Dui Hua News

Dui Hua Appeals for “Olympic Pardon” For Long-Serving Prisoners

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:00:00 +0000

(中文译文在英文声明后 / A Chinese translation of this statement follows the English version)

The Dui Hua Foundation has appealed to the Chinese government to grant an "Olympic pardon" in conjunction with the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing. The pardon would apply to long-serving prisoners who no longer pose a threat to society and are nearing the end of their sentences.

The appeal for the special pardon was expressed in an April 24, 2008, letter from Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm to Wu Bangguo (吴邦国), Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's highest legislative body. Kamm pointed out that no Olympic host has ever declared a pardon for long-serving prisoners: "China has an historic opportunity to be the first Olympics host to do so, thereby leaving an important humanitarian legacy for future hosts."

Article 67 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China grants the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress the power to grant special pardons for prisoners. The power has been exercised in the past when the Committee issued pardons to imprisoned officers of the Nationalist Party (KMT) and other prisoners. These pardons were issued on seven separate occasions between 1959 and 1975.

In his letter to Chairman Wu, Kamm writes that "a fundamental principle of the Olympics has been the Olympic Truce," which has historically promoted peace, solidarity, and humanitarianism during the games. On October 31, 2007, the resolution submitted by China to endorse the Olympic Truce was adopted at the United Nations General Assembly. Since 1993, when Olympic Truce resolutions became standard in the UN, China has supported the principle as a resolution co-sponsor, and an Olympic pardon for long-serving prisoners is a natural expression of the Olympic Truce ideal.

Kamm closed the letter by saying that the Standing Committee is "best qualified to determine the scope of the Olympic pardon," and that, in the spirit of wishing for the success of the Beijing Olympics, Dui Hua "hope[s] that the scope will be broad, reflecting the deep humanitarianism of the Chinese people and the ideals of the International Olympics movement."

"An Olympic pardon would not target any one group of prisoners," says Kamm in reference to Dui Hua's letter. "But a pardon for those who have served the great bulk of their sentences would result in the release of the remaining prisoners from June 1989—symbolically putting that tragedy behind the Chinese people—as well as those still serving sentences for counterrevolution, a crime removed from China's criminal law in 1997."

「对话」呼吁为长期服刑的囚犯实施"奥林匹克特赦"

中美对话基金会呼吁中国政府为迎接即将就举行的北京夏季奥运会，实行"奥林匹克特赦"。特赦的对象可包括那些已长期服刑又近刑满、并不再危害社会的囚犯。

2008年4月24日，基金会执行董事康原致函中国人大常委会委员长吴邦国建议实施特赦。康原指出，因为以往并无奥运举办国实施特赦的先例，所以，"中国正把握着一个历史性的机遇，成为第一个颁布'奥林匹克特赦'的东道主，为今后的举办国留下一个重要的人道主义传统"。

依据中华人民共和国宪法第六十七条，人大常委有权力就决定实施囚犯特赦。自1959至1975年，人大常委会七次行使了这一权力，赦免了大批在押的国民党官员及其他犯人。

在致吴邦国委员长的信中，康原提到，"奥运会[成员国]都遵守奥林匹克休战的基本原则。"奥运赛事期间，参赛各方应宣扬和平、团结与博爱。2007年10月31日，联合国大会通过了中国提交的《奥林匹克休战决议》。自1993年奥林匹克休战被纳入联合国的规范以来，作为倡导国之一的中国一直予以支持。所以，中国对已长期服刑的囚犯实施特赦，正是遵循奥林匹克休战理念恰如其分的具体表现。

康原在信末坦诚："由人大常务委员会来确定奥林匹克特赦的范围是最为合适的"。在祝愿北京奥运会圆满成功的同时，「对话」也期望"[特赦包括］一个广泛的范围，从而反映出中国人民深厚的人道主义精神及国际奥林匹克运动所代表的理念"。

康原就特赦范围进而阐述："'奥林匹克特赦'不应只限定于某一类的囚犯。若特赦能适用于所有已服完大部分刑期的囚犯，仍在押的"六•四"犯人也将受益，有利于他们及其亲友摆脱这一事件带来的阴影。此外，中国已于1997年从刑法中取消了"反革命罪"，特赦也将为仍在狱中服刑的反革命罪犯赋予新生"。

John Kamm Speaks at Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:05:00 +0000

[Edited 3/29/08]

Executive Director John Kamm was the Awards Ceremony Guest Speaker for the 12th Annual Human Rights Press Awards at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong on March 29.

Kamm's speech, "China's June Fourth Prisoners: The Long Road to Justice," addressed the cases of individuals detained in the “counterrevolutionary riots" that occurred throughout China in 1989. In appealing for the release of the prisoners, Kamm offered details on several cases, touched on the role of journalists and researchers in making known the names of political prisoners, and linked a range of human rights concerns to current choices and opportunities of importance to China and the world.

The Human Rights Press Awards are co-organized by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, and Amnesty International Hong Kong.

Statistics Show Chinese Political Arrests Rose Again in 2007

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:05:00 +0000

Chinese arrests for "endangering state security" (ESS) rose again in 2007 to their highest level in eight years, according to statistics announced by a senior Chinese law enforcement official on March 10. The increase in Chinese political arrests follows a doubling of such arrests in 2006 over 2005.

In delivering the Supreme People's Procuratorate's annual work report to the National People's Congress, China's highest legislative body, outgoing Procurator-General Jia Chunwang revealed that Chinese prosecutors had approved "formal" arrests for 2,404 individuals detained by public security and state security police in ESS cases during the five years from 2003 to 2007.

"The figure cited by Jia means that the number of ESS arrests in 2007 reached 742—the highest number since 1999," noted Joshua Rosenzweig, manager of research and programs at The Dui Hua Foundation. "There's no guesswork about this—the numbers for all the other years have already been published by the Chinese government."

The latest figures show that more than half of all Chinese political arrests during the five-year period beginning in 2003 were concentrated in the years 2006 and 2007. The statistics revealed last week also show an increase in the number of prosecutions initiated in ESS cases, with 619 indictments in 2007, compared to 561 in 2006 and 349 in 2005.

Under Chinese law, "endangering state security" crimes include prohibitions against subversion and "splittism" (including the incitement thereof), as well as espionage and "illegally providing state secrets to overseas entities." Basically replacing the category of "counterrevolution" following legal reforms in 1997, the ESS provisions are primarily aimed at suppressing political dissent in the name of protecting the "security and interests of the [Chinese] state." Other, non-ESS charges are also commonly brought against individuals who lead "rights defending" protests against injustice or participate in unauthorized religious groups.

Among those formally arrested on ESS charges in 2007 were Zhejiang political activist Lü Gengsong (sentenced in February 2008 to four years in prison for "inciting subversion"); Runggye Adrak, Adruk Lopoe, and two other Tibetans connected to an incident in August during which pro-independence slogans were shouted, and Yang Chunlin, a farmer from Heilongjiang currently awaiting sentencing for leading protesters in a demand for "human rights, not the Olympics." (The case of activist Hu Jia, whose trial for "inciting subversion" is scheduled to open on March 18 in Beijing, is not counted under the 2007 statistics because he was not formally arrested until January 2008.)

"These numbers remind us that in spite of all of the information that comes out of China about the government's crackdown on political dissent," said Rosenzweig, "for the most part the arrests are taking place out of the public view. Even after all of our research, it turns out we still only know the names of two or three percent of those being arrested."

Winter 2008 Issue of Dialogue Newsletter Published

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:49:00 +0000

The Winter 2008 issue of Dui Hua's newsletter, Dialogue, is now available. The lead article examines human rights territory—the defense of environmental rights—that will only grow in importance as China tackles ecological problems that bear serious legal ramifications. Coverage of Dui Hua’s program trip to China offers close-up accounts of staff presentations to officials and scholars. The foundation hopes such activities will lead to a further opening of channels for exchange on legal and criminal justice issues with Chinese partners.

This Dialogue discusses the release of the last individual known to Dui Hua who was imprisoned for non-violent political acts during the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989. More research findings touch on an increase in state security arrests and a lost appeal to overturn convictions handed down in 2007 after a “mass incident” in southern China.

The current issue also runs down Dui Hua's busy close to 2007, with, among other news, the “Making a Difference” feature on Executive Director John Kamm on NBC Nightly News and the foundation’s co-sponsorship of a seminar by a Swedish ambassador.

You can read the entire content of the Dialogue newsletter as DIALOGUE.online, an online resource only available via www.duihua.org. Please subscribe if you wish to receive a free copy of the printed Dialogue newsletter.

John Kamm Speaks at Stanford Law School

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:36:00 +0000

On March 3, Executive Director John Kamm spoke about business and human rights in China to students in Professor Jonathan Greenberg's International Negotiation course at Stanford Law School.

Dui Hua Web Site Adds Chinese Content, Selected Features Section

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Chinese-language web pages and a new Selected Features section have been added to the Dui Hua web site, upgrades that follow the October 2007 launch of a vastly revamped www.duihua.org.

Site visitors can now learn about Dui Hua’s mission, history, programs, and activities in Chinese. The recently translated content is intended as yet another resource from Dui Hua for those who monitor human rights in China. 现在，您可以通过中文介绍来了解「对话」的使命，历史，工作项目了。「对话」最近刚刚完成了新网站的中文翻译工作，为关注中国人权的人士提供了新的资源。

Selected Features, which appears at the bottom of the home page, is a convenient space bringing together prominent work and media coverage of the foundation, including Dui Hua's work on the Yahoo! Internet subversion cases and John Kamm's feature on the "Making a Difference" series on NBC Nightly News from December 2007.

Happy New Year From The Dui Hua Foundation!

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:59:00 +0000

The Dui Hua Foundation wishes everyone a Happy Chinese New Year of the Rat! We also extend our thoughts to individuals imprisoned in China for political and religious offenses, and we hope for their good health, humanitarian treatment, and early reunion with their families and friends.

John Kamm Gives Talk at the University of California Hastings College of the Law

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:17:00 +0000

On February 4, Executive Director John Kamm gave a presentation about the background and work of The Dui Hua Foundation to a group of law students at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

John Kamm Featured on NBC Nightly News

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:50:00 +0000

John Kamm, founder and executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation, was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on Friday, December 28, on the “Making a Difference” segment that closes the broadcast. The profile on Kamm, entitled "Selling China on human rights," showcases his human rights work that became the cornerstone of Dui Hua's mission, with footage shot over a 30-year period in China and Hong Kong and interviews with officials as well as released prisoners who have benefited from Kamm’s advocacy. A "guest blog" written by Kamm accompanies the special profile.

NBC Nightly News describes the “Making a Difference” series as “conceived in response to viewers who complain that the broadcast features only ‘bad’ news.” The popular segments focus on exceptional individuals who pursue causes that directly “make a difference” in the lives of others. NBC Nightly News has an audience of up to 10 million viewers.

More Official Statistics Point to Increasing Crackdown on Political Dissent in China

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:32:00 +0000

The number of political cases handled by Chinese courts in 2006 increased by nearly 20 percent over the previous year, according to statistics published recently in an official Chinese legal yearbook.

Based on data from the 2007 China Law Yearbook, Chinese courts received 344 cases involving charges of "endangering state security" (ESS) in 2006, compared with 288 cases received in 2005. This is the highest number of ESS cases brought before Chinese courts since the category was introduced into the country's criminal law in 1997. Chinese courts concluded a total of 310 ESS trials in 2006, up from 299 in 2005.

"Using a conservative estimate of two defendants per trial on average, this would mean that more than 600 individuals were tried in political cases in 2006," notes John Kamm, executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation. "Add to that the fact that Chinese courts convict roughly 98 percent of defendants in such cases, and you have a significant increase in the number of political prisoners in China."

The Dui Hua Foundation reported on November 27 that Chinese prosecutors approved the arrest of 604 individuals on ESS charges in 2006, more than double the number for 2005 and the highest number of such arrests since 2002. (The figure of 604 was erroneously cited in a letter to the International Olympic Committee published on November 29 by Reporters Sans Frontières, in which it was claimed that the number of ESS trials had doubled in 2007 over 2006.)

"There are a number of reasons why the numbers for arrests and trials don't match up from year to year," explains Joshua Rosenzweig, The Dui Hua Foundation's manager of research and programs. "A major reason is that political cases such as these tend to drag on as investigators compile evidence and judges seek guidance from superiors regarding how to handle sentencing. Even though Chinese law calls for speedier processing, it's not unusual for a defendant to spend a year or more in detention waiting for the outcome of a case to be finalized."

Unlike the figures it provides for arrests, the China Law Yearbook does not specifically list ESS trials in annually published statistics. Since 1999, the number of ESS cases has been combined with cases involving "dereliction of duty by military personnel" in a category of trials simply labeled "other." Based on a comparison with earlier statistical data, however, Dui Hua estimates that 99 percent of the cases covered by this "other" category involve ESS crimes.

Under Chinese law, "endangering state security" crimes include prohibitions against subversion, "splittism," and incitement that are primarily aimed at suppressing political dissent in the name of protecting national security. Other, non-ESS charges are also commonly brought against individuals who lead "rights-defending" protests against instances of perceived injustice or participate in unauthorized religious groups.

"When one considers all of these other cases alongside the more explicit political cases in China," points out Kamm, "it's difficult to conclude that China's human rights situation is improving in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing."

Dui Hua Staff Speak to Mainland Chinese Audiences on US Justice Issues

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:57:00 +0000

In mid-November 2007, Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm and Joshua Rosenzweig, the foundation’s manager of research and programs, made presentations before audiences in China on the topics of citizen oversight of US police forces and the lethal injection debate in the United States. They were hosted by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) and local procuratorates in Wuhan and Yichang, Hubei Province. The speaking engagements were arranged by Prof. Dan Wei, a high-ranking official with the SPP who came to the San Francisco Bay Area this past March for a week-long exchange program on criminal justice hosted by Dui Hua.

On November 15, Kamm spoke to an audience of more than 100 police officers, prosecutors, and other officials in Yichang in an address broadcast by TV to other locations in the municipality. His three-hour PowerPoint presentation—with Chinese translation—marked the first time Chinese law enforcement officials had been introduced to the concept of civilian oversight. The audience asked many questions following the presentation, and officials also discussed how citizen complaints are handled in China.

In Wuhan, Kamm later gave a shortened version of the presentation to officials from the local procuratorate and prison administration bureau. Kamm described the US system of access to prisoners and to prisoner information, which is considerably more open than the Chinese system.

On November 14, Rosenzweig addressed the Wuhan University School of Law, and on November 19 he addressed law faculty and students at Renmin University in Beijing. Delivering his lectures in Chinese, Rosenzweig introduced the controversy surrounding lethal injection procedures used in the United States. Because lethal injection is an increasingly common method of capital punishment in China, Chinese legal scholars are carefully watching the outcome of the Supreme Court’s consideration of the constitutionality of lethal injection during the court’s current term.

Several officials who spoke with Kamm and Rosenzweig brought up the sharp drop in executions since the Supreme Court resumed the power of death penalty review on January 1. In these exchanges, the officials mentioned numerous reasons for the decrease, including: more sentencing of the death penalty with two-year reprieve; increased use of compensation to crime victims’ families as a means to avoid imposition of the death penalty; serious debate over instances of wrongful executions; and the prohibition of the transplant of prisoners’ organs to anyone other than close family members.

"The presentations on aspects of the US justice system that Dui Hua gave in China reflect our organization's commitment to a two-way exchange of opinions and experiences between experts in the US and China," said John Kamm. "We hope in the future to visit places of detention and attend trials in China, something we were unable to do on this last visit."

Related links:

Visit Promotes Dialogue on US-China Criminal Justice (PDF on Prof. Dan Wei's program in the Bay Area, Dialogue, Spring 2007, Issue 27)
US Lethal Injection Procedures Face Supreme Court Scrutiny (DIALOGUE.online, Fall 2007, Issue 29)

Dui Hua Co-sponsors Bay Area Seminar by Swedish Ambassador

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:33:00 +0000

Dui Hua co-sponsored a seminar by Ambassador Börje Ljunggren from the Asia Department of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Friday, November 30, at Stanford University. Free and open to the public, the seminar was entitled, “Human Rights and Political Reform in Contemporary China: Views from a Swedish Diplomat and Scholar.” For more information, click here or download a seminar flyer (PDF).

New Statistics Point to Dramatic Increase in Chinese Political Arrests in 2006

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:44:00 +0000

Chinese arrests for "endangering state security" (ESS) doubled in 2006 over the previous year, according to official statistics recently released by the Chinese government.

The just-published 2007 China Law Yearbook reveals that in 2006 state prosecutors approved the arrest of 604 individuals detained by public security and state security police in ESS cases, up from 296 in 2005. This marks the highest number of ESS arrests in China since 2002.

The statistics also show the initiation of prosecutions in 258 ESS cases involving 561 individuals in 2006, compared to 185 cases involving 349 people in 2005.

"These are some of the only official numbers that the Chinese government publishes with respect to its handling of political crime," notes John Kamm, executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation. "This dramatic increase in arrests confirms the heightened crackdown on dissent in China that we've been witnessing since at least the middle of 2005."

Since its founding in 1999, The Dui Hua Foundation has been engaged in a global search for information about Chinese political detainees and maintains a comprehensive database of information about Chinese political prisoners. Yet despite their intensive research efforts, foundation researchers were surprised to see how few of the individuals arrested for ESS in 2006 were in that database.

"Given the lack of transparency in the Chinese criminal justice system, we've estimated in the past that we know about roughly 10 percent of all Chinese political cases," explains Joshua Rosenzweig, Dui Hua's research manager. "But these latest figures suggest that arrests have been taking place on a larger scale and under even greater secrecy than before."

Among the roughly two dozen cases in Dui Hua's database that can be correlated to the 2006 statistics are the arrests of veteran political activists such as Yang Tongyan, Chen Shuqing, Yan Zhengxue, and Zhang Jianhong; the crusading defense lawyer Gao Zhisheng; and brothers Alim and Ablikim Abduriyim, who were implicated in the activities of their Uyghur-rights activist mother, Rebiya Kadeer. Also presumably included in the arrest figures for 2006 are more than 10 unconfirmed arrests of Tibetan activists in the eastern Tibetan regions traditionally known as Amdo and Kham.

Under Chinese law, the "endangering state security" category comprises such crimes as subversion and "splittism" (including the incitement thereof), as well as espionage and "illegally providing state secrets to overseas entities." Basically replacing the category of "counterrevolution" following legal reforms ten years ago, the ESS provisions are primarily aimed at suppressing political dissent in the name of protecting the "security and interests of the [Chinese] state."

In addition to those charged with ESS crimes, the Chinese criminal justice system punishes a much larger number of individuals for participation in banned organizations such as Falun Gong, membership in unauthorized religious groups, and taking part in "mass incident" protests against corruption, land seizures, environmental damage, and other injustices. These individuals are typically charged with crimes under the category of "disturbing the social order," a category too broad to draw any meaningful conclusions about total numbers from the annual statistical information revealed in the China Law Yearbook.

Fall 2007 Issue of Dialogue Newsletter Published

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:39:00 +0000

The Fall 2007 issue of Dui Hua's newsletter, Dialogue, is now available. The cover article considers the impact of China's global prominence and overseas activities on its human rights record and the human rights dialogue itself. Two articles on lethal injection—one each focusing on the United States and China—describe the direction this form of capital punishment is taking in the two countries.

This issue of Dialogue shares updates on three protesters imprisoned for crimes linked to the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. Newsletter readers will also learn about the Bay Area visit by a Hong Kong legislative councilor and the foundation's most recent activities: the opening of a Dui Hua office in Hong Kong and the new web site launch.

You can now read the entire content of the Dialogue newsletter as DIALOGUE.online, an online resource only available via www.duihua.org. Please subscribe if you wish to receive a free copy of the printed Dialogue newsletter.

Police Document Evidence, Dui Hua Testimony on Yahoo!'s Role in Chinese Internet Cases

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:43:00 +0000

In July 2007, Dui Hua research uncovered Chinese police documents related to the role of Yahoo! in the Internet subversion cases of dissidents Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. Dui Hua translated the documents and posted them with summary and commentary on the foundation's web site in two separate postings. For the convenience of site visitors, the information released by Dui Hua in late July appears below in one combined posting.

On November 7, 2007, Dui Hua’s Manager of Research and Programs Joshua Rosenzweig gave remarks related to the Yahoo! cases at a briefing entitled “China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison” before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) in Washington, DC. The full text of his remarks can be viewed here.

In addition, selected news articles cover how Dui Hua's work contributed to public awareness of the role of Yahoo! in these cases.

Police Document Sheds Additional Light on Shi Tao Case (7/25/07)

New documentation of the Beijing State Security Bureau’s request for user account information from Internet company Yahoo! in the case of Chinese journalist Shi Tao raises new questions about how much the company knew at the time of the request about the nature of the police investigation.

The police document, a copy of which recently surfaced on the web site of the US-based Chinese-language web site Boxun.com, is essentially a standardized search warrant making clear that Chinese law enforcement agencies have the legal authority to collect evidence in criminal cases. (The Dui Hua Foundation has produced a full English translation of the document, which it has examined and believes to be authentic.)

Addressed to the Beijing representative office of Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd., the April 2004 notice specifies that evidence is being sought in a case of suspected “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” (a state security crime under China’s criminal code) and requests the account registration, login times and corresponding IP addresses, and email content over a two-month period in early 2004 for a specific Yahoo! email account, huoyan1989@yahoo.com.cn. Court documents have already revealed that this account information was used as evidence in the trial against Shi.

In February 2006 testimony before two congressional subcommittees investigating the practices of American Internet companies in China, Yahoo! senior vice president and general counsel Michael Callahan stated: “When Yahoo! China in Beijing was required to provide information about the user, who we later learned was Shi Tao, we had no information about the nature of the investigation.” While condemning China’s punishment of free expression, Callahan noted that Yahoo! was authorized to comply with legally authorized law enforcement requests in the countries in which it operates.

“This new documentation suggests that Yahoo!’s Beijing office was at least aware of the general nature of the crime being investigated in the Shi Tao case,” says Joshua Rosenzweig, manager of research and publications for The Dui Hua Foundation, “even if it was unaware of the specific circumstances or the name of the individual involved. One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that ‘state secrets’ charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China.”

“We must remember,” Rosenzweig adds, “that before Shi Tao there were three other Chinese dissidents about whom Chinese police obtained user information from Yahoo! in Beijing. If we assume that law enforcement agencies investigating these cases followed the same procedures to obtain that information, three other notices would have been provided specifying investigations into subversion or incitement—crimes of a more unambiguous political nature.”

Shi Tao, sentenced in 2005 by a court in Hunan Province to 10 years’ imprisonment for “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities,” was jailed for sending an overseas web site details of a secret government memorandum warning Chinese media outlets against voicing opinions contrary to official policies during the months prior to the sensitive 15th anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. Shi recently joined another jailed Chinese dissident, Wang Xiaoning, in seeking damages in US federal court against Yahoo! and its Hong Kong subsidiary.

More Evidence Emerges on Yahoo!’s Role in Chinese Internet Cases (7/30/07)

Documents in another of four known cases involving Yahoo! and the imprisonment of Chinese dissidents show conclusively that information provided by the company’s Beijing office was being used as part of Chinese police investigations into political crimes.

In this case, emails from Wang Xiaoning supplied to police by Yahoo! were used as evidence that he disseminated writings opposed to the Chinese government and its policies. A Beijing court subsequently found Wang guilty of “inciting subversion” and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. (The documents, which The Dui Hua Foundation has examined and believes to be authentic, are appended along with English translations.)

On April 23, 2002, agents of the Beijing State Security Bureau approached Yahoo!’s Beijing office with a notice requesting information about a Yahoo! Groups account as well as registration and login information for two Yahoo! email addresses. In a subsequent request for information on August 14, 2002, police sought registration information, login information, and email messages for another Yahoo! email account, all of which appear to have been provided on that same day by Yahoo!’s Beijing office. Both of the police notices clearly state “suspected inciting subversion” as the cause of the investigation.

On September 1, 2002, Wang Xiaoning was taken into custody by police in Beijing on suspicion of “inciting subversion.” He was charged with using an online newsletter to attack the government and advocate multi-party elections, and he was alleged to have used his Yahoo! accounts to disseminate the political writings of his “Chinese Third Way Party” to hundreds of recipients. Sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court on September 12, 2003, Wang is due for release from Beijing Number Two Prison on August 31, 2012.

These documents follow Dui Hua’s July 25 report on a police document in the case of Shi Tao revealing that Yahoo!’s representative office in Beijing had information that investigators were pursuing a case involving a leak of state secrets. User account information provided to police in response to that document was later used to convict Shi on state secrets charges and sentence him to ten years’ imprisonment. Previously released court documents have also shown that Yahoo! user account information was provided by the company in the course of police investigations into the subversion cases of Jiang Lijun (sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in November 2003) and Li Zhi (sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in December 2003).

Related links:

Joshua Rosenzweig Gives Remarks on China and the Internet before Congressional Caucus

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:10:00 +0000

Dui Hua’s Manager of Research and Programs Joshua Rosenzweig gave remarks at a briefing entitled “China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison” before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) in Washington, DC on Wednesday, November 7. The full text of his remarks can be viewed here.

Dui Hua to Give Remarks on China and the Internet before Congressional Human Rights Caucus on November 7

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:11:00 +0000

Dui Hua’s Manager of Research and Programs Joshua Rosenzweig will be among the invited speakers to give remarks at a briefing entitled “China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison” before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) in Washington, DC on Wednesday, November 7.

The below information is from a notice released by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus:

Please join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for a briefing on the subject of human rights and the Internet in China. The briefing is open to the public and media, and will be held on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2255 of The Rayburn House Office Building.

China has long developed one of the most sophisticated content-filtering Internet regimes in the world. The Chinese government employs sophisticated methods to limit content online, including a combination of legal regulation, "voluntary codes of conduct," internet surveillance, and criminal sentencing to brutally suppress the free flow of information and to promote self-censorship.

Informational websites, including that of the BBC, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and the public encyclopedia, Wikipedia, have been partially or completely blocked in China. Particularly in light of the upcoming 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government has made it very clear that it intends to crack down on any information critical of the Chinese regime and its actions. For this purpose, President Hu Jintao announced earlier in April of this year a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of "unhealthy content" and to "purify" it.

For some time human rights organizations have raised their concerns about freedom of expression and Internet censorship in China. In 2004, Yahoo came under fire for giving the personal email address of a Chinese journalist, Shi Tao, to the PRC government, which resulted in his conviction and sentence to 10 years in prison. Other Internet companies have closed down journalists' blogs under pressure from the Chinese authorities and have self-censored their search engines and blog tools.

Dui Hua Opens New Office in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:11:00 +0000

Dui Hua is pleased to announce the recent opening of a branch office in Hong Kong, which will complement and expand on work done from the foundation’s office in San Francisco. The main goal of establishing the Hong Kong office is to increase our capacity to conduct research, programs, and development activities connected with China and Asia as a whole. The office is funded by Dui Hua’s Special Program/Development Fund (SPDF), established in 2005 to support new directions for human rights exchanges and organizational development.

With its location, the Hong Kong office has potential to help strengthen ties between Dui Hua and Chinese criminal justice officials, who increasingly visit the Special Administrative Region, and allows the foundation to build links with NGOs, journalists, and foreign diplomats in Hong Kong. The office is already proving its value in the area of research, since Dui Hua staff is able to make frequent use of Hong Kong’s libraries—still the best repository of materials of interest to the foundation—while researching other collections related to China’s criminal law on a regular basis.

Program and Research Officer Scott Berkland is based in the Hong Kong office, where he works with Dui Hua’s newest staff member, Flora Lee, who joined the foundation in July 2007 as a research and administrative assistant. Before coming to Dui Hua, Flora earned a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University. She completed her undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, where she studied for a B.A. in Environmental Studies. In Hong Kong, Flora assists with a range of administrative tasks and conducts research, especially for the foundation’s “mass incident” database.

Dui Hua Launches New Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:12:00 +0000

The Dui Hua Foundation has launched a new version of its web site (www.duihua.org), integrating the first substantial improvements since the site went live in 2001. The many updates are geared to enhance the online experience for our visitors, who we hope will enjoy Dui Hua's fresh approaches to site content, navigation, and visual design.

The revamped site includes two new main features: DIALOGUE.online, an online version of Dui Hua's Dialogue newsletter only available on our web site, and the Human Rights Journal, a forum for Dui Hua to comment on topics of human rights and rule of law in China, with official Chinese-language materials as principal sources.

Site navigation has been improved through revised menu options, allowing for convenient access to new content such as a summary of Dui Hua's history and achievements, details on the new "mass incident" database, and audio and video coverage of our advocacy work.

Please note that our new site requires Adobe Flash and Java Script.

Thank you for visiting and for your interest in Dui Hua's work!

Note to Site Visitors: www.duihua.org to be updated on October 6

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:06:00 +0000

On the morning of October 6 (Pacific Daylight Time in the USA), Dui Hua will be launching a revamped version of this web site (www.duihua.org)—with new features, more menu options, and fresh content. If you cannot access our site during the updating process, please visit our mirror site at www.duihua.hk until this web site is live again.

In addition, please revise referrals to our site if you have linked to any of our web pages, and note that Dui Hua News will not be accessible during the updating process.

Thank you for visiting and for your patience—and check back soon to see the new www.duihua.org!

Life Sentence Commuted for Former Xinhua News Official, New Sentence Imposed

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:34:00 +0000

Chan Yu-lam (陈瑜琳), a Hong Kong resident and naturalized British citizen convicted of espionage in 2004, has had his life sentence commuted to a fixed-term sentence of 19½ years, The Dui Hua Foundation has learned from an informed source in China.

The Shaoguan Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province ordered the commutation on August 15, 2007. Chan's new sentence will expire on February 14, 2027.

"Under Chinese law, a prisoner whose life sentence is commuted receives no credit for time served," said Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm. "However, a prisoner with a fixed-term sentence is in a better position to receive future sentence reductions, and it is also easier for the prisoner to receive medical parole. Chan Yu-lam suffers from multiple illnesses, including gout, glaucoma, and bronchitis, and we understand that his family is applying to the prison authorities to grant him medical parole."

Chan Yu-lam was taken into custody by Chinese security police on January 31, 2003, after crossing the border at Shenzhen to attend a business meeting. The authorities charge that Chan passed secrets to an alleged British agent while employed as a foreign affairs official at the Xinhua News Agency, which served as the Chinese government's de facto representative office in Hong Kong prior to the former British colony's handover in 1997.

Chan was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on March 4, 2004. After his appeal was rejected in August 2004, Chan was then transferred to Shaoguan Prison, where he continues to serve his sentence.

Several other former Xinhua employees were also arrested with Chan in connection with what Chinese officials at the time claimed to be a "Hong Kong spy ring," though no clear links between the detainees have ever been independently confirmed.

After leaving Xinhua in 1994, Chan managed the European assets of Guangdong Enterprise Holdings, Ltd. He became a British citizen in 1996. However, the Chinese government has refused to recognize Chan's British citizenship in adjudicating his case and has repeatedly denied British requests for consular access since his detention.

Long-Serving June 4 Prisoner Set for Release

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:50:00 +0000

Li Weihong (李卫红), one of China’s longest-serving prisoners arrested during the spring 1989 demonstrations, will be released from prison on November 11, 2007 following his fifth sentence reduction, The Dui Hua Foundation has learned from a reliable source in China.

Originally sentenced in 1989 to death with a two-year reprieve, Li is one of the last known prisoners serving a sentence for "hooliganism," a crime, like counterrevolution, that no longer exists in China's Criminal Code (the two crimes were removed effective October 1, 1997). Li was a 21-year-old worker at the Hunan Fire Fighting Equipment Factory in Changsha, Hunan Province when he became involved in organizing street protests that turned violent in April 1989.

"Li’s latest reduction took place earlier this year, probably around the time the sentence for the counterrevolutionary Hu Shigen was reduced," said John Kamm, Dui Hua's executive director. "Hundreds of prisoners like Li and Hu are still serving sentences for crimes that were removed from China’s criminal law nearly 10 years ago. The Chinese government should release them, something called for under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Li Weihong was detained on April 23, 1989 and formally arrested on April 30, 1989. After the suppression of the June 4 demonstrations in Beijing, Li was found guilty of hooliganism by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court on June 22, 1989, and subsequently sentenced to death, suspended for two years. Six others tried with Li on charges of "beating, smashing, looting and burning" were convicted, sentenced to death, and executed shortly thereafter.

In 1992, the Hunan Province Higher People's Court commuted Li's death sentence and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment. Because of good behavior, the life sentence was reduced to a 17-year sentence on September 12, 1995 and set to expire on September 11, 2012, with subsequent deprivation of political rights for seven years. Since 1997, Li has received three additional sentence reductions—in 1997, 2001, and 2007—totaling four years and 10 months. He will be 40 years old when his sentence expires on November 11, 2007. Li has served his entire sentence in Hunan's Chishan Prison, beginning on March 20, 1990.

For more than 15 years, Dui Hua has asked Chinese authorities for information on Li, the longest-serving prisoner known to Dui Hua who was convicted in the spring 1989 protests that culminated in the June 4 killings in Beijing. The recent communication about Li's impending release was the first detailed information provided by a Chinese government source since he was sentenced in 1989. In the 1990s, Li figured prominently on prisoner lists submitted to Chinese authorities, but he is now rarely included on lists handed to Beijing by foreign governments.

Welcome Return for Chinese Dissident, Others Not Free to Travel

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:10:00 +0000

The reunion last week of Boston-based Chinese dissident Yang Jianli with his wife and son after five years in a Chinese prison hopefully marks the first of many conciliatory gestures Beijing will make as it prepares to improve China's image in the area of human rights before next year's Olympic Games.

In particular, the fact that Yang was granted a Chinese passport—identifying him as a Chinese citizen with the right to return to China at will—could be seen as a sign of Beijing's softening stance toward political dissent. Looking closer, however, at this and other recent events suggests that Yang Jianli's passport is the exception and that China still plans to use restriction on travel as a means of punishing those who hold different political views.

Obtaining a passport was a particularly sweet victory for Yang, who having left China for the United States after the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, was not allowed to return because of his continued outspokenness on the need for political reform in China. Without a passport, Yang risked returning to China in 2002 using a friend's documents. Once discovered, he was subjected to a protracted two-year pre-trial detention before finally being sentenced to five years in prison on charges of espionage and illegal border crossing.

Since his return to the United States, Yang has revealed that he had refused four opportunities for early release in part because Chinese authorities could not guarantee his right to return to China. Last September, Chinese authorities arranged Yang's release only to have him turn the offer down at the airport because they would not make such a guarantee. From the moment he was released from prison in April, Yang embarked on a frustrating quest to confirm his status as a Chinese citizen and receive a passport.

One of the most unusual things about Yang Jianli's new passport is that, strictly speaking, it appears to have been issued in violation of Chinese law. Though released from prison, Yang was still technically serving his sentence, having been deprived of his political rights for a year under the court's original verdict. This means that under China's Passport Law, which prohibits individuals serving sentences from obtaining a passport, Yang should not have been eligible for one until April 2008.

Except in those rare cases in which dissidents have been allowed to travel abroad to seek medical treatment, the Chinese authorities have until now been quite consistent about denying travel rights to individuals released from imprisonment on "state security" charges but still awaiting the restoration of their political rights. Jiang Weiping, an investigative journalist whose exposés of official corruption resulted in a five-year stay in prison, was told upon his release not even to bother applying for a passport to visit his wife and daughter in Canada until the three-year deprivation period was up in January 2009.

China also invokes its passport law in rejecting applications to travel from those who by going abroad pose a "possible threat to state security and national interests." Yuan Weijing, the wife of an imprisoned rights activist, had her passport revoked as she attempted to travel to Manila last week to accept a human rights award on his behalf. Shanghai lawyer Zheng Enchong, whose advocacy for victims of urban development projects led to a three-year prison sentence completed in 2006, was just informed that he, too, would not be issued a passport because he was a "suspect in a criminal investigation."

And what of Chinese activists who, like Yang Jianli, left their homeland after 1989 and, for want of a passport, have never been allowed to return? Now approaching middle age, former student leader Wang Dan worries not only about the fate of his country but also about the health of his elderly parents. How can China justify giving Yang Jianli a passport but not Wang Dan?

This is not to say that Yang should not have been granted a passport. Indeed, had his right to return to China been observed from the beginning, he may never have been imprisoned in the first place. The problem is not simply the inconsistent application of Chinese law but the law itself. By denying travel documents based on vague assertions of national security interests, China is in conflict with international human rights laws that Beijing, with its seat on the UN Human Rights Council, is committed to uphold.

It remains to be seen whether Yang Jianli's hard-won passport will truly offer him free passage back to China. After five years in prison, he understandably wants to spend some time at home with his family. Hopefully, his next trip to China will be less eventful than the last and will help to convince the Chinese government that restricting the travels of its citizens—regardless of their individual political views—is unnecessary for protecting national security.

New Sentence Reduction for Long-Serving Chinese "Counterrevolutionary”

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:40:00 +0000

Hu Shigen (胡石根), one of China's last remaining dissidents imprisoned for "counterrevolution," was given a 17-month sentence reduction by a Beijing court earlier this year, The Dui Hua Foundation has learned from reliable sources.

The February 2007 sentence reduction—only the second adjustment ever made to Hu's original 20-year sentence—follows a December 2005 reduction of seven months that came three weeks after being interviewed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak. During their November 2005 meeting, Hu Shigen informed Nowak that he had resisted pressure to confess any wrongdoing until April 2003, when a feeling of helplessness and a desire to receive a sentence reduction finally led him to do so.

Confession of guilt by prisoners is seen as an important component of rehabilitation under the Chinese prison system, and prison authorities regularly use incentives such as expanded privileges or the promise of early release to encourage prisoner confessions. In the report on his mission to China, Nowak was critical of this element of China's penal system, describing it as part of a regime of punishment aimed at creating "submissiveness and a 'culture of fear'" incompatible with a culture of human rights.

"It is very unusual for a prisoner to receive two sentence reductions in such a short period of time, and we believe the timing of the reductions is significant," says John Kamm, executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation. "For one, it demonstrates that the Chinese authorities can work productively with UN human rights mechanisms on specific cases. It also creates a momentum for additional reductions and the possibility that Hu Shigen could be released before next year's Beijing Olympics."

Hu Shigen has been incarcerated since May 1992, when he was detained along with eight other Beijing-based activists in connection with efforts to organize an opposition political party, establish an independent labor union, and commemorate the third anniversary of the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. The Beijing Intermediate People's Court convicted Hu of "organizing and leading a counterrevolutionary group" and "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" on June 14, 1995, and handed down the longest fixed-term sentence possible under Chinese law—20 years' imprisonment with subsequent deprivation of political rights for five years. Hu's co-defendants have all been released from prison already, several of them the beneficiaries of multiple sentence reductions. After the reductions, Hu is due to be released from Beijing Number Two Prison on May 26, 2010.

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More Evidence Emerges on Yahoo!’s Role in Chinese Internet Cases

noreply@blogger.com (The Dui Hua Foundation) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:01:00 +0000