China demands clarity on Spanish Jiang Zemin arrest order

Tibetan rights groups brought the case against Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and three other Chinese officials responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and terrorism against Tibetans in the 1980s and 1990s.

AFP

Chronology of major political events in Tibet since China seized control of the territory in 1950

An Ethnic Tibetan woman watches as Chinese soldiers keep watch in Chengdu, in southwest Sichuan province, on January 27, 2012

Jiang Zemin raises his hands to vote for a report at the closing of the 18th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on 14 November 2012

Beijing — China is demanding a "clarification" from Madrid after a Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin over genocide in Tibet, Beijing said Wednesday.
Spain's National Court issued the warrant for the former head of state and Communist Party chief on Tuesday under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to try some human rights abuses committed in other countries.
Tibetan rights groups brought the case against Jiang, former prime minister Li Peng and three other Chinese officials, alleging they were responsible for "genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and terrorism" against Tibetans in the 1980s and 1990s.
Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Chinese officials had seen reports on the arrest warrant and had asked Spanish authorities for a "clarification".
Hong blamed "Tibet separatists" for using "rumours and "slander" to make "false accusations" against China.
"Such means are doomed to fail," Hong added. 

The Spanish court accepted the case because one of the plaintiffs, Tibetan exile Thubten Wangchen, has Spanish nationality, and the Chinese courts have not investigated the allegations.
It has also agreed to investigate a charge of repression in Tibet brought against China's former president Hu Jintao, who left office last year.

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Spanish court orders arrest of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin

Jiang is among five Chinese officials accused over human rights abuses in Tibet. Spain's National Court said that the five should be questioned. It must process the arrest orders via the international police organization Interpol. 

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press

Jiang Zemin and Li Peng

Hu Jintao

Qiao Shi with is a Norwegian politician Thorbjørn Johansen

Spain's National Court on Tuesday issued warrants for the arrest of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and four other officials as part of a probe into genocide in Tibet.
The court said it accepted arguments from Spanish Tibet rights groups that international reports indicate that the five may have had a role in human rights abuses and should be questioned.
But the accused are thought unlikely to ever stand trial.
In addition to Jiang, the Chinese politicians wanted by Spain are former Prime Minister Li Peng; former security and police chief Qiao Shi; Chen Kuiyan, a former Communist Party official in Tibet; and Pen Peiyun, an ex-family planning minister. 

None has been formally charged.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao is also under investigation, although Spain has not said it seeks his arrest.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said during a regular briefing Wednesday that Beijing firmly opposes the court's move and urged Spain to repair "the severe damage." 

Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Madrid did not immediately comment on the court's decision.
Alan Cantos, president of Spain's Tibet Support Committee, which first pressed for the investigation in 2008, expressed satisfaction with the court decision but was not overly optimistic that anyone would be brought to trial.
"It's not easy, but it's a big step," Cantos told The Associated Press. 

"They are stuck in their own country, and a competent court is pointing the finger at them. It's so they don't have it too easy."
The court must process the arrest orders via the international police organization Interpol.
Spain's legal system recognizes the universal justice principle, under which genocide suspects can be put on trial outside their home country.
The policy allowed former Judge Baltasar Garzon to try to chase the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

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Spanish court orders arrest of Chinese leaders including Hu Jintao

The ruling might dissuade the Chinese leaders to travel outside the PRC as they could be arrested for questioning on the crimes they are accused of. 

Phayul

China's criminals against humanity.

DHARAMSHALA – The Spanish National Court has ordered arrest warrants to be issued against give Chinese leaders, including former President and Party Secretary Jiang Zemin, for their policies in Tibet. 

The ‘ground breaking’ development as the International Campaign for Tibet calls it, comes after former Chinese president Hu Jintao’s indictment for genocide last month. 

The court gave orders to inform Hu of the indictment and question him about his policies in Tibet through the Chinese Embassy in Madrid.
Legal experts in Spain believe the ruling is potentially as significant as the arrest of Pinochet in London in 1998 after a group of Spanish lawyers put together a lawsuit against the Chilean dictator, who presided over a 17-year reign of terror and ordered foreign assassinations.
The five Chinese leaders are Jiang Zemin, former President and Party Secretary; Li Peng, Prime Minister during the repression in Tibet in the late 1980s and early 1990s (and the crackdown in Tiananmen); Qiao Shi, former head of Chinese security and responsible for the People¹s Armed Police during the martial law period in Tibet in the late 1980s; Chen Kuiyuan, Party secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region from 1992 to 2001 (who was known for his hardline position against Tibetan religion and culture), and Deng Delyun (also known as Peng Pelyun), minister of family planning in the 1990s.
The rulings today have positively surprised Spanish legal experts working on the Tibetan law suits upholding the principle of “universal jurisdiction” a part of international law that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture, terror and other serious international crimes perpetrated by individuals, governments or military authorities.
Analysts also say that the ruling might dissuade the Chinese leaders to travel outside the PRC as they could be arrested for questioning on the crimes they are accused of. 

All the leaders face the possibility of their overseas bank accounts being frozen.
Today’s ruling was made by the appeals court (Section 4 of the Criminal Court of Spain's National Court, the Audiencia Nacional), which is the investigative national court for major crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy, or money laundering.
“We wish to dedicate this judicial success not only to the victims, but also to the thousands of “freedom fighters” and to the memory of all those who self-immolated in and outside Tibet, and those who risk their lives and their freedom in the face of the passivity of the international community whose silence is an accomplice to the genocide. Their sense of justice and their determination for truth is enshrined in this judicial battle that believes in these values in a non violent manner,” said Alan Cantos of CAT last month when the court decided to indict Hu Jintao.

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Spain Has Indicted Hu Jintao Over Tibet

Hu Jintao was indicted by Spain's national court.

By Justin McDonnell

Last month, Spain’s National Court indicted China’s ex-president, Hu Jintao for grave crimes against humanity, South China Morning Post and other publications reported.

The Madrid-based Tibetan Support Committee originally filed a lawsuit against then-President Hu in 2006, alleging that the Chinese Communist Party leader was responsible for the torture and repression of the Tibetan people.  The lawsuit also names six other former leaders of the CCP, including Mr. Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin.

Hu Jintao was party chief in the Himalayan region from 1988 to 1992. In the wake of Tiananmen Square, he declared military rule to suppress anti-government protests in the Tibet autonomous region. The indictment also cites his actions as general secretary of the CCP.

China has denounced the indictment as trying to interfere with China’s domestic affairs. 

“We firmly oppose any country or person attempting to use this issue to interfere with China's internal affairs,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said after the indictment was handed down.

Beijing claims sovereignty over Tibet and gained control of the region in 1950. Yet, many Tibetans remain loyal to the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Spanish court’s ruling comes at a time when tensions are running high over Tibet.  Last month it was reported that Chinese police fired upon Tibetan protestors, wounding 60 people.  Since 2009, more than 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire as protest against Chinese rule.  

Spain has given its National Court universal jurisdiction for cases involving war crimes and other serious violations of international law like crimes against humanity and genocide. Established in 1977, the National Court has pursued cases under universal jurisdiction ever since it issued an international warrant for former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Salvador Allende. Pinochet was detained in London for almost two years until UK home secretary Jack Straw ordered his release on medical grounds, allowing him to travel back home to Chile.

Since then, Madrid has investigated mass killings by the Francoist dictatorship, and indicted Rwandan officials linked to the 1994 genocide, former Nazi guards, Israelis involved in Gaza bombings, and Salvadoran ex-soldiers for the murder of Jesuit priests during the civil war. Once considered to have the broadest universal jurisdiction in the world, in 2009 the government restricted the courts to cases where the victims were Spanish citizens. The Spanish legal system allowed the suit against Mr. Hu to be heard because one of the plaintiffs, Buddhist monk Thubten Wangchen is a Spanish citizen.

The majority of jurisdiction cases have not resulted in convictions and it is virtually unthinkable China’s indicted leaders will be extradited and forced to defend themselves before a Spanish court.

A New Precedent for Today’s Europe or A Continuation of Quiet Diplomacy?

Many EU countries, especially indebted ones, have kept quiet about Tibet.  Most EU member states have left China’s human rights issues to EU institutions.  That could largely be because Beijing has been known to punish other countries for perceived offenses.  For example, Norway continues to incur China’s ire for awarding the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.  High-level meetings have been frozen and deals blocked between China and EU member states for meeting with the Dalai Lama, a highly sensitive issue for the Chinese. 

Much of Europe has greatly toned down its public criticism of China’s human rights violations but Spain is aspiring toward truth and justice.  Will China "punish" Spain over the National Court’s investigation, ban high-level meetings, and implement soft sanctions that affect trade and investment?  While it’s still uncertain what kind of diplomatic reaction there will be, investors seem concerned that the incitement could hurt Spanish brands, especially as they look to access China’s markets to help rejuvenate and stabilize the economy.

Instead of caving in to Chinese demands, this could encourage Europe to move away from its quiet diplomacy and toward a cohesive European policy on human rights that strengthens the EU’s ability to put greater pressure on Beijing and far-flung places, where its citizens are not properly protected by the rule of law. Still, it’s debatable whether or not European countries should intervene in criminal cases elsewhere and empower their domestic courts to hear international criminal justice cases.

Beyond a State of Impunity

Universal jurisdiction is not without its criticisms, and many failures.  But at a time when the international system of justice is in shambles, and moving toward complacency, there needs to be a force willing to expose and confront abusive regimes. Why not Europe’s domestic courts?  Spain’s recent indictment of a former head of state opens up an old, polarizing debate at an interesting point in time when leadership is running amok.

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Chinese labor camp inmate tells of true horror of Halloween 'SOS'

• Julie Keith discovered letter from a Chinese labor camp inmate in her Halloween decorations
• Letter detailed life in camp, such as grueling hours, verbal and physical abuses
• CNN eventually spoke to the inmate, who made products destined for the West

By Steven Jiang

Secret letter found inside Halloween toy.
Tree leaves were turning yellow and red in Damascus, Oregon, in late October. 

Competing with fall foliage for attention were Halloween decorations, which adorned almost every house in this sleepy middle-class suburb of Portland on America's Pacific West Coast.
A few pumpkins sat on the steps leading to Julie Keith's house, while three fake tombstones greeted visitors in the front porch -- as they did last year.
"I feel obligated to use them every year now because I feel they need to have some worth," said Keith, 43, who lives here with her husband and their two young children. 

"I am sad for the people who have to endure torture to make these silly decorations."
The decorations came in a $29 "Totally Ghoul" toy set that Keith purchased in a local Kmart store in 2011. When she opened the package before Halloween last year, a letter fell out.
In broken English mixed with Chinese, the author cried for help: 

"If you occasionally (sic) buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here... will thank and remember you forever."

An excerpt of the letter sent by labor camp inmate Mr. Zhang contained within the Halloween decoration.
Long hours, abuse
The letter went on to detail grueling hours, verbal and physical abuses as well as torture that inmates making the products had to endure -- all in a place called Masanjia Labor Camp in China.
"It was surprising at first and I didn't know if it was a hoax," recalled Keith, a program manager at a company that runs a chain of thrift stores and donation centers. 

"Once I read the letter and researched on the Internet, I realized that this may be the real deal.
"I knew there are labor camps in China, but this slammed me in the face. I had no idea if this person was still alive or dead or in the camp -- it's extraordinary that it was able to come all the way from China."
Keith heeded the writer's call by reaching out to human rights groups but received no response. 

She then posted the letter on Facebook, which prompted the local Oregonian newspaper to run a front-page article.
As word of Keith's unusual Halloween discovery spread, her story turned into international news, throwing a spotlight on one of China's most notorious labor camps -- and the controversial system behind them.

Strange discovery
Then one morning recently, some 6,000 miles away from Damascus, a bespectacled middle-aged Chinese man walked into the CNN office in Beijing to talk to us about this strange discovery half a world away. 

His voice was soft and calm but from time to time it would betray a hint of both agony and force.
"I saw the packaging and figured the products were bound for some English-speaking countries," he said. 

"I knew about Christmas but we were making skulls and the like -- I really didn't know much about Halloween.
"But I had this idea of telling the outside world what was happening there -- it was a revelation even to someone like me who had spent my entire life in China."
After months of searching, through a trusted source and with some good luck, CNN found the man who says he wrote the letter that Keith found in her Halloween decorations. 

Released from the labor camp but afraid to be sent back, he agreed to his first television interview on the condition that CNN concealed his identity.
"Mr. Zhang" -- as he would be called -- is a follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, branded by the Chinese government as an evil cult and outlawed since 1999. 

He claims he was detained by police several months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and sentenced to two and a half years in the Masanjia labor camp in northeastern China.
"For people who have never been there, it's impossible to imagine," he said. 

"The first thing they do is to take your human dignity away and humiliate you."
Zhang recounted the systematic use of beatings, sleep deprivation and torture, especially targeting those like him who refused to repent. 

Some gruesome details are too specific to him to be reported.
"Making products turned out to be an escape from the horrible violence," he said. 

"We thought we could protect ourselves, and avoid verbal and physical assaults as long as we worked and did the job well."

Secret messages
Moving forward with his plan to expose the horror in the camp, he secretly tore off pages from exercise books meant for political indoctrination sessions as inmates were barred from having paper. 

He also befriended a minor criminal from his hometown -- a monitor for the guards -- who managed to get him another banned item: a ball pen refill.

The male inmates' quarters at the Masanjia labor camp stand behind fields covered in haystacks.
"I hid it in a hollow space in the bed stand -- and only got time to write late at night when everyone else had fallen asleep," he recalled. 

"The lights were always on in the camp and there was a man on duty in every room to keep an eye on us."
Demonstrating his awkward position in bed, he continued: "I lay on my side with my face toward the wall so he could only see my back. I placed the paper on my pillow and wrote on it slowly."
A college graduate, he said it took him two or three days to finish a single letter through this risky and painstaking process. 

"I tried to fill as much space as possible on each sheet," he said. 

"Every letter was slightly different because I had to improvise -- I remember writing SOS in some but not in others.

Broken by China's labor camps

China under fire over labor camps

"Writing in English was very hard for me. I had studied the language but had never practiced speaking or writing much. That's why I included some Chinese words to make sure the message would not be misunderstood because of my English mistakes."
He slipped 20 letters into Halloween decoration packaging in 2008 and at least one, against all odds, got out and made headlines four years later.

Inside the camp
In late October, the autumn colors were fading fast in Masanjia Township as temperatures plunged to barely above freezing overnight. 

Driving towards town, the landscape was a mixture of barren farmland and mothballed factories with banners advertising cheap rent.
The town itself sits outside Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning and an industrial base of eight million residents. 

If not for the labor camp infamy, it would be just another backwater in China's northeastern rust belt.
A national emblem and two signs adorned an unguarded entrance in the center of town. 

One displayed "Liaoning Province Masanjia Labor" with the final word of "Camp" missing; the other read "Liaoning Province Ideological Education School."
Inside the complex, which seemed to be closed -- though officials would not confirm this -- fields covered with haystacks and dried corn separated three clusters of low-rise buildings. 

Administrative offices were painted white, female inmates' quarters mostly red and male's largely beige. 

High blue concrete walls or green fences glinted with barbwire surrounding the inmate areas, as guard towers loomed above each corner.
"Wow, they've removed the sign in front the men's camp," marveled Liu Hua, pointing at an unmarked gate. "Look, that warehouse-looking building over there was where men like Zhang used to work."
As the van carrying her and the CNN crew stopped near the women's quarters, powerful memories rushed back to this 50-year-old farmer from a nearby village.
"I was confined in that building -- Room 209," she said while standing outside the fence. 

"We had the 4:15 a.m. wake-up call, worked from 6 a.m. to noon, got a 30-minute lunch and bathroom break, and resumed working until 5:30 p.m. Sometimes we had to stay up until midnight if there was too much work -- and if you couldn't finish your work, you would be punished."

Last inmates
Liu only dared to return here after hearing that authorities had released the last group of inmates in mid-September -- an apparent step toward shutting the facility down.
She had landed in Masanjia twice for petitioning against local officials over what she calls illegal land grabs. In total, she spent two and a half years in the labor camp. 

Her first stint overlapped with Zhang's, but the two only met after both were released. 

Unlike Zhang, Liu didn't see work as an escape. 

Remembering making down jackets bound for Italy and shirts sold to South Korea, she still shivers at the heavy workload that almost ruined her health.
"I had to do everything from matching fabrics to sorting materials and cutting loose threads," she said. 

"Every day, I had to repeat seven work steps -- for about 2,400 steps in total."
Suffering from high blood pressure and malnutrition, Liu said she once fainted on the job but was denied medical care. 

For her defiant attitude, she said guards also ordered fellow inmates to beat her twice -- their assaults with plastic stools and basins so vicious that she lost consciousness. 

"But I still had to work after I regained consciousness," she added. 

"This place was Hell on Earth."

Horror exposed
Last April, Masanjia's fear-striking reputation was cemented when Lens, a Chinese magazine, published a lengthy article about the horrors inside its walls. 

Based on interviews with a dozen former female inmates including Liu, the story -- titled "Leaving Masanjia" -- detailed appalling working and living environments as well as frequent use of torture in the camp.
The Chinese journalists also spoke to two former officials at the camp who said Masanjia housed more than 5,000 inmates as free laborers at its peak and created annual revenues of nearly 100 million yuan ($16 million) -- including those generated from exports.

Former Masanjia inmate Liu Hua (right) walks across the field outside the female inmates' quarters and talks to a CNN reporter.

Although the officials acknowledged poor living and labor conditions, they denied the use of torture. 

They admitted some officers may have used excessive force in dealing with disobedient inmates.
The story mentioned the discovery of an accusatory letter about Masanjia in a Halloween decoration package in the United States -- and that the news caused a big stir in the labor camp. 

When asked, one official confirmed the letter indeed came from the Masanjia men's camp.
The article's publication surprised many observers, as domestic Chinese media -- all state-run -- had long shunned the sensitive subject.
Less than two weeks after the issue hit newsstands, the official state news agency, Xinhua, ran a response from the local authorities. 

Calling the article "seriously inaccurate," provincial officials in Liaoning said their thorough investigation at Masanjia turned up no evidence of any torture or mistreatment of the interviewed inmates during their confinement.
Officials also rejected accusations of horrid living and working conditions in the camp, blaming the journalists for buying into "smear campaigns" launched by overseas Falun Gong movements. 

They did not address the Halloween letter in their rebuttal.
Lens magazine suspended publication for several months after its Masanjia issue.
Despite CNN's repeated efforts, officials with Liaoning's police department and press office declined to comment for this story.

Hundreds of camps
By all accounts, Masanjia is but one of hundreds of labor camps in China borne under the laojiao -- or "re-education through labor" -- scheme.
Set up in 1957, the system allows the police to detain petty offenders -- such as thieves, prostitutes and drug addicts -- in labor camps for up to four years without a trial. 

China's judicial process itself is already controlled by the ruling Communists in a one-party regime.

In a 2009 report to a United Nations human rights forum, the Chinese government acknowledged 320 such facilities nationwide holding 190,000 people. 

Other estimates have put the number of inmates much higher.
Critics have long accused of the authorities of using the camps to silence so-called trouble makers, including political dissidents, rights activists and Falun Gong members.
"The continued existence of laojiao signifies China remains a police state," said Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent Beijing-based lawyer known for defending government critics in court and a vocal opponent of the labor camp system. 

"It's against China's own constitution and laws, as well as international conventions it has signed.
"The danger is really about unrestrained police power at a time when they are under increasing pressure to maintain social stability."
Two of Pu's cases last year generated a massive backlash against laojiao, forcing the government to re-examine the thorny issue. 

In one case, a mother was sentenced to one and a half years in a labor camp for "disrupting social order" after she repeatedly petitioned officials to execute men convicted of raping her 11-year-old daughter. 

In another case, a young village official was sent to a labor camp for two years for retweeting posts deemed seditious.
Li Keqiang, the new premier, said in his first press conference as head of the government that officials were "working intensively to formulate a plan" to reform the laojiao system and it may be announced before the year's end. 

A senior Chinese diplomat repeated Li's statement recently when addressing a U.N.-organized human rights forum.
While some activists have expressed concerns over the official term of "reform" instead of "abolition," Pu, the lawyer, feels the strong tide of public opinions against the laojiao system has forced the government's hands.
Already, provinces around China -- including Liaoning -- seem to be preparing for the inevitable.

State media has cited examples of officials stopping accepting new inmates, changing camp names to drug rehabilitation centers and reducing staff on site.

Back in Oregon, Julie Keith is still awaiting the next move from her government. 

She contacted U.S. customs officials after finding the letter, as federal law prohibits the import of goods made by forced labor. 

She said officials admitted there was little they could do other than adding her report to their file. 

She hasn't heard from them since.
Contacted by CNN, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declined to confirm the existence or status of an investigation.
"These allegations are very serious and are an investigative priority for ICE," she said. 

"These activities not only negatively impact the competitiveness of American businesses, but put vulnerable workers at risk."

Supplying the West
Sears, the company that owns Kmart, also responded when asked how products in a labor camp in China ended up on its store shelves. 

"We found no evidence that production was subcontracted to a labor camp during our investigation," it said, but added it no longer sources from this company.
Keith believes Sears "must know" but "would rather this be swept under the rug."
Her skepticism is shared by human rights activists who have long called for stricter supervision of supply chains by multinational corporations. 

"A lot of these camps are run like businesses and, if you look online, there are a lot of them advertising," said Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. 

"One would question how they get in touch with Western companies and whether or not Western companies have done due diligence when they procure services."
For consumers, though, Wang says the only sure bet to avoid forced labor products from China is to push for legislation in their own countries and ensure strict implantation by their governments.
Even if China abolishes the labor camp system, experts like Wang and Pu point out that convicted criminals often work under similar labor conditions in prisons.
Freed from Masanjia but still haunted by the nightmare, Zhang has lived quietly in Beijing. 

When his long-forgotten letter was discovered by Keith and made news last year, he was as surprised as everyone else. 

He sent a new letter to Keith through a friend, thanking her profusely for her "righteous action that helped people in desperation achieve a good ending," while reminding her that "China is like a big labor camp" under the Communist Party's rule.
"It is quite ironic that it was a bloody graveyard kit that I purchased -- knowing that the people who made these kits were desperate and bloody themselves," Keith reflected.
"Now I check the labels and try not to buy things I don't necessarily need, especially if it is made in China," she added.

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China Acknowledges Human Rights Shortcomings

by Zlatica Hoke

For years, Western governments, human rights groups and Chinese dissidents have been accusing Beijing of grave violations of human rights and freedoms.

The 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square remains the most egregious blot on China's human rights record, but since then the communist government has been dogged by numerous allegations of arbitrary jailing, torture and harassment of dissenters and their families.
In Geneva on Tuesday, the Chinese government faced a United Nations report listing grave abuses and violations of international human rights norms. 

While China’s response showed some softening of its rhetoric, some observers are not reassured.
Rights activist Ni Yulan was released from prison earlier this month, after serving 2.5 years in a women's prison on charges of fraud and stirring unrest. 

Ni has been at odds with the Chinese authorities since 2001, when she began protesting the destruction of homes, including her own, to make room for the construction of the Olympic village in Beijing.
"In the last 12 years I have been treated as a criminal, both when I was at home or sitting in prison. At home we were under police surveillance; they surrounded my house and turned it into a prison. We were not allowed to freely come and go, [and] my family was harassed," said Yulan.
Renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was not spared either. 

After criticizing the government, the designer of Beijing's "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium was arrested in 2011 and held in jail for almost three months without official charges. 

Chinese authorities said Ai Wewei was investigated for alleged economic crimes.
The long list of China's alleged rights abuses includes repression of minorities, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet, and excessive control of the media and the Internet.
The United States has repeatedly warned China to stop the abuses, but human rights groups say this is not enough.
"I think the reality is that for the United States, human rights issues in China remain an issue to be managed, not a problem to be solved. And, not as one as absolutely foundational, fundamental to securing progress on other issues in the bilateral relationship," said Sophie Richardson, China Director for Human Rights Watch.

On Tuesday, China acknowledged shortcomings but insisted that a lot of progress has been made. 

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying expressed the familiar Chinese line that human rights issues are China’s internal affairs and other nations should not meddle.

In Hong Kong, City University professor Joseph Cheng said Beijing wants to influence the international human rights agenda.
"China intends to soften external criticism, to defend its basic position and to lobby hard for support among other third world countries, especially those in Africa and Asia. Not only to defend China, but also to support China's membership of the [UN Human Rights] Council in the election to be held in November,” said Cheng.
Cheng also said China now wants to play a more active role in the U.N.'s human rights forum and in shaping the human rights policy of the United Nations.

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China crackdown to come under scrutiny at U.N. rights review

By Sui-lee Wee

Xi Jinping has definitely taken China backwards on human rights

BEIJING -- China's human rights record under President Xi Jinping will come under formal international scrutiny on Tuesday for the first time since he took power, with the main U.N. rights forum set to hear accusations that the government is expanding a crackdown on dissent.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, which reviews all U.N. members every four years, will give concerned countries a chance to challenge the administration of Xi, who some experts had thought would be less hardline than his predecessors.
Instead, critics say Xi has presided over a clampdown that has moved beyond the targeting of dissidents calling for political change. 

For example, authorities have detained at least 16 activists who have demanded officials publicly disclose their wealth as well as scores of people accused of online 'rumour-mongering".
"Xi Jinping has definitely taken the country backwards on human rights," prominent rights lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters.
"Look at the number of people who are being locked up and the measures that are being taken to lock them up."
China will make a presentation at the start of the debate in Geneva, during which diplomats will speak. 

Non-governmental organisations are not allowed to address the council but can submit reports, often echoed in country statements.
The council has no binding powers. 

Its rotating membership of 47 states does not include China, although Beijing is expected to run for a spot in about a month. 

The hearing will be the second time China has been assessed under a process that began in 2008.
Diplomats are likely to raise questions over China's crackdown on dissent, the death penalty and the use of torture among other topics, said Maya Wang, an Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Of special concern, Wang said, is the arrest in August of prominent activist Xu Zhiyong, who had called for officials to reveal their wealth. 

Wang also cited the September disappearance of Cao Shunli, who had helped stage a sit-in this year outside the Foreign Ministry to press for the public to be allowed to contribute to a national human rights report.
China had sent a large delegation to Geneva to engage in dialogue with an "open and frank attitude", Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference on Monday.
"If there are some criticisms, some constructive criticisms, the Chinese government will listen with an open mind and accept them and will give them serious consideration," she said.
"As for malicious, deliberate criticisms, of course we will uphold our own path and our own correct judgments."
In 2009, China rejected calls from Western and some Latin American nations to end the death penalty but agreed to suggestions from Cuba that it take firm action against "self-styled human rights defenders working against the Chinese state and people".

CRACKDOWN SPREADING
The ascendancy of Xi as Communist Party chief in a once-in-a-decade generational leadership transition last November gave many Chinese hope for political reform, spurring citizens to push officials to disclose their wealth in several movements throughout the country.
But the detention of activists making those calls is a strong indication the party will not tolerate any open challenge to its rule, even as it claims more transparency. 

The activists face trial on the charge of illegal assembly.
Hundreds of microbloggers, people who post short comments online, have also been detained since August in a campaign against "rumour-mongering", according to Chinese media and rights groups.

Most have been released, but some are still being held on criminal charges.
On Sunday, Chinese police arrested Wang Gongquan, a well-known venture capitalist, Wang's lawyer, Chen Youxi, said on his microblog. 

Wang had helped lead a campaign for the release of another activist. 

Chen did not answer calls to his mobile phone.
"Before, officials used a selective form of suppression, which is to say, they mainly suppressed rights lawyers and dissidents," said Huang Qi, a veteran rights activist.
"But in the past few months what the government used to allow some people to say online -- things that violated or exceeded the official view -- has now been suppressed."
Li Fangping, a prominent rights lawyer, said China would likely win a seat on the council given its international influence.
"I don't believe that China is ready for that," Li said. 

"There are still a huge number of citizens for whom a lack of human rights is a growing problem."

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Clashing Views of China’s Human Rights Record at U.N. Hearing

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

Security cameras watching over Tiananmen Square in Beijing near a portrait of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Examining the hundreds of pages of submissions to the latest United Nations hearing on human rights in China, a reader might almost think that two very different countries face scrutiny in Geneva on Tuesday.
The reports from the Chinese government and its proxy groups to the United Nations Human Rights Council depict a country making constant advances in the welfare and rights of its citizens. 

To be sure, there are some development and legal problems, the reports say, but nothing that cannot be fixed by more laws and better enforcement of those laws.
China is “establishing a robust system of human rights safeguards,” says the government’s report to the hearing, part of a rotating “Universal Periodic Review” process, started in 2008, that each United Nations member must face every four or five years. 

This will be China’s second review, after the first in 2009.
China, the government’s report says, “fosters a fairer and more harmonious society, and works to ensure that every citizen enjoys a life of ever-greater dignity, freedom and well-being.”
By contrast, the submissions from international human rights groups and from independent Chinese ones depict a jarringly different country — one in which violations of rights remain rife, prison sentences for political charges have worsened and the government’s promised efforts to bring legal protections into line with international rules have been tardy, cosmetic or stalled.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international and independent Chinese advocacy groups exude disappointment and frustration in their submissions. 

“Failed to make progress,” “regressive steps,” “little improvement,” “severe suppression,” “steps backward” — bleak phrases like these stand out in their submissions, which have been collected online.
“Torture and cruel treatment are still routinely employed to retaliate against and intimidate human rights defenders,” says a submission from Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an international group that works closely with grass-roots rights advocates. 

“The Chinese government has made little improvement in the critical areas of concern.”
The United Nations review is emblematic of the broader contention over human rights in China. 

In a hearing of more than three hours, Chinese officials will answer questions from other United Nations member states, which, reflecting their views on China, will vie either to flatter or to press Beijing. 

Dozens of advocacy groups have also submitted views in writing, and quite a few have representatives in Geneva as observers at the hearing.
Ultimately, China’s own tensions are also on display in its handling of human rights.
The government maintains that it is a faithful adherent of international norms and rules on rights, although it takes a different view from Western countries as to what those norms and rules entail. 

“China respects the principle of universality of human rights,” says the government’s report to the meeting in Geneva.
But the Chinese Communist Party regularly depicts “human rights” as a vehicle used by Western forces and their Chinese followers to undermine and eventually topple one-party rule. 

Throughout this year, party-run journals have railed against “universal values,” described as an ideological Trojan horse riddled with subversive credos. 

An internal party directive issued in April spelled out these accusations.
“The intent behind promoting ‘universal values’ is to shake the ideological and theoretical foundations of party rule,” said the directive, widely known as Document No. 9. 

“They believe that Western freedom, democracy and human rights are universal and ever-lasting.”
The Chinese government has detained or intimidated Chinese citizens who have sought a say in their government’s submission or tried to travel to Geneva for the meeting, said Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, an advocacy group with offices in New York and Hong Kong. 

Those detained include Cao Shunli, a woman who disappeared in September as she was preparing to take a flight to Geneva, Ms. Hom said.
“This time, the big difference is China’s own citizens,” she said by telephone from Geneva, where she was planning to attend the session on China. 

In May, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs used a hard-to-find notice on its Web site to give citizens about two days notice to submit any views about the rights review, she said.
Ms. Hom said: “You are having this kind of very conscious, heavy-handed threatening of citizens who are simply trying to participate as is their right.”

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Former Paramount Leader Hu Jintao Indicted for Tibetan Genocide

The original complaint charged former paramount leader Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and five other Chinese officials with genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, and terrorism committed upon the Tibetan people.

By Ana Curbelo

(L to R) Thubten Wangchen (victim and individual plaintiff), Palden Gyatso (victim), Takna Jigme Sangpo (victim), Kalsang Phuntsok (Director at the time of the Tibetan Youth Congress). stand in front of the Spanish National Court (Audiencia Nacional) after filing a complaint for genocide on June 28, 2005. On Oct. 9 former head of the Chinese regime Hu Jintao was added to the complaint.

LAS PALMAS, Spain—Former paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao has been indicted by Spain’s highest criminal court for committing genocide in Tibet.
With the Oct. 9 decision the court reversed a lower court, finding that a lawsuit first filed in 2005 could be extended to include Hu Jintao. 

In a June 21, 2013 decision, the court sided with the state’s attorney, who had argued Spain did not have a national connection to the case and so lacked jurisdiction. 

The state’s attorney also claimed Chinese courts were competent to try this case.
In reaching their decision, the judges noted that one of the co-complainants—Thubten Wangchen—was a nationalized Spanish citizen. 

As for the alleged competence of Chinese courts, the judges said there was no record “of Chinese authorities having begun any type of investigation into the facts that are the object of the lawsuit.”
The complainants—the Tibet Support Committee, the Tibet House Foundation, and the foundation’s director Mr. Wangchen—waited to petition to include Hu Jintao in the ongoing case until after he lost his diplomatic immunity. 

In March 2013 Hu Jintao was replaced by Xi Jinping as the PRC’s head of state.
In the June hearing the complainants presented evidence alleging Hu Jintao’s culpability for genocide both as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet from 1988-1992 and, beginning in 2003, as general secretary of the CCP and chairman of the PRC, the highest ranking positions in the Party and the state.
In the October decision, the judges cited “international evidence of the repression carried out by Chinese leaders.”
The judges ruled that: “The Chinese authorities decided to carry out a series of coordinated actions aimed at eliminating the specific characteristics and existence of the country of Tibet by imposing martial law, carrying out forced transfers and mass sterilization campaigns, torturing dissidents and forcibly transferring contingents of Chinese in order to gradually dominate and eliminate the indigenous population in the country of Tibet.”
The original 2005 complaint charged former paramount leader Jiang Zemin, Li Peng (former premier of China), and five other Chinese officials with genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, and terrorism committed upon the Tibetan people.
Alan Cantos, the director of the Tibet Support Committee, told the judges’ decision was greeted “with joy , especially for victims in Tibet, their families and the Tibetan people, because it means that there is a little more justice. Also because it is a triumph of Spanish justice that has fallen on the side of truth, principles and law, and not on the side of diplomatic pressures and powers in China.”
Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist living in Dharamsala, India was deposed in this case, recounting torture he had witnessed while held in Chinese prisons in Tibet.
Tenzin Tsundue said, “It is not enough to give peace prizes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and continue to be blind to the human rights violations” against Tibetans, who are “under tremendous pressure to survive as a people of ancient culture and history.” 

He called upon the international community to go to Tibet and document the genocide taking place there.

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Spain to Proceed With Indictment of China’s Ex-President Hu Jintao

"The person who began the year as president of China, embraced by heads of state, kings and ministers of the economy throughout the world, is since yesterday the Number One accused of genocide in Tibet"

By RAPHAEL MINDER

The Number One accused of genocide in Tibet

MADRID — Spain’s national court has approved the indictment of Hu Jintao, the former Chinese president, as part of an investigation into whether the Chinese government tortured and repressed the people of Tibet as part of an attempted genocide.
The court’s decision, made Thursday, follows an appeal by Tibetan exile groups against a June decision by one of the Spanish court’s judges to drop the case.
Instead, a criminal review panel of the national court decided to overturn the judge’s decision and proceed with the indictment, given China’s refusal to carry out its own judicial investigation into the allegations of human rights violations and because one of the plaintiffs, Thubten Wangchen, holds Spanish citizenship.
The Spanish lawsuit was filed in 2006 by a group of exiled Tibetans and also targets other former leaders of China’s ruling Communist party, including Jiang Zemin, Mr. Hu’s predecessor as president. 

The others had already been indicted. 

It was filed in Madrid because the plaintiffs also hoped to take advantage of the fact that Spain’s judiciary has long been at the forefront of efforts to apply universal jurisdiction to crimes involving human rights abuses.
Retired Chinese leaders do not travel abroad, and none of the indicted leaders, including Mr. Hu, who stepped down as president in March, is likely to ever face the prospect of defending himself before a Spanish court.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly criticized the Spanish court’s latest decision. 

A spokeswoman for the ministry, Hua Chunying, said at a daily news conference in Beijing on Friday that China “adamantly opposes any state or individual using issues related to Tibet as a pretext for interfering in China’s domestic affairs.”
The Chinese government has repeatedly rejected accusations that it has perpetrated genocide or other widespread human rights abuses in Tibet, which came under the control of Communist Party forces from 1949. Instead, China maintains that its economic support has been a boon to the region.
Associations defending the rights of Tibetans welcomed Spain’s judicial U-turn and the decision to indict Mr. Hu, who lost his right to immunity after leaving office this year.
Alan Cantos, the president of a Spanish association called Comité de Apoyo al Tíbet that is a plaintiff in the case, said of Mr. Hu, “The person who began the year as president of China, embraced by heads of state, kings and ministers of the economy throughout the world, is since yesterday the Number One accused of genocide in Tibet.”

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