Link
August 26, 2009
Human rights advocates and Chinese lawyers say that the office assistant of a prominent rights lawyer probably was not freed by the government over the weekend, as some of the advocates had originally said. They said it was unclear whether the assistant was in detention or had been released but remained under some sort of restriction. The assistant, Zhuang Lu, 27, worked at the Gongmeng legal center, which has tried to represent downtrodden Chinese citizens in cases that often involve official corruption. Ms. Zhuang and a founder of Gongmeng, Xu Zhiyong, were taken from their homes by security forces on July 29. Mr. Xu was released on Sunday.
Several rights advocates said Mr. Xu had been told by officials that Ms. Zhuang had also been released. But Teng Biao, another founder of Gongmeng, said Wednesday night that Ms. Zhuang’s mother had just received a brief, cryptic call from her daughter, who said she was awaiting trial and was not allowed to leave Beijing.
Showing posts with label detention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label detention. Show all posts
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Campaigning lawyer Xu Zhiyong released after arrest for tax evasion," by Jane Macartney, The Times
Link
August 23, 2009
In an unusual departure by a judicial system that rarely sets free anyone taken into detention, the authorities today released one of China’s most pioneering advocates of legal rights only days after his formal arrest for tax evasion.
The detention around three weeks ago and arrest last week of lawyer Xu Zhiyong had been seen as part of a campaign by the Communist Party authorities to stifle dissent before the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of Communist rule.
Speaking to The Times, the lawyer said: “I am really not clear as to why I have been released. It is still possible that I will face formal charges.”
The lawyer, whose clients have ranged from death-row clients to parents of babies who died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk powder last year, said: “Right now I feel incredibly moved by everything that has happened. I want to thank everyone who has worried about me since I was detained.”
Mr Xu, 36, is one of the most dogged human-rights lawyers in China and was taken from his home at dawn about three weeks ago after a crackdown on a non-governmental organisation that he co-founded to advance legal rights.
He said that his detention and arrest, which could still bring to an end one of the most brilliant legal careers in China if charges are filed, had not come as a complete surprise. “I had felt before that it was possible I could be arrested.”
Mr Xu may have expected to have been arrested for his legal work rather than for tax evasion.
Last month, government officials closed Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, his legal aid and research group. The organisation worked on public interest law, addressing issues such as death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial "black jails".
Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children fell ill last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.
The centre's closure came after the tax authorities said that the group faced a fine of 1.4 million yuan (£140,000) for failing to pay taxes. Mr Xu had been scheduled to meet tax officials on July 30, the day after he was detained. Colleagues say that formal notification of the unpaid taxes has yet to be issued, meaning that his arrest was a violation of due process.
The incarceration of Mr Xu had come amid a nationwide crackdown on activist lawyers and non-governmental organisations. The legal activist is prominent not only as a lawyer but as one of the few elected members of a Beijing district branch of the National People’s Congress (parliament). Representatives of Gongmeng have paid back about 700,000 yuan. Under Chinese law if the taxes are repaid a defendant can face only civil and not criminal charges.
Mr Xu gained prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case in which a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten in police custody. Mr Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation that gave police virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.
Mr Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the system, which was abolished later that year.
He faces a maximum seven-year sentence if formally charged with tax evasion.
August 23, 2009
In an unusual departure by a judicial system that rarely sets free anyone taken into detention, the authorities today released one of China’s most pioneering advocates of legal rights only days after his formal arrest for tax evasion.
The detention around three weeks ago and arrest last week of lawyer Xu Zhiyong had been seen as part of a campaign by the Communist Party authorities to stifle dissent before the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of Communist rule.
Speaking to The Times, the lawyer said: “I am really not clear as to why I have been released. It is still possible that I will face formal charges.”
The lawyer, whose clients have ranged from death-row clients to parents of babies who died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk powder last year, said: “Right now I feel incredibly moved by everything that has happened. I want to thank everyone who has worried about me since I was detained.”
Mr Xu, 36, is one of the most dogged human-rights lawyers in China and was taken from his home at dawn about three weeks ago after a crackdown on a non-governmental organisation that he co-founded to advance legal rights.
He said that his detention and arrest, which could still bring to an end one of the most brilliant legal careers in China if charges are filed, had not come as a complete surprise. “I had felt before that it was possible I could be arrested.”
Mr Xu may have expected to have been arrested for his legal work rather than for tax evasion.
Last month, government officials closed Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, his legal aid and research group. The organisation worked on public interest law, addressing issues such as death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial "black jails".
Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children fell ill last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.
The centre's closure came after the tax authorities said that the group faced a fine of 1.4 million yuan (£140,000) for failing to pay taxes. Mr Xu had been scheduled to meet tax officials on July 30, the day after he was detained. Colleagues say that formal notification of the unpaid taxes has yet to be issued, meaning that his arrest was a violation of due process.
The incarceration of Mr Xu had come amid a nationwide crackdown on activist lawyers and non-governmental organisations. The legal activist is prominent not only as a lawyer but as one of the few elected members of a Beijing district branch of the National People’s Congress (parliament). Representatives of Gongmeng have paid back about 700,000 yuan. Under Chinese law if the taxes are repaid a defendant can face only civil and not criminal charges.
Mr Xu gained prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case in which a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten in police custody. Mr Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation that gave police virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.
Mr Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the system, which was abolished later that year.
He faces a maximum seven-year sentence if formally charged with tax evasion.
***UPDATE: XU ZHIYONG FREED ON BAIL ACCORDING TO AP, VOICE OF AMERICA***
Link to Associated Press Story
Link to Voice of America Story
August 23, 2009
China legal activist freed, but may face tax case
By JOE MCDONALD (AP) – 4 hours ago
BEIJING — An activist Chinese lawyer who was detained in a possible crackdown on dissent ahead of October's 60th anniversary of Communist rule was released Sunday, but he said authorities were investigating possible tax charges against him.
Xu Zhiyong co-founded a Beijing legal aid group that has tackled some of China's most politically sensitive cases, most recently representing parents of children sickened last year by chemical-tainted milk. Xu was detained July 29 and formally arrested Aug. 12 on charges of evading taxes.
Xu has been at the forefront of legal reform and public interest law in China, and has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School in the United States several times.
He said he did not know whether authorities would proceed with a tax evasion case against his group, Gongmeng, or the Open Constitution Initiative.
"It is difficult to say," Xu told The Associated Press by telephone. He declined to give other details of his case or his detention.
His lawyer, Zhou Ze, said the case has yet to be sent to prosecutors.
"I think the tax evasion charge does not hold water," Zhou said. "We need to wait and see what will happen next."
Beijing appears to be trying to stifle possible dissent ahead of the Communist Party's celebration of its 60th anniversary in power Oct. 1.
In July, the government revoked the licenses of 53 lawyers in Beijing, many of them known for handling human rights and other sensitive cases.
Gongmeng was shut down in mid-July, and the Beijing tax bureau fined it 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes.
Zhou said the case might involve accusations of failing to pay up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in taxes, but he said authorities have given no details.
Gongmeng lawyers represented parents in last year's tainted milk scandal. Six babies died and nearly 300,000 other children were sickened. The scandal led to an overhaul of China's dairy industry, but the government tried to block parents and activists from publicizing information about illnesses and complaints about authorities.
---
China Releases Prominent Human Rights Lawyer on Bail
By VOA News
23 August 2009
A leading Chinese human rights lawyer says he was released from detention Sunday, but still might face prosecution on charges of tax evasion.
Xu Zhiyong, co-founder of a legal-aid group known as the Open Constitution Initiative or Gongmeng, had been out of contact since security officials seized him from his home on July 29. He was formally arrested last Tuesday on charges of tax evasion.
Xu said Sunday he was released on bail pending trial.
Chinese authorities shut down the legal rights center more than a month ago for alleged nonpayment of taxes. Members of the group reported nearly two weeks later that Xu had been detained by police, and that they could not contact him.
The group has helped victims of China's tainted-milk scandal and offered assistance in human-rights cases. It also has issued a report criticizing the Chinese government's policies toward Tibet.
Rights groups say the latest developments are part of a widening crackdown on lawyers, rights activists and non-governmental organizations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist state.
Preparations are under way for a huge official celebration of the anniversary on October 1. Rights activists expect the government will try to prevent any public demonstration of dissent during the festivities.
China recently revoked the licenses of 53 Beijing lawyers, most of them prominent human-rights advocates. Amnesty International has condemned the crackdown on lawyers as a major blow to the human-rights defense movement in China.
In a widely quoted statement earlier this year, Xu said his Gongmeng group aims to help build the rule of law and advance Chinese society by objectively and independently studying human-rights protections, the situation in Tibet and other issues.
One of the government's main charges against Xu's group alleges that no taxes were paid on a $100,000 grant the Open Constitution Initiative received from Yale University. Xu has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School on several occasions.
Link to Voice of America Story
August 23, 2009
China legal activist freed, but may face tax case
By JOE MCDONALD (AP) – 4 hours ago
BEIJING — An activist Chinese lawyer who was detained in a possible crackdown on dissent ahead of October's 60th anniversary of Communist rule was released Sunday, but he said authorities were investigating possible tax charges against him.
Xu Zhiyong co-founded a Beijing legal aid group that has tackled some of China's most politically sensitive cases, most recently representing parents of children sickened last year by chemical-tainted milk. Xu was detained July 29 and formally arrested Aug. 12 on charges of evading taxes.
Xu has been at the forefront of legal reform and public interest law in China, and has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School in the United States several times.
He said he did not know whether authorities would proceed with a tax evasion case against his group, Gongmeng, or the Open Constitution Initiative.
"It is difficult to say," Xu told The Associated Press by telephone. He declined to give other details of his case or his detention.
His lawyer, Zhou Ze, said the case has yet to be sent to prosecutors.
"I think the tax evasion charge does not hold water," Zhou said. "We need to wait and see what will happen next."
Beijing appears to be trying to stifle possible dissent ahead of the Communist Party's celebration of its 60th anniversary in power Oct. 1.
In July, the government revoked the licenses of 53 lawyers in Beijing, many of them known for handling human rights and other sensitive cases.
Gongmeng was shut down in mid-July, and the Beijing tax bureau fined it 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes.
Zhou said the case might involve accusations of failing to pay up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in taxes, but he said authorities have given no details.
Gongmeng lawyers represented parents in last year's tainted milk scandal. Six babies died and nearly 300,000 other children were sickened. The scandal led to an overhaul of China's dairy industry, but the government tried to block parents and activists from publicizing information about illnesses and complaints about authorities.
---
China Releases Prominent Human Rights Lawyer on Bail
By VOA News
23 August 2009
A leading Chinese human rights lawyer says he was released from detention Sunday, but still might face prosecution on charges of tax evasion.
Xu Zhiyong, co-founder of a legal-aid group known as the Open Constitution Initiative or Gongmeng, had been out of contact since security officials seized him from his home on July 29. He was formally arrested last Tuesday on charges of tax evasion.
Xu said Sunday he was released on bail pending trial.
Chinese authorities shut down the legal rights center more than a month ago for alleged nonpayment of taxes. Members of the group reported nearly two weeks later that Xu had been detained by police, and that they could not contact him.
The group has helped victims of China's tainted-milk scandal and offered assistance in human-rights cases. It also has issued a report criticizing the Chinese government's policies toward Tibet.
Rights groups say the latest developments are part of a widening crackdown on lawyers, rights activists and non-governmental organizations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist state.
Preparations are under way for a huge official celebration of the anniversary on October 1. Rights activists expect the government will try to prevent any public demonstration of dissent during the festivities.
China recently revoked the licenses of 53 Beijing lawyers, most of them prominent human-rights advocates. Amnesty International has condemned the crackdown on lawyers as a major blow to the human-rights defense movement in China.
In a widely quoted statement earlier this year, Xu said his Gongmeng group aims to help build the rule of law and advance Chinese society by objectively and independently studying human-rights protections, the situation in Tibet and other issues.
One of the government's main charges against Xu's group alleges that no taxes were paid on a $100,000 grant the Open Constitution Initiative received from Yale University. Xu has been a visiting scholar at Yale Law School on several occasions.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
"Chinese activist arrested for tax evasion" by Kathrin Hille, The Financial Times
Link
August 18, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, a Chinese legal scholar and aid campaigner, has been formally arrested on tax evasion charges, in the latest step in Beijing’s crackdown on legal activists.
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, where Mr Xu teaches law, was notified of his official arrest, said Zhou Ze, Mr Xu’s lawyer. “This letter was received,” said a colleague of Mr Xu’s who asked not to be identified.
Under China’s opaque legal system, it is unclear whether Mr Xu will be prosecuted. But his formal arrest makes it more likely that he will go to trial. As a leading proponent of legal reform in China, his case could serve as a test for how committed Beijing is to continue developing the rule of law.
Mr Xu was taken away from his home at dawn on July 29 shortly after the government closed down the Open Constitution Initiative, a non-governmental group co-founded and run by him which provides legal assistance in public interest cases.
The centre was closed after the authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m, saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Mr Xu’s detention came a day before he was due for a hearing on that case.
Mr Xu became widely known in 2003 when he campaigned against China’s extralegal detention of people staying in a city they lack a residential permit for. Mr Xu called upon the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, to check whether the system was constitutional after Sun Zhigang, a university graduate, died following a beating while in police custody. Later that year, that form of detention was abolished.
Since then, Mr Xu has taken on numerous public interest cases. Most recently, his centre’s lawyers represented parents of children who died or fell ill after consuming melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years. Lawyers working with the centre said the tax evasion charges were part of Beijing’s broader attempt to harass activist lawyers and legal aid groups.
Open Constitution was set up as a company because aid groups that try to register as nonprofits often face insurmountable administrative hurdles in China. However, the alternative exposes them to government demands to declare tax as a for-profit business.
Earlier this month, centre organizers called for public donations and tried to settle the fine. However, they said this proved difficult because tax authorities refused to issue necessary paperwork and the bank accounts of the centre and Mr Xu were frozen.
Mr Zhou said he was allowed to visit Mr Xu late last week in a Beijing detention facility where Mr Xu remained as of Tuesday.
August 18, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, a Chinese legal scholar and aid campaigner, has been formally arrested on tax evasion charges, in the latest step in Beijing’s crackdown on legal activists.
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, where Mr Xu teaches law, was notified of his official arrest, said Zhou Ze, Mr Xu’s lawyer. “This letter was received,” said a colleague of Mr Xu’s who asked not to be identified.
Under China’s opaque legal system, it is unclear whether Mr Xu will be prosecuted. But his formal arrest makes it more likely that he will go to trial. As a leading proponent of legal reform in China, his case could serve as a test for how committed Beijing is to continue developing the rule of law.
Mr Xu was taken away from his home at dawn on July 29 shortly after the government closed down the Open Constitution Initiative, a non-governmental group co-founded and run by him which provides legal assistance in public interest cases.
The centre was closed after the authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m, saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Mr Xu’s detention came a day before he was due for a hearing on that case.
Mr Xu became widely known in 2003 when he campaigned against China’s extralegal detention of people staying in a city they lack a residential permit for. Mr Xu called upon the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, to check whether the system was constitutional after Sun Zhigang, a university graduate, died following a beating while in police custody. Later that year, that form of detention was abolished.
Since then, Mr Xu has taken on numerous public interest cases. Most recently, his centre’s lawyers represented parents of children who died or fell ill after consuming melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years. Lawyers working with the centre said the tax evasion charges were part of Beijing’s broader attempt to harass activist lawyers and legal aid groups.
Open Constitution was set up as a company because aid groups that try to register as nonprofits often face insurmountable administrative hurdles in China. However, the alternative exposes them to government demands to declare tax as a for-profit business.
Earlier this month, centre organizers called for public donations and tried to settle the fine. However, they said this proved difficult because tax authorities refused to issue necessary paperwork and the bank accounts of the centre and Mr Xu were frozen.
Mr Zhou said he was allowed to visit Mr Xu late last week in a Beijing detention facility where Mr Xu remained as of Tuesday.
"Chinese Legal Rights Group Blocked from Paying Its Fines" by NTDTV
Link
August 17, 2009
Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhiyong is still in detention for supposedly violating tax law. He’s part of an organization called The Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng in Chinese. They take on welfare and human rights cases.
Chinese authorities are demanding that Gongmeng pay fines for overdue taxes. But now authorities are making it hard for them.
A report by the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders says that Gongmeng asked supporters for donations to help pay the fines. But authorities have frozen Gongmeng’s bank account—and that makes it impossible for them to pay.
Meanwhile, Xu is still being detained.
Recent months have seen an increased number of arrests and trials of activists and lawyers in China.
August 17, 2009
Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhiyong is still in detention for supposedly violating tax law. He’s part of an organization called The Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng in Chinese. They take on welfare and human rights cases.
Chinese authorities are demanding that Gongmeng pay fines for overdue taxes. But now authorities are making it hard for them.
A report by the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders says that Gongmeng asked supporters for donations to help pay the fines. But authorities have frozen Gongmeng’s bank account—and that makes it impossible for them to pay.
Meanwhile, Xu is still being detained.
Recent months have seen an increased number of arrests and trials of activists and lawyers in China.
Friday, August 14, 2009
¨Jailing Xu Zhiyong A legal scholar's case tests China on the rule of law¨ by The Washington Post Opinion
Link
August 14, 2009
AT THE CONCLUSION of the Strategic Economic Dialogue on July 28, the United States and China issued a news release affirming "the importance of the rule of law to our two countries." One day later, Chinese police led prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong out of his apartment to be detained indefinitely.
Few people embrace the rule of law in China as openly or as wholeheartedly as Mr. Xu. After graduating from one of China's most prestigious law schools, he has dedicated his life to fighting for justice by means of the Chinese legal system. He has represented the parents of more than 300,000 children affected by melamine-contaminated milk, opposed secret "black jails" and fought for the rights of death row inmates. Mr. Xu is a strong proponent of working within the system for change -- so much so that he ran for office in one of China's rare contested elections and won. Along with his colleagues at the Open Constitution Initiative, which he helped establish, Mr. Xu is a highly visible legal figure to whom people have increasingly turned as they gained awareness of their constitutional rights.
Nongovernmental organizations such as the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, occupy an uneasy place in China. Many register as businesses to avoid dealing with a system that limits the number of NGOs and that requires government agencies to oversee their operations. This decision leaves them in a legal gray area, and in July, Chinese authorities charged that Gongmeng was improperly registered and had failed to pay taxes. Officials entered the organization's offices and confiscated dozens of files.
Mr. Xu was confident that he could defend his organization against these allegations by his usual means: through the system. But scarcely a week before he was to appear in court, police took him from his home.
He is not the first to see his trust in the system backfire. Last month, China refused to renew the licenses of 53 human rights lawyers whose cases troubled the Communist Party. But by taking on a figure as public and as scrupulously law-respecting as Mr. Xu, the Chinese government has crossed a new line. China frequently affirms its commitment to the "rule of law." But because the Chinese judiciary is not independent -- its chief justice is a longtime party member who lacks a law degree -- and court decisions often depend upon policy calculations, it is thanks only to the tireless efforts of those such as Mr. Xu that the "rule of law" might come to mean anything at all.
According to Chinese practice, Mr. Xu can be held for 30 days while the government decides whether to press charges; during this interval, protests from abroad might have some impact. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that human rights issues should not "interfere" in the discussion with China. But engaging with China does not mean abdicating the responsibility to strenuously object to its human rights violations -- especially in such an egregious case as the detention of Mr. Xu.
August 14, 2009
AT THE CONCLUSION of the Strategic Economic Dialogue on July 28, the United States and China issued a news release affirming "the importance of the rule of law to our two countries." One day later, Chinese police led prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong out of his apartment to be detained indefinitely.
Few people embrace the rule of law in China as openly or as wholeheartedly as Mr. Xu. After graduating from one of China's most prestigious law schools, he has dedicated his life to fighting for justice by means of the Chinese legal system. He has represented the parents of more than 300,000 children affected by melamine-contaminated milk, opposed secret "black jails" and fought for the rights of death row inmates. Mr. Xu is a strong proponent of working within the system for change -- so much so that he ran for office in one of China's rare contested elections and won. Along with his colleagues at the Open Constitution Initiative, which he helped establish, Mr. Xu is a highly visible legal figure to whom people have increasingly turned as they gained awareness of their constitutional rights.
Nongovernmental organizations such as the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, occupy an uneasy place in China. Many register as businesses to avoid dealing with a system that limits the number of NGOs and that requires government agencies to oversee their operations. This decision leaves them in a legal gray area, and in July, Chinese authorities charged that Gongmeng was improperly registered and had failed to pay taxes. Officials entered the organization's offices and confiscated dozens of files.
Mr. Xu was confident that he could defend his organization against these allegations by his usual means: through the system. But scarcely a week before he was to appear in court, police took him from his home.
He is not the first to see his trust in the system backfire. Last month, China refused to renew the licenses of 53 human rights lawyers whose cases troubled the Communist Party. But by taking on a figure as public and as scrupulously law-respecting as Mr. Xu, the Chinese government has crossed a new line. China frequently affirms its commitment to the "rule of law." But because the Chinese judiciary is not independent -- its chief justice is a longtime party member who lacks a law degree -- and court decisions often depend upon policy calculations, it is thanks only to the tireless efforts of those such as Mr. Xu that the "rule of law" might come to mean anything at all.
According to Chinese practice, Mr. Xu can be held for 30 days while the government decides whether to press charges; during this interval, protests from abroad might have some impact. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that human rights issues should not "interfere" in the discussion with China. But engaging with China does not mean abdicating the responsibility to strenuously object to its human rights violations -- especially in such an egregious case as the detention of Mr. Xu.
¨Legal rights violations in China: Should Obama speak up?¨ Los Angeles Times Opinion
Link
August 13, 2009
In what seems to be part of a crackdown on civil rights lawyers in China, the Chinese government has arrested prominent civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on tax fraud charges. Zhiyong, who has not been heard from since his arrest two weeks ago, started the nonprofit Open Constitution Initiative legal clinic six years ago, which has recently represented victims of the poisoned milk powder that left three children dead and 6,000 sick in China. Zhiyong's clinic was shut down for "tax evasion." Experts say this arrest does not bode well for the already precarious rule of law in China, and human rights activists across the political spectrum are calling for President Obama to speak up on the issue.
While the Chinese government over the last several years has made much progress in multiple areas of law, including trade and corporate issues, civil rights law is less established and growing slowly because of the risks lawyers who practice in this field face. Very few lawyers (Freedom Watch says there are only several dozen) are willing to take on cases such as defending parents whose infants were affected by poisonous baby formula or death row inmates.
Xu was one of the few. Many of his fellow lawyers have been disbarred and believe they will never be reinstated as practicing attorneys, even though they were working within the law to try make change in China. "None of these guys were going around the government," Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch told me. "They took cases to court that were violations under Chinese law. It's not an anomaly when you disbar the only 50 people who practice this kind of law."
The question is, why now? According to Clayton Dube, associate director of the USC U.S.-China Institute, many blame this recent crackdown on the upcoming celebration of the 60th anniversary of Communist China. He says the government's skepticism of these lawyers started back with the earthquake in the Sichuan province, continued with the Tibetan protests (many of whom were represented by rights lawyers) and grew with the milk contamination cases. In other words, this isn't a new phenomenon.
Both Freedom Watch and Human Rights Watch have said that they wish the Obama administration would do more to confront China over the violation of legal and civil rights, the effects of which they say are not only felt by Chinese citizens but often also by foreigners, as was the case with the exported baby formula.
Should the Obama administration speak out against the infringement of human rights in China and the deterioration of this field of law? China is a strategic partner that might not react well to harsh criticism from its economic ally. Even so, is it the president's duty to press on this issue and risk economic consequences for the United States?
August 13, 2009
In what seems to be part of a crackdown on civil rights lawyers in China, the Chinese government has arrested prominent civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on tax fraud charges. Zhiyong, who has not been heard from since his arrest two weeks ago, started the nonprofit Open Constitution Initiative legal clinic six years ago, which has recently represented victims of the poisoned milk powder that left three children dead and 6,000 sick in China. Zhiyong's clinic was shut down for "tax evasion." Experts say this arrest does not bode well for the already precarious rule of law in China, and human rights activists across the political spectrum are calling for President Obama to speak up on the issue.
While the Chinese government over the last several years has made much progress in multiple areas of law, including trade and corporate issues, civil rights law is less established and growing slowly because of the risks lawyers who practice in this field face. Very few lawyers (Freedom Watch says there are only several dozen) are willing to take on cases such as defending parents whose infants were affected by poisonous baby formula or death row inmates.
Xu was one of the few. Many of his fellow lawyers have been disbarred and believe they will never be reinstated as practicing attorneys, even though they were working within the law to try make change in China. "None of these guys were going around the government," Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch told me. "They took cases to court that were violations under Chinese law. It's not an anomaly when you disbar the only 50 people who practice this kind of law."
The question is, why now? According to Clayton Dube, associate director of the USC U.S.-China Institute, many blame this recent crackdown on the upcoming celebration of the 60th anniversary of Communist China. He says the government's skepticism of these lawyers started back with the earthquake in the Sichuan province, continued with the Tibetan protests (many of whom were represented by rights lawyers) and grew with the milk contamination cases. In other words, this isn't a new phenomenon.
Both Freedom Watch and Human Rights Watch have said that they wish the Obama administration would do more to confront China over the violation of legal and civil rights, the effects of which they say are not only felt by Chinese citizens but often also by foreigners, as was the case with the exported baby formula.
Should the Obama administration speak out against the infringement of human rights in China and the deterioration of this field of law? China is a strategic partner that might not react well to harsh criticism from its economic ally. Even so, is it the president's duty to press on this issue and risk economic consequences for the United States?
Sunday, August 9, 2009
"Lawyer’s Detention Shakes China’s Rights Movement," by Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times
Link
August 9, 2009
BEIJING — China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The charge is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
“We’re all shocked by his detention, because Xu Zhiyong has always tried to avoid taking on radical and politically sensitive cases,” said Teng Biao, a colleague. “His only interest is fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and trying to enhance China’s legal system.”
Mr. Teng helped Mr. Xu establish the Open Constitution Initiative, a six-year-old nonprofit legal center that the authorities closed last month, charging that it was improperly registered and that it failed to pay taxes.
Mr. Xu is not the first rights advocate in China to face the wrath of the authorities in recent years. Gao Zhisheng, a vocal lawyer, vanished into police custody six months ago, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, was beaten and then jailed after exposing abuses in China’s birth-control program.
Although rights lawyers and grass-roots social organizations have always been tightly controlled here, the pressure has intensified in recent weeks. More than 20 lawyers known for taking on politically tinged cases were effectively disbarred, and the police raided a group that works to ease discrimination against people with Hepatitis B.
Last week China’s justice minister gave a speech saying that lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in the country would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.”
But given Mr. Xu’s international stature and reputation for working within the law, legal scholars both in China and abroad say his prosecution suggests a new level of repression.
“What makes his detention particularly disturbing is that he’s a special figure in so many ways,” said Paul Gewirtz, director of the China Law Center at Yale Law School, which helped Mr. Xu establish his legal center, known here by its Chinese name, Gongmeng. “He’s at the forefront of advancing the rule of law, which is something everyone agrees China needs for its ongoing development.”
After 30 years of reform, China’s legal system is at a critical juncture. Law schools continue to pump out thousands of graduates each year, and the courts, even if imperfect, have increasingly become a forum for resolving disputes. Late last month the Supreme People’s Court announced reforms intended to markedly reduce executions.
But as lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.
The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court. Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations. And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invocation of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.
He Weifang, a law professor and legal adviser to Gongmeng, said conservative forces in the Communist Party were increasingly wary of lawyers, whom they suspect are ultimately seeking to challenge one-party rule. Their greatest fear, Mr. He said, is that advocacy lawyers and civil society organizations could one day lead a pro-democracy movement among the poor and disenfranchised citizens they represent.
“What the authorities don’t appreciate, though, is that lawyers are leading these people to the courts, where their complaints can be resolved by rule of law,” he said. “People like Xu Zhiyong can only help the government solve some of the problems it faces.”
According to Gongmeng, Mr. Xu is being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, although public security officials have not confirmed that he is in their custody. Peng Jian, a lawyer who is advising Gongmeng, said the authorities had imposed a $208,000 penalty for nonpayment of taxes due on funds received from Yale for cooperative research projects.
A day after the raid on Gongmeng’s office, Mr. Xu held a news conference to say that the accusations were baseless. He described the attack on his research center as a battle between corrupt officials and society’s most vulnerable citizens. “We believe conscience will surely triumph over the evil forces,” he said.
A week later, police officers came to his door and led him away. Another employee of the research center, Zhuang Lu, was also taken away the same day.
Soon after graduating from Peking University law school, Mr. Xu became immersed in the case of a graphic artist who was beaten to death in 2003 in police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou. The artist, Sun Zhigang, 27, had been arrested under vagrancy laws that allowed the police to detain people for traveling outside their registered hometowns without a permit.
Mr. Xu led a campaign to end the practice, which gained widespread media attention. A few months later, the State Council abolished the system.
That same year Mr. Xu rose to the defense of a muckraking editor jailed in Guangzhou after his newspaper, Southern Metropolis, ran a series of articles about Mr. Sun’s death. The editor, Cheng Yizhong, said Mr. Xu helped rally lawyers and journalists, leading to his release five months later. “Only Xu had the courage to take on my case,” he said.
More recently, he tried to prepare a challenge to black jails, the illegal holding cells that some officials use to silence persistent critics. Last year, friends say, he was roughed up several times while gathering evidence from petitioners who had come to Beijing to press their grievances to the central government.
Raised in a Christian home in Henan Province, Mr. Xu was fond of noting his birth in a county called Minquan, which translates as “civil rights.” In an interview last year with The Economic Observer, a Chinese weekly, he said this had a profound impact on his social consciousness.
“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he said. “I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”
August 9, 2009
BEIJING — China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The charge is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
“We’re all shocked by his detention, because Xu Zhiyong has always tried to avoid taking on radical and politically sensitive cases,” said Teng Biao, a colleague. “His only interest is fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and trying to enhance China’s legal system.”
Mr. Teng helped Mr. Xu establish the Open Constitution Initiative, a six-year-old nonprofit legal center that the authorities closed last month, charging that it was improperly registered and that it failed to pay taxes.
Mr. Xu is not the first rights advocate in China to face the wrath of the authorities in recent years. Gao Zhisheng, a vocal lawyer, vanished into police custody six months ago, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, was beaten and then jailed after exposing abuses in China’s birth-control program.
Although rights lawyers and grass-roots social organizations have always been tightly controlled here, the pressure has intensified in recent weeks. More than 20 lawyers known for taking on politically tinged cases were effectively disbarred, and the police raided a group that works to ease discrimination against people with Hepatitis B.
Last week China’s justice minister gave a speech saying that lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in the country would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.”
But given Mr. Xu’s international stature and reputation for working within the law, legal scholars both in China and abroad say his prosecution suggests a new level of repression.
“What makes his detention particularly disturbing is that he’s a special figure in so many ways,” said Paul Gewirtz, director of the China Law Center at Yale Law School, which helped Mr. Xu establish his legal center, known here by its Chinese name, Gongmeng. “He’s at the forefront of advancing the rule of law, which is something everyone agrees China needs for its ongoing development.”
After 30 years of reform, China’s legal system is at a critical juncture. Law schools continue to pump out thousands of graduates each year, and the courts, even if imperfect, have increasingly become a forum for resolving disputes. Late last month the Supreme People’s Court announced reforms intended to markedly reduce executions.
But as lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.
The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court. Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations. And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invocation of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.
He Weifang, a law professor and legal adviser to Gongmeng, said conservative forces in the Communist Party were increasingly wary of lawyers, whom they suspect are ultimately seeking to challenge one-party rule. Their greatest fear, Mr. He said, is that advocacy lawyers and civil society organizations could one day lead a pro-democracy movement among the poor and disenfranchised citizens they represent.
“What the authorities don’t appreciate, though, is that lawyers are leading these people to the courts, where their complaints can be resolved by rule of law,” he said. “People like Xu Zhiyong can only help the government solve some of the problems it faces.”
According to Gongmeng, Mr. Xu is being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, although public security officials have not confirmed that he is in their custody. Peng Jian, a lawyer who is advising Gongmeng, said the authorities had imposed a $208,000 penalty for nonpayment of taxes due on funds received from Yale for cooperative research projects.
A day after the raid on Gongmeng’s office, Mr. Xu held a news conference to say that the accusations were baseless. He described the attack on his research center as a battle between corrupt officials and society’s most vulnerable citizens. “We believe conscience will surely triumph over the evil forces,” he said.
A week later, police officers came to his door and led him away. Another employee of the research center, Zhuang Lu, was also taken away the same day.
Soon after graduating from Peking University law school, Mr. Xu became immersed in the case of a graphic artist who was beaten to death in 2003 in police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou. The artist, Sun Zhigang, 27, had been arrested under vagrancy laws that allowed the police to detain people for traveling outside their registered hometowns without a permit.
Mr. Xu led a campaign to end the practice, which gained widespread media attention. A few months later, the State Council abolished the system.
That same year Mr. Xu rose to the defense of a muckraking editor jailed in Guangzhou after his newspaper, Southern Metropolis, ran a series of articles about Mr. Sun’s death. The editor, Cheng Yizhong, said Mr. Xu helped rally lawyers and journalists, leading to his release five months later. “Only Xu had the courage to take on my case,” he said.
More recently, he tried to prepare a challenge to black jails, the illegal holding cells that some officials use to silence persistent critics. Last year, friends say, he was roughed up several times while gathering evidence from petitioners who had come to Beijing to press their grievances to the central government.
Raised in a Christian home in Henan Province, Mr. Xu was fond of noting his birth in a county called Minquan, which translates as “civil rights.” In an interview last year with The Economic Observer, a Chinese weekly, he said this had a profound impact on his social consciousness.
“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he said. “I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”
"China snares NGOs with foreign funding," by Simon Montlake, Christian Science Monitor
Link
August 4, 2009
Beijing - It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group's Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn't have a publishing license.
Taken together, the raids appear part of a tightening of controls on critical voices in the run-up to Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. Since 2006, Russia has stripped the tax-free status of many foreign foundations and forced NGOs to report their activities in exhaustive detail, while accusing foreign-funded human rights groups of being Trojan horses for Western powers. It recently amended its NGO law, easing some of these controls.
An alternate view in Beijing is that the groups targeted had pushed too aggressively into forbidden political zones, setting off a reaction. NGO workers and experts on civil society say the investigations into taxes and licenses are a smokescreen for a clampdown on legal activism, including the recent disbarring of 20 civil rights lawyers in Beijing.
"It's what you do with the money that matters," says a researcher on Chinese NGOs, who declined to be named. He says investigations into foreign funding provide a "post hoc excuse" for authorities.
Foreign funds become a liability
Because of the difficulty of registering as nonprofits, many Chinese NGOs are listed as businesses. That makes them liable for potentially crippling tax demands, says Wan Yanhai, who runs an HIV/AIDS advocacy group in Beijing.
"This is a big issue. If there is a similar action [as OCI's tax case] against us, we could be fined tens of millions of yuan," he says.
Mr. Wan and other activists say that soliciting foreign funds is routine for many NGOs in China. Some government officials are supportive as they also benefit from funding for public programs from the same foreign donors. And they tend to overlook the fact that foreign-funded NGOs were registered as businesses, say activists.
A crackdown on this practice – and the risk of a backdated tax bill – would be chilling, says Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical support to civil society groups in China.
"It's a tough situation. For most grass-roots groups working on humanitarian and civil rights issues in China, there's no domestic funding. They're also not allowed to register as NGOs. That leaves very little option except to go to foreign donors," she says.
Another dilemma for activists is that foreign donors often want to fund projects that rub against the grain in China, such as research into last year's riots in Tibet, which inflamed foreign opinion. In a recent report, OCI said the official explanation that the Dalai Lama had fomented the unrest ignored the government's own repressive actions in Tibet.
It also took up the cause of families suing companies that sold contaminated milk powder last year, until the practice was exposed. China's government has tried to draw a line under the scandal by paying compensation to those that agree not to bring lawsuits against manufacturers.
An official at an overseas grant-making organization, who requested anonymity, says informal agreements with tax authorities on giving money to Chinese recipients may now be in doubt. But he and others in the NGO field say it's too soon to say if a broader crackdown is underway and, if so, whether foreign funding would be squeezed.
State projects get outside aid, too
On the day of his arrest, Xu was due to prepare his defense in the tax case. The next day, a municipal tax bureau found against OCI, which had argued that the money from Yale and another private donor had already been declared.
Jeffrey Prescott, deputy director of Yale's China Law Center, says he was disturbed by the detention of Xu, a former visiting scholar at Yale, and its implications for lawyers working with marginalized groups. He says Yale also supported government-run programs in China, including research on legal reform with state universities.
"Obviously these issues can be sensitive in China. But if you look at what [OCI] is doing, it's pretty mainstream public interest law," he says.
August 4, 2009
Beijing - It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group's Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn't have a publishing license.
Taken together, the raids appear part of a tightening of controls on critical voices in the run-up to Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. Since 2006, Russia has stripped the tax-free status of many foreign foundations and forced NGOs to report their activities in exhaustive detail, while accusing foreign-funded human rights groups of being Trojan horses for Western powers. It recently amended its NGO law, easing some of these controls.
An alternate view in Beijing is that the groups targeted had pushed too aggressively into forbidden political zones, setting off a reaction. NGO workers and experts on civil society say the investigations into taxes and licenses are a smokescreen for a clampdown on legal activism, including the recent disbarring of 20 civil rights lawyers in Beijing.
"It's what you do with the money that matters," says a researcher on Chinese NGOs, who declined to be named. He says investigations into foreign funding provide a "post hoc excuse" for authorities.
Foreign funds become a liability
Because of the difficulty of registering as nonprofits, many Chinese NGOs are listed as businesses. That makes them liable for potentially crippling tax demands, says Wan Yanhai, who runs an HIV/AIDS advocacy group in Beijing.
"This is a big issue. If there is a similar action [as OCI's tax case] against us, we could be fined tens of millions of yuan," he says.
Mr. Wan and other activists say that soliciting foreign funds is routine for many NGOs in China. Some government officials are supportive as they also benefit from funding for public programs from the same foreign donors. And they tend to overlook the fact that foreign-funded NGOs were registered as businesses, say activists.
A crackdown on this practice – and the risk of a backdated tax bill – would be chilling, says Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical support to civil society groups in China.
"It's a tough situation. For most grass-roots groups working on humanitarian and civil rights issues in China, there's no domestic funding. They're also not allowed to register as NGOs. That leaves very little option except to go to foreign donors," she says.
Another dilemma for activists is that foreign donors often want to fund projects that rub against the grain in China, such as research into last year's riots in Tibet, which inflamed foreign opinion. In a recent report, OCI said the official explanation that the Dalai Lama had fomented the unrest ignored the government's own repressive actions in Tibet.
It also took up the cause of families suing companies that sold contaminated milk powder last year, until the practice was exposed. China's government has tried to draw a line under the scandal by paying compensation to those that agree not to bring lawsuits against manufacturers.
An official at an overseas grant-making organization, who requested anonymity, says informal agreements with tax authorities on giving money to Chinese recipients may now be in doubt. But he and others in the NGO field say it's too soon to say if a broader crackdown is underway and, if so, whether foreign funding would be squeezed.
State projects get outside aid, too
On the day of his arrest, Xu was due to prepare his defense in the tax case. The next day, a municipal tax bureau found against OCI, which had argued that the money from Yale and another private donor had already been declared.
Jeffrey Prescott, deputy director of Yale's China Law Center, says he was disturbed by the detention of Xu, a former visiting scholar at Yale, and its implications for lawyers working with marginalized groups. He says Yale also supported government-run programs in China, including research on legal reform with state universities.
"Obviously these issues can be sensitive in China. But if you look at what [OCI] is doing, it's pretty mainstream public interest law," he says.
"An Open Letter in Support of Xu Zhiyong," Cheng Wing Yan/Alice Poon, Asia Sentinel
Link
August 8, 2009
An excerpt of an open letter written by a Form 7 Hong Kong female student Cheng Wing Yan (鄭詠欣) addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in support of Xu Zhiyong, the civil rights lawyer who has been arrested by the Chinese government. The letter has been published in Ming Pao Daily.
Here is my translation of the excerpt of the open letter titled “Please Convince Me from a Legal Standpoint”:-
"Recently Xu Zhiyong and Gongmeng (公盟) under his leadership have been targeted by the government. Gongmeng is a civil organization formed by a group of lawyers and academics who are concerned with China’s development. Through academic research, the organization has offered some advice and suggestions on China’s legal system reform, thereby promoting the realization of rule of law and democracy. Another area of their work, which is well known to Chinese citizens, is to provide legal aid to the powerless grass roots like petitioners and victims of land grabs and melamine milk powder, helping them to get justice within the existing legal framework. Judging from the fact that many petitioners who had received legal aid went bravely to Gongmeng’s office to voice their support soon after the tax authorities shut it down, everybody can clearly see that Gongmeng is the people’s ally. Why is it that the government under your leadership is still insisting on doing something that goes against the will of the people?
As far as I know, Gongmeng is a non-profit organization. They had once considered registering as a non-business civil unit, but their application was rejected and they had no alternative but to register as a limited company. In international societies, such an organization is tax-exempt, and donors can also obtain tax exemption benefits. But as Gongmeng members are law-abiding legal professionals, even though they think the system is unreasonable, they still pay their taxes as required. When the tax authorities accused them of omitting to report certain taxable items, they admitted their fault honestly. Why is it that the government under your leadership still imposing the maximum penalty, and on top of that, using a search warrant to take away all the files and data that are related to protection of civil rights? What is even more puzzling is that right before the convening of the second hearing, Mr. Xu was taken away from his home by security bureau officers and under-cover police, detained in custody and was not allowed to contact lawyers or his family. At the same time, Gongmeng was being ordered to shut down its website. This is a case of groundless seizure of citizens’ basic civil rights.
Premier Wen, you always say things like ‘administering according to rule of law’ and ‘governing according to rule of law’. May I ask, based on which legal clause did the law enforcement agency take away Mr. Xu? I only have a cursory knowledge of Chinese Law, but I know that the Constitution is the country’s most comprehensive basic law and has the highest level of binding power. Article 35 of our country’s Constitution states that citizens of People’s Republic of China have the freedom of speech and the freedom to form associations. Article 37 states clearly that citizens of People’s Republic of China enjoy personal freedom and it prohibits illegal arrest or other means of illegally seizing or limiting citizens’ personal freedom. Based on my own interpretation of these Articles, I think Mr. Xu should be free to stay in his home or work at his office.
In April this year, when my classmates and I were in Beijing as exchange students, we had the honor of discussing Chinese politics with Mr. Xu at his Gongmeng office. I saw that he is prepared to be selfless in doing all he can in the area of rule of law and democracy, and that he has great hope for China’s future. I was deeply moved. I can still remember during that visit I saw with my own eyes those menacing scarecrow gangsters who were trying to scare away the pitiable petitioners at the State Bureau for Letters and Visits. So, in our discussion, one of my classmates asked Mr. Xu, ‘Why does the Central Government tolerate the existence of those scarecrow gangsters?’ You know how Mr. Xu replied? He said that the number of petitioners far exceeds what the Letters and Visits Office can handle; so, in order to avoid overloading the Office, government cannot but bear with the scarecrow rogues. He reminded us several times that government is already doing its very best and that we need to be patient with it.
This is what Mr. Xu is like. He is full of ideals but he is not presumptuous. He is visionary but he insists on taking one step at a time. He does not mind getting negligible results that come slowly and bit by bit. He firmly believes that one day China will realize rule of law, democracy and freedom.
Premier Wen, I really don’t understand why your government can be so cruel. Why do you have to use such means to deal with a scholar who understands the hardship of the government and who wants only rational discourse? All he does is to play by the current rules of game and provide proper assistance to the weak and helpless to fight for the rights that the Constitution gives them. None of his deeds is not for the love of the country and its people. Why can’t the government spare such a person, and let him and Gongmeng handle the (tax) matter in accordance with open and fair civil proceedings?"
August 8, 2009
An excerpt of an open letter written by a Form 7 Hong Kong female student Cheng Wing Yan (鄭詠欣) addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in support of Xu Zhiyong, the civil rights lawyer who has been arrested by the Chinese government. The letter has been published in Ming Pao Daily.
Here is my translation of the excerpt of the open letter titled “Please Convince Me from a Legal Standpoint”:-
"Recently Xu Zhiyong and Gongmeng (公盟) under his leadership have been targeted by the government. Gongmeng is a civil organization formed by a group of lawyers and academics who are concerned with China’s development. Through academic research, the organization has offered some advice and suggestions on China’s legal system reform, thereby promoting the realization of rule of law and democracy. Another area of their work, which is well known to Chinese citizens, is to provide legal aid to the powerless grass roots like petitioners and victims of land grabs and melamine milk powder, helping them to get justice within the existing legal framework. Judging from the fact that many petitioners who had received legal aid went bravely to Gongmeng’s office to voice their support soon after the tax authorities shut it down, everybody can clearly see that Gongmeng is the people’s ally. Why is it that the government under your leadership is still insisting on doing something that goes against the will of the people?
As far as I know, Gongmeng is a non-profit organization. They had once considered registering as a non-business civil unit, but their application was rejected and they had no alternative but to register as a limited company. In international societies, such an organization is tax-exempt, and donors can also obtain tax exemption benefits. But as Gongmeng members are law-abiding legal professionals, even though they think the system is unreasonable, they still pay their taxes as required. When the tax authorities accused them of omitting to report certain taxable items, they admitted their fault honestly. Why is it that the government under your leadership still imposing the maximum penalty, and on top of that, using a search warrant to take away all the files and data that are related to protection of civil rights? What is even more puzzling is that right before the convening of the second hearing, Mr. Xu was taken away from his home by security bureau officers and under-cover police, detained in custody and was not allowed to contact lawyers or his family. At the same time, Gongmeng was being ordered to shut down its website. This is a case of groundless seizure of citizens’ basic civil rights.
Premier Wen, you always say things like ‘administering according to rule of law’ and ‘governing according to rule of law’. May I ask, based on which legal clause did the law enforcement agency take away Mr. Xu? I only have a cursory knowledge of Chinese Law, but I know that the Constitution is the country’s most comprehensive basic law and has the highest level of binding power. Article 35 of our country’s Constitution states that citizens of People’s Republic of China have the freedom of speech and the freedom to form associations. Article 37 states clearly that citizens of People’s Republic of China enjoy personal freedom and it prohibits illegal arrest or other means of illegally seizing or limiting citizens’ personal freedom. Based on my own interpretation of these Articles, I think Mr. Xu should be free to stay in his home or work at his office.
In April this year, when my classmates and I were in Beijing as exchange students, we had the honor of discussing Chinese politics with Mr. Xu at his Gongmeng office. I saw that he is prepared to be selfless in doing all he can in the area of rule of law and democracy, and that he has great hope for China’s future. I was deeply moved. I can still remember during that visit I saw with my own eyes those menacing scarecrow gangsters who were trying to scare away the pitiable petitioners at the State Bureau for Letters and Visits. So, in our discussion, one of my classmates asked Mr. Xu, ‘Why does the Central Government tolerate the existence of those scarecrow gangsters?’ You know how Mr. Xu replied? He said that the number of petitioners far exceeds what the Letters and Visits Office can handle; so, in order to avoid overloading the Office, government cannot but bear with the scarecrow rogues. He reminded us several times that government is already doing its very best and that we need to be patient with it.
This is what Mr. Xu is like. He is full of ideals but he is not presumptuous. He is visionary but he insists on taking one step at a time. He does not mind getting negligible results that come slowly and bit by bit. He firmly believes that one day China will realize rule of law, democracy and freedom.
Premier Wen, I really don’t understand why your government can be so cruel. Why do you have to use such means to deal with a scholar who understands the hardship of the government and who wants only rational discourse? All he does is to play by the current rules of game and provide proper assistance to the weak and helpless to fight for the rights that the Constitution gives them. None of his deeds is not for the love of the country and its people. Why can’t the government spare such a person, and let him and Gongmeng handle the (tax) matter in accordance with open and fair civil proceedings?"
"China lawyer who fought unfair arrest is arrested," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
Link
August 7, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, who founded the consumer-oriented Open Constitution Initiative law firm in Beijing, is accused of tax evasion. The issues he's taken on include secret jails and the tainted-milk scandal.
Reporting from Beijing -- Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old Beijing lawyer, is renowned for his spirited defense of Chinese citizens victimized by unfair arrest or consumer fraud. Nowadays, the founder of the Open Constitution Initiative law firm will be lucky if he is able to defend himself.
Xu was seized from his home at 5 a.m. on July 29. His family and colleagues were given no official notice and only after a week of inquiries learned secondhand that he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. His detention has sent a chilling message not only to China's lawyers but to citizens who have found themselves in need of legal representation.
"If even a famous lawyer gets arrested, what can we ordinary little people do?" said Tong Zhongjun, 28, a migrant worker whose infant son developed kidney stones from drinking tainted baby formula.
Xu's law firm was one of the few in China willing to represent the parents of the nearly 300,000 children sickened and the six who died last year as a result of dangerous milk additives.
Since its founding in 2003, the firm, also known as Gongmeng, has not shied away from sensitive topics. It challenged China's secret detention centers, the so-called black jails, after a 27-year-old graphic designer who was arrested for failing to carry his identification card died in custody. Xu represented an editor of the hard-hitting newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily who was arrested in 2004 on what were widely seen as politically motivated bribery charges.
This summer, Xu's firm joined the chorus of voices opposing a requirement that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with software that would filter out pornographic or controversial content.
But Xu is by no means a dissident, preferring to work within a system he has hoped to improve, not overthrow.
His pedigree is impeccable: He earned his doctorate in law at prestigious Peking University, taught law at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and served as a representative to the People's Congress for the Haidian District of Beijing, where he lives. He also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School.
"He had such confidence in the legal system," said Yang Huiwen, the only lawyer still in the offices Wednesday. Yang said he had wanted to quit the law because of hassles by authorities, but Xu talked him out of it. "He always talked about how the rule of law would help China advance."
This has been a singularly grim year for China's lawyers, with some of the country's leading human rights advocates under arrest or denied the right to practice law. Last month, the Beijing Justice Bureau stripped 53 lawyers of their licenses, mostly on administrative technicalities.
Xu's troubles began last month when the firm got a tax bill for more than $200,000, an assessment made on donations it received from supporters, including Yale Law School.
Just three days later, before the firm had time to file a response, the police came and confiscated most of its computers, furniture and files.
Even after that, Xu was optimistic he could beat back the charges of tax evasion. In China, civic groups such as Xu's cannot legally register as nongovernmental organizations, so disputes about whether they should be taxed as charities or businesses are commonplace.
The evening of July 28, Xu met late into the night at a cafe with other lawyers, planning his defense. But the next morning, when he failed to show up for work, colleagues became worried.
"We were calling all his friends. We went to the university to look for him," said Tian Qizhuang, the firm's general manager. It wasn't until the next day that they found the night guard at Xu's apartment complex, who confirmed that the lawyer had been arrested.
Another week went by before Xu's brother learned from the Communist Party secretary at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications that his brother had been charged with tax evasion.
"We still haven't heard anything officially. Under Chinese law, family members are supposed to get notification within 48 hours, but they've heard nothing," said Tian in an interview at the law offices on Wednesday.
The offices are now virtually bare. The files have all been seized except for those relating to the tainted-milk cases, which are still wending their way through the courts. One of the senior lawyers at the firm, Teng Biao, managed to save those files by appealing to the conscience of the police officers as parents. ("How will you be able to face your kids if you take those files?" Teng asked the police, the office manager said.)
Sisi Liu of Amnesty International in Hong Kong said someone of Xu's stature suspected of tax evasion would normally be released on bail pending formal charges.
"Clearly, this is a politically motivated prosecution," she said, "and if there is such strong political motivation, we doubt that legal procedure will be followed."
No one knows how long Xu might be held without formal charges, but recent history isn't encouraging: Gao Zhisheng, a maverick lawyer who represented members of the banned Falun Gong movement, has been held incommunicado for more than six months.
August 7, 2009
Xu Zhiyong, who founded the consumer-oriented Open Constitution Initiative law firm in Beijing, is accused of tax evasion. The issues he's taken on include secret jails and the tainted-milk scandal.
Reporting from Beijing -- Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old Beijing lawyer, is renowned for his spirited defense of Chinese citizens victimized by unfair arrest or consumer fraud. Nowadays, the founder of the Open Constitution Initiative law firm will be lucky if he is able to defend himself.
Xu was seized from his home at 5 a.m. on July 29. His family and colleagues were given no official notice and only after a week of inquiries learned secondhand that he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. His detention has sent a chilling message not only to China's lawyers but to citizens who have found themselves in need of legal representation.
"If even a famous lawyer gets arrested, what can we ordinary little people do?" said Tong Zhongjun, 28, a migrant worker whose infant son developed kidney stones from drinking tainted baby formula.
Xu's law firm was one of the few in China willing to represent the parents of the nearly 300,000 children sickened and the six who died last year as a result of dangerous milk additives.
Since its founding in 2003, the firm, also known as Gongmeng, has not shied away from sensitive topics. It challenged China's secret detention centers, the so-called black jails, after a 27-year-old graphic designer who was arrested for failing to carry his identification card died in custody. Xu represented an editor of the hard-hitting newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily who was arrested in 2004 on what were widely seen as politically motivated bribery charges.
This summer, Xu's firm joined the chorus of voices opposing a requirement that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with software that would filter out pornographic or controversial content.
But Xu is by no means a dissident, preferring to work within a system he has hoped to improve, not overthrow.
His pedigree is impeccable: He earned his doctorate in law at prestigious Peking University, taught law at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and served as a representative to the People's Congress for the Haidian District of Beijing, where he lives. He also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School.
"He had such confidence in the legal system," said Yang Huiwen, the only lawyer still in the offices Wednesday. Yang said he had wanted to quit the law because of hassles by authorities, but Xu talked him out of it. "He always talked about how the rule of law would help China advance."
This has been a singularly grim year for China's lawyers, with some of the country's leading human rights advocates under arrest or denied the right to practice law. Last month, the Beijing Justice Bureau stripped 53 lawyers of their licenses, mostly on administrative technicalities.
Xu's troubles began last month when the firm got a tax bill for more than $200,000, an assessment made on donations it received from supporters, including Yale Law School.
Just three days later, before the firm had time to file a response, the police came and confiscated most of its computers, furniture and files.
Even after that, Xu was optimistic he could beat back the charges of tax evasion. In China, civic groups such as Xu's cannot legally register as nongovernmental organizations, so disputes about whether they should be taxed as charities or businesses are commonplace.
The evening of July 28, Xu met late into the night at a cafe with other lawyers, planning his defense. But the next morning, when he failed to show up for work, colleagues became worried.
"We were calling all his friends. We went to the university to look for him," said Tian Qizhuang, the firm's general manager. It wasn't until the next day that they found the night guard at Xu's apartment complex, who confirmed that the lawyer had been arrested.
Another week went by before Xu's brother learned from the Communist Party secretary at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications that his brother had been charged with tax evasion.
"We still haven't heard anything officially. Under Chinese law, family members are supposed to get notification within 48 hours, but they've heard nothing," said Tian in an interview at the law offices on Wednesday.
The offices are now virtually bare. The files have all been seized except for those relating to the tainted-milk cases, which are still wending their way through the courts. One of the senior lawyers at the firm, Teng Biao, managed to save those files by appealing to the conscience of the police officers as parents. ("How will you be able to face your kids if you take those files?" Teng asked the police, the office manager said.)
Sisi Liu of Amnesty International in Hong Kong said someone of Xu's stature suspected of tax evasion would normally be released on bail pending formal charges.
"Clearly, this is a politically motivated prosecution," she said, "and if there is such strong political motivation, we doubt that legal procedure will be followed."
No one knows how long Xu might be held without formal charges, but recent history isn't encouraging: Gao Zhisheng, a maverick lawyer who represented members of the banned Falun Gong movement, has been held incommunicado for more than six months.
"Chinese Legal Activist Charged With Tax Evasion as Crackdown Widens," by William Ide, Voice of America
Link
August 6, 2009
Close associates of Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong say he is being detained on charges of tax evasion. Xu's case is one of several that appear to be part of widening crackdown on dissent in China ahead of October's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
More than a week ago, without explanation, Chinese police detained Xu Zhiyong, the head of a legal aid organization Gongmeng in Beijing.
Teng Biao, a co-founder of the group, says Xu's family has not seen him since he was taken from his home early on Wednesday last week.
Teng says Xu's brother went to the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught. There, he learned that his brother had been taken away by public security forces and was being charged with tax evasion.
Teng added that Zhang Lu, another member of Gongmeng who also has been missing since last week, has still not been heard from.
Many political analysts and human rights groups say Gongmeng and other activist groups are being targeted as part of a widening crackdown on dissent ahead of the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the communist government.
However, Randy Peerenboom a professor of law at La Trobe University in Melbourne who is now based in Beijing, sees a broader purpose. He thinks what is happening is part of an effort to ensure social stability that is not exclusively linked to the coming anniversary.
"The number of demonstrations has been rising in recent years, many of them becoming more violent, and so you see the government trying to crackdown on various sources of instability," he said.
Peerenboom says the government has tried to force many of the country's disputes and controversial cases into the court system, but in his opinion that has ended up being too costly and has not ended the protests. Because of that, the government has started targeting activist lawyers and legal groups like Gongmeng.
"I think that one of the problems is they've [Gongmeng] handled an increasingly wide range of cases and gotten involved in a wider range of issues and this is one of the reasons why I think the government is re-calibrating its strategy," he said.
Gongmeng's lawyers represented victims of the Sanlu toxic milk powder scandal, which made nearly 300,000 babies ill, and has investigated institutions such as illegal detention centers. Their researchers even issued a review of last year's unrest in Tibet, which said Tibetans were protesting because of failed government policies.
Gongmeng is not the only one being targeted.
Last month, Yirenping, which fights discrimination against hepatitis patients, faced a clampdown, and more than 50 Beijing lawyers, many of whom focus on human rights issues, had their licenses revoked.
Two activists who have criticized the government's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake have also been put on trial.
One of them, Huang Qi, appeared in court Wednesday ON charges of illegally possessing state secrets.
Tan Zuoren, an activist who questioned why so many children died in the earthquake, will be tried for subversion next week.
August 6, 2009
Close associates of Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong say he is being detained on charges of tax evasion. Xu's case is one of several that appear to be part of widening crackdown on dissent in China ahead of October's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
More than a week ago, without explanation, Chinese police detained Xu Zhiyong, the head of a legal aid organization Gongmeng in Beijing.
Teng Biao, a co-founder of the group, says Xu's family has not seen him since he was taken from his home early on Wednesday last week.
Teng says Xu's brother went to the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught. There, he learned that his brother had been taken away by public security forces and was being charged with tax evasion.
Teng added that Zhang Lu, another member of Gongmeng who also has been missing since last week, has still not been heard from.
Many political analysts and human rights groups say Gongmeng and other activist groups are being targeted as part of a widening crackdown on dissent ahead of the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the communist government.
However, Randy Peerenboom a professor of law at La Trobe University in Melbourne who is now based in Beijing, sees a broader purpose. He thinks what is happening is part of an effort to ensure social stability that is not exclusively linked to the coming anniversary.
"The number of demonstrations has been rising in recent years, many of them becoming more violent, and so you see the government trying to crackdown on various sources of instability," he said.
Peerenboom says the government has tried to force many of the country's disputes and controversial cases into the court system, but in his opinion that has ended up being too costly and has not ended the protests. Because of that, the government has started targeting activist lawyers and legal groups like Gongmeng.
"I think that one of the problems is they've [Gongmeng] handled an increasingly wide range of cases and gotten involved in a wider range of issues and this is one of the reasons why I think the government is re-calibrating its strategy," he said.
Gongmeng's lawyers represented victims of the Sanlu toxic milk powder scandal, which made nearly 300,000 babies ill, and has investigated institutions such as illegal detention centers. Their researchers even issued a review of last year's unrest in Tibet, which said Tibetans were protesting because of failed government policies.
Gongmeng is not the only one being targeted.
Last month, Yirenping, which fights discrimination against hepatitis patients, faced a clampdown, and more than 50 Beijing lawyers, many of whom focus on human rights issues, had their licenses revoked.
Two activists who have criticized the government's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake have also been put on trial.
One of them, Huang Qi, appeared in court Wednesday ON charges of illegally possessing state secrets.
Tan Zuoren, an activist who questioned why so many children died in the earthquake, will be tried for subversion next week.
"Chinese start postcard drive to support dissidents," by Yu Le and Lucy Hornby (Reuters)
Link
August 6, 2009
BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese web users have launched a postcard campaign to support dissidents in prisons and to protest against their detention, one of the organizers told Reuters.
Chinese Internet activists launched their first postcard campaign last month, in a little-known case of a man detained in Fujian province in southern China.
They are now expanding the campaign to support better-known activists, including legal aid lawyer Xu Zhiyong and earthquake victim advocate Tan Zuoren.
"It depends on the prison or detention house whether they can receive the postcards," wrote Wen Yunchao, the blogger who initiated the idea.
"But pressure could be felt when huge amounts of postcards are flooding in."
Beijing is tightening its grip on the country's determined but small activist community, which has come under intense government pressure ahead of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic in October.
Xu Zhiyong, who had taken on causes including helping victims of tainted baby milk formula and issuing an independent report on Tibet, was taken from his home last week and is being held in an undisclosed location.
Tan Zuoren, a writer who compiled a list of earthquake victims, faces trial next week on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power".
The first postcard campaign supported Guo Baofeng, detained for spreading information about ties between police and suspected rapists and murderers. Police said the woman died of illness.
Guo was released two weeks later, although it was not clear whether the postcards had helped. None ever reached his hands.
Advocates told web surfers and friends to write "Your mother calls you back home for lunch" on the postcards, referring to a phrase currently popular among the Chinese Internet community.
"'Come back home for lunch' is a metaphor for freedom," Ran Yunfei, a magazine editor who said he had sent postcards to Tan and Huang, told Reuters.
"And the word 'mother' makes people feel warm."
There is no evidence so far to show that the movement has any influence on the dissidents' cases, but Ran said at least it provides a way for people to express their opinion without risking unwelcome attention from security forces.
"The most important thing is to show your attitude," Ran said. "That's why it makes sense."
August 6, 2009
BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese web users have launched a postcard campaign to support dissidents in prisons and to protest against their detention, one of the organizers told Reuters.
Chinese Internet activists launched their first postcard campaign last month, in a little-known case of a man detained in Fujian province in southern China.
They are now expanding the campaign to support better-known activists, including legal aid lawyer Xu Zhiyong and earthquake victim advocate Tan Zuoren.
"It depends on the prison or detention house whether they can receive the postcards," wrote Wen Yunchao, the blogger who initiated the idea.
"But pressure could be felt when huge amounts of postcards are flooding in."
Beijing is tightening its grip on the country's determined but small activist community, which has come under intense government pressure ahead of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic in October.
Xu Zhiyong, who had taken on causes including helping victims of tainted baby milk formula and issuing an independent report on Tibet, was taken from his home last week and is being held in an undisclosed location.
Tan Zuoren, a writer who compiled a list of earthquake victims, faces trial next week on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power".
The first postcard campaign supported Guo Baofeng, detained for spreading information about ties between police and suspected rapists and murderers. Police said the woman died of illness.
Guo was released two weeks later, although it was not clear whether the postcards had helped. None ever reached his hands.
Advocates told web surfers and friends to write "Your mother calls you back home for lunch" on the postcards, referring to a phrase currently popular among the Chinese Internet community.
"'Come back home for lunch' is a metaphor for freedom," Ran Yunfei, a magazine editor who said he had sent postcards to Tan and Huang, told Reuters.
"And the word 'mother' makes people feel warm."
There is no evidence so far to show that the movement has any influence on the dissidents' cases, but Ran said at least it provides a way for people to express their opinion without risking unwelcome attention from security forces.
"The most important thing is to show your attitude," Ran said. "That's why it makes sense."
"More on the detained Chinese lawyer," by James Fallows, The Atlantic
Link
August 1, 2009
Not being on-scene in Beijing, I don't have fresh info myself. But as a reference for anyone wanting to follow the case of Xu Zhiyong, the Chinese civil-rights lawyer who was taken from his home at 5am last week and has not been heard from since, here are some relevant sites:
- China Digital Times summary of the event and coverage;
- CDT on the recent crackdown on other legal-aid groups;
- Evan Osnos dispatch for the New Yorker on "Where is Xu Zhiyong?"
- The Chinese Media Project story;
- Xu's personal blog, in Chinese;
- Blog account in Chinese of tax charges against Xu and his response;
- English version of similar response;
- English account by one of Xu's colleagues, Teng Biao, of his own "kidnapping" by the police.
Check those sites for updates. The minor point that comes through these accounts is the excuse for the arrest of Xu. His legal-defense center, the Open Constitution Initiative, had been receiving support and grants from Yale Law School -- one of many instances of Western legal groups working to expand the rule of law in China. The authorities have found a way to declare that this support was improperly reported for tax purposes.
The major point that comes through is that Xu and his colleagues are the farthest thing from overthrow-the-system radical subversives. On the contrary: he files suit in Chinese courts, he bases his claims for protection on the Chinese constitution, and he has even been a successful candidate in a local election. (China has elections at the local level.) He is what real radicals would dismiss as a "liberal" and "inside-the-system reformer," but now his and similar efforts are beyond the pale.
Over the 20 years since Tiananmen Square, and certainly during the three years I could observe first-hand there, rule of law and civil liberties made a steady if uneven expansion in China. This and related recent crackdowns are a setback, whose significance we can judge depending on what happens next.
Consistent with the policy that the US should view China as a partner and friend in the many areas where collaboration is necessary and fruitful, but should speak up for its own values when they differ from Chinese government practice, US officials should say that they are watching this case. Not interfering in Chinese affairs, not telling the Chinese government what to do -- but watching, to see how the government respects its own citizens' rights.
August 1, 2009
Not being on-scene in Beijing, I don't have fresh info myself. But as a reference for anyone wanting to follow the case of Xu Zhiyong, the Chinese civil-rights lawyer who was taken from his home at 5am last week and has not been heard from since, here are some relevant sites:
- China Digital Times summary of the event and coverage;
- CDT on the recent crackdown on other legal-aid groups;
- Evan Osnos dispatch for the New Yorker on "Where is Xu Zhiyong?"
- The Chinese Media Project story;
- Xu's personal blog, in Chinese;
- Blog account in Chinese of tax charges against Xu and his response;
- English version of similar response;
- English account by one of Xu's colleagues, Teng Biao, of his own "kidnapping" by the police.
Check those sites for updates. The minor point that comes through these accounts is the excuse for the arrest of Xu. His legal-defense center, the Open Constitution Initiative, had been receiving support and grants from Yale Law School -- one of many instances of Western legal groups working to expand the rule of law in China. The authorities have found a way to declare that this support was improperly reported for tax purposes.
The major point that comes through is that Xu and his colleagues are the farthest thing from overthrow-the-system radical subversives. On the contrary: he files suit in Chinese courts, he bases his claims for protection on the Chinese constitution, and he has even been a successful candidate in a local election. (China has elections at the local level.) He is what real radicals would dismiss as a "liberal" and "inside-the-system reformer," but now his and similar efforts are beyond the pale.
Over the 20 years since Tiananmen Square, and certainly during the three years I could observe first-hand there, rule of law and civil liberties made a steady if uneven expansion in China. This and related recent crackdowns are a setback, whose significance we can judge depending on what happens next.
Consistent with the policy that the US should view China as a partner and friend in the many areas where collaboration is necessary and fruitful, but should speak up for its own values when they differ from Chinese government practice, US officials should say that they are watching this case. Not interfering in Chinese affairs, not telling the Chinese government what to do -- but watching, to see how the government respects its own citizens' rights.
"Xu Zhiyong: Destined To Fight For Social Justice," by Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times
Link
November 26, 2008
It is very unusual for a human rights activist to be profiled by official media in China. The Economic Observer recently published a profile of Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar and activist who relentlessly seeks social justice. Excerpts translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan.
November 26, 2008
It is very unusual for a human rights activist to be profiled by official media in China. The Economic Observer recently published a profile of Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar and activist who relentlessly seeks social justice. Excerpts translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan.
“We must get rid of the traditional idea that politics merely means revolution and counterrevolution. What we seek is not destruction, but construction. We do not participate in politics to gain power, but to check power. What we pursue is not material wealth, nor the desire to control others. We strive to realize the value of life for ourselves, and help to promote public welfare in the meantime. ”
This paragraph is quoted from an idealistic article titled Politics Should Be Desirable written by Xu Zhiyong last year.
Thirty-five-year-old Xu is a legal scholar and activist. He is knowledgeable and enthusiastic, persistent and active. Many young people admire him as a role model, and intellectuals have great expectations for him. He seems to be born with compassion for those in poverty and misery…
Xu has made a long list of remarkable achievements in fighting for social justice and making changes in politics. He wrote a public letter to the National People’s Congress in the aftermath of the Sun Zhigang Incident; he volunteered to be the defense lawyer for Sun Dawu; he was elected twice as a People’s Representative at Haidian District of Beijing; he conducted research on petitioners in Beijing, etc.
The Open Constitution Initiative of which Xu is a member is preparing to file a collective lawsuit for victims of the recent milk power poisoning incident, seeking compensation for those who could not afford to hire a lawyer.
Sitting across the table from me, Xu is quiet and self-contained. He speaks slowly, word by word, carefully expressing his opinions with long pauses. He said it was when he was 14 years old that he set a mission for his life. He was an introverted and ambitious middle school student at that time, harboring a remote dream. He estimated that it would take 20 years for him to realize the dream. Now the dream still remains far away from him after 20 years have passed. But his mission remains unchanged:
“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation. I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change. I have taken part in politics in pursuit of a better and more civilized nation. Through my lifelong deeds of fighting for social justice, I am determined to prove to the citizens across the country that politics should be desirable, that politics should be a cause for public welfare.”
Xu has visited “black jails” in Beijing four times since the beginning of the year. The so-called black jails are places used by local officials to detain petitioners.
Xu received a text message on Oct. 12. “This is Ma Xirong from Henan province. I am now detained at the black prison at the backyard of the Youth Hotel at Hufang Road. Can you come to rescue me and the two dozen people detained here? Help!” Xu and several reporters arrived at the hotel the next afternoon.
Ma came to a window trying to get out to meet Xu, but a guard stopped her. So she talked to Xu on the other side of the window. Ma told Xu that she was stopped by police when she was walking on Wangfujing Street. The police detained her after finding out that she carried a petition letter with her. She was then confined in the hotel yard. As they talked, more and more detainees gathered at the window. The guard pushed Ma back inside.
Shortly afterward, a minibus suddenly came. Three people jumped down from it, and violently attacked the petitioners. Xu wanted to fight back when he saw his companions being slapped, punched and kicked. “However, I must control myself. I must thoroughly calm down. We didn’t come for a fight. We came to suffer, ” he wrote on his blog that evening.
“Almost at the same time, my neck, chest and face were punched. The bare-armed guard fiercely kicked me on my knees from behind, trying to knock me down. But I stood there calmly and said to him, ‘I won’t take issue with you.’ He kept cursing me. I just looked at him with sympathy. ”
They managed to take Ma out of the detention place that afternoon. But she had to go back to her hometown with the officials from her local province. She took out her petition document to give it to Xu. Her son died in a car accident when he was a college student at a well-known university. She disagreed with a court decision on the accident, and has been petitioning since then.
“She suddenly knelt down before us, and thanked us for our help… I helped her stand up. Actually, I wanted to say to her, ‘Although we have been beaten, we didn’t lose anything. It’s our honor to share some of your misery.’”
According to Xu’s investigation, there are at least four places in Beijing that local officials from Henan province are using to detain petitioners. The local governments pay a handsome amount of money to rent the places and to hire people to guard the petitioners.
Xu said that the illegal prisons didn’t show up until after 2003. Petitioners used to be taken into homeless transfer centers and then sent back to their home provinces. After the government banned homeless transfer centers in 2003, local officials created illegal prisons as an alternative place to temporarily detain petitioners.
“Illegal prisons are much more horrible than illegal brick kilns. The practice must be stopped. I strive to bring sunshine there, even if it’s just a slim ray of light, ” Xu said.
Xu became well-known to the public in 2003, when three legal PhDs of Beijing University, Xu and his classmates Yu Jiang and Teng Biao, sent a joint letter to the National People’s Congress, urging it to review the Act on Housing and Transferring Urban Homeless. The Congress didn’t conduct the review as requested, but the act was rescinded shortly after the letter was submitted. The incident was regarded as a landmark step forward in China’s legal system.
Xu had studied the law on housing and transferring homeless people a few years before the Sun Zhigang incident. He first started to learn about the army of petitioners when he saw them waiting in front of the reception office of China Central Television in 1997. From talking to them, Xu got to know that many of the petitioners had been forcibly taken into custody and repatriation centers and then sent back to their home provinces.
He spent a lot of time doing research on the unjust law in 2002 and believed that it would be terminated, during his years of pursuing a Ph.D. in Beijing University. He worked part-time for the rural edition of China Reform magazine, and received petitioners and listened to their grievances every weekend.
In the same year Xu ran for the position of People’s Representative at Haidian District of Beijing. In an article titled Why I am Running for People’s Representative he wrote, ” Let us cherish the democratic rights the law has given us, and let us treat our laws sincerely. ” .. He was elected by an overwhelming majority at the end of year, and reelected four years later.
Xu was born in 1973 in a small village by the Yellow River, located in Minquan County, Henan province. Minquan means Civil Rights. Xu is proud of his birthplace. He believes that it’s not a coincidence he was born at a place called Civil Rights County. He believes that he came to the world with a mission. “I am destined to fight for civil rights all my life,” he said.
Xu was a quiet young man in his middle school years. He wrote about his ambitions in his diary. “Dedicate myself to public service, advocate for social reform, change the tradition of a nation, and help to build an ideal society.” He wished to study journalism in college and expose wrongdoings. However, his wish was not fulfilled and he was accidentally enrolled by the department of law.
“I get angry whenever I see something unjust. I would try my best to help the disadvantaged, ” he said. He has been swindled a number of times by people who pretended to beggars. He has become more cautious. But he still tries to help beggars as much as he can, and tells them seriously that, “You should not cheat on me” …
Xu went alone to a village in Liaoning Province to provide legal assistance to farmers there in 2001. The village had received a considerable amount of compensation money after its land was used to build a highway. However, corrupt local officials had squandered all the money themselves without giving any to the farmers. When Xu gathered villagers to discuss how to solve the problem, ten police vehicles drove into the village. A person got out, pointed his fingers at Xu and inquired, “Who sent you here?”
Xu was pushed into a police car after fierce arguing. Many villagers lay on the ground in front of the car to block it from moving. The conflict could trigger fatal violence. Xu got out of the car, persuaded the villagers to stop the blocking, and returned to the police car. He was then taken to the local police department. Six hours later, Xu was released and promised to leave Liaoning Province, on the condition that he could talk to the villagers before he left. The villagers gathered at a house and waited for Xu. Some seniors burst into tears when they saw Xu again.
“I said a few simple sentences to them. I said I would continue to help them. And then I left. I was sad. I contacted a few reporters, but failed to get them to report on the case. The farmer who led the protest in the village was put in prison for a year. That was the biggest setback I’ve encountered, ” he said.
Although Xu is regarded as a rebel by conservatives, he has not stopped trying to enter the political establishment. Xu submitted a unique application letter to join the CCP in 2002. “Joining the party gives me a better chance to work for the government and to serve the public, that’s why I am considering to become a party member, ” he wrote in the letter.
Xu started to write a book Report on Petitioning in China in 2005. Working together with several friends, he has recently completed the 200,000-word book, which has not yet been published. To conduct in-depth research on the issue, he lived in a neighborhood where petitioners gather on the southern outskirts of Beijing for two months. He shared a room with ten or eight people or stayed in a tiny room in a crowded courtyard.
A number of people are sent by local governments to block petitioners from talking to officials of the central government. They gather at the hutong where the National Petition Bureau is located. “They disturb everyone. They would even drag a girl if she happens to walk by. They act like rascals. They’ve gone crazy,” Xu said.
The hutong was full of people the first time Xu went there. He was stopped shortly after entering the lane. “Someone dragged my arm and asked me where I came from. I said I was from Henan province. My words caused a commotion. Several people pulled me over and asked me which part of Henan I was from. I answered Kaifeng. The people who were sent by Kaifeng government swiftly came to me and beat me. ‘Have you petitioned to the local government of Kaifeng?’ they asked. I answered I that I hadn’t. ‘Then you’ve violated the law. You should have gone to the local government first,’ they said while kicking and punching me. My clothes was soon marked with shoe prints.” Xu was actually wearing a suit that day and thought that he could not have been mistaken as a petitioner.
He saw an old lady with white hair another time he was visiting the hutong. “I was a few meters away from her. I saw her being cornered. Someone punched her to the ground, and then several people encircled her and kicked her. I was astonished. I hit someone on the head. They hit back and pushed me down to the ground. They then ran away. I got up and chased after them, ” Xu said.
Xu exploded with rage that day. “I cursed these people. I said that you guys are animals. The lady is older than your mothers. Why the hell do you beat her? ” These people were dumbfounded at my words. No one said anything back to me.
After this article was available online, some readers also posted interesting comments:
—Admirable. Is it worthwhile to do all this for this country?
—Of course. I can’t do it myself. That’s why I admire him even more. The more people like Xu we have, the better chances we have to make a change in the political system.
—Does he know that what he will be faced with? He won’t have money. He won’t have a private life. If even a woman is willing to follow him, they will have to wander around and could never settle down. He won’t have children. And his parents will live in constant fear because of him. Of course he knows all about this. But most importantly, I believe what he is doing is completely useless. He would be murdered on the street someday.
—I think his actions will gradually make a difference. At least those unscrupulous ones know that there are people who oppose them.
"Xu Zhiyong in Custody Seven Days; Still No Official Explanation," by Human Rights in China
Link
August 4, 2009
August 4, 2009
Seven days after Xu Zhiyong (许志永), the director of Gongmeng, a public interest organization in Beijing, was taken away by Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Homeland Protection, there is still no official explanation for his detention. According to unofficial reports, Xu Zhiyong is being detained on tax evasion charges and is currently being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center.
Gongmeng, also known as Open Constitution Initiative (OCI), is an organization set up to provide legal consultation and assistance to the public. Despite the public-interest nature of its work, Gongmeng has registered as a for-profit company in order to operate independent of government control. Under Chinese regulations, all civil society organizations must be supervised by a high-level government unit, an arrangement that effectively puts them under direct government control. On July 17, the Chinese authorities shut down Gongmeng’s Law Research Center, citing its failure to register with the government. Three days earlier, tax authorities had ordered Gongmeng to pay 1.42 million yuan ($208,000) in fines for tax violations. Gongmeng’s website has also been shut down by the authorities.
Xu Zhiyong, 36, is a professor at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and was a representative of Beijing’s Haidian District at the Thirteenth and Fourteenth People’s Congress. In October 2003, he, Yu Jiang, and Teng Biao founded Gongmeng with the goal of advancing the rule of law and social justice, and promoting civil rights defense activities. Its high effectiveness has gained it the moniker the “cradle” of China’s rights defense lawyers. It recently provided continuous legal assistance to the victims of the Sanlu tainted milk scandal in their damages compensation lawsuit.
Xu Zhiyong was born in Minquan County, Henan Province. Having resolved in middle school to devote himself to public service, he earned his Bachelor of Law and Master of Law degrees at Lanzhou University. He later entered Peking University Law School, where he gained a doctorate. His pursuit of rights defense issues has included many famous cases: in 2003, Xu Zhiyong, Yu Jiang, and Teng Biao petitioned the People’s Congress in the Sun Zhigang incident,1 and one month later, the custody and forced repatriation procedure was abolished. Xu Zhiyong also defended the legal rights and interests of privately-run enterprises in the Sun Dawu2 case and represented Chen Guoqing3 from Chengde in a nine-year-long case of deferred death sentence. Unafraid of violence, he has persisted in investigating “black jails” used to lock up government petitioners.
Human Rights in China urges the international community to scrutinize the progress of Xu Zhiyong’s case. “It is clear the authorities are using the legal process to harass and prosecute right defense lawyers,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China. “By suppressing Xu Zhiyong, who is a moderate voice for social change and has dedicated his career to helping forge a society with genuine rule of law, the authorities are running the risk of radicalizing the forces for reform and change in China.”
"Chinese legal activist held for tax evasion," Tini Tran (AP)
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August 4, 2009
August 4, 2009
BEIJING — A prominent Chinese legal scholar whose rights group has tackled some of China's most politically sensitive cases, including a tainted milk scandal, has been accused of tax evasion following his arrest a week ago, his brother said Tuesday.
The detention of Xu Zhiyong comes as China appears to be widening a crackdown against activist lawyers and non-governmental organizations to stifle any dissent ahead of the 60th anniversary of the communist nation's founding on Oct. 1.
Last month, more than 50 Beijing lawyers, many of whom focus on politically sensitive human rights issues, had their licenses revoked. In addition, several non-governmental groups have recently been targeted by police for harassment.
Xu, who co-founded the Gongmeng legal aid organization, was taken from his Beijing home July 29 around 5 a.m. by several policemen. Another Gongmeng staffer, Zhuang Lu, was also detained.
On Tuesday, his brother Xu Zhihong told The Associated Press that officials from the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught, said they were notified that the scholar was being detained for tax evasion.
The People's Congress of Haidian district in Beijing, a local body of which Xu is a member, said it had approved his detention, his brother said. The approval is required because Xu is an elected official.
Xu Zhihong said he believed his brother was innocent of wrongdoing.
"He never thinks about himself and just wants to help others. The last time I talked to him on the phone was July 25. He told me that he didn't do anything wrong. He said 'Don't worry about me,'" Xu Zhihong said.
In mid-July, government officials shut down Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, a legal aid and research organization that worked on public interest law. The group addressed issues including death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial 'black jails.'
Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children were sickened last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.
The center's closure came after Beijing's tax bureau fined the group 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) because it said Gongmeng had failed to pay its taxes. Xu was scheduled to meet with tax bureau officials on July 30, the day after he was detained.
Gongmeng's problems highlight the issue that NGOs often face in China, said Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. Since it is extremely difficult to register as a non-governmental organization, many groups register as regular companies while existing in a legal gray area.
The government's use of the tax evasion charge with this case is troubling since many NGOs could be vulnerable, he said.
"This is an ominous development with regard to how the Chinese government may begin to resort to dealing with NGOs whose activities displease the government," he said.
Xu, 36, has been at the forefront of public interest law and legal reform in China. His legal scholarship has won him admirers abroad, and he has done several stints as a visiting scholar at Yale Law School in the United States.
Legal experts say Xu's plight is all the more troubling because Xu has never sought to actively oppose the government; instead his goal was to work within the current Chinese legal system.
"What Xu and (Open Constitution Initiative) have been doing is trying to use the tools of China's own laws to provide redress for grievances. He is working within the system. That's part of the reason why this case and his troubles are causing so much concern," said Paul Gewirtz, a law professor at Yale and director of The China Law Center.
Xu first rose to prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case, where a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten during police custody. Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation, where police had virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.
Sun's death set off a firestorm of national attention by local media. Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of that system. Later that year, China abolished the system.
Teng Biao, another key human rights lawyer and member of Gongmeng, said Xu's detention would send a "clear signal" to other activists and NGOs.
"It will bring some fear. In the wake of Xu's detention, we're aware of bigger difficulties, and by doing our work, we should always prepare for the worst," he said.
Associated Press researcher Xi Yue contributed to this report.
"Where Is Xu Zhiyong?" by Evan Osnos, The New Yorker
Link
July 31, 2009
July 31, 2009
Imagine, for a moment, how it might sound to turn on the news one day and hear that the head of the A.C.L.U. had vanished from his home in the predawn hours. Or, think how America might be different today if a pesky young Thurgood Marshall had been silenced using an obscure tax rule and kept out of the courts.
At around 5 A.M. on Wednesday, Chinese authorities visited the home of Xu Zhiyong, a prominent legal scholar and elected legislator in Beijing, and led him away. He has not been heard from again. Unless something changes, he is likely to stay away for a long time, with or without formal charges. Anyone with an interest in China, its economy, its place in the world, or the kind of future it will fashion, please take note: this is a big deal.
Xu might not have reached Marshall status yet, but he is as close as China gets to a public-interest icon. He teaches law at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He has also run the Open Constitution Initiative, a legal-aid and research organization that worked on many of China’s pathbreaking cases. He and his colleagues had investigated the Sanlu milk scandal, in which dangerous baby formula harmed children’s health, and assisted people who had been locked up by local officials in secret undeclared jails. All of those activities are emphatically consistent with the goals of the Chinese government, even if they angered the local bureaucrats who were caught in the act.
Xu has never set out to undermine one-party rule; he is enforcing rights guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution. He has enough faith in the system that he joined it: in 2003, he ran for and won a seat as a legislator in his local district assembly, one of the few independent candidates to be elected in an open, contested election. He even received the recognition, rare among activists, of being profiled last year in a Chinese newspaper. “I have taken part in politics in pursuit of a better and more civilized nation,” he said at the time. “I am determined to prove to the citizens across the country that politics should be desirable.”
His work naturally angered parts of China’s bureaucracy, and pressure on him mounted. On July 14th, the Open Constitution Initiative, also known as Gongmeng, was fined 1.42 million RMB for “tax evasion.” Then it was banned. Xu was to have had his day in court, except he was picked up before he could. Separately, a young colleague named Zhuang Lu has also been detained, and her whereabouts are unknown. It is easy to look at China’s list of high-profile detentions and rationalize them: that guy was a cowboy, or, things in China are improving, and we have to keep it in context. Sorry. Not this time. Xu is no cowboy. As a Time magazine reporter wrote, in 2007, “Xu is probably the person most committed to public service that I’ve met in China, and possibly in my whole life.” Moreover, his work is as intimately connected to the broader context of China’s economic and political future as you can get. When the U.S. and China wrapped up a round of strategic and economic talks this week, they issued a joint press release that affirmed “the importance of the rule of law to our two countries.” Hu Jintao is quoted every chance he gets—“the rule of law should let the people be the masters of the country”—talking about exactly the kind of legal professionalism that Xu stands for. Jeffrey Prescott, the deputy director of Yale’s China Law Center, which has worked with Xu and his organization since 2004, tells me:
He is doing careful, thoughtful, and important work of international caliber—not much different than what mainstream public interest lawyers and scholars do every day in the U.S. or anywhere else. Xu and his colleagues are doing research into China’s problems, making efforts to promote constructive ideas for legal reform, and helping provide legal assistance to weak and marginalized groups in society…. Any of this would make Dr. Xu an important figure. But, above all, it is his human qualities that make him truly compelling. He is someone of rare idealism, judgment, commitment to law, selfless dedication, and fundamental decency. So that makes his detention very hard to understand.
For China, and those who have given their careers to studying and negotiating with it, this is a big test. It’s not too late for Xu to be released before the full bureaucracy gets too invested in holding him, but time is limited. China deserves better than this kind of behavior. Xu—or Hu Jintao—would be the first to tell you that.
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