Human rights situation worsens
China by Jun Xing On 5 October 1998 the Chinese government, signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which he signed over a year ago, has still not been endorsed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Many of the rights listed in these Covenants are also in the Chinese Constitution. But people exercising these rights have been persecuted and imprisoned on charges of subversion or counter-revolutionary
At the World Human Rights International Symposium (Beijing, 21-22 October 1998), Chinese officials said that China had not revised its views on human rights. At the closing ceremony, Zhao Qi, Director of the News Bureau of the State Council, said that the Chinese government integrates the general principle of human rights with the concrete situation in China, and the right to life and to development are prioritised. Qian Qishen, Minister of Foreign Affairs, asserted at the opening ceremony that whereas European countries stress individual rights, Asian countries stress the rights of the community and the responsibility towards family and
The rhetoric of such statements is obvious: prioritising the right to life and to development is used as a pretext for the suppression of the citizens' political and social rights,
"collective" is just a word used to replace the rights of the
The President of the Chinese Human Rights Research Association, an official organisation, said that Chinese realities are different from those of other countries, and the Chinese government has to consider how it will implement the Covenants and how they can link with Chinese law (Cheng Pao, Oct 8).
In reality, the government continues to stipulate laws that prohibit the rights of citizens. Lately, Zhu Rongji, Premier, signed the "Interim Ordinance on the Registration and Management of Civil, Non-Enterprise Units", which applies to societies engaged in non-profit making social activities using non-state owned funds. The Interim Ordinance stipulates that these societies "must not violate the country's unity, security and solidarity of the nationalities, and must not damage the country's interests and society's public interests".
Li Peng, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, also said that the government would not tolerate any civil organisations that oppose socialist market economy, object to social stability, advocate multi-party system, and negate the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (Apple Daily, Dec 2). Jiang Zemin, Party General Secretary, in his Dec 18 speech, also asserted that "all criminal activities that disrupt the social order and the market order, and damage social stability must be severely suppressed... they must be eliminated in the bud".
Indeed, the government has conducted a series of repression of civil • The Preparatory Committee of the Chinese Democratic Party was ordered to disband, and its leaders in over ten provincial capitals were detained. Its three leaders, Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai, were respectively sentenced to 13, 12 and 11 years of imprisonment on the charge of conspiring to subvert the state regime. • On 30 October 1998, "Corruption Watch", claiming a membership of over a hundred in 11 provincial capitals, was ordered to stop all its activities. Its applications in September and October to the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau for registration were rejected. • The mild "Chinese Development Association", composed mostly of intellectuals, registered in Hong Kong, with a membership of over four thousand in the mainland, and claiming subscription to Marxism and support for the Chinese Communist Party, held its first Congress on Oct 4-5 in Beijing, attended by almost a hundred representatives from all over the country. On Oct 26, its property was seized and confiscated, and it was ordered to disband. One of its leaders, Peng Ming, had his passport confiscated • Also on Oct 26, 40 representatives of the "Chinese Family Church", claiming a membership of 80 million Christians, were all arrested. Over a members were subsequently arrested in Nanyang city.
Persecution of dissidents actually intensified after China signed the two International Covenants. Between Oct 25 and 27, over 40 dissi-
On Oct 28, Yu Tielong, a member of the Chinese Democratic Party, stood for election as village chief in Shanding Village, Zhejiang Province, and obtained the largest number of votes. The election was declared null and void by the authorities. In mid November, another member of the party, Gao Hongming, stood for election as deputy to the Beijing People's Congress, but was deterred by the authorities, and was prevented from distributing leaflets to the
On Nov 24, a group of workers from an ammunition factory in Beijing signed a joint letter nominating dissident He Qing to run for election as deputy to the People's Congress. The management cancelled his nomination on the ground that He Qing had participated in the Democracy Wall Movement of 1979 and June Fourth of 1989
Wang Wanxing, a dissident in Beijing who displayed a banner on June 4, 1992 at the Tiananmen Square demanding rehabilitation of June Fourth has been detained in a mental hospital for 6 years. Shang hai dissident Wang Miaogeng was also locked into a mental hospital in 1993, and has not been heard of since.
The above information -revealed in newspapers in Hong Kong - may only be the tip of the iceberg of repression. The stringent wave of repression recently launched reveals the authorities' fear of a reorganisation of the movement for democracy in a time of accelerating social contradictions, rising worker protests, and increasing peasant riots. The social and political atmosphere is changing, anticipating the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstration on 4 June 1989. Source: October Review Vol.25 Issue 5/6 1998. Contact: October Review, G.P.O.Box 10144, Hong Kong. e-mail: or@earthling.net
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