People’s Republic of China
Head of state: Xi Jinping
Head of government: Li Keqiang
The authorities continued to severely restrict the right to freedom of expression. Activists and human rights defenders risked harassment and arbitrary detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread and access to justice was elusive for many. Ethnic minorities including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians faced discrimination and increased security crackdown. Record numbers of workers went on strike demanding better pay and conditions. In November 2013, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in its Third Plenum issued a blueprint for deepening economic and social reforms, paving the way for modifications to family planning policies and China’s household registration system. The abolition of the Re-education Through Labour system was also announced in 2013. The Fourth Plenum in October 2014 focused on the rule of law.
Background
Throughout 2014, President Xi Jinping continued to pursue a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, targeting both low- and high-ranking officials. In July, state media announced that Zhou Yongkang, a former Minister of Public Security and Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member, had been under investigation for alleged corruption since late 2013. He was the most senior official targeted in the campaign, in which, thus far according to official sources, more than 100,000 officials had been investigated and punished.
The UN Committees on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, reviewed China’s implementation of the ICESCR and CEDAW1 in May and October respectively. In December 2013 the UN Human Rights Council adopted the outcome document of China’s second Universal Periodic Review.
Arbitrary detention
The National People’s Congress officially abolished China’s notorious Re-education Through Labour system in December 2013. Following its abolition, the authorities made extensive use of other forms of arbitrary detention, including Legal Education Centres, various forms of administrative detention, “black jails”, and illegal house arrest. In addition, police frequently used vague charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “disturbing order in a public place” to arbitrarily detain activists for up to 37 days. Members of the Chinese Communist Party suspected of corruption were held under the secretive system of shuanggui (or “double-designation”) without access to legal assistance or their families.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread. In March, four lawyers who were investigating a Legal Education Centre in Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang Province, were arbitrarily detained and tortured. One of them, Tang Jitian, said that he was strapped to an iron chair, slapped in the face, kicked, and hit so hard over the head with a plastic bottle filled with water that he passed out. He said he was later hooded and handcuffed behind his back and suspended by his wrists, while police continued to beat him.2
In a rare case, an appeal court in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, in August upheld the convictions of four people charged with torture. They and three others had been found guilty by the court of first instance of torturing several criminal suspects in March 2013, and were sentenced to between one and two and a half years in prison. Only three of the seven were police officers; the other four were “special informants” – ordinary citizens allegedly “helping” the police to investigate crimes. One of their victims died in custody after being tortured with electric shocks and beaten with a shoe.
Trade in torture instruments and misuse of law enforcement equipment
China consolidated its position as a major manufacturer and exporter of a growing range of law enforcement equipment, including items with no legitimate policing function such as electric shock stun batons and weighted leg cuffs. In addition, equipment that could be used legitimately in law enforcement but was easy to abuse, such as tear gas or riot control vehicles, has been exported from China without adequate controls even when there was a substantial risk of serious human rights violations by the receiving law enforcement agencies.3
Death penalty
In May, the Supreme People’s Court in a landmark ruling overturned the death sentence of Li Yan, a victim of domestic violence, and ordered a retrial. This was still pending at the end of the year. The Ziyang City Intermediate People’s Court had sentenced Li Yan to death in 2011 for the murder of her husband, ignoring evidence of sustained abuse.
In a rare case of acquittal, the High Court in Fujian Province in August overturned the death sentence of food stall owner Nian Bin for allegedly poisoning neighbours with rat poison. Nian Bin had originally been sentenced to death in 2008, despite his claim that he had confessed under torture.4 The High Court cited insufficient evidence but did not address the allegations of torture.
Similarly, in the case of Hugjiltu, a man from Inner Mongolia who was executed for rape and murder in 1996, in December the Inner Mongolia People’s Court declared his innocence and rescinded its original verdict. His family was awarded over 2 million yuan in compensation.
Human rights defenders
Human rights defenders continued to risk harassment, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and torture and other ill-treatment for their legitimate human rights work. Cao Shunli died from organ failure in a hospital in March after being denied adequate medical care in detention for an existing condition.5 She had been detained at a Beijing airport in September 2013 when on her way to a human rights training in Switzerland.
The crackdown on rights activism intensified during the year. Individuals associated with a loose network of activists called the New Citizens’ Movement were sentenced to between two and six and a half years’ imprisonment. The movement campaigned for equal education rights for children of migrant workers, abolition of the household registration system, greater government transparency and against corruption.6 More than 60 activists were arbitrarily detained or put under illegal house arrest in the run-up to the 25th anniversary in June of the violent crackdown in 1989 of pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Several remained in detention awaiting trial, including prominent human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang.7 In late September and early October, approximately 100 activists across China were detained for their support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Thirty-one remained in detention at the end of the year.8
