CHINA

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount source of power. At the national and regional levels, Party members hold almost all top government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with members of the Politburo. Leaders stress the need to maintain stability and social order and are committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. Citizens lack both the freedom peacefully to express organized opposition to the Party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of Government. Socialism continues to provide the theoretical underpinning of Chinese politics, but Marxist ideology has given way to economic pragmatism in recent years, and economic decentralization has increased the authority of regional officials. The Party's authority rests primarily on the Government's ability to maintain social stability, appeals to nationalism and patriotism, Party control of personnel, media, and the security apparatus, and the continued improvement in the living standards of most of the country's almost 1.3 billion citizens. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, in practice the Government and the CCP, at both the central and local levels, frequently interfere in the judicial process, and the Party and the Government direct verdicts in many high-profile political cases.

The security apparatus is made up of the Ministries of State Security and Public Security, the People's Armed Police, the People's Liberation Army, and the state judicial, procuratorial, and penal systems. Security policy and personnel were responsible for numerous human rights abuses.

The country is making a gradual transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. Although state-owned industry remains dominant in key sectors, the Government has privatized many small and medium state-owned enterprises (SOE’s) and allowed private entrepreneurs increasing scope for economic activity. The country has large industrial and agricultural sectors and is a leading producer of coal, steel, textiles, and grains. Major exports include electronic goods, toys, apparel, and plastics. Trade and foreign investment are helping to modernize an already rapidly growing economy. The official gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate through the third quarter of the year was just over 8 percent--a decrease from the double-digit growth rates of the early 1990’s, but slightly above the 1999 figure. Increased growth during the year was largely the result of foreign trade, continued heavy infrastructure investment, and a small increase in domestic demand.

The economy faces growing problems, including state enterprise reform, unemployment, underemployment, and regional economic disparities. Rural unemployment and underemployment combined are estimated to be over 30 percent. Tens of millions of persons have left their homes in rural areas in search of better jobs and living conditions in the cities; demographers estimate that between 80 and 130 million persons make up this "floating population," with many major cities counting 1 million or more such persons. Urban areas also are coping with millions of state workers idled on partial wages or unemployed as a result of industrial reforms. In the industrial sector, continued downsizing in state-owned enterprises prompted 2 million layoffs in the first half of the year, bringing the total number of jobless urban residents to over 20 million in an urban workforce of about 240 million. The number of job-seeking migrant workers from rural areas adds significantly to this total. Industrial workers throughout the country continued to organize sporadically to protest layoffs and to demand the payment of overdue wages and benefits. However, rising living standards, greater independence for entrepreneurs, and the expansion of the nonstate sector have increased workers' employment options and have markedly reduced state control over citizens’ daily lives. In 1999 a constitutional amendment officially recognized the role of the private sector in the economy, and private firms now contribute 30 to 40 percent of yearly GDP growth. The total number of citizens living in absolute poverty continues to decline; estimates range from the official figure of 42 million to the World Bank figure of 150 million. However, the income gap between coastal and interior regions, and between urban and rural areas, is wide and growing. Urban per capita income for 1999 was $705 (an increase of 8 percent over the previous year), but rural per capita income was $266 (an increase of only 2 percent over the previous year).

The Government’s poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses. The Government intensified crackdowns on religion and in Tibet, intensified its harsh treatment of political dissent, and suppressed any person or group perceived to threaten the Government. However, despite these efforts, many Chinese had more individual choice, greater access to information, and expanded economic opportunity. Nonetheless by year's end, thousands of unregistered religious institutions had been either closed or destroyed, hundreds of Falun Gong leaders had been imprisoned, and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners remained in detention or were sentenced to reeducation-through-labor camps or incarcerated in mental institutions. Various sources report that approximately 100 or more Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of torture and mistreatment in custody. Controls on religious practice and freedom of expression also were intensified in Tibet and remained tight in Xinjiang. Only a handful of political dissidents remained active publicly. The Government's respect for religious freedom deteriorated markedly during the year, as the Government conducted crackdowns against underground Christian groups and Tibetan Buddhists and destroyed many houses of worship. The Government significantly intensified its campaign against the Falun Gong movement, which it accused in October of being a reactionary organization, as well as against “cults” in general. A number of qigong groups were banned. The Government continued to commit widespread and well‑documented human rights abuses in violation of internationally accepted norms. These abuses stemmed from the authorities' extremely limited tolerance of public dissent aimed at the Government, fear of unrest, and the limited scope or inadequate implementation of laws protecting basic freedoms. The Constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights; however, these protections often are ignored in practice. Abuses included instances of extrajudicial killings, the use of torture, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, the mistreatment of prisoners, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process. In May the U.N. Committee Against Torture issued a report critical of continuing serious incidents of torture, especially involving national minorities. Prison conditions at most facilities remained harsh. In many cases, particularly in sensitive political cases, the judicial system denies criminal defendants basic legal safeguards and due process because authorities attach higher priority to maintaining public order and suppressing political opposition than to enforcing legal norms. The Government infringed on citizen’s privacy rights. The Government maintained tight restrictions on freedom of speech and of the press and increased its efforts to control the Internet; self-censorship by journalists continued. The Government severely restricted freedom of assembly and continued to restrict freedom of association. The Government continued to restrict freedom of religion and intensified controls on some unregistered churches. The Government continued to restrict freedom of movement. Citizens do not have the right peacefully to change their Government. The Government does not permit independent domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) to monitor publicly human rights conditions. Violence against women (including coercive family planning practices--which sometimes include forced abortion and forced sterilization); prostitution; discrimination against women; trafficking in women and children; abuse of children; and discrimination against the disabled and minorities are all problems. Particularly serious human rights abuses persisted in Tibet and Xinjiang. The Government continued to restrict tightly worker rights, and forced labor in prison facilities remained a serious problem. Child labor exists and appears to be a growing problem in rural areas as adult workers leave for better employment opportunities in urban areas. Trafficking in persons is a serious problem.

Since December 1998, the authorities severely punished, on charges of subversion, at least 25 core leaders of the China Democracy Party (CDP). During the year, the crackdown on the China Democratic Party continued with the arrest or sentencing of Liu Shizun, Dai Xuezhong, Zhu Zhengming, Chen Zhonghe, Xiao Shichang, Li Guotao and others. During the year, the Government also used laws against subversion and endangering state security to threaten, arrest and imprison a wide range of political dissidents and activists, including former Government officials, nongovernmental organization (NGO) founders and activists, activists for artistic freedom, and independent advocates for legal reform.

Although the Government denies that it holds political or religious prisoners and argues that all those in prison are legitimately serving sentences for crimes under the law, an unknown number of persons, estimated at several thousand, are detained in violation of international human rights instruments for peacefully expressing their political, religious, or social views. Persons detained at times during the year included political activists; leaders of unregistered religious groups; journalists; authors; intellectuals; labor leaders; and members of the Falun Gong movement, among others. Some minority groups, particularly Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs, came under increasing pressure as the Government clamped down on dissent and "separatist" activities. In Tibet the Government carried out a severe and wide-ranging crackdown on Tibetan religious practices, which showed some signs of moderation at year’s end, and continued its "patriotic education campaign" aimed at controlling the monasteries and expelling supporters of the Dalai Lama. In Xinjiang authorities maintained tight restrictions on fundamental freedoms in an effort to control independence groups.

The authorities released a few political prisoners before their terms were over, notably Liu Wensheng, Chen Lantao, Li Wangyang, Zhang Jingsheng, Yu Zhijian, and Lin Hai. However, at year's end several thousand others--including Bishop An Shuxin, Cai Guihua, Chen Longde, Han Chunsheng, Li Bifeng, Liu Jingsheng, Qin Yongmin, Shen Liangqing, Zha Jianguo, Wang Youcai, Pastor Xu Yongze, Xu Guoxing, Fang Jue, Xu Wenli, Yang Qinheng, Zhang Lin, Zhang Shanguang, Zhao Changqing, Zhou Yongjun, Ngawang Choephel, Abbot Chadrel Rinpoche, Jigme Sangpo, and Ngawang Sangrol (see Tibet addendum)--remained imprisoned or under other forms of detention for the peaceful expression of their political, social, or religious views. Some of those who completed their sentences and were released from prison were kept under surveillance and prevented from taking employment or otherwise resuming normal lives. There were also reports of the increasing surveillance of dissidents.

Unapproved religious groups, including Protestant and Catholic groups and members of nontraditional religious groups, continued to experience varying degrees of official interference, repression, and persecution. The Government continued to enforce 1994 State Council regulations requiring all places of religious activity to register with the Government and come under the supervision of official, "patriotic" religious organizations. There were significant differences from region to region, and even locality to locality, in the attitudes of government officials toward religion. In some areas, authorities guided by national policy made strong efforts to control the activities of unapproved Catholic and Protestant churches; religious services were broken up and church leaders or adherents were harassed, and, at times, fined, detained, beaten, and tortured; many houses of worship also were destroyed. In November and December, authorities in and around the coastal city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, razed or confiscated hundreds of churches or places of worship. At year's end, some religious adherents remained in prison because of their religious activities. House church groups in the northeast reported more detentions and arrests than in recent years, and authorities in Henan cracked down on underground Protestant churches. Several Protestant house church groups were banned. In many regions with high concentrations of Catholics, relations between the Government and the underground church loyal to the Vatican remained tense. In other regions, registered and unregistered churches were treated similarly by the authorities and reported little or no day-to-day interference in their activities. The number of religious adherents in many churches, both registered and unregistered, continued to grow at a rapid pace. The situation in Tibet was particularly poor, as the Government intensified and expanded its campaign aimed at lamas, monks, and nuns with sympathies to the Dalai Lama.

The Government strictly regulates the establishment and management of publications, controls the broadcast media, censors foreign television broadcasts, and at times jams radio signals from abroad. During the year, several publications were shut down or disciplined for publishing material deemed objectionable by the Government, and journalists, authors, and researchers were harassed, detained, and arrested by the authorities. Despite the continued expansion of the Internet in the country, the Government increased its efforts to monitor and control content on the Internet. Several new regulations regarding the Internet were issued, and many web sites, including politically sensitive web sites and foreign news web sites, were shut down or blocked by the authorities.

During the year, the Government worked to make progress towards correcting systemic weaknesses in the judicial system and making the system more accountable to public scrutiny. New regulations aimed at making the Supreme People's Court and the Procuratorate and the police more professional and accountable went into effect. Senior officials openly acknowledged abuses such as using torture to extort confessions and admitted that extorting favors from suspects and nepotism remained serious problems. However, new regulations and policies passed in the past few years have not brought the country's criminal procedures into full compliance with international standards, and the law routinely is violated in the cases of political dissidents and religious leaders and adherents. The judiciary is not independent.

Despite intensified suppression of organized dissent, some positive trends continued. Social groups with economic resources at their disposal continued to play an increasing role in community life. As many as 15 million persons had access to the Internet at year's end, although the Government increased its attempts to control the content of material available on the Internet. Most average citizens went about their daily lives without significant interference from the Government, enjoying looser economic controls, increased access to outside sources of information, greater room for individual choice, and more diversity in cultural life. However, the authorities were quick to suppress any person or group, whether religious, political, or social, that they perceived to be a threat to government power or to national stability, and citizens who sought to express openly dissenting political and religious views continued to live in an environment filled with repression.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:

a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

The official press reported a number of extrajudicial killings, but no nationwide statistics are available. During the year, deaths in custody due to police use of torture to coerce confessions from criminal suspects continued to be a problem. For example, in Xinjiang Abduhelil Abdumijit was tortured to death in custody, according to foreign press reports. The deaths in custody of Falun Gong practitioners were a significant new development. Various sources report that approximately 100 or more Falun Gong adherents died during the year in police custody; many of their bodies reportedly bore signs of severe beatings or torture, or were cremated before relatives could examine them (see Section 1.c.). For example, in March Zhang Zhenggang was detained by police in Jiangsu and beaten into a coma. Zhang died 5 days later, and family members were not allowed to examine his body prior to cremation. In April Li Huixi, a Falun Gong follower in Shouguang City, Shandong, reportedly was beaten to death by public security officers while in custody. Li's body was cremated without an autopsy before his family was informed of his death. Falun Gong practitioner Li Zaiji died on July 7 while serving a sentence in a reform-through-labor camp in Jinlin. Although the official cause of death was listed as dysentery, family members who examined his body reported numerous wounds and bandages. During the year, several members of underground house churches reportedly also died while in custody, sometimes after being beaten by prison authorities. According to press reports, Liu Haitao was arrested at an underground Protestant church in Henan on September 4 and died in October in the Xiayi County Detention Center after being beaten and denied medical treatment.

According to press reports, in June, more than 2,300 inmates at the Shangrao labor camp staged a protest over forced overtime labor. After prison officials called in over 500 armed police to suppress the strike, a riot occurred. Three persons were killed, and over 70 were injured in the incident (see Section 1.c.).

There continued to be numerous executions carried out after summary trials. Such trials can occur under circumstances where the lack of due process protections borders on extrajudicial killing.

b. Disappearance

There were no new reports of disappearances. However, the Government still has not provided a comprehensive, credible accounting of those missing or detained in connection with the suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The law prohibits torture; however, police and other elements of the security apparatus employ torture and degrading treatment in dealing with some detainees and prisoners. Senior officials acknowledge that torture and coerced confessions are chronic problems but have not taken sufficient measures to end these practices. Former detainees and the press credibly reported that officials used electric shocks, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, incommunicado detention, beatings, shackles, and other forms of abuse against some detained men and women. During the year, there were numerous credible reports of abuse of Falun Gong practitioners by the police and other security personnel, including police involvement in beatings, detention under extremely harsh conditions, and torture (including by electric shock and by having hands and feet shackled and linked with crossed steel chains). Persons detained pending trial were particularly at risk during pretrial detention due to systemic weaknesses in the legal system or lack of implementation of the revised Criminal Procedure Law. Reports of torture increase during periodic "strike hard" campaigns in which police are encouraged to achieve quick results against crime. According to Amnesty International, during campaigns against prostitution, female migrant laborers may be detained and subjected to rape and abuse in custody.

During the year, deaths in custody due to police use of torture to coerce confessions from criminal suspects continued to be a problem. Human rights monitors reported a number of unconfirmed but credible cases of torture. According to one report, Li Lusong of Lanxian County, Shanxi Province, went to local party officials to complain about the dilapidated facilities at the village primary school. Li was kicked and beaten by the police. He later posted comments critical of corruption. After he posted the comments, local police detained him and used a stun gun and pliers to pull out his tongue and cut it off with a knife. In December 1999, the Peoples' Daily reported that a suspect died in police custody in Anhui Province after refusing to admit to being a thief. Various sources report that approximately 100 or more Falun Gong adherents died during the year while in police custody. Many of their bodies reportedly bore signs of severe beatings or torture, and statements by released Falun Gong detainees regularly attest to mistreatment. Many of the bodies of Falun Gong practitioners who died in police custody were cremated before relatives could examine them.

The Government has stated that "the Chinese judiciary deals with every complaint of torture promptly after it is filed, and those found guilty are punished according to law." The press has reported that such punishments were carried out. In April the newspaper Liaoning Daily reported that several policemen were punished for "extorting confessions with torture and causing fatal consequences." On April 5, the China Prosecutorial Report reported cases of forced confessions in Kunming. On April 16, the newspaper Legal Daily reported that the Guizhou Provincial Higher People's Court sentenced one police officer from Zunyi City to death and another to life imprisonment in connection with the killing of murder suspect Xiong Xianlu in 1998; Xiong was tortured to death. Reports such as these created the impression that torture remained a widespread problem. As part of its campaign to address police abuse, the Government in 1998 for the first time published national torture statistics, along with 99 case studies, in a volume entitled "The Law Against Extorting a Confession by Torture." The book, which was published by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated that 126 persons had died during police interrogation in 1993 and 115 in 1994. Most cases of torture are believed to go unreported.

Police also beat persons being arrested and persons in detention. Dissident Cai Guihua reported that he was beaten by police while being arrested prior to the June 4 anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre (see Section 1.d.). Eyewitnesses have reported frequent abuse of Falun Gong protesters as they were being detained.

In May the U.N. Committee Against Torture issued a report expressing concern about continuing allegations of serious incidents of torture, especially involving Tibetans and other national minorities. It recommended that the country incorporate a definition of torture into its domestic law in full compliance with international standards, abolish all forms of administrative detention (Including reeducation-through-labor), investigate promptly all allegations of torture, and provide training courses on international human rights standards for police, among other things (see Section 4).

In late 1999, according to credible reports, the Government started confining some Falun Gong adherents to psychiatric hospitals. At year's end, according to Falun Gong, hundreds of practitioners were confined to mental hospitals. Authorities also confined other persons accused of nonviolent political crimes and other offenses to mental hospitals. In mid-December labor activist Cao Maobing was detained and admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, where he reportedly also was forced to take medication against his will (see Section 6.a.). In December 1999, authorities in Henan Province committed Xue Jifeng to a mental hospital after he attempted to establish an independent labor union to support workers harmed in a financial fraud. He was held until June (see Section 6.a.). Wang Wanxing, who protested in Tiananmen Square in 1992, continued to be held in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Beijing. Another labor dissident, Wang Miaogen from Shanghai, disappeared in 1999, and some observers believe that he is being held in a psychiatric hospital. During the year, reports began to surface in the press about a woman who was detained by Guangzhou police and sent to a psychiatric hospital in June 1999 because she appeared upset after having had her luggage stolen, and she lacked an identity card. The woman, who was not identified, was raped repeatedly by male inmates at the psychiatric hospital before her husband was able to secure her release approximately 24 hours later. At the couple's insistence, police investigated the rapes, but vital evidence was destroyed prior to the investigation, and only one of the accused had been tried to date (see Section 1.d.). The woman's attempt to win damages was rejected by one court.

There were reports during the year that police sometimes used excessive force to break up demonstrations. In May up to 2,000 unpaid workers reportedly protested at their factory and at local government offices in Liaoyang, Liaoning Province; the demonstration eventually was dispersed violently by the police. Dozens were reported to be injured, and three persons were arrested (see Sections 2.b. and 6.a.). Activist Cai Guihua reportedly was beaten and roughed up by the police on May 31 and June 3.

Conditions in penal institutions for both political prisoners and common criminals generally are harsh and frequently degrading. Conditions in administrative detention facilities (including reeducation-through-labor camps and custody and repatriation centers (see Section 1.d.) are reportedly similar to those in prisons. Prisoners and detainees often are kept in overcrowded conditions with poor sanitation, and their food is often inadequate and of poor quality. Many detainees reportedly rely on supplemental food and medicines provided by relatives; however, some prominent dissidents reportedly are not allowed to receive supplemental food or medicine from relatives. According to released political prisoners, it is standard practice for political prisoners to be segregated from each other and placed with common criminals. There are credible reports that common criminals have beaten political prisoners at the instigation of guards. Guards in custody and repatriation centers reportedly rely on "cell bosses" to maintain order; these individuals frequently beat other detainees and have been known to steal their possessions. However, prominent political prisoners sometimes receive better treatment. The 1994 Prison Law was designed in part to improve treatment of detainees and increase respect for their legal rights. The Government's stated goal is to convert one-half of the nation's prisons and 150 reeducation-through-labor camps into "modernized, civilized" facilities by the year 2010. According to credible sources, persons held in new "model" prisons receive better treatment than those held in other prison facilities. (For prison conditions in Tibet, see Tibet addendum.)

Adequate, timely medical care for prisoners continues to be a serious problem, despite official assurances that prisoners have the right to prompt medical treatment if they become ill. Nutritional and health conditions can be grim. At year's end, political prisoners who reportedly had difficulties in obtaining medical treatment, despite repeated appeals on their behalf by their families and the international community, included Xu Wenli, Gao Hongmin, Qin Yongmin, Wang Youcai, Chadrel Rinpoche, Chen Lantao (who was released in April), Chen Longde, Chen Meng, Fang Jue, Hu Shigen, Kang Yuchun, Liu Jingsheng, Ngawang Sangdrol, Wang Guoqi, and Zhang Shanguang. Yu Dongyue, who defaced the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 student protests, reportedly is suffering severe mental illness from repeated beatings and mistreatment in a Hunan prison. Zhou Yongjun (the first chair of the Federation of Autonomous Student Unions), is serving a 3-year reeducation-through-labor sentence after returning to China from New York in 1998 and is reportedly suffering from rhinitis and fever. Ngawang Choephel, who is serving an 18-year sentence for espionage, reportedly suffers from liver, lung, and stomach ailments, and possibly tuberculosis. Labor activist Zhang Shanguang, serving a 10-year sentence for disclosing news of labor demonstrations to Radio Free Asia, was not permitted to see family members regularly in spite of suffering from serious tuberculosis. According to credible reports, Fang Jue is in very poor health. Xu Wenli, who tested positive for hepatitis B during a prison hospital examination, was denied treatment for the disease in 1999 despite repeated pleas by his family. He was said to be in poor health in November. Xu also reportedly was in need of dental care. An Fuxing, a China Democracy Party member and veteran of the Tiananmen prodemocracy movement, contracted hepatitis B at Liaoyuan prison and died from the illness in April. Hua Di, a Stanford researcher, whose 15-year prison sentence on charges of providing missile program secrets to persons abroad was overturned in mid‑March, was in custody awaiting a new trial. He is suffering from cancer and was denied release on medical parole in April. Prison officials in Xinjiang have not allowed family members of businesswoman and prominent Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer to visit or to bring her medicine for heart disease since her arrest on August 11, 1999. She is said to be in poor health, suffering from painful feet, blurred vision, and impaired hearing. There are also allegations that she had been abused physically. Officials reportedly have denied repeated requests for her to be hospitalized.

According to one credible report in 1998, there have been instances in which women in reeducation-through-labor camps found to be pregnant while serving sentences were forced to submit to abortions (see Section 1.f.).

Forced labor in prison is common. According to press reports, in June more than 2,300 inmates at the Shangrao labor camp staged a strike to protest against forced overtime for the intensive labor of ore milling. After camp officials called in over 500 armed police to suppress the strike, a riot occurred. Three persons were killed and more than 70 were wounded in the incident (see also Sections 1.a. and 6.c.). Persons may be detained without trial in custody and repatriation centers, in order to "protect urban social order." Until they are repatriated, those detained may be required to pay for the cost of their detention and repatriation by performing forced labor while in detention.

The Government does not permit the independent monitoring of prisons or reeducation-through-labor camps, and prisoners remain largely inaccessible to international human rights organizations. Talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on an agreement for ICRC access to prisons remain stalled. After a 1‑year suspension of unofficial dialog between a prominent businessman and human rights monitor and the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry resumed providing information regarding prisoners in March. The monitor was invited to visit the country 3 times during the year and received information regarding more than 20 prisoners, most of whom had been released prior to the completion of their original sentences. Prison visits with family members and others are monitored closely.

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

Arbitrary arrest and detention remain serious problems. The law permits the authorities in some circumstances to detain persons without arresting or charging them, and persons may be sentenced administratively to up to 3 years in reeducation-through-labor camps and other similar facilities without a trial. Because the Government tightly controls information, it is impossible accurately to determine the total number of persons subjected to new or continued arbitrary arrest or detention. The Government reported in 1999 that prosecutors had censured police officers 70,992 times in 1998 for detentions that exceeded the legal time limit. According to estimates, thousands of persons remain incarcerated, charged with other criminal offenses, detained but not charged, or sentenced to reeducation-through-labor. Although the crime of being a "counterrevolutionary" was removed from the Criminal Code in 1997, by year’s end 2000 as many as 1,000 persons remained in prison for the crime, and another 600 were serving sentences under the State Security Law, which covers the same crimes as the repealed section on "counterrevolution." Official government statistics report that there are some 230,000 persons in reeducation-through-labor camps. It has been estimated that as many as 1.7 million persons per year were detained in a form of administrative detention known as custody and repatriation before 1996; the number of persons subject to this form of detention reportedly has been growing since that time (see Section 1.c.).

Wang Wanxing, who protested in Tiananmen Square in 1992, continued to be held in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Beijing (see Section 1.c.). In mid-December, labor activist Cao Maobing was detained and admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, where he reportedly also was forced to take medication against his will (see Section 6.a.); he remained in the facility at year's end. According to reliable reports, the Government confined hundreds of Falun Gong adherents to psychiatric hospitals.

The Criminal Procedure Law, which was amended in 1997, abolished an often criticized form of pretrial detention known as "shelter and investigation" that allowed police to detain suspects for extended periods without charge. Nonetheless in some cases police still can detain unilaterally a person for up to 37 days before releasing him or formally placing him under arrest. Once a suspect is arrested, the revised law allows police and prosecutors to detain him for months before trial while a case is being "further investigated." Under the revised Criminal Procedure Law, detained criminal suspects, defendants, their legal representatives, and close relatives are entitled to apply for a guarantor to enable the suspect or defendant to await trial out of custody. In practice the police, who have sole discretion in such cases, usually do not agree. Few suspects are released on bail or put in another noncustodial detention pending trial.

The Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that authorities must notify a detainee's family or work unit of his detention within 24 hours. However, in practice timely notification remains a serious problem, especially in sensitive political cases. Under a sweeping exception, officials need not provide notification if it would "hinder the investigation" of a case. In January 1999, Che Hongnian, who had been held incommunicado for nearly 3 months, was sentenced to 3 years of labor in Shandong Province, apparently for writing a letter asking how to contact a human rights organization in Hong Kong. His appeal was denied 2 months later. Police continue to hold individuals without granting access to family or a lawyer, and trials continue to be conducted in secret (see Section 1.e.).

A major flaw of the new Criminal Procedure Law is that it does not address the reeducation-through-labor system, which permits authorities to sentence detainees administratively without trial to terms of 1 to 3 years in labor camps. Local Labor Reeducation Committees, which determine the term of detention, may extend an inmate's sentence for an additional year. According to the latest available official statistics, there were some 230,000 persons in reeducation-through-labor camps in 1997. Defendants legally are entitled to challenge reeducation-through-labor sentences under the Administrative Litigation Law. Persons can gain a reduction in, or suspension of, their sentences after appeal, but appeals usually are not successful because of problems such as short appeal times and inadequate legal counsel, which weaken the effectiveness of the law in preventing or reversing arbitrary decisions. There have been cases of individuals successfully appealing their reeducation sentences through the courts, although the exact number of successful cases is unknown. Persons sentenced to reeducation‑through-labor during the year included activist Yao Zhenxiang.

The new Criminal Procedure Law also does not address custody and repatriation, which allows the authorities to detain persons administratively without trial to "protect urban social order." Persons who may be detained under this provision include the homeless, the unemployed, petty criminals, and those without permission to live or work in urban areas; such persons may be returned to the locality in which they are registered. If the location to which they are to be repatriated cannot be determined, or if they cannot be repatriated for financial reasons, such persons may be sent to "resettlement farms." Those unable to work may be sent to "welfare centers." Until they are repatriated, those detained may be held in custody and repatriation centers and may be required to pay for the cost of their detention and repatriation by performing forced labor while in detention. Relatives and friends of detainees in these centers reportedly are often able to secure a detainee's release by paying a fee. Provincial regulations on custody and repatriation in some cases have expanded the categories of persons who may be detained. In Beijing, for example, those who may be detained specifically include the mentally ill and mentally disabled, and "those who should be taken into custody according to Government regulations." Many other persons are detained in similar forms of administrative detention, known as custody and education (for prostitutes and their clients) and custody and training (for minors who have committed crimes). Persons reportedly may be detained for long periods under these provisions, particularly if they cannot afford to pay for their release (see Sections 1.c., 1.d., 1.e., 2.d., 5, 6.c., 6.d., and 6.f.).

By one estimate, more than 1.7 million persons per year are detained under custody and repatriation or similar regulations. According to the NGO Human Rights in China, the reasons for such detentions rarely are made clear to detainees. There are reports that persons with documentation allowing them to live or work in urban areas have been detained illegally under these provisions; but, because they are not entitled to a trial, they have little recourse if the detaining officials cannot be persuaded to allow their release. Some reportedly are forced to confess that they were living and working without permits in the urban area in which they were detained, despite having the appropriate documentation; in some cases, such documentation reportedly is destroyed.

In theory the Administrative Litigation Law of 1989 permits a detainee to challenge the legality of administrative detention, but the lack of timely access to legal counsel inhibits the effective use of this law. Persons serving sentences in the criminal justice system can request release under Article 75 of the Criminal Procedure Law or appeal to the Procuratorate but have no recourse to the courts to challenge the legality or length of criminal detention. There are documented cases in which local officials and business leaders illegally conspired to use detention as a means of exerting pressure in commercial disputes involving foreign businessmen. There also have been cases in which foreign businessmen had their passports confiscated during such disputes.

A campaign initiated by the Government in 1998 to eliminate the China Democracy Party (CDP), a would-be opposition party, broadened and intensified during 1999 and continued throughout the year. This campaign has resulted in the arrest, detention, or confinement of scores of persons. Since December 1998, at least 25 core leaders of the CDP have been sentenced to long prison terms on subversion or other charges. In what some experts have described as an attempt by authorities to tarnish the public image of the democracy movement, during the year Chinese officials accused a number of democracy activists of soliciting prostitutes, distributing pornographic videos, petty theft, or other crimes unrelated to their political activities. On January 3 in Changsha, Tong Shidong, and Liao Shihua were sentenced to 10 and 6 years in prison, respectively, on charges of subversion. Both were members of the CDP; Tong, a professor, was accused of founding a branch of the CDP at Hunan University. In February CDP cofounder Xu Wenli's assistant, Liu Shizun, was sentenced to 6 years for subversion. Also in February, the second highest ranking member of the Shanghai branch of the CDP, Dai Xuezhong (who was arrested in January), was sentenced to 3 years in prison for allegedly hiring three persons to commit an assault with a knife. During the trial, Dai was not allowed to testify in his own defense. In August Dai’s brother was sentenced to 3 years’ reeducation-through-labor after he publicly protested Dai Xuezhong's sentence. In April a court in Hangzhou sentenced CDP activist Zhu Zhengming to 10 years in prison for subversion. In July after a 90 minute trial, Chen Zhonghe, founder of the Hubei branch of the CDP, and Xiao Shichang were sentenced to 7 years and 5½ years in prison respectively on subversion charges. In early July, Liu Xianbin, a leading member of the CDP, was arrested in Beijing. In late September, Nie Minzhi, an elderly CDP member from Zhejiang Province, was reportedly detained and sentenced administratively to 1 year in a reeducation-through-labor camp. In early December, CDP activists Wang Zechen and Wang Wenjiang reportedly were sentenced in Anshan to 6 years and 4 years in prison, respectively, on charges of subverting state power. The two were arrested in June 1999 and tried in November.

During the year, the authorities also used laws on subversion, endangering state security, and common crimes to arrest and imprison a wide range of political dissidents, activists, and others; some were affiliated with the CDP. Shanghai dissidents Li Guotao, Cai Guihua, Yao Zhenxiang, Fu Shenping, and Dai Wuewu were taken into custody on many occasions throughout the year. Prior to the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Li Guotao was rearrested in Shanghai and charged with spreading reactionary publications, instigating disturbances, and disturbing the social order (apparently in connection with a letter he and others sent to the Mayor of Shanghai, protesting the arrest of dissident Dai Xuewu and requesting his release); on June 28 he was sentenced to 3 years' reeducation-through-labor for demanding the release of CDP members. Dai Xuewu, the brother of imprisoned dissident Dai Xuezhong, also was arrested in Shanghai prior to the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and charged with the theft of a cell phone; in August he was sentenced without a trial to 3 years of reeducation-through-labor. Prior to the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, police in some cities also took steps to prevent planned commemorations. In Shanghai police reportedly detained five leading activists from May 31 to June 5, including Cai Guihua, Li Guotao, Dai Xuewu, and Fu Shenping. The police reportedly beat and roughed up Cai Guihua on May 31 and June 3. In Xian police reportedly harassed dissidents planning to commemorate the June 4 anniversary and detained two persons. Press reports stated that police in Beijing also detained three democracy activists and a Protestant activist on June 4. On June 4, graduate student Jiang Xulin reportedly was arrested after putting up a poster on the campus of Beijing University that urged an investigation into the Tiananmen Square massacre and asked that political prisoners be released and victims' families be compensated. Also on June 4, police arrested Shen Zhidao, a supporter of the CDP, in Tiananmen Square while he attempted to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He unfurled several banners bearing slogans in the Square prior to being arrested. In August Chinese police in Jiangsu arrested Shen Chang, the leader of a qigong group, and charged him with organizing gatherings aimed at disturbing social order and tax evasion (see Section 2.c.). In September a court in Hebei sentenced the cofounder of the environmental NGO China Development Union, Qi Yanchen, to 4 years in prison for subversion for writing that China would have to introduce political reform in order to avoid widespread social unrest. The article at issue appeared in the prodemocracy e-mail newsletter VIP Reference (see Sections 1.f. and 2.a.). However, in January Song Yongyi, a visiting librarian and academic researcher from Dickinson College, whom authorities detained in August 1999 and charged with "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence to persons outside China,” was released from prison and allowed to return to his home overseas in January (See Section 2.a.).

Other dissidents also were detained, for varying periods, during the year. From January 12 to January 14, police detained and questioned dissident Yao Zhenxiang in Shanghai; he was not charged. According to press reports, on January 23 and 24, police detained Yao and several other dissidents (including Li Guotao, Wang Jianhua, Cai Guihua, and Zhou Qibing) to prevent them from attending another dissident's trial.

In early April, a crackdown on dissidents in Shanghai began. As of early October, authorities imprisoned the following Shanghai dissidents (some more than once before being sentenced to longer terms): Wang Miaogen; Dai Xuezhong (scheduled for release in 2002); Han Lifa (scheduled for release in July 2001); Yao Zhenxiang (scheduled for release in 2002); Dai Xuewu (scheduled for release in 2003); and Li Guotao (scheduled for release in 2003).

Police sometimes detained relatives of dissidents (see Section 1.f.).

Persons critical of official corruption or malfeasance also frequently were threatened, detained, or imprisoned. Ma Wenlin, a 58-year-old lawyer in Shaanxi who had organized 5,000 peasants to urge authorities to reduce taxes and to punish village cadres who were guilty of beating villagers, remained in prison on charges of disrupting social order; a court sentenced him to 5 years in prison in November 1999. In March a court sentenced Ma Zhe, a poet and advocate for artistic freedom, to 5 years' imprisonment for attempting to overthrow Communist Party power. In April a court sentenced An Jun, organizer of an independent NGO critical of official corruption, to 4 years’ imprisonment for subversion.

Minority activists continued to be targets of the police. In March a court sentenced Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer to 8 years in prison for passing "state intelligence" information to foreigners. The "state intelligence" she was accused of attempting to pass consisted of newspaper articles published in the official press and a list of individuals whose cases had been handled by judicial organs. Police arrested Kadeer, her son, and her secretary while they were on their way to meet a visiting foreign delegation in August 1999. Authorities administratively sentenced Kadeer's son and secretary to 2- and 3-year terms respectively, in November 1999. In December they denied Kadeer's appeal (see Section 5).

Local authorities used the Government's anticult campaign to detain and arrest large numbers of religious practitioners (see Section 2.c.); house church groups in the northeast reported more detentions and arrests than in recent years. For example, in August police arrested 130 members of a house church in Fangcheng, Henan Province, after they met with 3 foreign members of a Protestant fellowship. According to reports, 85 church members were charged with "using an illegal cult to obstruct justice."

Journalists also were detained or threatened during the year, often for reporting on subjects that met with the Government’s or the local authorities’ disapproval (see Section 2.a.). In July Zhuhai police arrested five journalists, including two from Hong Kong and two from Macau, who were attempting to report on peasant protests against a land redevelopment scheme. In August local police arrested Ma Xiaoming, a Shaanxi television station reporter who had reported on a case involving 12,000 peasants who brought a lawsuit against their township government. Ma was arrested to prevent him from meeting with a foreign newspaper reporter.

During the year, there were press reports about a woman who was detained by Guangzhou police in June 1999 on the specious grounds of lacking identity documents and sent to a psychiatric hospital, where she was repeatedly raped by male patients before her release about 24 hours later. At her insistence, police investigated the rapes, but vital evidence was destroyed prior to the investigation and only one of the accused had been tried. The woman's attempt to win damages has been rejected by one court (see Section 1.c.).

The State Compensation Law provides a legal basis for citizens to recover damages for illegal detentions. Although many citizens remain unaware of this 1995 law, there is evidence that it is having a growing, if still limited, impact. Throughout the year, the official press published numerous articles to raise public awareness of recent laws meant to enhance the protection of citizens' rights, including the Criminal Procedure Law, the State Compensation Law, the Administrative Procedure Law, and others. Many citizens have used the State Compensation Law during the year to sue for damages.

There were no reports that the Government forcibly exiled citizens; however, the Government continued to refuse reentry to the country to citizens who were dissidents and activists. The Government's refusal to permit some former reeducation-through-labor camp inmates to return to their homes constitutes a form of internal exile (see Section 2.d.).

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

The Constitution states that the courts shall, in accordance with the law, exercise judicial power independently; however, in practice the judiciary is subject to policy guidance from both the Government and the Communist Party, whose leaders use a variety of means to direct courts on verdicts and sentences in politically sensitive cases. At both the central and local levels, the Government and particularly the CCP frequently interfere in the findings of the judicial system and dictate court decisions. Corruption and conflicts of interest also affect judicial decisionmaking. Judges are appointed by the people's congresses at the corresponding level of the judicial structure, which can result in local politicians exerting undue influence over the judges they appoint. During a 1998 conference at a Beijing university, according to informed sources, one expert estimated that more than 70 percent of commercial cases in lower courts were decided according to the wishes of local officials rather than the law. State-run media have published numerous articles calling for an end to such "local protectionism" and for the development of a judiciary independent of interference by officials.

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) stands at the apex of the court system, followed in descending order by the higher, intermediate, and basic people's courts. There are special courts for handling military, maritime, and railway transport cases.

Corruption and inefficiency in the judicial system are endemic. The Government continued a self-proclaimed "unprecedented internal shakeup" of the judiciary, designed to combat corruption and improve efficiency, which began in 1998. In February the SPC issued new regulations tightening conflict of interest guidelines for judges. Judges who violate prohibitions against accepting money or other gifts from litigants or who privately meet with litigants may be found guilty of malpractice under the new regulations. Other regulations banned former judges from trying cases in their old courtrooms. Likewise the Procuratorate announced 10 new rules designed to minimize corruption in and to foster cost-consciousness among the procuratorates. The Procuratorate also announced it would select candidates for some 7,200 vacancies through a system of national examinations. In August the SPC announced it would open 12 leading prosecutorial posts for competition. In an attempt to reduce pretrial corruption, early in the year Beijing courts set up a new office to handle pretrial procedures previously handled by judges. Under the new system, parties would have more difficulty influencing judges because they would no longer have advance notice of who the judge in the case would be. The SPC also implemented a self-examination and responsibility system to hold presidents of higher people's courts responsible for the actions of their subordinates. In 1999 authorities sanctioned 10 presidents of higher people's courts for acts of corruption by their subordinates. During the year, 1,450 court employees were punished for misconduct. In 1999, according to the SPC, 15,748 government officials and businesspersons were sentenced for corruption. Two officials at the ministerial level, 65 at the prefecture or department level, and 367 persons holding posts at the county or division level also were sentenced for corruption. The Procurator General told the National People's Congress in March that, although procurator abuses were down 60.2 percent in 1999, 544 procuratorial officials were disciplined, and 55 were convicted on criminal charges.

Corruption among the police also is a problem. One overseas human rights group reported in 1999 that there had been some 9,000 reported cases of mishandling of justice discovered in 1998 and that 1,200 police officers had been charged with criminal offenses. Authorities continued a nationwide crackdown on police corruption and abuses. Government statistics released in 1999 showed that in 1998 corruption prosecutions increased 10 percent, to over 40,000 investigations and 26,000 indictments of officials. In late 1999, National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Chairman Li Peng issued a warning on police corruption. Several high-ranking Party officials also were prosecuted on corruption charges during the year.

The Government also took steps to correct systemic weaknesses in the judicial system and to make it more transparent and accountable to public scrutiny. The law requires that all trials be held in public; however, in practice, many trials are not. In 1999 the Supreme People's Court issued regulations requiring all trials to be open to the public, except for those involving state secrets, personal privacy, or minors; divorce cases in which both parties request a closed trial; and cases involving commercial secrets. Several courts reportedly opened their proceedings to the public. Under the new regulations, "foreigners with valid identification" are to be allowed the same access to trials as citizens. However, requests by at least one foreign mission to send an observer to politically sensitive trials consistently have been ignored by the Government. Moreover none of the numerous trials involving political dissidents were open to the general public. The legal exception for cases involving state secrets, privacy, and minors has been used to keep such proceedings closed to the public and closed even to family members in some sensitive cases (see Section 1.d.).

However, since 1998 many trials have been broadcast, and court proceedings have become a regular television feature. In July courts in Shanghai become the first to publish verdicts on the Internet. According to official statistics, the courts nationwide heard 539,000 criminal cases in 1999, an increase of 12.27 percent over 1998, and sentenced more than 600,000 offenders, up 14.02 percent from 1999. The Supreme People’s Court released statistics showing that courts at all levels acquitted 5,878 defendants in 1999 due either to lack of evidence or to a conclusion that the charges filed did not amount to a crime.

The first Lawyers' Law, designed to professionalize the legal profession, took effect in 1996. Subsequently the Ministry of Justice drafted relevant regulations to standardize professional performance, lawyer-client relations, and the administration of lawyers and law firms. The regulations also granted lawyers formal permission to establish law firms, set educational requirements for legal practitioners, encouraged free legal services for the general public, and provided for the disciplining of lawyers. Government officials state that there are insufficient lawyers to meet the country's growing needs. In March 1999 Justice Minister Gao Changli stated that the country had over 110,000 lawyers. According to official reports, there were some 9,000 law offices as of 1999. The Justice Ministry set a target of 150,000 lawyers, 30,000 notaries, and 40,000 grassroots legal service centers by 2000. According to the All-China Lawyers Association, the country fell short of that goal. Notaries have much more power than their counterparts in the West, and Justice Ministry officials announced in September that the country would change its system of notaries within 10 years so that notaries would no longer be Government employees, would have to have a bachelor's degree, and would be required to take 40 hours of professional training each year.

Lawyers are organizing private law firms that are self-regulating and do not have their personnel or budgets determined directly by the State. More than 60 legal aid organizations (many of which handle both criminal and civil cases, including those stemming from disputes over compensation to workers) have been established around the country, and the Ministry of Justice has established a nationwide legal services hot line. Beijing and other city police departments have set up hot lines for citizens to complain about police misconduct. In March Beijing authorities claimed that their hot line received nearly 120 calls per day. However, neither prosecutors nor judges are required to have law degrees or legal experience, and qualification standards traditionally have been low. Only 9 percent of judges had received higher education, and many are not well versed in the law. During the year, the authorities undertook additional efforts to improve the training and professionalism of judges and lawyers. After July 1, in a effort to distance judges from prosecutors, judges in Beijing shed their military style uniforms, including epaulets and caps, in favor of robes or suits. The National People's Congress also approved separate draft amendments to the 1995 laws on judges and prosecutors in July. One amendment requires judicial or prosecutorial appointees to be law school graduates who have practiced law for at least 2 years, or postgraduates who have practiced law for at least 1 year. Another required heads of courts and procuratorates, members of judicial committees of courts and procuratorates, and heads of judicial panels to have passed relevant examinations.

Police and prosecutorial officials often ignore the due process provisions of the law and of the Constitution. For example, police and prosecutors can subject prisoners to severe psychological pressure to confess, and coerced confessions frequently are introduced as evidence. In March the top prosecutor, Procurator General Han Zhubin, admitted that abuses such as using torture to extort confessions, extorting favors from suspects, and nepotism remained serious problems. In May 1998 he also acknowledged that some prosecutors used interrogation rooms like "prison cells" to hold suspects beyond the legal detention period. In 1999 Han’s office received 812,821 complaints; 342,017 were related to prosecutors. The Criminal Procedure Law forbids the use of torture to obtain confessions, but one weakness of the law is that it does not expressly bar the introduction of coerced confessions as evidence. For example, Zhuo Xiaojun is being held in Fuzhou; after a confession extracted under torture and a prolonged trial with many irregularities, he was sentenced to death for two murders committed 10 years ago. Traditionally defendants who failed to show the correct attitude by confessing their crimes received harsher sentences. The conviction rate in criminal cases is over 90 percent, and trials generally are little more than sentencing hearings. In practice criminal defendants only are assigned an attorney once a case has been brought to court; some observers have noted that at this point, it is too late for an attorney to assist a client in a meaningful way, since the verdict often has been decided already. The best that a defense attorney generally can do for a client is to get a sentence mitigated. In most politically sensitive trials, the courts handed down guilty verdicts immediately following proceedings that rarely lasted more than several hours. There is an appeals process, but appeals rarely reverse verdicts.

The revised Criminal Procedure Law was designed to address many of these deficiencies and give defense lawyers a greater ability to argue their clients' cases. It abolishes a form of pretrial detention called "shelter and investigation," puts limits on nonjudicial determinations of guilt, and establishes a more transparent, adversarial trial process. It also provides for earlier and greater access for defendants to legal counsel and the abolition of a regulation that allowed summary trials in certain cases involving the death penalty. The amended law gives most suspects the right to seek legal counsel shortly after their initial detention and interrogation. However, police often use loopholes in the law to circumvent a defendant's right to seek counsel, and political activists in particular still have significant problems obtaining competent legal representation of their own choosing. In some cases, defendants and lawyers in politically sensitive cases reportedly have not been allowed to speak during trials. The amended Criminal Procedure law still falls short of international standards in many respects. For example, it has insufficient safeguards against the use of evidence gathered through illegal means such as torture. Its appeals process fails to provide sufficient avenue for review, and there are inadequate remedies for violations of defendants' rights. Despite the abolition of shelter and investigation, in some cases police still unilaterally can detain a person for up to 37 days before releasing him or formally placing him under arrest. Once a suspect is arrested, the revised law allows police and prosecutors to detain him for months before trial while a case is being "further investigated." Few suspects are released on bail pending trial. Also, in "state secrets" cases, the revised Criminal Procedure Law authorizes officials to deny suspects access to a lawyer while their cases are being investigated. The definition of state secrets is broad and vague, and subject to independent interpretation by police, prosecutors, and judges, throughout the different stages in a criminal case. Uncertainty regarding the scope and application of this statute has created concern about a detainee's right to legal assistance.

The new Criminal Procedure Law also does not address certain shortcomings in the legal system. Under the law, there is no right to remain silent, no right against double jeopardy, and no law of evidence. The mechanism that allows defendants to confront their accusers is inadequate; according to one expert, only 1 percent to 5 percent of trials involve witnesses.

While the new Criminal Procedure Law represents some improvement over past practice, despite its flaws, anecdotal evidence indicates that its implementation remains uneven and far from complete, especially in politically sensitive cases. Differing interpretations of the law taken by different judicial and police departments have contributed to contradictory and incomplete implementation. The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Justice, and the Legal Work Committee of the National People's Congress in 1998 issued supplementary implementing regulations to address some of these weaknesses. During the year, the Government continued its efforts to educate lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and especially the public on the provisions of this and other new laws. In 1999 the Ministry of Justice announced that 500,000 ministry officials would undergo training over the next 3 years as part of "a massive effort to improve the quality of all judicial workers in the country." Also in 1999, the President of the Supreme People's Court announced that all senior judges in the nation's courts would attend training courses within the next 3 years, with an emphasis on new laws and regulations.

Trials continue to be conducted in secret. In July 1999, Wang Yingzheng, a 19-year-old activist in Jiangsu Province, was tried in secret for writing an article criticizing official corruption. Wang's family was not notified of the trial until several weeks afterward. In June 1999 labor activist He Chaohui also was tried in a closed courtroom in Hunan. According to Amnesty International, two sisters who owned a bookstore were sentenced to prison terms in January for distributing Falun Gong literature. The sisters reportedly were arrested in July 1999, held incommunicado for 3 months, and tried in secret (see Section 2.c.).

Defendants frequently have found it difficult to find an attorney willing to handle sensitive political cases. Government-employed lawyers still depend on official work units for employment, housing, and other benefits, and therefore many may be reluctant to represent politically sensitive defendants. In January 1999 dissident Wang Ce was tried and defended himself, reportedly because lawyers recommended by the court refused to take his case. In February he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. In December 1998, authorities blocked attempts by prominent dissidents Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin to hire lawyers of their own choosing. There were no new reports of the Government revoking the licenses of lawyers representing political defendants, as it sometimes has done in the past. However, Liu Jian, a criminal defense attorney, reportedly was detained in July 1998 after most of the witnesses he had called refused to testify at the trial of a local official charged with taking bribes; Liu was charged with "illegally obtaining evidence" and was detained for 5 months. Liu reportedly was held incommunicado for 10 days and was beaten and tortured in detention in an effort to force a confession. He eventually pled guilty in exchange for a light sentence, but his criminal record prevents him from practicing law.

Lawyers who try to defend their clients aggressively continue to have problems with police and prosecutors, leading to complaints and threats of harassment by law enforcement officials. Lawyers’ professional associations have called for better protection of lawyers and their legitimate role in the adversarial process.

The lack of due process is particularly egregious in death penalty cases. There are 65 capital offenses in the law. They include financial crimes such as counterfeiting currency, embezzlement, and corruption. During the year, several mid- or high level officials were sentenced to death for embezzlement or corruption; one, Hu Changqing, vice governor of Jiangxi Province, was executed in February. The trial of 11 officials in the Xiamen corruption scandal was conducted in secret. Seven of the officials were sentenced to death, and four were sentenced to life in prison. Persons may be sentenced to death for other property crimes as well; among those reportedly executed during the year was a man from Yunnan Province, convicted of setting a forest fire. A higher court nominally reviews all death sentences, but the time between arrest and execution is sometimes days or less, and reviews consistently result in the confirmation of sentences. Minors and pregnant women are expressly exempt from the death sentence, and only those theft cases involving banks or museums warrant capital punishment. Amnesty International (AI), in a report issued in January 1999, said the group independently recorded 2,701 persons sentenced to death in 1998, with 1,769 executions confirmed. AI stated that its figure for executions was based on public reports and represented only a fraction of death sentences and executions. AI believes that actual figures were higher because not all death penalties or executions are reported, and the authorities can manipulate such information. The number of executions that were reported in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region was particularly high; according to AI, scores of Uighurs, many of whom were reportedly political prisoners, were sentenced to death and executed in Xinjiang since 1997. The Government regards the number of death sentences it carries out as a state secret. However, in March the President of the SPC told the NPC that, in 1999, the Court had heard 5,768 appeals, including appeals to death sentences, an increase of 23.43 percent over 1998. The Central Commission of Political Science and Law announced on October 16 that 515 persons were executed nationwide between early September and October 15.

Persons can also receive long prison sentences for financial crimes after very short trials; according to a press report, on May 30, businessman Mou Qizhong was sentenced to life in prison for foreign exchange fraud after a 1‑day trial in November 1999.

The shortcomings of the justice system have begun to spur public debate among lawyers, law professors, and jurists, and some have continued to press for legal reform. During the year, scholars wrote numerous articles focused on the absence of legal provisions specifically guaranteeing a suspect's right to remain silent as one of the main reasons for legal abuses. Under the law, a suspect has the duty to "answer truthfully," whether or not the answer is self-incriminatory. One article explained that under existing laws, suspects are often coerced into "truthfully" admitting their guilt, resulting in forced confessions becoming more common. Some legal experts called for a system of supervision during investigations, including the right to have a lawyer present during interrogation, as the only way to protect suspects from torture and forced confessions. Others called for the creation of new regulations setting out the right of the accused to remain silent and a system of accountability for judicial personnel. Major newspapers and legal journals throughout the year called for the introduction of a British or American system of discovery, the abolition of coerced confessions, a legal presumption of innocence, an independent judiciary, and improved administrative laws giving citizens more recourse against the Government. In April the Beijing newspaper Legal Daily published an article on torture that concluded the practice was due to police officials not having adequate legal or human rights training and holding antiquated ideas about a presumption of guilt. In July Shanghai lawyers publicly called for the establishment of the right of the accused to remain silent in a criminal investigation.

There are signs that citizens are beginning to use the court system and the new legal remedies available to them to protect their rights and seek redress for a variety of government abuses; a growing number are using legal recourse against government malfeasance. The Beijing Higher People's Court released statistics in April stating that when citizens sued the Government, citizen plaintiffs won in 23 percent of cases (832 of 3,632) from 1990-1999. In addition a large percentage of such cases are settled out of court. The term "administrative omission" refers to cases in which government organizations do not respond or delay response to applications lodged by citizens. According to statistics by the SPC, the number of administrative omission lawsuits filed by individuals against Government organizations increased by 7.6 times between 1990 and 1998. However, while some plaintiffs have successfully filed suit against the Government, decisions of any kind in favor of dissidents remain rare. In particular appeals of prison sentences by dissidents rarely are granted. In 1999 appeals by Lin Hai, Lai Jingbao, and Fang Jue all were denied.

In recent years, credible reports have alleged that organs from some executed prisoners were removed, sold, and transplanted. Officials have confirmed that executed prisoners are among the sources of organs for transplants but maintain that consent is required from prisoners or their relatives before organs are removed. There is no national law governing organ donations, but a Ministry of Health directive explicitly states that buying and selling human organs and tissues is not allowed. The courts traditionally issue several death sentences before the annual lunar New Year holiday and other holidays. According to Hong Kong press reports, these executions have increased the demand for organs from executed prisoners. More than 40 wealthy individuals in need of transplants reportedly traveled to a hospital in Guangzhou and paid up to $300,000 (RMB 2.5 million) each for livers harvested from executed criminals. There are no reliable statistics on how many organ transplants occur each year using organs from executed prisoners, but, according to press reports, hundreds of persons from other Asian countries who are unable to obtain transplants at home travel to the country each year for organ transplants. Recipients report paying various amounts for the transplants, and some have reported that treatment may be terminated or delayed for a lack of funds or a delay in payment.

Government officials deny holding any political prisoners, asserting that authorities detain persons not for their political or religious views, but because they violate the law. However, the authorities continued to confine citizens for political and religious reasons. It is estimated that thousands of political prisoners remain incarcerated, some in prisons and others in labor camps.

The 1997 amended Criminal Code replaced "counterrevolutionary" offenses, which often, in the past, had been used against the Government's political opponents, with loosely defined provisions barring "crimes endangering state security." At year’s end, there were as many as 1,000 individuals in prisons serving sentences for "counterrevolution" crimes. Persons detained for such offenses included Hu Shigen, Kang Yuchun, Yu Zhijian, Yang Lianzi, Zhang Jingsheng (released in June), and Sun Xiongying. Several foreign governments urged the Government to review the cases of those charged with counterrevolution, since the crime was no longer on the books, and release those who had been jailed for nonviolent offenses under the old statute. Officials have indicated that a case-by-case review of appeals filed by individual prisoners is possible under the law, and there is one known case of a successful appeal. However, the Government indicated that it would neither initiate a broad review of cases nor grant a general amnesty, arguing that "crimes" covered by the Law on Counterrevolution still are considered crimes under the State Security Law. According to the Government, 600 persons were imprisoned under the State Security Law in 1998-99. Those charged with counterrevolutionary crimes continue to serve their sentences.

The authorities sentence persons administratively without trial to terms of 1 to 3 years in reeducation-through-labor camps. According to international press reports, some 230,000 persons are serving sentences in reeducation-through-labor camps. By one estimate, 1.7 million persons per year may also be detained under custody and repatriation or similar regulations, which allow "undesirable" persons in urban areas to be detained administratively or returned to their registered place of residence (see Section 1.d.). Defendants legally are entitled to challenge reeducation‑through-labor sentences under the Administrative Litigation Law. Persons can gain a reduction in, or suspension of, their sentences after appeal, but appeals usually are not successful because of problems such as short appeal times and inadequate legal counsel that weaken the effectiveness of the law in preventing or reversing arbitrary decisions.

Amnesty International has identified 211 cases of persons who remain imprisoned or on medical parole for activities related to the 1989 Tiananmen protests alone; other NGO’s estimate as many as 2,000 persons remain in prison for their actions at that time.

The Government released some political prisoners early. Software businessman Lin Hai, jailed for Internet subversion, was released in February; June 4 activist Chen Lantao was paroled 7 years early in April; Zhao Fengping also was released in April; Tiananmen Square activist Liu Wensheng was released from a prison in northern Gansu in August; and Yu Zhijian, who defaced the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 student protests, was released in September. Yue Dongyue, who also defaced Mao’s portrait, had his sentence reduced during the year from 20 years to 18 years. However, many others, including Cai Guihua, Chadrel Rinpoche, Fan Zhongliang, Han Chunsheng, Li Bifeng, Jigme Sangpo, Ngawang Choephel, Ngawang Sangdrol, Qin Yongmin, Shen Liangqing, Zha Jianguo, Wang Youcai, Xu Guoxing, Xu Wenli, Xu Yongze, Yang Qinheng, Zhang Lin, Zhang Shanguang, Zhao Changqing, and Zhou Yongjun remained imprisoned or under other forms of detention during the year. Political prisoners generally benefit from parole and sentence reduction at significantly lower rates than ordinary prisoners. In addition authorities summarily tried and sentenced political dissidents to long prison terms.

Criminal punishments can include "deprivation of political rights" for a fixed period after release from prison, during which the individual is denied rights of free speech and association. Former prisoners also can find their status in society, ability to find employment, freedom to travel, and access to residence permits and social services severely restricted. Economic reforms and social changes have ameliorated these problems for nonpolitical prisoners in recent years. However, former political prisoners and their families still frequently are subjected to police surveillance, telephone wiretaps, searches, and other forms of harassment, especially when prominent foreigners visit the country. They also may encounter difficulty in obtaining or keeping employment and housing (see Section 1.f. and 2.d.).