China Human Rights Briefing   May 10-17, 2011

Highlight

• Procuratorate Approves Arrest of Beijing Activist Ni Yulan: CHRD learned this week that human rights activist and former lawyer Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) has been formally arrested. The precise charge is not known, but is believed to be “creating a disturbance,” the charge given when Ni was taken into criminal detention along with her husband on April 7. Ni is the eighth activist to be formally arrested as part of the ongoing crackdown on civil society; for an updated list of affected individuals, please click here.

Table of Contents

• Arbitrary Detention
  • Updates on Disappearances and Detentions Related to the “Jasmine Revolution” Crackdown
  • Handicapped Shandong Housing Rights Activist Li Zhixue Detained for “Inciting Subversion”
  • Heilongjiang Residents Detained after Presenting Grievances in City Park
  • Guangxi Petitioner, Victim of Violence during Clash over Land Grab, Seized in Beijing
  • Jiangsu Petitioner Held Nearly Two Months in Black Jails and Detention House
• Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment and Punishment
  • Jiangxi Petitioner Hospitalized Following Police Beating
• Harassment of Activists
  • Candidates in Jiangxi Election Disappear, Face Police Harassment ahead of Voting
  • Guangxi Court Hears Case Brought by Veterans Injured During Detention for Petitioning
  • Professor Ai Xiaoming Receives Phone Interference, other Harassment
  • Police Force Farmers Organizer Out of Beijing
• Citizens' Actions
  • Open Letter Published on National Disabled Person’s Day Urges Government to End Hiring Discrimination

ArbitraryDetentionUpdates onDisappearances and DetentionsRelated to the “Jasmine Revolution”Crackdown

• CHRD has learned that the Xicheng District Procuratorate in Beijing has approved the arrest of human rights activist and former lawyer Ni Yulan (倪玉兰). The charge is believed to be "creating a disturbance;" however, Ni’s daughter has not yet received a formal arrest notice. Ms. Ni and her husband, Dong Jiqin (董继勤), were taken into detention on April 7 and later criminally detained for "creating a disturbance.” As far as family and friends know, Mr. Dong has not yet been arrested. Ni is the eighth person formally arrested in relation to the “Jasmine Revolution” crackdown. (CHRD)[i]
• On the afternoon of May 15, police in Beijing allowed Lu Qing (路青), wife of detained artist and activist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), to meet with her husband in an unknown location. The two spoke for approximately 15 minutes, as police monitored and restricted their conversation. Ai wore his own clothes and was not handcuffed; the meeting appeared to be designed to demonstrate that he was alive and in good health. Police have yet to issue any formal documentation which might authorize Ai's detention. There is still no news regarding Ai’s colleagues, Wen Tao (文涛), Hu Mingfen (胡明芬), Liu Zhenggang (刘正刚) and Zhang Jinsong (张劲松), who disappeared around the same time Ai was seized by the police. (CHRD)[ii]

HandicappedShandongHousing Rights Activist Li ZhixueDetained for “Inciting Subversion”

OnMay 10, police in Jining City, ShandongProvince criminally detained handicappedhousing rights activist Li Zhixue (李志学) onsuspicion of "inciting subversion of statepower." The formaldetention notice did not state where Liwas being held. Li became involved inhousing rights issues after his home wasdemolished, and has helped othervictims of forced demolitions to defendtheir rights through petitioning andfiling lawsuits in the past couple ofyears. It is believed that Li is beingdetained for persistent petitioning, butfurther details regarding hisdetention are not currently available.(CHRD)[iii]

HeilongjiangResidents Detained after PresentingGrievances in City Park

Onthe morning of May 16, police in HarbinCity,Heilongjiang Province gave local activistZhao Jingzhou (赵景洲) sevendays of administrative detention for"disrupting public order;"another local activist, Yu Yunfeng (于云峰), was given 10 days ofadministrative detention also for“disrupting public order.” Zhao was seizedbypolice after writing his experience as avictim of forced eviction on a wallnear Harbin's Flood Control Monument,while Yu wastaken in around the same time after givinga speech near the monument. Policealso brought in Zhao's wife Chen Huijuan (陈惠娟) for questioning thatevening and searched the couple's home,confiscating a desktop computer as wellas a laptop computer. (CHRD)[iv]

GuangxiPetitioner, Victim of Violence duringClash over Land Grab, Seized in Beijing

FengDacheng (冯达成)a petitioner fromFangchenggang City, Guangxi Province, wasseized by police from JianguomenPolice Station in Beijing on May 15, 2011.His current whereabouts areunknown.  Feng was wounded when policeopened fire with rubber bullets onvillagers during a clash over a landrequisition on April 21, 2010. He was shot11 times and spent 40 days recovering inthe hospital. Villagers, includingFeng, believed their land had beenillegally requisitioned and were seekingtoprevent local officials and developersfrom seizing it. During theconfrontation, over a dozen villagers wereinjured (eight were badly injured),four were arrested and later imprisonedfor “obstructing official business.”According to police in Beijing, Feng hasbeendetained on suspicion of “obstructingofficial business” and is a "wantedcriminal" in Guangxi Province inconnection tothe April 21 incident, but precise natureof the accusation against him is notknown. According to another victim of theApril 21 incident, Feng is beingtargeted by local police in order to scareother victims away from petitioning.(CHRD)[v]

JiangsuPetitioner Held Nearly Two Months inBlack Jails and Detention House

PetitionerHao Xiuxia (郝秀侠),ofJiangsu Province, was seized outside theLetters and Visits Office of theMilitary Commission of the CCP CentralCommittee in Beijing on February 5 andforcibly returned to her hometown ofXuzhou City. Once there, she was held forfour days without food or water in apolice station and later a black jailoperated out of a local guesthouse. Shewas then moved to another guesthouse,where she was illegally detained untilMarch 7. During this period of illegaldetention, Hao was violently beaten by themen guarding her on one occasion. OnMarch 7, police declared that Hao had"disrupted social order" bypetitioning in Beijing,and transferred her to a detention housefor 12 days of detention. Followingthis detention, Hao was once again placedin a black jail, and only after shewent on an eight-day hunger strike was shefinally released on April 1. Hao hasbeen petitioning since 2004, after themurder of her son, which she believeswas not properly investigated by thepolice. (CHRD)[vi]

Torture andOther Cruel, Inhuman, orDegrading Treatment and PunishmentJiangxiPetitioner Hospitalized Following PoliceBeating

CHRDhas learned that Xinyu City, JiangxiProvince petitioner Guo Jinying (郭金英) has been hospitalizedafter being beaten by a Xinyu City PSBofficial in Beijing. Guo had traveled toBeijing topetition on April 22; she was seized bypolice and detained for five daysbefore being transferred to Jiujingzhuang,a central black jail, on May 9. Shewas then picked up by interceptors fromthe Liaison Office of the Xinyu Citygovernment in Beijing,and while she was being illegally detainedby these individuals in the liaisonoffice she was sexually insulted andbeaten, sustaining injuries to her headand neck. On May 12, she returned toXinyu, and was taken to the hospital byrelatives. Guo began petitioning afterlocal officials destroyed her family'svineyard last summer. (CHRD)[vii]

Harassmentof ActivistsCandidatesin JiangxiElection Disappear, Face PoliceHarassment ahead of Voting

OnMay 12, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Provinceresidents Liu Ping (刘萍) and Wei Zhongping (魏忠平) wentmissing. Liu and Wei are campaigning to beelected as representatives to theXinyu City People's Congress from Xinyu’sYushui District. Liu and Wei wereharassed by police a day earlier whilespeaking to residents of the districtand distributing information about theupcoming election, set to take place onMay 15 and 16. Reportedly, police forciblysent the two home, but friends havebeen unable to contact the pair sincethen. Another candidate, Li Sihua (李思华), wasprevented from leaving home by police onthe afternoon of May 12. It isbelieved that police are interfering toprevent Liu, Wei, and Li from speakingto voters ahead of the election and fromappearing at polling places, in orderto ensure that they are not elected.(CHRD)[viii]

Guangxi CourtHears Case Brought by Veterans InjuredDuring Detention for Petitioning

Onthe morning of May 11, a suit brought byelderly veterans Liang Faguang (梁发光) and Liu Hailin (刘海林)against the Xinxu Town government washeard by the Beiliu City Court in BeiliuCity, Guangxi Province. The hearing endedwithout a verdict. On April 22, Liangand Liu were seized and detained by policeand government officials from Xinxu Townwho suspected they were planning topetition. Liang and Liu were roughlyhandled in the process and sustainedinjuries to their necks and hips. The pairhave been involved in ongoing efforts tosecure better benefits and medicalinsurance for themselves and otherveterans of the Korean War and the VietnamWar.Hundreds of veterans' advocates arrived intown on May 10 and 11 to show theirsupport for Liang and Liu, but localofficials prevented the vast majority ofthem from reaching the courthouse. (CHRD)[ix]

Professor AiXiaoming Receives PhoneInterference, other Harassment

OnMay 13, Beijing Aizhixing Institutereportedthat Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明), documentary filmmaker andprofessor atGuangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, hasbeen subjected to harassment andthreats from unknown sources in recentdays. Ms. Ai recently discovered thatthe keyhole to her home's front door hadbeen filled with glue, and she hasreceived a high volume of silent phonecalls which have disrupted her normaluse of her cell phone. Ms. Ai is bestknown for her documentaries focused onhuman rights and gender issues. Forexample, Ai has documented the story ofYaoLifa (姚立法),an activist promoting democratic reformsat the grassroots level, the HIV/AIDScover-up in the central provinces, as wellas the deaths of schoolchildren inthe 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which wereattributed to substandard buildings.(CHRD)[x]

Police ForceFarmers Organizer Out of Beijing

Policein Beijing have pressured farmersorganizer Zhao Fengsheng (赵枫生) to leave the city, CHRDlearned on May 15.Zhao, who helped organize a group offarmers from around the country to applyto establish a “National Chinese Farmers’Association” in 2009, has been undertight surveillance since February of 2011.He spent more than a month in hishometown of Yongzhou City, Hunan Provincebetween March and April, and on May6, shortly after his return to Beijing,was taken in and admonished by policein Haidian District. Officials then leanedon his landlord to force Zhao out;he has since returned to Yongzhou. It isbelieved that Zhao has been forced outof Beijing dueto the sensitivities around the onlinecall for “Jasmine Revolution” inFebruary and the upcoming anniversary ofthe Tiananmen Massacre in June. (CHRD)[xi]

Citizens'ActionsOpenLetter Published on National DisabledPerson’s Day Urges Government to EndHiring Discrimination

Tomark the 21st annual National DisabledPerson's Day on May 15, Beijing YirenpingCenterpublished an openletter signed by 1084 disabledpersons protesting the government'sdiscrimination against handicappedindividuals in public service recruitment.The letter argues that Chinese authoritiesare not meeting theirlegally-mandated responsibility to hireindividuals with disabilities, and alsothat some government employers haveinstituted physical tests to denypositionsto individuals with certain disabilities.(Yirenping)

Editors:David Smalls and Lin Sang Follow us on Twitter:  @CHRDnetNews updates from CHRD

[i] "News Flash: Arrest ofHuman Rights Lawyer Ni YulanApproved" (快讯：维权律师倪玉兰被批准逮捕), May17, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_4735.html

[ii] "Ai Weiwei Meets withFamily after 40 Days in Detention, WenTao and Others Still Missing" (艾未未被羁押40天后会见家人，文涛等人仍无消息), May16, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/40.html

[iii] "Handicapped JiningResident Li Zhixue Criminally DetainedonSuspicion of 'Inciting Subversion ofState Power'" (济宁残疾人李志学被以涉嫌“煽动颠覆国家政权”刑拘), May 15, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_1074.html

[iv] "Heilongjiang ActivistZhao Jingzhou Taken intoAdministrativeDetention" (黑龙江维权人士赵景洲被行政拘留), May15, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_2490.html

[v] "'Guangxi April 21Incident' Victim Seized in Beijing" (“广西4.21血案”受害者在京被抓捕), May 16, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/421_15.html

[vi] "Jiangsu Petitioner HaoXiuxia Detained in Black Jail,Beaten" (江苏访民郝秀侠被关黑监狱、拘留毒打), May 10, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_10.html

[vii] "Jiangxi Petitioner GuoJinying Hospitalized after BeingInsulted and Beaten by PSB Director" (江西访民郭金英被公安局长污辱打伤住院), May14, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_3599.html

[viii] "Jiangxi IndependentCandidates Liu Ping and Others LoseContact with Outside World" (江 西独立候选人刘萍等人与外界失去联系), May12, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_1028.html

[ix] "Beiliu City, GuanxiProvince Court Hears Case of VeteranBeaten for Petitioning" (广 西北流市开庭审理上访老兵被殴案), May 12,2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_8641.html

[x] "Beijing AizhixingInstitute Closely Following ViolationofProfessor Ai Xiaoming's Human Rights"(北京爱知行研究所强烈关注艾晓明教授遭遇的人权侵害), May 13, 2011, https://profiles.google.com/aizhixing2010/posts/MMEwnRtvtbh#aizhixing2010/posts/MMEwnRtvtbh

[xi] "Farmers' AssociationSecretary General Zhao Fengsheng Askedby Beijing Police to Return toHometown" (农会秘书长赵枫生被北京警方清理回原籍), May15, 2011, http://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_8967.html