Insights & More

A Chinese Village Stands Up for Falun Gong

By Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times Staff

Villagers in China have defied communist authorities by calling for the release from jail of their friend, Zhou Xiangyang. And the guards and inmates who applied the “floor anchor” torture to him in Gangbei Prison should be investigated and dealt with according to the law, they wrote.

It is a rare set of circumstances: A young married couple who practices Falun Gong is imprisoned in re-education centers in China and thousands of Chinese have stood up to defend them, challenging the regime on one of the most sensitive political issues to the Communist Party by petitioning for their release.

Amnesty International has taken up the case, sending out press releases and Urgent Action alerts, and lobbying for media coverage. In China, family members and friends not imprisoned continue to write letters calling for an end to the persecution.

“My name is Li Shanshan. I waited for Zhou Xiangyang’s release for seven years from our very first meeting with him to marrying him,” the open letter of the wife begins, written in June 2011. “In between that time he was imprisoned for six years,” beginning in 2003.

She details Zhou’s suffering in prison. “My fiancé was tortured in many heinous ways over a period of four months.” His feet were shackled to a metal ring, his hands cuffed to the ground, and he was shocked with electric batons for days, she writes.

Li Shanshan wrote letters to an alphabet soup of government departments and administrative organs that were supposed to make sure that abuse in jail did not take place. None assumed responsibility.

In January 2006 her home was ransacked and she was jailed for 30 days. She was then released, monitored for two weeks, and finally sentenced to forced labor for 15 months. A security officer told her during an interrogation that “by crying out against Xiangyang’s torture I was attempting to incite a crowd to riot at the prison gate.” She was charged with “inciting subversion of the state,” a grave charge in communist China.

Zhou continued hunger striking to protest his abuse in custody. In July 2009, on the edge of death, he was released on medical parole. He weighed 86 pounds and could only digest liquids. Communist authorities were incensed because his persecution was on record with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, and Gangbei Prison (now called Binhai Prison) was going to be investigated. The prison is in Tianjin, a city of 12 million near Beijing.

Li and Zhou were married after he got out of prison, having been separated for seven years. Their problems were supposed to be over.

But the case went into grim replay beginning March 10 of this year: Police broke into the couple’s home and took Zhou into custody, again torturing him, according to Falun Gong sources.

Li Shanshan again began agitating for his release. In mid-September the first petition surfaced, signed by around 1,500 villagers; this was later boosted to 2,300. Many of the petitioners asserted the gravity of their appeal by using red wax thumbprints to seal their names, which in China is usually reserved for official documents.

It was a rare statement, and caught the attention of Amnesty International. “Thousands of ordinary people have dared to publicly show their support for individuals unfairly imprisoned and tortured in detention,” Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Asia, was quoted in a press release.

“This shows that the Chinese public is aware of and condemns persecution of people for their spiritual beliefs. It’s high time that the Chinese authorities heed this call and end their brutal suppression of the Falun Gong group,” she said.

Villagers who signed the petition expressed their support in interviews with The Epoch Times.

A man in his fifties said he cried after reading Li Shanshan’s open letter. “If it’s true, something is seriously wrong with the CCP. You are not supposed to punish murderers or criminals before you execute them. How can you torture a good man brutally like that?”

Another said: “Xiangyang’s wife has really written a good letter. I can almost memorize it by heart. Our whole family has all signed the petition letter to save Xiangyang.”

Officers who went to investigate the source of the petition in Zhou’s hometown in Changli County, Qinhuangdao, were rebuffed by locals, according to an article on Minghui.org, a Chinese-language Falun Gong website. “You signed the letter for him. Are you opposing the Party or what?” quizzed a policeman at a clothes factory run by Zhou’s brother.

A local replied, “We signed the petition to help Mr. Zhou. If they came to you for help, wouldn’t you sign it?! The person in charge of our village should also put his stamp on it.” The officers left.

Adding to the significance of the exchange is the fact that open defiance of the Communist Party on the Falun Gong question has been taboo in Chinese society for 12 years, since the nationwide persecution began in 1999. In July of that year authorities came to fear that the popularity of Falun Gong—a spiritual practice with five meditative exercises and the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—was too great, and made it public enemy No. 1.

“For 12 years, Falun Gong practitioners inside China have persistently used creative, courageous, and peaceful ways to counter the CCP’s propaganda against them and explain to fellow Chinese the reality of the persecution—that tens of millions of innocent people are subject to abductions, torture, and death in custody,” said Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, in an email.

“As more Chinese come to see the persecution for what it is and how it also threatens their own freedom, they are speaking out, despite the risks,” he wrote. Lawyers, villagers, and even police officers have come to see through the state’s hyper-charged propaganda campaign against the practice, and have stood up on practitioners’ behalf. “But international attention remains critical for turning such petitions into real relief for victims,” he added.

Indeed, the Party may require more of a shove to leave Li and Zhou alone. Li Shanshan was captured again on Oct. 29, and this time sentenced to two years of re-education. Her family members began calling for help, and more than 500 villagers from her part of Tangshan City signed another petition calling for their release.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) then began arresting family members and others who stood up to support the couple. A Minghui report from Nov. 22 indicates that five Falun Gong practitioners were arrested at different times, including Zhou’s older brother.

Amnesty International now says that up to 3,000 people have signed petitions calling for an end to the persecution of the couple.

The organization put out an Urgent Action on Nov. 18, which goes out to a network of 12,000 people concerned with human rights, who may write letters to the Communist Party demanding the release of Li.

In her open letter of 2009, Li Shanshan wrote: “I do not know how long we have to keep appealing, but we will continue to appeal and never stop.”

For more information on how you can help, read Urgent action: China. Falun Gong woman Li Shanshan at risk of torture.

via A Chinese Village Stands Up for Falun Gong | Democracy & Human Rights | China | Epoch Times

…

Foreigners’ Appeal for Justice on Tiananmen Square: 10th Anniversary

From 10 countries, over 30 people descended on Beijing to face off with Communist China

By Joel Chipkar

Half a world away from home, I look into the mirror to see if the spy camera is visible. I am in Beijing, China, and have sewn a pinhole camera into the shoulder strap of my backpack. After catching my own eyes in the mirror, a bolt of fear stabs through my heart. Being caught as a spy in Mainland China is no small charge. They apply the death penalty for much smaller crimes.

After a brisk but shaky five-mile walk to Tiananmen Square, I stand aghast at the size. It’s really hard to imagine it filled with tanks and students. The day is bright and chilly. The gentle, cold north wind hits my face as I catch sight of the main flagpole. I arrive at the rendezvous point standing alone, wondering if they are going to make it.

Before I know it, over 30 people from over 10 countries, wearing their national flags, gather to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. On cue, most sit in meditation while a few unfurl a 12-foot golden banner sporting three giant Chinese characters that read, “truthfulness, compassion, tolerance.” Passersby are shocked. I stand motionless capturing the event with my hidden video camera. In less than 30 seconds police vans scream in from all directions.

That was 10 years ago—Nov. 20, 2001.

In the months that followed more foreigners from around the world would travel to China in an attempt to awaken the Chinese people to the unjust persecution and defamation of Falun Gong happening in their country.

An Appeal for Conscience

The appeal made headline news around the world, and so accomplished part of what we had set out to achieve. People who had never heard about the persecution of Falun Gong now knew about it. And this awareness was the first step toward more people demanding the Chinese regime stop it.

However, our hearts were set on changing things in China. Our appeal was focused on telling the people of China who are smothered by a media blockade to awaken to the realities of the evils happening in their own-censored back yard and not blindly follow an illegal persecution.

In the past ten years we have come to understand more deeply how difficult what we were asking was.

China has an ancient, rich culture that brings deep and unshakeable pride to its people. It was built on the teachings of honor, loyalty, compassion, responsibility and most notably the pursuit of truth. Each dynasty understood the importance of spirituality, and although each change of dynasty was tumultuous, after the change Chinese people lived hundreds of years in relative harmony.

The era of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule, however, has been different than any other time in China’s history.

Since seizing the rule of China in 1949, the CCP has made enemies of its own citizens by waging countless campaigns against them and by turning citizens against each other in order to assure the Party’s power would be unchallenged. Approximately 80 million people have died unnatural deaths as a result.

The Party has created one crisis after another: the 1950’s mass regime-created famine during the so called “Great Leap Forward,” the terrifying Cultural Revolution that beginning in the mid-60s targeted and destroyed religion and its ability to give spiritual independence, the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 that snuffed out hopes for democratic reform, the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong, and so on.

As a result, every family in China has at least one relative who has faced persecution by the CCP. Yet, partly because of this unending terror, many Chinese blindly follow the CCP and its propaganda.

China’s Moral Dilemma

The CCP’s China has become a place where people are forced to live without the freedom of belief, where people are afraid to say one wrong word in public for fear of arrest and torture, and where thinking of others, standing up for principle, and acting out of integrity have been replaced by fear, jealousy, selfishness, and indifference.

Chinese people witness daily the unjust arrest, abuse, discrimination against and dehumanization of groups all across China: the attacks on the Uighurs and Tibetans, the crackdowns on house Christians and papal Catholics, the silencing and jailing of human rights lawyers, the injustice done to those whose homes are demolished in order to enrich local officials, the threats to the parents to stop protesting over the deaths of their children killed in collapsed schools during the Sichuan earthquake—the list is endless.

For the past 12 years Chinese society has also been witness to the arrest, torture, and killing of Falun Gong practitioners. Tens of thousands of imprisoned practitioners have been murdered by state-owned hospitals to fuel the regime’s multi-billion dollar organ transplant tourism.

The affects of the blows to the moral fabric of society are becoming more visible everyday.

I watched a YouTube video of a 2-year-old baby who wandered out of her parents store onto a street in China where she was hit twice by vans and lay on the road dying. 18 people walked by without stopping or helping. Chinese manufacturers sell poisoned milk, poisoned baby food, diluted or tainted drugs, and contaminated drywall to consumers for money.

From Acceptance to Persecution

Every Sunday morning my mother and I get together to practice the Falun Gong exercises in a nearby park. Sometimes during the sitting meditation I open my eyes and look at her spare, 70-year-old body as she sits with perfect posture, her eyes gently closed with a little smile on her face. She looks so peaceful. I remember when family fights and violent tempers ripped through our not so happy home. It was like magic to me how in less than a year this seemingly simple spiritual discipline brought calm into my family’s life.

The peaceful look on my mother’s face stands in complete contrast with the look of shock on the faces of those Chinese people in Tiananmen Square that day.

They had forgotten that in the beginning Falun Gong was awarded and praised by the CCP for the benefits it brought to the Chinese people. It was even congratulated by the Public Security Bureau for “bringing the crime fighting virtues back to China.”

But just a few years after that award was given, the popularity of Falun Gong made the corrupt CCP feel threatened by this spiritual practice whose adherents have principles independent of Party ideology. The persecution began in 1999.

As practitioners throughout China responded for years in the most peaceful and forbearing manner, by appealing for the Party to end the persecution and guarantee the right to practice Falun Gong, one might have hoped the CCP would have learned it could have changed course.

In 2006 the world learned why the CCP has continued its campaign against Falun Gong. Mr. Chen Yonglin, a high ranking Chinese consular official in Australia defected from his post and stated: “The Chinese Communist Party has always relied on violence, lies, and advocating atheism to maintain its power. They could not understand Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful efforts to protect their freedom of belief. Now they feel they can’t let people know about what has been done to Falun Gong in China.”

Looking to the Future

Today millions around the world cherish the teachings of Falun Gong and the focus on morality that it has brought into their lives. It is something China needs desperately.

Ten years later, our appeals have been joined by countless actions from practitioners and citizens who have taken the same end in view.

Millions of practitioners inside China continue to operate home workshops where they print leaflets and fliers for distribution to their fellow citizens. Outside of China Falun Gong practitioners have created state-of-the-art firewalls to break down the Chinese regime’s Internet blockade. With this new flow of information over 105 million Chinese in and out of China have renounced membership in the CCP and its affiliated organizations.

Thousands of government officials from countries around the world have stood in solidarity with Falun Gong. Millions of people worldwide have signed petitions and written letters calling for an end to the illegal persecution and to bring those responsible in China to justice.

Although it was 10 years ago it still feels like it was yesterday. My heart was beating out of my chest as I raced on a rickshaw through Beijing back to my hotel while Tiananmen Square faded behind me. My only question: Did we succeed or did we fail?

Ten years later I feel a great honor to have stood with other practitioners opposing tyranny for the sake of others.

Throughout history the battle between good and evil has played out in frightening and inspiring stories. The line has been drawn in the sand more times than one can count. Today we keep deep in our hearts a wish that more and more people will stand on the right side.

Joel Chipkar is a real estate broker and human rights advocate living in Toronto, Canada.

via Foreigners’ Appeal for Justice on Tiananmen Square: 10th Anniversary | Democracy and Human Rights | China | Epoch Times

Related Articles:

• Vietnam Broadcasters Sentenced in Show Trial, Witnesses Say
• The Tuidang Movement: 100 Million Chinese Hearts Changed

…

How the Communist Party Undermines China’s Legal System to Enable Human Rights Abuses

By Yiyang Xia

During the first 30 years of the Chinese Communist Party’s CCP 62 years in power, there were no real laws that would be recognizable under international standards.

It was widely accepted during that period that laws should be drafted in a crude fashion, without detail, though it is unclear where that concept originated or how it became the consensus.

Most cases were decided directly by Party Committees. The whole legal system was referred to as “Gong Jian Fa,” a term that encompasses “the police, the procuratorate, and the court,” all in one, reflecting the lack of judicial independence from the executive branch.

After the Cultural Revolution, the CCP restored the stature of several top leaders who had suffered persecution and purging during the chaos. They decided that, one way or another, some form of rule of law should be established.

The original idea was that the rule of law would protect them from a repeat of the arbitrariness of the Cultural Revolution. They did not seem to realize at the time that rule of law could also cause trouble because laws would also restrain their power.

In 1979, the CCP Central Committee (CCPCC) issued an internal document formally withdrawing the Party Committees from directly making a judgment in cases (i). However, several months later, the Party decided it could not afford not to control the legal system. So the CCPCC re-established the Central Political and Judicial Committee to oversee the legal system.

Although this committee was temporally dissolved in 1988, it was immediately reinstated and enhanced after the Tiananmen Square massacre. When one speaks of the Chinese legal system not being independent, this committee is the key to understanding why.

In China, the various entities that carry out law-related work are collectively called the political and judicial system. At the state level, they usually include the Ministry of Public Security (the police), Supreme Procuratorate, Supreme Court, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of State Security. They belong to different state organs. The three ministries are under the State Council, while the Supreme Procuratorate and Supreme Court report to the National People’s Congress (NPC).

How Does the Political and Judicial Committee Oversee Entities that Carry Out Law-Related Work?

1. The Political and Judicial Committee exists directly under the CCPCC. Its head is a member of the powerful Standing Committee of the CCPCC, China’s most important decision-making body. This means his rank is higher than that of any minister in the Party.

2. The heads of the above-mentioned law-related organizations are all members of the Political and Judicial Committee. Within the Party, they must follow the orders of the Secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee.

3. From time to time, the CCPCC or its Political and Judicial Committee will issue internal Party memos, circulars, or other documents to direct the work of the law-related organizations. Such memos are not written in accordance with the Constitution, nor are they constrained by any other laws.

Moreover, the heads of the above five organizations are not appointed by China’s Parliament, the National People’s Congress, or by the executive State Council. Rather, they are chosen by the CCPCC and its Organization Department.

4. In this fashion, when the law-related organs enforce the law, they are influenced by the CCP’s policies.

5. At the individual trial level, in many so-called “sensitive cases,” such as those related to political dissidents, human rights, religion, or Falun Gong, the Political and Judicial Committee will organize a meeting.

The local heads of the Public Security Bureau, the Procuratorate (which plays the role of public prosecutor), and the court attend the meeting. All details related to the case are discussed and decided at the meeting, including the verdict and length of the final prison sentence.

6. The Ministry of Justice retains control over lawyers, reflecting the legal profession’s lack of independence, in addition to the judicial system. All lawyers must belong to a CCP-led lawyer’s association. Each local association branch operates under the local Bureau of Justice, while the national All China Lawyers Association exists under the Ministry of Justice.

This system ensures lawyers do not take cases that the CCP does not want them to take. In recent years, media reports have often referred to human rights lawyers’ licenses being suspended or revoked for taking sensitive cases, like those involving Falun Gong practitioners, house church Christians, or housing demolition. It is through the above system of oversight that such arbitrary suspension is possible.

Beginning in the 1980s, the NPC started to pass laws. This encouraged a new generation to study law and take the bar exam, including individuals like prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

During that time, a large number of laws were passed, with some even approaching Western and international legal standard. The work of passing laws has not stopped since, as indicated in the newly released “China Socialist Legal System White Paper.”

And, although the laws were not fully enforced and implemented, until 1999, neither were they systematically undermined.

Even after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the legal system remained basically intact, though the CCP temporarily declared Martial Law. There was no need to change how the legal system functioned in order to persecute those who led the student movement. The numbers of people arrested and sentenced was relatively small.

How Did the Chinese Legal System Become Broken and Undermined?

The biggest challenge that arose for China’s legal system was the launching of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.

At the time, the CCP faced two challenges: first, a spiritual belief it couldn’t control; second, a very large population of practitioners, numbering in the tens of millions.

In an instinctual reaction to the perceived threat posed by Falun Gong, the then-CCP head, Jiang Zeming, immediately pulled out the Party’s tried and trusted method—to initiate a political campaign to suppress the Falun Gong.

This had proven effective for suppressing perceived challenges to leaders during the Mao era, why shouldn’t work it work now? The difference was that by 1999, there was a legal system that had just been established, for better or for worse, and rule of law is incompatible with arbitrary political campaigns.

The regime therefore had to come up with measures to bypass the authority of the new laws. The impact of this process was huge and has practically destroyed the legal system. It is responsible for much of the lawlessness we see in China today.

The CCP deployed a very complex system of tactics. I outlined it in detail earlier this year at a European Parliament hearing, and it is available online. Below are a few key points.

1. Use of Propaganda to Give a False Impression that a Legal Process Was in Place

I will just give one example. When the Chinese regime says that it “banned” Falun Gong, this is inaccurate. It actually never banned Falun Gong according to law.

Two ministries’ documents from July 22, 1999, are often cited as proof of the ban’s legal standing. They were issued on July 22: the “Decision to Ban the Falun Gong Research Society” issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (ii), and the “Notice of Six Prohibitions from the Ministry of Public Security.”(iii)

The first notice targeted the “Falun Gong Research Society” (FGRS) as an administrative organization, rather than Falun Gong itself as a spiritual or religious practice.

In 1993, Falun Gong was a subordinate entity of the Chinese Qigong Scientific Research Society (CQSRS) and was called the “Falun Gong Research Branch.” In March 1996, the FGRS formally petitioned for withdrawal from the CQSRS. When the withdrawal was approved, the Falun Gong branch formally dissolved. Thus, what the Ministry of Civil Affairs banned in July of 1999 was technically an entity that had been dissolved in March 1996.

As for Falun Gong itself as a spiritual practice, it has no formal organization, hierarchy, membership lists, or dues. The practice consists of performing five meditative exercises, studying spiritual teachings, and seeking to follow the values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in daily life.

It is a very fluid and informally structured practice. Even if the Ministry of Civil Affairs could have banned the non-existent FGRS, the ban could not automatically be extended to cover the practice of Falun Gong itself. Therefore, legally speaking, practicing Falun Gong has never been banned.

In addition, the so-called ban has sometimes been claimed to be based on the fact that the FGRS had not registered. Even if this were true, not being registered does not amount to a group being illegal. Moreover, under Chinese law, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has no legal jurisdiction to ban a group.

The “Notice of Six Prohibitions from the Ministry of Public Security” then illegally extended the scope of the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ already groundless decision.

Under Chinese law, these two ministries only have authority to publish regulations within their own departments. They have no legislative or judicial power to decide what is legal or illegal. Thus, both documents well exceeded the ministries’ jurisdiction.

In addition, both documents were in direct violation of Article 36 and Article 5 of the Chinese Constitution (iv). Article 36 grants Chinese citizens the freedom of religious belief and Article 5 holds that all state organs must abide by the Constitution and the law.

As human rights lawyers have repeatedly pointed out in their legal defenses, the Chinese government never banned Falun Gong. The persecution is a Communist Party political campaign. It is not based on rule of law.

Then why is it widely believed that Falun Gong was formally outlawed? It is the effect of the CCP’s propaganda, as it has tried to legitimize an illegal political campaign by claiming in newspapers, on television, at conferences, and in speeches that the persecution of Falun Gong has been carried out “according to law.”

2. Ways of Carrying Out the Persecution Without Any Legal Basis

a. By creating a new chain of command outside the realm of the legal system.

This chain of command was initiated by Jiang Zemin and functions through the CCP hierarchy. At its center is “the 6-10 Office.” Neither the NPC nor the State Council has authorized its actions. Rather, approval and support for its deeds comes from the Party. Today, thousands of 6-10 Office branches remain active throughout China.

b. By using the existing Party system to interfere with implementation of the law.

In particular, the CCP has made use of the earlier-mentioned Political and Judicial Committee, the CCP body most often used to influence law-related organs from behind the scenes.

c. By issuing internal memos, documents, circulars, or oral orders to direct the persecution.

The persecution is mostly carried out by internal documents marked as “classified” or even “top secret.” Such documents can be issued at any level, but almost all are modified copies of orders that originated from the CCP Central Committee or its 610 Office.

d. By using Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code, a vague and unconstitutional provision, to send Falun Gong practitioners to prison.

Implementation of this law on Falun Gong practitioners is based on Supreme Court and Procuratorate Interpretations, even though this issue is outside their jurisdiction, according to Chinese Legislation Law. In practice, almost all sentences are decided before the trial even begins.

e. By depriving Falun Gong practitioners’ rights of due process. Through the above measures, the fate of most Falun Gong practitioners brought before a judge is decided before the practitioner even steps foot in the courtroom.

Meanwhile, lawyers are forbidden to take Falun Gong cases. Even if lawyers take a case, they are generally prevented from making a full defense statement in court. Lawyers have been beaten up when attempting to interview their client. Others have been disbarred, abducted, or tortured. Practitioners and their lawyers have even been beaten up in the courtroom.

Moreover, key witnesses of the prosecutors never show up in court. Hearings typically last only a few minutes or hours. Judges have openly claimed on many occasions that they did not make the decision and judgment. Taken together, these factors render Falun Gong trials a mockery of justice.

f. Through the existing extrajudicial system of Reeducation-through-Labor, as well as mental hospitals and newly established brainwashing centers, to jail Falun Gong practitioners without any legal process, and to torture them.

g. Through the systematic, illegal use of torture along with impunity for perpetrators.

In China, torture is prohibited by law. In practice, however, the use of brutal torture tactics on Falun Gong practitioners is widespread and routine. This has been confirmed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and many human rights groups. In a 2001 investigation by the Washington Post, a high-ranking Chinese official acknowledged that violence used against Falun Gong practitioners was part of a well-designed strategy.

3. Current Status of China’s Legal System

Given the large size of the victimized Falun Gong population, and the lengthy ongoing 12-year campaign to suppress this group, the impact of the above-mentioned tactics on rule of law in China has been significant.

The CCP’s well-established, sophisticated anti-Falun Gong tactics, including breaking the law to achieve its political goal, are easily applicable to other individuals and groups. As such, we are now seeing the following trends emerging, for which more specific examples are detailed in my European Parliament statement:

a. Expanding the use of extralegal detention facilities and abductions.

For years, Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to illegal abductions, arbitrary detentions, confiscation of property and computer equipment, and enforced disappearance. All of these measures have also become a feature of the crackdowns on human rights lawyers and activists, including the crackdown in early 2011 after antigovernment protests in the Middle East ousted dictators.

In addition, mental hospitals—whose political use was first intensified for Falun Gong—are now being used more and more frequently on non-Falun Gong petitioners, victims of housing demolition, and grassroots activists. The notorious “black jails” used to hold petitioners are similar and very likely originated from the brainwashing centers for Falun Gong.

b. The expansion of police brutality and impunity.

Human rights lawyers like Gao Zhisheng and Teng Biao have reportedly being told that torture methods that were being used or could be used against them were initially devised for use against their Falun Gong clients.

c. Falsely labeling other petitioners and activists as Falun Gong.

Since the regime established an exception to the rule of law for the Falun Gong group, it is easy now for local authorities to avoid responsibility and punishment for social unrest, simply by labeling the victims as Falun Gong practitioners.

4. New Stage: Making the Bad Laws

Since all of the measures applied to Falun Gong practitioners, human rights activists, human rights lawyers, and artists like Ai Weiwei violate China own laws, the regime has drawn a lot of criticism at home and abroad for its behavior. The process has now come to a new stage at which, instead of correcting its wrongdoing, the CCP amends existing laws to encompass its illegal activities.

For instance, the CCP has proposed an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law, one that would effectively legalize enforced disappearance (v). Although enforced disappearances have been widely used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, the phenomenon only made international headlines with the disappearance of prominent artist and blogger Ai Weiwei.

In response, rather than investigating and punishing those responsible, the CCP announced amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law to attempt to legalize enforced disappearance, thus ensuring that international and local critics can no longer claim the regime is violating its own law.

In addition, the regime is making several amendments and new definitions to other laws, changes that extend police power and make the country further resemble a police state.

One law is a newly release draft of an amendment to the Resident Identity Cards Law (vi). The amendment was discussed last week at the NPC Standing Committee.

Two proposed changes caused controversy: adding fingerprints to residents’ identity cards under the name of preventing counterfeiting and terrorism, and allowing police to check people’s identity documents at train stations, airports, and major events.

To date, the police have only been allowed to check citizens’ ID card in an emergency or if the person is suspected of having committed a crime.

Even more recently, last Monday, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed a draft resolution on strengthening anti-terrorism efforts. The draft resolution defines a terrorist act, terrorist organization, and terrorist force for the first time in China’s legal documents. The definition is extremely broad in scope, however, rendering it easy to persecute people for political or religious reasons under the rubric of anti-terrorism efforts (vii).

Why is the regime openly passing such bad laws? This is simply how the CCP is responding to criticism that it isn’t following its own laws. Rather than changing its poor behavior to observe the law, it is changing the laws to legitimize the bad behavior.

Progress?

I would like to quote Clive Ansley, a Canadian expert on the Chinese legal system:

“Chinese officials’ most common tactic for diverting criticism of violations in the Chinese ‘judicial’ system is to assert that Beijing’s ‘legal’ system, while not perfect, is moving in the right direction.

“The implication is that although it will take years to educate hundreds of thousands of police, prosecutors, and judges throughout the country to follow the law, the leadership is determined to do so. The leadership is committed to protecting human rights and implementing the ‘Rule of Law,’ so they claim.

“The reality, however, is that the leadership in Beijing is not committed to implementing the ‘Rule of Law’ in either the short term or the long term. On the contrary, China’s unelected leaders are taking various measures to ensure that the ‘Rule of Law’ is never implemented in China under their watch—ever.”

Conclusion

It is no secret that China is not a democratic country and that the political system is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Committees influence every government body. The legislative body, the National People’s Congress, is just a rubber stamp for approving decisions already made by the Party.

But how the CCP undermines and controls the legal system is not well known. I tried to explain how this dynamic works and why China is actually a lawless state.

To conclude, in examining human rights abuses in China, it is important to keep in mind that we are not dealing with a state where the legal system is established and now needs to be perfected.

We are dealing with a regime that does not respect its own laws. Instead, it systematically and intentionally breaks them and designs measures to circumvent the legal rights guaranteed to citizens.

Yiyang Xia is the Senior Director of Policy & Research, Human Rights Law Foundation

i) http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-06/30/c_121603216_4.htm

ii) The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the PRC, “Decision to Ban the Research Society of Falun Dafa by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,” July 22, 1999 http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/10/20000706/132286.html

iii) The Ministry of Public Security of the PRC. “Notice of Six Prohibitions from the Ministry of Public Security.” July 22, 1999   http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/10/20000706/132280.html

iv )Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, Articles 36 and 5, http://www.usconstitution.net/china.html.

v) http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/01/china-don-t-legalize-secret-detention

vi)http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hyNGmpAHQvmBtQWQVEivOatVQWEw?docId=CNG.e953307fb21b1766114179006e2d47a2.531

vii) http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/680840/Anti-terror-legal-dilemma-in-rights-and-security.aspx

via How the Communist Party Undermines China’s Legal System to Enable Human Rights Abuses | Epoch Times

Related Articles:

• Tibetans, Deficits, and ‘Death by China’
• China ‘Disappeared’ Lawyers and Rights Defenders Turning Silent

…