John Kamm Speaks on "How Tiananmen Changed China" on 20th Anniversary of June Fourth Crackdown

[Updated on June 9, 2009]

On June 3, Executive Director John Kamm delivered a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco before nearly 100 attendees entitled, “How Tiananmen Changed China,” twenty years after the June Fourth crackdown at Tiananmen Square brought an end to pro-democracy demonstrations. (Listen to or read the speech.) Touching on his work and the efforts of Dui Hua to help free June Fourth prisoners, Kamm examined how the Chinese government’s response to Tiananmen has affected its handling of dissent as well as China’s global image and relations with other countries. He also pointed out how the events of twenty years ago had an impact on the country’s economic development and led to the emergence of a human rights consciousness in China.

After his talk, Kamm fielded several questions, including on what may have been a more appropriate response by Chinese leaders to the movement on Tiananmen Square; the significance of local elections in China as a fledgling exercise in democracy; and how Hong Kong, which has actively protected free expression and dissent, has faced this controversial anniversary as a territory officially under Beijing’s administration.

The speech was entered into the record of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s hearing on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.

The program was co-sponsored by the Commonwealth Club and the Asia Society of Northern California.

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• “How Tiananmen Changed China,” speech by John Kamm, Commonwealth Club of California, June 3, 2009

John Kamm to Speak on "How Tiananmen Changed China" on June 3 in San Francisco

On Wednesday, June 3, Executive Director John Kamm will give a speech entitled, “How Tiananmen Changed China,” at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. Kamm will speak exactly twenty years after the June Fourth crackdown at Tiananmen Square brought an end to pro-democracy demonstrations for which some participants are still imprisoned. He will examine how the Chinese government’s response to Tiananmen has affected how the government handles dissent and how it has shaped China’s relationship with the world. Kamm will also review his work and the efforts of The Dui Hua Foundation to help free June Fourth prisoners.

Beginning at 6 PM, this program is open to the public. To register, please visit the website of the Commonwealth Club or Asia Society of Northern California, who are co-sponsoring the event.

Last-Known June Fourth "Hooligan" Released from Prison

Liu Zhihua (刘智华), the last-known prisoner serving a sentence for "hooliganism" committed during the spring 1989 protests, was released in January 2009 from Loudi Prison (娄底监狱) in Hunan Province after receiving a two-year sentence reduction in December 2008, according to information received late last week from a reliable source in China.

Liu, who was 24 years old at the time, was among a group of workers who organized a strike at the Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Works in June 1989 to protest the suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing. The strike at the large state-owned enterprise of more than 10,000 employees was one of the largest industrial labor actions of the 1989 protests and also a highly charged political event because Xiangtan is the hometown of Chairman Mao Zedong.

Four leaders of the group known as the Xiangtan Workers Autonomous Federation were given heavy sentences for hooliganism, a vaguely defined offense that was removed from China’s criminal law in 1997. Liu Zhihua was given a life sentence, as were Peng Shi (彭实) and Liu Jian (刘健). Chen Gang (陈刚), originally sentenced to death with two-year reprieve, had his sentence commuted and then reduced on several occasions before he was finally released in 2004 after 15 years' imprisonment. Like Chen, Peng Shi was released after several reductions in 2004. (Dui Hua has been unable to obtain information about Liu Jian despite repeated attempts to do so. Based on information received late last week, the foundation has concluded that he is not currently imprisoned in Hunan Province.)

According to media accounts at the time of his arrest, Liu Zhihua incited crowds with anti-government speeches. His life sentence was commuted in September 1993 and he was given a new sentence of 15 years, lengthened by five years in January 1997 for fighting. In 2001, after renewed international interest in his case, he was given a two-year sentence reduction, followed eight years later by another two-year reduction. Most of Liu’s sentence was served in Longxi Prison, which was consolidated with Loudi Prison in 2001. He also served two seven-day stretches of punitive solitary confinement: one in 2003 for resisting labor assignments and a second in 2005 for resisting labor assignments and having a poor attitude. As with most political prisoners, upon his release Liu’s political rights will be suspended. For five years his ability to leave Xiangtan will be restricted and he will be prohibited from giving interviews, among other restrictions.

It is possible that other prisoners convicted of hooliganism remain in prison for their involvement in the 1989 disturbances. However, Liu Zhihua is the last one about whom the Chinese government has regularly released information in human rights dialogues with other governments and bodies like the International Labor Organization. At least three prisoners are still serving sentences for counterrevolutionary crimes committed during the 1989 protests. (Counterrevolution was also removed from the criminal code in 1997.) With news of Liu’s release, Dui Hua has updated its list of June Fourth prisoners known or suspected to be still incarcerated and maintains its estimate of 30 individuals still imprisoned for crimes committed during the 1989 protests.

"According to Dui Hua’s records," said Executive Director John Kamm, "Liu Zhihua was the last leader of an autonomous workers federation—independent labor unions set up during the spring 1989 protests— serving a prison sentence. His release brings closer the day when no one in China is serving a sentence for offenses committed on or around June 4, 1989."

Dui Hua Reduces Estimate of Remaining June Fourth Prisoners

Based on newly obtained information, The Dui Hua Foundation now estimates that approximately 30 individuals are still serving sentences for offenses committed during the protests that took place in China in the spring of 1989. Dui Hua hopes the Chinese government will commute the sentences of these last remaining June Fourth prisoners.

Dui Hua previously estimated that 50 to 60 June Fourth Prisoners remained incarcerated; two important developments have informed Dui Hua’s revised estimation. First, over the past several months the Chinese government informed the foundation of the early release of several long-serving June Fourth Prisoners, including Wei Yingchun in Shanghai, Zhang You in Sichuan, and Shi Xuezhi and Li Zhixin in Beijing. Peng Jiamin, the last-known June Fourth prisoner in Shanghai, is due for release on May 21, and Wu Chunmin’s sentence is set to expire on June 23.

Second, late last month the popular Chinese language news and opinion website Boxun published a detailed list of 104 individuals incarcerated in Beijing Number Two Prison for crimes allegedly committed during the riots that broke out in Beijing in the spring of 1989. The list was originally compiled in 1994 by activist and Charter 08 signatory Li Hai, an act that led to his own incarceration from 1995 to 2004. Of the 104 prisoners appearing on the list, all but six have been released, according to research done by human rights campaigners such as Sun Liyong, a former June Fourth prisoner freed in 1998.

The ten remaining June Fourth prisoners Dui Hua knows to be incarcerated are listed in the accompanying chart. This list is based on information provided by the Chinese government that has confirmed these prisoners’ incarceration. Dui Hua also has dated or incomplete information on another nine named June Fourth prisoners believed to be incarcerated, and estimates that there are roughly a dozen more June Fourth prisoners whose names remain unknown to us. Dui Hua continues to conduct research into the events of the spring of 1989 and occasionally turns up names of individuals arrested and, in some cases, convicted for June Fourth-related crimes whose fates remain unknown.

Most of those still imprisoned in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Hunan were young workers at the time of the disturbances. This group suffered the most casualties when troops opened fire, and some of these workers responded by setting fires and fighting against police and military forces. Those arrested and convicted were given sentences of either death with two-year reprieve or life imprisonment for crimes such as counterrevolutionary sabotage, hooliganism, and arson. (Counterrevolution and hooliganism were removed from China’s criminal law in 1997.)

“Today, most of these prisoners are middle-aged men who have benefited from several sentence reductions as testimony to their good behavior,” said John Kamm, Dui Hua’s executive director. “Releasing them would be broadly welcomed in China and around the world. Dui Hua looks forward to the day when the Chinese government will provide a full accounting of those detained for offenses committed during the 1989 protests.”

Dialogue Newsletter Analyzes US Human Rights Policy For China

The Spring 2009 issue of Dui Hua's Dialogue newsletter has just been published. Leading off the newsletter is an article on the formation of US human rights policy toward China early in the Obama administration. It discusses complexities and questions about the human rights dialogue following remarks by US Secretary of State Clinton on working with China on major issues—the global financial crisis, among others—but not, Dui Hua contends, to the exclusion of human rights.

In addition, this Dialogue features articles on prison overcrowding in the United States and China, countries sharing more problems in this area than either side often cares to admit. The prisoner and research section has a rich mixture: response information that hints at clemency around the Beijing Olympics last year and other pieces—on counterrevolutionaries who have “resisted reform” in prison and the death of an inmate at a Yunnan detention center—that allow readers a glimpse into China’s penal system.

News About Dui Hua highlights the advocacy and dialogue work of the foundation, with rundowns on the year’s first round-the-world mission and the many connections made with foreign diplomats and other overseas visitors via Dui Hua’s office in Hong Kong.

Dui Hua's entire Spring 2009 newsletter can be read as DIALOGUE.online, only available at www.duihua.org.

Please subscribe to receive our free quarterly Dialogue newsletter either by email (beginning with the Summer 2009 issue) or as a print copy.

Yale Event Delves Into Prisoner Lists, Other Methods of Human Rights Advocacy

On April 28, Executive Director John Kamm delivered a presentation to students at Yale University’s China Law Center. The presentation, "Issues and Cases: A Human Rights Dialogue with the Chinese Government," was the final installment in the Workshop on Chinese Legal Reform spring series.

Kamm introduced Dui Hua’s history and work, and described the process of preparing and submitting prisoner lists. The speech was followed by an hour of lively discussion during which students and faculty inquired whether Kamm’s method could be replicated and debated the merits of various methods of human rights advocacy.

Hong Kong Program Focuses On US-China Relations, Dui Hua’s Advocacy and Research

In a March 6 talk sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Executive Director John Kamm spoke about areas affecting US-China relations, including trade and economic conditions, the human rights dialogue with the Chinese government, and possible implications for China’s overseas image presented by the 60th Anniversary Special Pardon proposal under consideration in China.

Following the speech, a discussion with attendees touched on Dui Hua’s experience that advocating for the release of political prisoners contributes to systemic change in China, and also the sense that Dui Hua’s research into open-source materials has not perceptibly reduced the publication of criminal justice data by the Chinese government.