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September 30, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 120 |
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Chinese Secret Police Abduct Human Rights Attorney Gao Zhisheng |
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Chinese
Peasant Workers Experience High Suicide Rate |
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Hu
Jintao Takes Control of Key Chinese Agencies |
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10,000 Workers Protest Corruption in Luoyang City For three days starting September 14, nearly 10,000 workers from Luoyang White Horse Group, Co., formerly the Luoyang Cotton and Textile Factory, demonstrated along Shachang Xi Street and Zhongzhou Street to protest corruption among the company leaders....…Full Article |
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Sixth Round of Sino-Tibetan Dialogue Reaches Deadlock Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told Hong Kong media that at the end of June, his special envoys had left for China for the sixth round of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue......…Full Article |
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"I am about to be sent to prison," said Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in a prophetic conversation with a friend on Sept. 11. "The time is near. It will be in less than ten days." On the night of Sept. 22, plain-clothed police officers broke into Gao's home, taking the Nobel Peace Prize nominee away to an unknown location. Neither he nor his family has been heard from since. The outspoken lawyer said he was recently warned by authorities against publicly criticizing the Chinese regime, lest he once again face imprisonment. He refused to be cowed, and last week published a 17-page letter addressed to U.S. law-makers detailing rights violations by the Chinese regime and calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. "As a Chinese, I cherish profound love for my homeland and our suffering people. I also long to see the day when the Olympic Games are held in China. But when I remember the social environment of China, and how the Olympic Games will be used here, my conscience and sense of justice make my heart ache. "Under the name of securing the success of the Olympic Games, all kinds of evils have been committed in broad daylight, including forced evictions, arbitrarily arresting and persecuting people who petition the authorities, and suppressing religious believers," read the letter. Gao went on to detail a list of rights abuses ranging from the persecution of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Christians, democracy activists, Internet dissidents, and lawyers, as well as drawing attention to hundreds of thousands of land evictions, environmental pollution, forced abortions, and the plight of farmers, miners, and migrant workers. Among the cases listed was that of a 28-year-old doctor and Falun Gong adherent named Liu Boyang, who lay in agony in a Chinese labor camp as guards beat him to death. His mother, also imprisoned for her belief in the banned spiritual discipline, spent her last days listening to the tortured screams of her son in the next room. Both were killed in the same building within 10 days of each other for refusing to renounce their faith. Among the others he spoke for were China's estimated 120 million migrant workers, many of whom work for little over a dollar a day; victims of environmental pollution whose water supplies are unsafe to drink, journalists and Internet dissidents imprisoned for exercising freedom of speech; and the hundreds of thousands of families forced out of their homes by the government with little or no compensation, often to make way for Olympics projects. Chinese authorities appear determined to prove him right. In his letter to the U.S. House and Senate last week, Gao speculated as to the reasons for the treatment that he and other rights advocates are subjected to. "The communist regime … wants to prove to the world that [it] still has power over China and still enjoys people's full support. As more Chinese people are waking up and rising to demand an end to tyranny, the call for human rights is louder and louder." Under these circumstances, he says, the communist regime has developed a determination to preserve its power "at all costs." "His values
are so much more in keeping with the values of the people of China
than the government, such that he represents a major threat to their
legitimacy. And no doubt he would play a major role in a fast-coming
democratic China," says David Kilgour, a former Canadian member
of parliament who nominated Gao for the Nobel Peace Prize. Back WASHINGTON, D.C.—Rural Chinese workers are the key component of the current Chinese economic growth. Yet as a group, these workers struggle at the bottom of society. In recent years, suicide among rural workers is reaching an alarming rate, and yet it is ignored by Chinese officials. Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, for instance, has a population of migrant to local workers of 6:1, and in some regions, as high as 10:1. Hong Kong newspaper The Sun reported that between April and September, 552 people committed suicide. Nearly 400 of them were migrant workers, according to the First Aid Center of Dongguan City. Since May, when the first aid hotline was available in Dongguan City, it answered nearly 10,000 calls. About 80 percent of the callers were migrants, and 20 percent of the callers expressed a suicidal intent. According to a 2006 Nanjing Youth SOS Center Survey, more than 10 percent of the migrants in Nanjing had considered suicide. Poor Environment and Lack of Support Zhao Dagong, a writer from Shenzhen, made several trips to Dongguan to study migrants a few years ago. He believes that the high suicide rate among migrants, to a certain extent, is related to the feeling of loss and loneliness, as well as culture shock. "The migrants are peasants from impoverished areas. Their hard work builds cities and supports the prosperity of urban residents. However, the cities have not accepted these outsiders. They are a group of people away from home and family, who work under intensive labor requirements, are discriminated [against], and have no family or social support. They live an isolated life," says Zhao. Zhao also adds, "Many migrant workers are in their 20s or 30s. Often they choose the extreme— suicide—as a final resort to resolve their frustration." A Means to Defend Their Legal Rights Cai Chongguo, a New York based China Labor Watch spokesman, indicates that Chinese rural workers typically have no normal channels of justice when their rights are violated. "Death to defend their rights"—suicide—has become a means of seeking justice. Cai says, "We can see, based on the statistics, that the main cause of suicide or attempted suicide is an arrear of wages. Collapsed Morality a Social Problem Cai Chongguo believes the high suicide rate among Chinese migrant workers reflects both a serious deficiency in the labor dispute system in China, and the ignorance and apathy of society towards migrant workers. He says, "The
government ignores them, people sneer at them, and even the media
have no sympathy for them. This is not just an issue of human rights,
but also an issue of collapsing morality as a social norm." Back Right before the start of 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which will be held in mid October, the CCP regime, in the name of "ensuring security," has started another round of mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners and human rights activists. Analysts pointed out that the current large-scale arrests demonstrate the weakness of the CCP regime and the intense power struggles within the CCP top leadership. New Round of Abduction
of Falun Gong Practitioners As disclosed by a Falun Gong practitioner who escaped the abductions, this round of abductions was a planned and unified effort. All practitioners in a certain region, regardless of their profession or social status or whether under heavy surveillance or not, were abducted. According to Minghui.net (www.minghui.net), security agents in some regions went door-to-door to investigate Falun Gong practitioners, and then initiated the mass abductions. At the Kaishantun Police Station in Jilin Province, the police issued an order that every police officer must arrest 3 Falun Gong practitioners. Comprehensive
Suppression of Dissidents Beijing’s Petition
Village Is Demolished Facilities for
Monitoring Overseas Delegations at Universities 'Hostage Diplomacy'
Has Changed To 'Hostage Internal Policy' Now the Ministry
of Public Security controlled by Zhou Yongkang, who is a key member
of Jiang's gang, is arresting Falun Gong practitioners and human rights
activists. They want to use these as a tool to bargain with the current
CCP leadership lead by Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. The "Hostage
Diplomacy" of Jiang's time has now changed to "Hostage Internal
Policy." Back The General Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee recently announced that Ling Jihua, a recognized member of the Hu Jintao faction, will replace Wang Gang as director of the General Office. Analysts believe that this change represents a major power shift in the central leadership and a new balance between the Hu and Jiang camps. This new development came after Hu appointed a new National Security Minister and replaced the former director of the CCP Central Guard Bureau You Xigui, who was considered a close and trusted follower of Jiang Zemin. While in the other camp, the power of Jiang's faction has waned. Jiang's son Jiang Mianheng did not make it into the inner circle of the Seventeenth Congress. Sources ponder the significance this victory of Hu's plays in the latest round of the political struggle. Ling Jihua to Head General Office of the CCP Central Committee Xinhua Net reported this important personnel change on September 20. Those familiar with the political situation of the CCP say that the director of the General Office is a key position in the Chinese political arena, as he or she is involved in both policy making and important affairs of top CCP leaders, including personal safety. Often the director of the General Office is also appointed to chair the Work Committee of the CCP Central Agencies, in which case the director would be charged with leading the United Front Ministry, Propaganda Ministry, and the External Affairs Ministry. Hu's Power Firming Up When Hu became the General Secretary of the CCP after the Sixteenth Congress in 2002, Wang Gang, then director of the General Office, during Jiang's administration was allowed to stay. Hu made no adjustments until now. Analysts believe that this signifies a more solidified power base. Jiang Mianheng's Political Career May Be Over Two major changes to the list of the representatives for the CCP's 17th Party Congress shocked the CCP's officialdom—Jiang's dependable ally You Xigui was not elected and Jiang's son Jiang Mianheng was removed. Hu is Ready for Jiang's Arrest Sima Tai, an Epoch Times columnist, said the 17th Party's Congress putting Hu's "Concepts of Scientific Development" into the Party Constitution means a lot in the struggle between Hu and Jiang. In the past, Jiang’s group constantly used Jiang's "Three Representatives" to suppress Hu. Sima Tai thinks
the struggle among CCP's high-level officials is approaching the end.
Hu currently holds evidence against Jiang and his son for corruption
and the illegal bloody suppression of Chinese people. Hu basically
has finished the preparatory work to arrest Jiang Zemin, who is now
disposed of his military support. Hu is also ready to enact the rearrangement
of high-level officials and nullify Jiang's theory. An order to execute
will be the last thing. Back For three days starting September 14, nearly 10,000 workers from Luoyang White Horse Group, Co., formerly the Luoyang Cotton and Textile Factory, demonstrated along Shachang Xi Street and Zhongzhou Street to protest corruption among the company leaders. Over 1,000 police were dispatched to suppress the movement. Police beat a number of workers. During an interview on September 17, several workers told The Epoch Times that during a staff meeting last Friday, company executives stated that the company was in bankruptcy and would undergo restructuring. They would provide assistance of 1,220 yuan ($162) per year for each laid-off worker. Workers, who have long been dissatisfied with corporate corruption, gathered in groups to protest. According to the workers, during the protest on September 17, company leaders asked workers to return to work. That evening, local television reported that the assistance was increased to 1,364 yuan per year. However, on the morning of September 18, Luoyang White Horse Group executives told workers that they would "definitely not increase the assistance." Mr. Liang, one of the protesting workers, said, "The company and the government are in cahoots with each other. They are playing 'good cop, bad cop' to fool us. Currently some workers have returned to work, but more workers are thinking of ways to continue the protest. With 1,220 a year, that's just about 100 yuan a month. How can one live on that? We also don't know how long the assistance will last." Phone calls to White Horse Group were unanswered. Mr. Liang said, "In the last few days, almost all workers and their family members have come to demonstrate. We even blocked the street. The government sent a lot of police, including an anti-bomb squad, special forces and plainclothes police. I think maybe every policeman in the city is here. There are at least 1,000 police." Ms. Xiao, another participant in the protest, said, "All the police from the city are here. They came in droves. Several workers were beaten, one was sent away in an ambulance. Then workers joined to protect each other. There was no large-scale bloodshed." Mr. Zhao also said that many workers tried to publish up-to-date information on the Internet, but the posts were deleted by the government immediately after posting. Mr. Zhao said, "I hear that our company was acquired by a company called Desheng. Actually, restructuring and being in bankruptcy is just another way for them to make money. The purchaser and our company have some agreements. Leaders of our company first embezzle money from our company then declare bankruptcy. Through this process, state-owned assets became private property, and workers' compensation, assistance, and stock were stolen by the company executives. They also have silent permission from the government to do this."Luoyang White Horse Group engages in textiles, clothing, medicine, real estate, mechanical engineering, and trade transactions. It was previously known as the Luoyang Cotton and Textile Factory, founded in 1958. Currently Luoyang White Horse Group has 16 subsidiaries and over 10,000 employees. Back Sixth
Round of Sino-Tibetan Dialogue Reaches Deadlock Back HONG KONG—Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told Hong Kong media that at the end of June, his special envoys had left for China for the sixth round of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue. The Dalai Lama said in a recent interview with Asia Week, that in recent years the Chinese government has made many investments in Tibet, including the construction of a railway. The Tibetan people are no longer faced with material difficulties, but most Tibetans are still not satisfied with the human rights situation in Tibet, as they have no real autonomy. They dare not complain of their slavery to the Chinese government for fear of suppression. They can only complain to the Dalai Lama, and hope that he can reflect those complaints to the authorities. He added that Beijing authorities have sent troops to Tibet. This has certainly deepened the Tibetans' suspicions and mistrust of the authorities, and could also affect China's image in India and other Asian countries. Therefore it serves no good to either Tibetan or Chinese people. He hoped that the Chinese government would be aware of the existence of the issue of Tibetan sovereignty. "We must find a way to settle this problem." he said. Seeking a solution to the Tibet issue, four special envoys of the Dalai Lama flew to China from June 29 to July 5 for the sixth round of discussion with officials of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In Shanghai and Nanjing cities, the two parties held discussions for nine hours over six days. However, as the Dalai Lama's representatives were still focused on concerns related to the Greater Tibet and Tibet's autonomy, while the CCP's representatives insisted that the "Tibet issue does not exist, only the Dalai Lama issue can be discussed," the six round of the dialogue deadlocked and no progress has been achieved on the issue. The Dalai Lama pointed out that if the majority of Tibetans were happy, satisfied, and without complaint, they wouldn't need to ask anything of, or even say "Thank you" to the Chinese government. He hopes that if he can return to Tibet one day, he would like to advocate for care, justice, and love, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa did. Although the Dalai Lama hopes very much to return to Tibet, he indicates that Beijing authorities do not allow this to happen. The Dalai Lama also quoted the officials in the sixth round of discussions saying that "the Dalai Lama is not allowed on his own authority to visit Beijing or Tibet or to go for a pilgrimage to Wutai Mountain, because he and Tibet are inseparable." On the issue of reincarnation, the Dalai Lama said that he is on exile abroad, and therefore his future reincarnation should be outside of China. He said one should live in the present and do meaningful things all of his life. Back |
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