China has failed, watchdog says

The continued use of torture, illegal detention, censorship and other offences means China has failed to deliver on its first human rights action plan, a human rights group said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said, after evaluating China’s official two-year plan which ended last month, that China deserves praise for openly publishing a human rights plan but said its many failures left it “largely a series of unfulfilled promises”.

China’s human rights were fully in the spotlight last year when imprisoned author and critic Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest and out of contact since shortly after the award was announced in October.

Dozens of Liu’s supporters were harassed, detained or blocked from leaving China to attend the ceremony in Norway last month.

Among other notable cases of rights abuses was the disappearance of activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who emerged briefly last spring and discussed how he was beaten by security agents for hours at a time, before again going missing.

The Human Rights Watch report mentions numerous such cases, including the severe crackdown on the minority Uighur population in far western China after ethnic rioting there in the summer of 2009, and the forced deportation from Cambodia of 20 Uighurs seeking asylum from UN officials there. The report also criticises China for making “manifestly false statements” to the UN Human Rights Council in 2009, such as “There is no censorship in the country” and “There are no black jails in the country”.

Even the tightly controlled state media last year reported on the network of black jails, or unofficial detention centres run by local governments, which snatch and hold petitioners who try to expose grievances or abuses to the central government.

Human Rights Watch re­searcher Phelim Kine said a copy of the group’s report had been sent to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, but there was no immediate response.

“We hope very much to hear from the Chinese government in the days to come; however, it’s worth noting that the Chinese government has failed to provide any thoughtful or meaningful responses to any of HRW’s China reports in the past,” he said.

China generally defines human rights from an economic point of view based on housing, food and better living standards. But its human rights action plan also promised to improve the situation on such issues as police torture and the right to information, assembly and a fair trial.

Beijing released a report last September praising its progress on human rights, saying the internet had made government more transparent, and standards of living had “been further improved on the basis of economic and social development”.

Human Rights Watch, however, found continued abuses in all areas.

It proposed putting surveillance cameras in prisons and detention centres, bans on house arrest and censorship, more room for non-governmental aid groups to operate independently, and an annual release of the number of people executed in China – which is said to use the death penalty more than any other country.

Factbox

Capital punishment

China executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined. According to the UN, between 1994 and 1999 China was ranked seventh in executions per capita, behind Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, and Jordan.

Amnesty International claims that real figures are much higher than official ones, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets.

Amnesty International reports that, in recent years, China has had the highest number of executions of any country. Figures from 2006 and 2007 are reported to have been 1,010 and 470 executions, respectively.

In January 2007, China’s state media announced that all death penalty cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People’s Court. Since 1983, China’s highest court did not review all cases. This marks a return to China’s pre-1983 policy.

In light of these changes, figures from 2007 display a substantial reduction in executions with only 470 reported executions compared with figures from previous years. Amnesty International analysts argue that this drop is only temporary since the figure includes only confirmed executions and are likely to be much higher.

As of 2008, China is still the country with the highest number of executions. 1,718 people have been executed in 2008 out of 2,390 worldwide.

A total of 68 crimes are punishable by death; capital offences include non-violent, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. Execution methods include lethal injections and shooting. The People’s Armed Police carries out the executions, usually at 10 a.m.

Torture

Although China outlawed torture in 1996, human rights groups state that brutality and degradation are common in Chinese detention centres.

Also, China’s definition of illegal torture – that it leaves physical marks – is so narrow that interrogators can employ a wide range of methods that contravene UN standards. Suspects are manacled in contorted positions, deprived of sleep and subjected to psychological torture.

In 2003, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate reported that “forced confessions” had led to the deaths of 460 people and serious injuries for 117 others.

In 2005, Manfred Nowak visited as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. After spending two weeks there, he observed that it was “on the decline, but still widespread”. He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his research, including intimidating people he sought to interview.

During the Chongqing gang trials between 2009 and last, details were revealed of extensive and persistent torture of suspects held in police custody. Manifestations include regular beatings, sleep deprivation and being placed in or forced to hold agonising positions.

In May of last year, new regulations were issued that nullified evidence gathered through violence or intimidation. The move came after a public outcry following the revelation that a farmer, convicted for murder based on his confession under torture, was in fact innocent. The case came to light only when his supposed victim turned up alive and the defendant had spent 10 years in prison. International human rights groups gave the change a cautious welcome.