" that feeds intelligence reports to the 6—10 Office and "stability maintenance office" weiwenban.
Chinese authorities maintained tight controls over Islam in China.