|
CHINA
October Review, Hong Kong.
mail address: October Review, G.P.O.Box 10144, Hong Kong
e-mail address: or@earthling.net
On the eve of the 12th anniversary of the 1989 Movement for
Democracy and June 4 Crackdown, let us review the course of struggle
of the
people of China in fighting for democracy and better livelihood, and
unveil
the crimes of the regime's repression of militants for democracy and
human
rights.
The human rights situation in China has been deteriorating
in
spite of the fact that the Chinese government is signatory to the
International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The
charges
of 'subversion of the regime' or 'leakage of state secrets' have been
used
in the arrest of dissidents. The following are some instances.
1. Repression of the right of publication. According
to the statistics
of the International Association for the Defense of Journalists, just
last
year alone, as many as 22 journalists were detained in China, the
highest
number in all countries of the world. Director of a web site Huang
Qi was
arrested for publishing news about the movement for democracy last
year
before June 4, and was tortured in jail. He was formally prosecuted
in
February this year. Yang Zili, computer engineer graduated from Beijing
University, was arrested by the State Security Bureau for posting
essays
for liberalism on a website.
2. Stepped up repression of organizations such as Falungong
and
Zhonggong, and arrests of Falungong practitioners who demonstrated
on the
Tiananmen Square. Many were sentenced to several years of imprisonment.
3. Continued repression of the freedom of association
and formation of
parties. Over 30 members of the Chinese Democratic Party have been
jailed.
Shan Chengfeng, wife of Wu Yilong, one of the founders of the Chinese
Democratic Party, petitioned the Olympics Association jointly with
28
people requesting the Olympics Association to urge the Chinese government
to release detained members of the Chinese Democratic Party. She was
herself arrested at the end of last year, and sentenced to two years
of
'education through labour' in February this year. Chen Zhong and Xiao
Shichang, both members of this party, were sentenced to 7 and 5.5
years of
imprisonment by the Wuhan Municipal Court on the charge of 'subversion'
on
7 July 2000.
4. Continued deprivation of the freedom of speech. Jiang
Qisheng,
leader of the students' delegation requesting dialogue with the government
in 1989, was again arrested for writing to ask for rehabilitation
of June
4, and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. A lawyer in Henan Province,
Shen
Hongqi, sent two essays in favour of democracy, and was sentenced
to 3.5
years imprisonment.
5. Tightening of academic freedom and freedom of research.
A number of
academics have been arrested, such as some from Hong Kong and abroad:
Xu
Zerong, Tan Guangguang, Gao Zhan, Li Shaomin, Wu Jianmin. Despite
international pressure, they have not been released or put on trial.
According to the China Human Rights Information Centre, from July
last year
to the present, 24 scholars or intellectuals have been arrested by
the
State Security Bureau. In Beijing, three fresh graduates, Geng Haike,
Xu
Wei and Zhang Honghai, were recently arrested for setting up an academic
organization The New Youth Study Club.
The fear and sense of insecurity demonstrated by the
regime may be
reflected and evidenced by the following general social phenomena.
Firstly, social order is worsening and social polarization is
aggravating. According to the New China News Agency on April 5, criminal
cases under police investigation in 2000 was 50% increase over 1999.
Experts are saying that China is faced with the fourth crest of crimes
since the first one erupted in 1983.
Secondly, the capitalist economic reform is causing
more workers
to be laid off. According to the Director of the Economic and Trade
Commission, Li Rongyong, in a press conference during the National
People's
Congress in March this year, altogether 21 million workers of state
enterprises had been laid off in the past three years, and 7 million
of
them have not yet found another job. Zhang Zuoji, Head of the Department
of
Labour and Social Security, said that in the next 5 years, an estimated
52
million population will be looking for employment, and 10 million
will not
be able to find a job. The registered unemployment rate for cities
and
towns will rise from 3.1% last year to 5%, and there will still be
40
million rural population transferring to work in rural industries
or the
cities and towns.
However, these official figures do not reflect the
actual
situation. According to the Nanfang Weekend magazine of Jan 18, Ma
Ke's
essay quoted experts from the State Council's Development Research
Centre
as estimating that the real unemployment rate in 1997 was 9.36%, and
in
2000, it should be over 10%.
A research on the basic condition of workers conducted
by members
of the Communist Party School of Nanchang showed that for the per
capita
monthly income of laid off worker families, 79.2% of the families
had less
than 300 yuan (US$1=8 yuan), and 36.7% had less than 150 yuan. A
considerable number in this social category have fallen to absolute
poverty. According to a survey by the State Statistics Bureau, of
poor
families, those with their household heads working in state enterprises
amounted to 53.9%, pensioners amounted to 16.7%, and those who worked
in
collective units amounted to 16.5%. With the inadequacies of the social
security system, many of them suffer seriously from poverty.
Thus, worker strikes and protests have been very frequent.
Some of
the known ones are: on 27 Nov 2000, 12,000 workers of the Youli Electric
Factory (with Japanese investment) went on strike, protesting that
they
were compelled to work 12 hours every day and the hourly wages were
less
than 2 yuan. Workers had requested to form a union before the strike,
and
after the strike, there were some improvements in the working conditions.
On Nov 28, over 1,000 workers from Anhui lay down on the railway to
protest against unpaid wages and layoffs, paralyzing rail traffic
between Beijing and Shanghai for 8 hours. They were removed from the
railway track by the police. On Dec 21, several thousand miners and
family from three mines closed by the Xingzi Mining Bureau rioted.
According to the Chinese Labour Bureau, there were 120,000 cases of
labour disputes in 2000, 14 times over 8 years ago. On Feb 2, 2001,
a worker activist Li Wangyang went on hunger strike in a hospital
in Hunan province. On March 6, over 1,000 workers in Shanghai took
to the street against layoffs. On March 26, 1,500 workers from Guiyang
City, Guizhou Province, blocked major roads in the city, while 500
workers from a chemical fertilizer factory in Henan Province
demonstrated outside the Xinye County government house, both protesting
against unpaid wages for a year. On April 23, several dozens of workers
from Jilin Province and Liaoning Province went as a group to Beijing
to
stage a sit-in strike. On March 13, 5,000 taxi drivers from Lanzhou
City,
Gansu Province, besieged the provincial government office. 7,000 drivers
had earlier on started a slow-down drive. Wang Deming, a Political
Consultative Committee member, remarked that the number of worker
and
peasant strikes at the level of municipality or above has been increasing
by 37% per annum.
Peasant riots and protests are also frequent. On April
15 this
year, over 1,000 villagers in Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province, staged
a
confrontation with the military police. They had refused to submit
tax for
a few years. In the confrontation, 2 peasants were shot dead, 18 were
wounded.
With social grievances growing and the government's
ability for
control reduced, the Chinese regime may end up taking the path of
Eastern
Europe and the former USSR.
4 May 2001
October Review Vol.28 Issue 2 2001.6.1
|
