HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The situation of 'human rights in the People's Republic of China' has been addressed by various sources, particularly Western countries and some international organizations, as being poor in many respects. Past human rights issues include the the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, when 200-3000 civilians were killed and thousands more were injured.
Multiple sources, including the U.S. State Department's annual People's Republic of China human rights reports, as well as studies from other groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the PRC's abuses of human rights in violation of internationally recognized norms.
In March, 2004, an amendment was made to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, stating "The State respects and preserves human rights."^[1]

Perspective of the PRC government

The PRC government argues that the notion of human rights should include such as economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity.^[2]
The Chinese government recognises that there are problems with the current legal system,^[3] such as:

★ A lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights.

★ A lack of due process.

★ Conflicts of law.^[4]
As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own budget, ^[5] this has led to corruption and the abuse of administrative power.

Protect from the United States government

In 2003, the United States claimed that despite some positive momentum in that year, and greater signs that the People's Republic of China was willing to engage with the U.S. and others on this topic, there was still serious backsliding. The PRC government has acknowledged in principle the importance of protection of human rights and has purported to take steps to bring its human rights practices into conformity with international norms. Among these steps are signature of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in October 1997 (ratified in March 2001) and signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October 1998 (not yet ratified). In 2002, the PRC released a significant number of political and religious prisoners, and agreed to interact with United Nations experts on torture, arbitrary detention and religion.

Capital punishment

Main articles: Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China

China has the highest number of death penalties in 2005, with 1,770 people executed. Between 1994 and 1999, according to the UN Secretary-General, China, which has the world's largest population of 1.3 billion people, was ranked 7th in terms of the number of executions carried out in comparison to overall population, behind Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan and Jordan.^[6] Amnesty International claims that official figures are much smaller than the real number, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets. Amnesty stated that according to various reports, in 2005 3,400 people were executed. In March of that year, a senior member of the National People’s Congress announced that China executes around 10,000 people per year.^[7]
There is concern from NGOs and several foreign governments over the number of crimes punishable by death, 68 in all, including some white collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. India has a similar population to China (1.1 billion), yet rarely uses the death penalty. Furthermore, the inconsistent and sometimes corrupt nature of the legal system in mainland China bring into question the fair application of capital punishment there.^[8]
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.^[9]

Organ harvesting and extrajudicial execution

Main articles: Organ harvesting in China

In recent years, there have been allegations that executed prisoners have had their organs harvested for transplants, which were sold to both Chinese and foreign nationals.^[10]^[11]
In December 2005, Chinese officials reportedly confirmed that organs for transplant were obtained mainly from executed prisoners, and that steps were being taken to prevent abuse. An American flew to Shanghai with his wife, who was due to receive an organ from a prisoner, said the prisoners had to give their consent before their organs could be removed.^[12]
In July 2006, David Kilgour, a former Canadian Cabinet minister, and David Matas, both human rights lawyers, conducted an investigation in response to a request by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG), a U.S.-based front organization of the Falun Dafa Association founded in April 2006.Thomas Lum, Congressional Research Report #RL33437, Congressional Research Service, August 11 2006 Their report about organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners alleged China was secretly mass-murdering Falun Gong practitioners in order to harvest their organs for sale. It was further alleged that after being killed and having their organs removed, the victim's body would be incinerated to destroy the evidence.^[13]
Fellow anti-Chinese government activist Harry Wu believed the reports were fabricated. He said the information was based on the testimony of two witnesses, based on hearsay. He requested and was denied access to the witnesses, or even their names, by FG officials.^[14] A congressional investigative report stated that the Kilgour report relied largely upon making logical inferences,without bringing forth new or independently-obtained testimony.
Manfred Nowak, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, has listed the following allegation in an addendum to his annual report in March 2007 composed of 341 allegations: "''Organ harvesting has been inflicted on a large number of unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations for the purpose making available organs for transplant operations. Vital organs including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas were systematically harvested from Falun Gong practitioners at [Sujiatun] Hospital, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, beginning in 2001. The practitioners were given injections to induce heart failure, and therefore were killed in the course of the organ harvesting operations or immediately thereafter.''"^[15] Amnesty International has stated that claims of systematic organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners cannot be confirmed or denied.

Ethnic minorities

:''See also: Racism in the People's Republic of China''
There are 55 recognized ethnic minorities in China. Article 4 of the Chinese constitution states "All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal", and the government has made efforts to improve ethnic education and increased ethnic representation in local government.
The government is harsh toward those that argue for independence or political autonomy, mainly Tibetans and Uyghurs in rural provinces in the west of China. Five Chinese Uyghur detainees from Guantanamo were released in June, 2007, but the United States refused to return them to China citing the People's Republic of China's "past treatment of the Uigur minority".^[16]

Complaints of "apartheid" toward Tibetans

The Dalai Lama originally pushed for independence for Tibet, but he changed his position when it was clear that this was not a realistic objective. Instead he has called for full autonomy.^[17] Negotiation between Dalai Lama and the Chinese government has been difficult, and although contact has taken place between representatives, nothing has been agreed. Commentators have said that Chinese officials may be waiting for the Dalai Lama to die, as they believe Tibetans will not be a problem afterwards. Yet they also say that this may result in Tibetan political sentiment becoming more dangerous and violent, as the Dalai Lama has consistently argued for peaceful protests against Chinese rule.^[18]

The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935).

In 1991 the Dalai Lama alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":

The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us."Profile: The Dalai Lama", ''BBC News'', April 25, 2006.^[19]

In a selection of speeches by the Dalai Lama published in India in 1998, he refers again to a "Chinese apartheid" which he believes denies Tibetans with equal social and economic status, and furthers the viewpoint that human rights are violated by discrimination against Tibetans under a policy of apartheid, which the Chinese call "segregation and assimilation"^[20]
According to the Heritage Foundation:

If the matter of Tibet's sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC's treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and turned Tibet's northeastern province, Amdo, into a gulag housing, by one estimate, up to ten million people. A quarter of a million Chinese troops remain stationed in Tibet. In addition, some 7.5 million Chinese have responded to Beijing's incentives to relocate to Tibet; they now outnumber the 6 million Tibetans. Through what has been termed Chinese apartheid, ethnic Tibetans now have a lower life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income than Chinese inhabitants of Tibet.^[21]

In 2001 representatives of Tibet succeeded in gaining accreditation at a United Nations-sponsored meeting of non-governmental organizations. On August 29 Jampal Chosang, the head of the Tibetan coalition, stated that China had introduced "a new form of apartheid" in Tibet because "Tibetan culture, religion, and national identity are considered a threat" to China.^[22] The Tibet Society of the UK has called on the British government to "condemn the apartheid regime in Tibet that treats Tibetans as a minority in their own land and which discriminates against them in the use of their language, in education, in the practice of their religion, and in employment opportunities."^[23]

Political freedom

The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. One of the most famous dissident is Zhang Zhixin for standing up against the ultra-left.^[24] Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour are widely reported. Freedom of assembly and association are extremely limited in many cases. The Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources.^[25]^[26]

Freedom of speech

Main articles: Censorship in the People's Republic of China, Government control of the media in the People's Republic of China

The 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech.^[27] There is heavy government involvement in the media, with many of the largest media organizations being run by the government. Chinese law forbids the advocation of independence or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling China. Thus references to democracy, the free Tibet movement, Taiwan as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet. PRC journalist He Qinglian in her 2004 book ''Media Control in China''^[28] examined government controls on the Internet in China^[29] and on all media. Her book shows how PRC media controls rely on confidential guidance from the Communist Party propaganda department, intense monitoring, and punishment for violators rather than on pre-publication censorship.
Recently, foreign web portals including Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo! Search, and ''Google Search China''^[30] have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word "Democracy" from its chat-rooms in China. Some North American or European films are not given permission to play in Chinese theatres, although piracy of the same movies is widespread.^[31]

Freedom of movement

The Communist Party came to power in the late 1940s, instigated a command economy. In the 1958, Mao set up a residency permit system defining where people could work, and classified an individual as "rural" or "urban" worker.Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900m peasants", ''The Independent'', June 10, 2001. A worker seeking to move from the country to urban areas to take up non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies. The number of workers allowed to make such moves was tightly controlled. People who worked outside their authorized domain or geographical area would not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care.David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, ''Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 334. There were controls over education, employment, marriage and so on. One purpose is to prevent the possible chaos caused by the predictable large scale urbanization. It is alleged that people of Han nationality in Tibet have a far easier time acquiring the necessary permits to live in urban areas than ethnic Tibetans do.^[32]
Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens.Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", ''BBC News'', November 10, 2005.
"Rural" workers would require six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them. Restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive, and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences. The system, which has targeted China's 800 million rural peasants for decades, has been described as "China's apartheid".^[33]"China's apartheid-like household registration system, introduced in the 1950s, still divides the population into two distinct groups, urban and rural." Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", ''Foreign Affairs'', March / April 1997.
An article in The Washington Times, reported in 2000 that although migrants laborers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid." ^[34] Another author making similar comparison is Anita Chan, in which she furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.Chan, Anita, ''China's Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy'', Introduction chapter, M.E. Sharpe. 2001, ISBN 0-765-60358-6
Abolition was proposed in 11 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast. The law has already been changed such that migrant workers no longer faced summary arrest, after a widely publicised incident in 2003, when a university-educated migrant died in Guangdong province. This particular scandal was exposed by a Beijing law lecturer, Mr Xu, who claims it spelt the end of the hukou system. He further believes that, at least in most smaller cities, the system had already been abandoned. Mr Xu continued: "Even in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it has almost lost its function".Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", ''BBC News'', November 10, 2005. Retrieved 5th Aug 2007.
;Special administrative regions
Also as a result of the one country, two systems policy initiated in the late 20th century, Chinese citizens must gain permission from the government to travel to the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

Treatment of rural workers

In November 2005 Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said this system has been ''"one of the most strictly enforced 'apartheid' social structures in modern world history."'' He stated ''"Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens."''
The discrimination enforced by the ''hukou'' system became particularly onerous in the 1980s after hundreds of millions of migrant laborers were forced out of state corporations and co-operatives."Chinese apartheid: Migrant labourers, numbering in hundreds of millions, who have been ejected from state concerns and co-operatives since the 1980s as China instituted "socialist capitalism", have to have six passes before they are allowed to work in provinces other than their own. In many cities, private schools for migrant labourers are routinely closed down to discourage migration." "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", ''The Star'', February 6, 2007. The system classifies workers as "urban" or "rural", and attempts by workers classified as "rural" to move to urban centers were tightly controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy, which enforced its control by denying access to essential goods and services such as grain rations, housing, and health care, and by regularly closing down migrant workers' private schools. The ''hukuo'' system also enforced pass laws similar to those in South Africa,"The application of these regulations is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa's hated pass laws. Police carry out raids periodically to round up those tho do not possess a temporary residence permit. Those without papers are placed in detention centres and then removed from cities." Waddington, Jeremy. ''Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance'', Routledge, 1999, p. 82."The permit system controls [migrant workers] in a similar way to the passbook system under apartheid. Most migrant workers live in crowded dormitories provided by the factories or in shanties. Their transient existence is precarious and exploitative. The discrimination against migrant workers in the Chinese case is not racial, but the control mechanisms set in place in the so-called free labor market to regulate the supply of cheap labor, the underlying economic logic of the system, and the abusive consequences suffered by the migrant workers, share many of the characteristics of the apartheid system." Chan, Anita. ''China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy'', M.E. Sharpe, 2001, p. 9. with "rural" workers requiring six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them. As in South Africa, the restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive, and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences. Anita Chan furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor. ^[35]Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900m peasants", ''The Independent'', June 10, 2001.^[36]"As in South Africa under ''apartheid'', households in China faced severe restrictions on mobility during the Mao period. The household registration system (''hukou'') system... specified where people could work and, in particular, classified workers as rural or urban workers. A worker seeking to move from rural agricultural employment to urban non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies, and the number of workers allowed to make such moves was tightly controlled. The enforcement of these controls was closely intertwined with state controls on essential goods and services. For instance, unauthorized workers could not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care." Wildasin, David E. "Factor mobility, risk, inequality, and redistribution" in David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, ''Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 334."China's apartheid-like household registration system, introduced in the 1950s, still divides the population into two distinct groups, urban and rural." Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", ''Foreign Affairs'', March / April 1997.
David Whitehouse divides what he describes as "Chinese apartheid" into three distinct phases: The first phase occurred during the state capitalist phase of China's economy, from around 1953 to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The second "neoliberal" phase lasted from 1978 to 2001, and the third lasted from 2001 to the present. During the first phase, the exploitation of rural labor, the passbook system, and in particular the non-portable rights associated with one's status, created what Whitehouse calls "an apartheid system". As with South Africa, the ruling party made some concessions to rural workers to make life in rural areas "survivable... if not easy or pleasant". During the second phase, as China transitioned from state capitalism to market capitalism, export-processing zones were created in city suburbs, where mostly female migrants worked under oppressive sweatshop conditions. The third phase was characterized by the weakening of the ''hukou'' controls; by 2004 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture counted over 100 million people registered as "rural" working in cities. Whitehouse, David. , Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, March 2, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, and Zhang Ping of the Committee for Asian Women argue this system oppresses women more severely than men,^[37] and see seven distinct elements giving rise to what they describe as "[t]he regime of spatial and social apartheid" which keeps rural Chinese in their subordinate status:
# The repressive regime at the factory level;
# the paramilitary forces at local level;
# the ‘local protectionism’ of local governments;
# the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the local press;
# the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the branches of ACFTU;
# pro-government local courts; and
# the discriminatory ''hukou'' system.Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. , Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 20.
They agree that the gradual relaxation of some of the more repressive aspects of the ''hukou'' system since the mid-1990s has largely eliminated the spatial aspect of the apartheid; for example, workers can now buy one year permits to reside in cities, and since 2003 the police no longer jail and deport people who lack local ''hukou'' passes. However, they point out the still-hereditary nature of the ''hukou'' system, and state that the "substance of the social apartheid in general and the ''hukou'' system in particular remains intact." Migrant workers are permanently marked as outsiders and remain second-class citizens, and are denied access to good jobs or upward mobility, thus forcing their eventual return to their place of origin.^[38]
Whitehouse sees the analogy to South Africa's apartheid system breaking down in two areas: First, under a system called ''xia fang'', or "sending down", individuals or even entire factories of urban workers were sometimes re-classified as rural workers and sent to live in the countryside (at lower wages and benefits). By contrast, white workers in South Africa were never sent to work in Bantustans. Second, the ideology driving China's apartheid system was Maoism, not racism, as is South African apartheid. Anita Chan agrees with Whitehouse on this point, noting that while the ''hukou'' system shares many of the characteristics of the South African apartheid system, including its underlying economic logic, the racial element is not present.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security justified these practices on the grounds that they assisted the police in tracking down criminals and maintaining public order, and provided demographic data for government planning and programs."The ''hukou'' system has been criticized in some quarters and has been called 'the equivalent of and apartheid system between rural and urban residents' (''China Labor Bulletin'', February 25, 2002). However, the Ministry of Public Security has continued to justify the ''hukou'' system as an instrument for keeping public order (the ministry said it allowed the police to track down criminals more easily) and for providing demographic data for planning and program formulation." Laquian, Aprodicio A. ''Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, pp. 320-321.

Apartheid "pass system" in treatment of migrant workers

According to Peter Alexander and Anita Chan, China's export-oriented growth has been based on the labor of poorly paid and treated migrant workers, using a pass system similar to the one used in South Africa's apartheid, in which massive abuses of human rights have been observed. Alexander, Peter, & Chan, Anita ''Does China Have an Apartheid Pass System?'', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30.4 (2004)
China's household registration system (HRS) maintains a rigid distinction between China's rural population, that is people who have a rural hukou (household registration), and urban residents, who have an urban hukou. Movement of rural people into the cities is restricted, and they require a permit to stay and work temporarily in any urban area. If caught without these permits, people with a rural hukou could be placed in a detention centre, fined, and deported back to their home village or home town (that is, 'endorsed out', to borrow a South African expression). Those with a rural hukou who obtain a temporary employment permit to work in an urban area are not entitled to the pensions, schooling, unemployment benefits, etc. enjoyed by those who have an urban hukou. There are, in short, some obvious and significant similarities between the two countries, but a closer examination is required before we can consider equating China's pass system with what operated in apartheid South Africa." [...]" The combination of these four factors may explain why China has developed a quasi-apartheid pass system. The fact that it has such a system underlines the reality that China's export-oriented economic growth has been built, in large measure, on the labour of poorly paid and appallingly treated migrant workers. In China today, as in apartheid South Africa, the pass system is associated with massive abuses of human rights, and its retention should be opposed."
An article in The Washington Times, reported in 2000 that although migrants laborers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid." ^[34]
The embassy of the China in South Africa, posted a letter to the editor of The Star dated February 22, 2007 , under the title ''Article on China presents racism rumours as fact'', in which a reader stated that "It's pure incitement to proclaim 'Chinese apartheid' in reference to migrant labour being kept out of the cities." ^[40]

Religious freedom

Main articles: Religion in China

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), particularly the Destruction of Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types was persecuted and discouraged by the Communists with many religious buildings looted and destroyed. Since then, there have been efforts to repair, reconstruct and protect historical and cultural religious sites, partly to encourage tourism.^[41] Critics say that not enough has been done to repair or restore damaged and destroyed sites.^[42]
The 1982 Constitution technically guarantees freedom of religion"Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination."People's daily China This freedom is subject to restrictions, as all religious groups must be registered with the government and are prohibited from having loyalties outside of China. The government argues that such restriction is necessary to prevent foreign political influence eroding Chinese sovereignty, though groups affected by this deny that they have any desire to interfere in China's political affairs. This has led to an effective prohibition on those religious practices that by definition involve allegiance to a foreign spiritual leader or organisation, (e.g. Catholicism - see Catholicism in China) although tacit allegiance to such individuals and bodies inside these groups is not uncommon. "Unregistered religious groups ... experience varying degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression."^[43]
Another problem is that members of the Communist Party have to be atheists according to the Party's constitution. As Party membership is required for many high level careers, being openly religious can limit one's economic prospects.
The government of the People's Republic of China tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian Churches (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party of China control. It has been claimed by many that the teachings in the state-approved Churches are at least monitored and sometimes modified by the Party.
Because Chinese House Churches operate outside government regulations and restrictions, their members and leaders are sometimes harassed by local government officials. This persecution may take the form of a prison sentence or, more commonly, reeducation through labour. Heavy fines also are not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated in lieu of payment if this is refused or unavailable. Unlike Falun Gong, however, house churches have not officially been outlawed, and since the 1990s, there has been increasing official tolerance of house churches. Most observers believe that the harassment of house churches by government officials arises less from an ideological opposition to religion and support of atheism than out of fears of a center of popular mobilization outside the control of the Communist Party of China.
It is important to note that the actions of the PRC are polar to those who follow the Socialist ideology, it is widely believed by citizens and foreigners alike that Chinese Socialism died with Mao.

Falun Gong

Main articles: Falun Gong, Persecution of Falun Gong

In July 1999, the Chinese government declared the Falun Gong movement illegal and started suppressing its activities across the country. The government claimed the group to be an "evil cult" that performs "illegal acts". Critics of the government allege that the crackdown was motivated by fear of its growing number of practitioners, particularly government officials, police and army officers. A peaceful demonstration of about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners (in response to the arrest and beating of several dozen practitioners in Tianjin and prohibition of publishing Falun Gong materials) earlier in 1999 outside Zhongnanhai is thought to have been the trigger for the crackdown.
Practitioners that have been arrested report being beaten and tortured, and the Falun Dafa Information Center, a website run by Falun Gong practitioners, claims at least 3000 practitioners have died in police custody. The Chinese government alleges that Falun Gong fabricates news, that its practitioners are not tortured, nor go on hunger strikes.^[44] Amnesty International and other major human rights organizations, have generally sided with Falun Gong in their reports of the persecution.^[45]
Critics decry the persecution of Falun Gong as infringing on the freedom of religion, as well as claiming that it is widely known that systematic torture of Falun Gong practitioners exists.^[46] The issue was a subject of protests when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the United States in 2006, though such protests were censored from Chinese media coverage of the visit.^[47]
In July 2006, Kilgour and David Matas reported their grave concerns that internal organs are being harvested from Falun Gong adherents for sale to foreign buyers.^[48] The Chinese government has dismissed the report as "a 'groundless and biased' Falun Gong smear effort".

One-Child Policy

Main articles: One-Child Policy

Although the Chinese government argues that this policy is necessary to stop overpopulation, China's birth control policy, known widely as the One-Child Policy, is seen as morally objectionable by many foreign observers, as well as some Chinese. Such critics argue that it contributes to female infanticide, abandonment and sex selective abortions. These are believed to be relatively commonplace in some areas of the country, despite being illegal and punishable by fines and jail time.^[49] This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children reported, although underreported female births may reduce this figure. Forced abortions and sterilizations have also been reported.^[50]^[51]
It is also argued that the one child policy is not effective enough to justify its costs, and that the dramatic decrease in Chinese fertility started before the program began in 1979 for unrelated factors. The policy seems to have had little impact on rural areas (home to about 80% of the population), where birth rates never dropped below 2.5 children per female.^[52] Nevertheless, the Chinese government and others estimate that at least 250 million births have been prevented by the policy.^[53]
In 2002, the laws related to the One-Child Policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas of the country even before this. The policy has been relaxed in urban areas to allow people who were single children to have two children.^[54]

Other human rights issues

Worker's rights and privacy are other contentious human rights issues in China. There have been several reports of core International Labor Organization conventions being denied to workers. One such report was released by the International Labor Rights Fund in October 2006 documenting minimum wage violations, long work hours, and inappropriate actions towards workers by management.^[55] Workers cannot form their own unions in the workplace, only being able to join State-sanctioned ones. The extent to which these organizations can fight for the rights of Chinese workers is disputed.^[56]
Although the Chinese government does not interfere with Chinese people's privacy as much as it used to,^[57] it still deems it necessary to keep tabs on what people say in public. Internet forums are strictly monitored, as is international postal mail (this is sometimes inexplicably "delayed" or simply "disappears") and e-mail.^[56]
The issue of refugees from North Korea is a recurring one. It is official policy to repatriate them to North Korea, but the policy is not evenly enforced and a considerable number of them stay in the People's Republic (some move on to other countries). Though it is in contravention of international law to deport political refugees, as illegal immigrants their situation is precarious. Their rights are not always protected.^[59] Some of them are tricked into marriage or prostitution.^[60]
African students in China have complained about their treatment in China, that was largely ignored until 1988-9, when "students rose up in protest against what they called 'Chinese apartheid'".Robinson, Thomas W. & Shambaugh, David L. ''Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice'', Oxford University Press, p. 315. African officials took notice of the issue, and the Organization of African Unity issued an official protest. The organization's chairman, Mali's president Moussa Traoré, went on a fact-finding mission to China. According to a ''Guardian'' 1989 Third World Report titled ''"Chinese apartheid" threatens links with Africa'', these practies could threaten Peking's entire relationship with the continent."Snow, Phillip. "Third World Report: 'Chinese apartheid' threatens links with Africa", ''The Guardian'', January 20, 1989.
In 2005 Manfred Nowak visited China as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. After spending two weeks there, he concluded that torture remained "widespread". He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his research, including intimidating people he sought to interview.^[61]

Notes

1. China Amends Constitution to Guarantee Human Rights By Edward Cody
2. Human rights can be manifested differently
3. China's Criminal Justice System: A Work in Progress, "Belkin, Ira", , , Washington Journal of Modern China,
4. Varieties of Conflict of Laws in China
5. A young judge tests China's legal system
6. SINGAPORE The death penalty: A hidden toll of executions
7. Amnesty International's report on China
8. The Death Penalty in 2005
9. China's Message on Executions Jakes, Susan
10. China makes ultimate punishment mobile
11. China harvesting inmates' organs, journalist says By Bill Gertz
12. China 'using prisoner organs for transplants' by David Fickling
13. China harvesting Falun Gong organs, report alleges
14. Harry Wu challenges Falun Gong organ harvesting claims, South China Morning Post, September 8, 2006
15. United Nations: Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Manfred Nowak, 20 March 2007.
16. The New York Times International, Sunday June 10, 2007, page 12
17. The Dalai Lama, A conversation with Robert Thurman
18. Fathoming Tibet's political future, Tim Luard, , , BBC News,
19. United States Congressional Serial Set, United States Government Printing Office, 1993, p. 110.
20. The Political Philosophy of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. Selected Speeches and Writings, , , , , < /br>"Tibet is being colonized by waves of Chinese immigrants. We are becoming a minority in our own country. The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us. The immediate result has been a round of unrest and reprisal." (pp.65) [...]"Human rights violations in Tibet are among the most serious in the world. Discrimination is practiced in Tibet under a policy of apartheid which the Chinese call "segregation and assimilation." (pp. 248)
21. Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing's Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, October 9, 1987.
22. Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington -- A Breakthrough For Tibet", ''World Tibet Network News'', Canada Tibet Committee, August 31, 2001.
23. "What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed June 25, 2006.
24. Zheng, Yi. Sym, T. P. Terrill, Ross. [1996] (1996). Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China. Westvuew Press. ISBN 0813326168.
25. List of casualties, Ding Zilin, Retrieved 2007-05-21
26. Timperlake, Edward. [1999] (1999). Red Dragon Rising. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0895262584
27. "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration." [1]
28. [2] Media Control in China published in Chinese in 2004 by Human Rights in China, New York. Revised edition 2006 published by Liming Cultural Enterprises of Taiwan. Accessed February 4, 2007.
29. [3] "The Hijacked Potential of China's Internet", English translation of a chapter in the 2006 revised edition of ''Media Control in China'' published in Chinese by Liming Enterprises of Taiwan in 2006. Accessed February 4, 2007
30. [4]
31. China Bans Cartoons With Live Actors Associated Press
Banned in Beijing Susman, Gary
32. Racial Discrimination in Tibet (2000)
33. "Country Cousins", ''The Economist'', April 6, 2000.
34. Macleod, Calum and Macleod, Lijia '' China's migrants bear brunt of bias'', The Washington Times, July 14, 2000.
"Sending up to 50 percent of their earnings home, migrants play an important role in spreading wealth down to the villages. Yet they are still treated like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."
35. "HIGHLIGHT: Discrimination against rural
migrants is China's apartheid: Certainly, the discrimination against the country-born is China's form of apartheid. It is an offence against human rights on a much bigger scale than the treatment of the tiny handful of dissidents dogged enough to speak up against the state." "Country Cousins", ''The Economist'', April 8, 2000.
36. "...China's apartheid-like system of residency permits." Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", ''Project Syndicate'', June, 2002.
37. "We further identify seven elements of the repressive regime at the national, municipal and local levels, and argue that the combined results of these elements have given rise to a kind of spatial and social apartheid which systematically discriminates against the rural population, with women being the most oppressed." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. , Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 1.
38. "Since the middle of 1990’s the ''hukou'' system has been gradually relaxed. First, rural residents were permitted to buy a temporary (usually one year) urban residential card, which allowed them to work legally. The fees for such permits gradually decreased to a fairly affordable level. Beginning from 1998, parents have been able to pass down their hukou either through the father’s or the mother’s line, hence the triple discrimination against rural women has been alleviated. In 2003, after the uproar surrounding the death of Sun Zhigang alarmed the authorities, the laws on jailing and repatriating ‘undocumented’ people (those failing to produce local ''hukou'') were abolished. Thus the spatial aspect of the apartheid has now largely been eliminated. However, the substance of the social apartheid in general and the ''hukou'' system in particular remains intact. The permanent mark of being an outsider and second class citizen remains, and prevents migrant workers from achieving significant upward mobility in cities. Most decent jobs are still reserved for people who possess local ''hukou''. Migrants can only get badly paid jobs. They still have no future in the cities, and may only work there for some years and then return to their home village." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. , Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 11.
39. Macleod, Calum and Macleod, Lijia '' China's migrants bear brunt of bias'', The Washington Times, July 14, 2000.
"Sending up to 50 percent of their earnings home, migrants play an important role in spreading wealth down to the villages. Yet they are still treated like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."
40. Article on China presents racism rumours as fact
41. murdoch edu
42. Beijing usembassy-china
43. Persecution.com.au
44. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Independent State of Papua New Guinea: Press Release -- Hunger Strike and Torture: Rumors Spread by Falun Gong [5]
45. Amnesty International: Falun Gong persecution factsheet [6]
46. rsf.org
47. How the Snags in the Hu-Bush Visit Play in China by Anthony Kuhn. ''All Things Considered'', April 21, 2006.
48. Smh.com.au
49. Voanews
50. Cnn.com China abortion
51. Chinese victims of forced late-term abortion fight back Olesen, Alexa
52. Over population one child
53. news.bbc.co.uk
54. Geography.about.com population
55. Wal-Mart in China: Rolling Back Labor Rights by International Labor Rights Fund, October 2006
56. Overview of human rights issues in china
57. The long march to privacy
58. Overview of human rights issues in china
59. HRW: North Koreans in People's Republic of China
60. An Absence of Choice: The sexual exploitation of North Korean women in China by Norma Kang Muico, Anti-Slavery International 2005.
61. China torture 'still widespread'

References

★ "Country Cousins", ''The Economist'', April 8, 2000.

★ "Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu", ''BBC News'', June 2, 2006.

★ "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", ''The Star'', February 6, 2007.

★ "Online encyclopedia Wikipedia founder raps firms aiding China censorship" , ''Associated Press'' Financial Wire, March 8, 2007.

★ "Profile: The Dalai Lama", ''BBC News'', April 25, 2006.

★ "Tutu calls on China to 'do the right thing' in Tibet", ''International Campaign for Tibet'', June 1, 2006.

★ United States Congressional Serial Set, United States Government Printing Office, 1993.

★ "What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed June 25, 2006.

★ Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. , Committee for Asian Women, May 2007.

★ Chan, Anita. ''China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy'', M.E. Sharpe, 2001. ISBN 0765603578

★ Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", ''Foreign Affairs'', March / April 1997.

★ Elliott, Mark C. ''The Manchu Way: The 8 Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China'', Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0804736065

★ Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington -- A Breakthrough For Tibet", ''World Tibet Network News'', Canada Tibet Committee, August 31, 2001.

★ Laquian, Aprodicio A. ''Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801881765

★ Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing's Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, October 9, 1987.

★ Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", ''BBC News'', November 10, 2005.

★ Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900m peasants", ''The Independent'', June 10, 2001.

★ Neville-Hadley, Peter. ''Frommer's China'', Frommers.com, 2003. ISBN 0764567551

★ Robinson, Thomas W. & Shambaugh, David L. ''Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice'', Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198290160

★ Rosenthal, A.M. "China's 'Apartheid' Taiwan Policy." ''The New York Times'', December 4, 1995.

★ Snow, Phillip. "Third World Report: 'Chinese apartheid' threatens links with Africa", ''The Guardian'', January 20, 1989.

★ Waddington, Jeremy. ''Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance'', Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0720123690

★ Whitehouse, David. , Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, March 2, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2007.

★ Wildasin, David E. "Factor mobility, risk, inequality, and redistribution" in David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, ''Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis'', Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521561361

★ Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", ''Project Syndicate'', June, 2002

External links

★ MacLeod, Calum, ''China reviews 'apartheid' for 900m peasants'', Jun 10, 2001, The Independent, London

★ Better World Links on Human Rights in China and Tibet

★ White Papers of the Chinese Government on Human Rights in China and own assessments in progress.

★ Human rights can be manifested differently

★ UN Human Development Report 2003 on China

★ US State Department's 2004 Human Rights Report on China

★ JURIST China - Chinese law, legal research, human rights

★ Olympic Watch: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008 - Campaign for human rights improvements in China before the 2008 Olympic Games

★ Human Rights In China - International NGO based in New York and Hong Kong

★ Human Rights Watch: China and Tibet

★ International Freedom of Expression eXchange - monitors freedom of expression in China

★ The China Support Network

★ The Progress of Human Rights in China - Statement by PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs

★ Who shows more respect for human rights? - Editorial published by the ''People's Daily''

★ Tiananmen Vigil - Remember the victims of the June 4 1989 massacre by lighting a candle in your window on June 3

★ Asia Death Penalty blog focuses on the death penalty in Asia, including the People's Republic of China

★ Free China 2008 campaign to encourage human rights in China by having foreign visitors and athletes wear a symbol to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

Video

★ ''The Tank Man'' - 2006 PBS documentary on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 as well as other human rights issues in China

★ China land grab - A Sky News report on abuses of eminent domain powers in China

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