14 April 2005

State's O'Sullivan cites repression of journalists, control over Internet

Despite China's economic and social progress, lagging political reform and repression of its citizens' human rights continue to be systematic problems, according to a State Department official.

"Our hopes that the pace of political reform would quicken and the space for public discourse would expand when the fourth generation of leaders, led by President Hu Jintao, came into power have not been realized," Susan W. O'Sullivan, senior adviser for Asia in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said April 14 in a statement before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

The USCC is a bipartisan commission that monitors, investigates and submits to Congress an annual report on the national-security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China.

O'Sullivan observed that China's human-rights record remained poor and the government continued to commit numerous and serious human rights abuses including torture, mistreatment of prisoners and denial of due process.

"Laws and regulations were arbitrarily enforced and it remained difficult for citizens seeking to express their political or religious views to know exactly where the line between the permissible and the illegal lay," O'Sullivan said.

She told the commission citizens who openly expressed dissenting political views were harassed, detained or imprisoned and cited a government campaign in 2004 that targeted writers, religious activists, political dissenters and petitioners to the Chinese government.

"Many of those who paid the highest price in this campaign were those who sought to publish information or express their political views in the media or on the Internet," O'Sullivan said.

"Journalists who reported on topics that met with the Government's or local authorities' disapproval suffered harassment, detention and imprisonment," she said, "Confiscation of editorial work, closings, firings, threats, harassment, and beatings were also used to keep journalists in line."

O'Sullivan also addressed China's increased control over the Internet, noting the government employed an estimated 30,000 technical experts as part of a massive Internet control system.

"They have the power to block offending material temporarily or permanently or edit it electronically, and if the Web site is domestic, they can issue a warning or close it down, a practice that is common during 'sensitive periods' of the year," she said.

O'Sullivan noted China's government invested heavily in new technology that enables selective blocking of specific content rather than entire Web sites. Such technology was used to block e-mails containing sensitive content.

She also outlined U.S. efforts to improve the human rights situation in China that included bilateral diplomatic efforts, multilateral action, and support through non-governmental channels.

Following is the text of O'Sullivan's statement, as prepared for delivery:

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Statement of Senior Advisor for Asia Susan W. O'Sullivan Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission

April 14, 2005

Thank you for this invitation to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission's hearing on China's State Control Mechanisms and Methods. I am pleased to have the opportunity to provide you with an assessment of China's human rights practices as reported in the recently released 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, focusing particularly on the State's control of the media and the Internet. I would also like to briefly discuss what the Department is doing in China to promote increased respect for international human rights standards, the subject of the even more recently released Supporting Human Rights and Democracy Report.

Overall Assessment

Although enormous economic and social progress has taken place in China over the past 20 years, political reform has lagged far behind and the repression of citizens seeking to exercise their internationally-recognized fundamental freedoms continues to be a systemic problem. Our hopes that the pace of political reform would quicken and the space for public discourse would expand when the fourth generation of leaders, led by President Hu Jintao, came into power have not been realized. Although the leadership has demonstrated concern for the rapidly growing inequalities between China's urban and rural areas and the need for social safety networks, often those citizens who shine the spotlight of attention on those very problems become targets of government repression.

In our 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released in February, we once again concluded that China's human rights record remained poor, and the Government continued to commit numerous and serious human rights abuses, including torture, and mistreatment of prisoners, incommunicado detention, and denial of due process. We noted Chinese authorities remained quick to suppress religious, political or social groups that they perceived as threatening to government authority or national stability and that the space for public discourse contracted. Leaders continued to make a top priority of maintaining stability and social order, anxious to perpetuate the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

Laws and regulations were arbitrarily enforced and it remained difficult for citizens seeking to express their political or religious views to know exactly where the line between the permissible and the illegal lay. Throughout the year, the Government prosecuted individuals who miscalculated and went over the line, charging them with subversion and loosely defined "state secrets" crimes.

The Government also severely restricted freedom of assembly and association and increased the repression of members of unregistered religious groups in some parts of the country. The crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners continued. The Government continued to deny internationally-recognized worker rights and forced labor in prison facilities remained a serious problem. And violence against women, including the imposition of a coercive birth limitation policy that resulted in some instances of forced abortion and forced sterilization, continued to be a problem.

The Government also has at times used the global war on terror as a pretext for cracking down on Uighurs Muslims, who peacefully expressed dissent, and on independent Muslim religious leaders.

Citizens who openly expressed dissenting political views were harassed, detained or imprisoned, and, in a particularly discouraging development in late 2004, Chinese authorities launched a campaign that targeted writers, religious activists, political dissidents, and petitioners to the Central Government. Many of those who paid the highest price in this campaign were those who sought to publish information or express their political views in the media or on the Internet, making today's topic of state control of the media and the Internet particularly timely.

Although other panelists who will appear today are the true experts on the media and Internet in China, I would like to take a few minutes to briefly summarize the Department's assessment of the extent of controls on both at the end of 2004.

State Control of the Media

It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads the Chinese press or Western reporting on China that the Government maintained tight restrictions on the print and broadcast media, and used them to propagate Government views and Party ideology. All media employees were under explicit, public orders to follow CCP directives and "guide public opinion" as directed by political authorities. Newspapers could not report on corruption without government and party approval, and publishers published such material at their own risk. Formal and informal guidelines, which required journalists to avoid coverage of many other politically-sensitive topics, contributed to a high degree of self-censorship. However, on issues such as economic development, social change, and culture there was considerably more leeway for enterprising journalists and publishers.

Journalists who reported on topics that met with the Government's or local authorities' disapproval suffered harassment, detention and imprisonment. Confiscation of editorial work, closings, firings, threats, harassment, and beatings were also used to keep journalists in line. Many journalists were charged with the crime of leaking state secrets but authorities, using a 1994 guideline of "handling political questions through non-political means," also used spurious charges of corruption, fraud, and sexual misbehavior to discredit journalists whose actual "offenses" were political.

For example, in January 2004, the chief editor and six staff members of Guangdong Province's Southern Metropolitan Daily newspaper were detained for alleged economic crimes. Three of the editors were prosecuted in March on corruption charges that many saw as retaliation for the newspaper's muckraking coverage of stories such as the emergence of SARS in 2003, its brief recurrence in 2004, and the 2003 beating death of college graduate Sun Zhigang. The news group's general manager Yu Huafeng was sentenced to 12 years for embezzlement, and former editor Li Minying received an 11-year sentence for taking bribes.

In September, New York Times employee Zhao Yan was detained and formally charged with leaking state secrets shortly after the newspaper published an article correctly predicting the resignation of Jiang Zemin as Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Just recently, authorities, perhaps because of the lack of evidence for the state secrets charge, have initiated a fraud investigation in his case. Let me note here that both former Secretary of State Powell and Secretary Rice have raised Zhao's case at the highest levels. Last year the Committee to Protect Journalists again assessed China as the "world's leading jailer of journalists," with 43 journalists imprisoned.

In addition to controls on the press, the Chinese Government maintained tight controls on the publishing industry, which consists of three kinds of book businesses: approximately 560 government-sanctioned publishing houses, smaller independent publishers that cooperated with official publishing houses to put out more daring publications, and an underground (illicit) press. Government-approved publishing houses were the only organizations legally permitted to print books. No newspaper, periodical, book, audio, video, or electronic publication may be printed or distributed without the printer and distributor being approved by relevant provincial publishing authorities and the State Press and Publications Administration (PPA). The Communist Party exerted control over the publishing industry by preemptively classifying certain topics as off-limits; selectively rewarding with promotions and perks those publishers, editors, and writers who adhered to Party guidelines; and punishing those who did not adhere to Party guidelines with administrative sanctions and black listing. Some independent publishers took advantage of a loophole in the law to sign contracts with government publishing houses to publish politically sensitive works not subject to the same multi-layered review process.

In March of this year, after the publication of our Human Rights report, yet another regulation intended to further restrict those who report the news was issued. The Central Propaganda Department, the State Administration of Film and Television and the General Administration of Press and Publication jointly promulgated "Interim Rules on the Administration of Those Employed as News Reporters and Editors." The rules, among other things, require that news reporting and editing personnel be guided by Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping Theory and encourage a united and stable society focusing on correct propaganda as the guiding principal, and correct guidance of public opinion.

These new rules follow a propaganda campaign that portrays Western media, in particular U.S. media, as corrupt and government-controlled. A March 22 Xinhua article asserted: America's "press freedom" is nothing more than a label and banner, and in the domain of its larger foreign affairs and domestic policy the government is in fact meticulously strategizing to use multiple means to manipulate and control public opinion."

Internet

The Government also has increased its efforts to control the Internet while simultaneously encouraging its use. The Ministry of Information Industry regulated access to the Internet while the Ministries of Public and State Security monitored its use. According to recent estimates, over 87 million Chinese are on the Internet, 22 percent of whom access the web at Internet cafes. While the Government does not mind on-line campaigns for users to express outrage at Japan's being considered for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, it will not tolerate, in almost any form, criticism of the Party and its rule.

Regulations prohibit a broad range of activities that authorities have interpreted as subversive or slanderous to the state, including dissemination of any information that might harm unification of the country or endanger national security or social order. Promoting evil cults is banned. Internet service providers (ISPs) were instructed to use only domestic media news postings, record information useful for tracking users and their viewing habits, install software capable of copying e-mails and immediately end transmission of so-called subversive material. Many ISPs practiced extensive self-censorship to avoid violating very broadly worded regulations.

During 2004, the Government continued to press for compliance with its 2003 "Public Pledge on Self Discipline for China's Internet Industry." More than 300 companies have signed the pledge, including popular Sina.com and Sohu.com as well as foreign based Yahoo's China division. Those who signed the pledge agreed not to spread information that "breaks laws or spreads superstition or obscenity." They also promise to refrain from "producing, posting, or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability."

China has employed an estimated 30,000 tech experts as part of a massive Internet control system. They have the power to block offending material temporarily or permanently or edit it electronically, and if the Web site is domestic, they can issue a warning or close it down, a practice that is common during "sensitive periods" of the year. China also has invested heavily in new technology and over the past year has introduced sophisticated technology that enables selective blocking of specific content rather than entire websites. Such technology was used to block e-mails containing sensitive content. In July of last year, the Government also began implementing new measures to monitor and filter text-messaging to control politically sensitive material. All text messaging service providers were required to install filtering equipment to monitor and delete messages deemed offensive by the authorities.

The Government also resorted to dispatching police to deal with offenders if its control system failed. Sanctions are similar to those imposed on journalists and writers: rectifications, fines, confiscations of money or equipment, closings, and sometimes arrest. Of the 69 people throughout the world listed by Reporters Without Borders as in jail for using the Internet, 61 are in China. Their sentences have ranged from 2 to 15 years.

Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004-2005

The human rights abuses I have described today and which are spelled out in much greater detail in the annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices are systematic and rooted in structural deficiencies of the Chinese political system. Although a genuine transformation of China and its political system can only be realized by the Chinese themselves, it is in the interest of the United States to encourage China to move in the direction of political reform and increased respect for human rights. The Department's comprehensive strategy for doing so is based on two basic principles: that international pressure can over time encourage China to take steps to bring its human rights practices into compliance with international standards and that there are opportunities to support those within China who see structural reform in China's best interests.

I would like to conclude by discussing some of the steps we took in 2004 to implement our strategy. The recently released Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004-2005, provides a complete summary of our bilateral diplomatic efforts, multilateral action, and support through government and non-governmental channels.

-- President Bush, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of State Condolezza Rice have raised human rights issues and individual cases in public remarks and in private meetings with Chinese officials.

-- Other U.S. officials -- in Washington, throughout China, at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and elsewhere -- consistently highlight, publicly and privately, the need for improvements in human rights conditions. We call for the release of prisoners of conscience, including those imprisoned for expressing their views on the Internet and in the media.

-- We have pressed China to honor its international commitments and its own constitution in respecting religious freedom and again designated China as a Country of Particular Concern for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

-- We are supporting activities in China to reform the judicial system, improve public participation, and strengthen civil society. In FY 2004, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor spent $13.5 million to support these programs. In 2005, we will program an additional $19m. Last year we funded 18 Human Rights and Democracy Fund projects for China, including training for criminal defense and labor lawyers, educating workers about Chinese labor law, and strengthening public hearings. The U.S. Embassy also awards small grants to members of China's NGO movement in support of democratic values. This coming year, we will place priority on funding capacity building projects for NGOs, rights awareness for rural residents, labor rights protection for migrant workers and training to strengthen public participation in governance, to name just a few. We are also promoting China's compliance with international labor standards.

These are wide-ranging strategies, programs and commitments and they grow out of our conviction, as President Bush said in a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy last year, that the calling of our country is to advance freedom, support the allies of freedom and liberty everywhere, and help others create the kind of society that protects the rights of the individual.

In activist He Qinglian's new book, Media Control in China, she refers to China's journalists and internet writers as "dancing in shackles," pointing out that despite the sometimes heavy consequences of freely expressing one's views or exposing the truth, there are those in China who have the courage and idealism necessary to continue the traditional Chinese virtue of "speaking for the people." The Administration is determined to stand by them.

Thank you very much for holding this hearing and calling attention to continuing human rights abuses in China, particularly the repression of those seeking to express views and speak for their fellow citizens.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)