Posted on 09/15/2002 12:47:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
China Stifles Dissent Ahead of Congress
NewsMax WiresSHANGHAI, China -- China has curbed press freedoms, detained and sentenced activists to jail and disrupted access to the Internet as part of a coordinated effort to crush dissent ahead of the 16th Communist Party Congress, the first national party gathering in five years, political observers and human rights groups said.
Monday, Sept. 16, 2002
In recent weeks, observers and human rights groups have noted an increase in surveillance and detention of political activists in China along with other clear indications of a full-scale crackdown.
The campaign comes as China's top party officials prepare the final details for the upcoming party congress, when an entire generation of aging leaders will be replaced by younger members.
President Jiang Zemin, 76, head of the Communist Party and the armed forces for more than a decade, is expected to cede much of his powers to 59-year-old Vice President Hu Jintao.
Security in China is always tightened before a major political event, but analysts said the tactics being employed by the Chinese government suggest the clampdown on dissent will extend well beyond this year's leadership change.
"There are indications that the crackdown is aimed at easing the transition of power," a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told United Press International. "It also seems clear that the controls will remain in place when the new administration takes over."
Last week, a pair of veteran pro-democracy activists were sentenced to prison on charges of trying to overthrow the government and insulting the nation's leaders, a rights group said.
Jail Terms
The New York-based Human Rights in China said dissidents Ma Chuanheng and Yan Peng were given jail terms of three years and one and one-half years respectively. They had been held incommunicado for a year before sentencing, a term that violates Chinese and international law, the group said.
Shortly before that came news that Wan Yannhai, China's most prominent AIDS activist who had disappeared several weeks ago, had been arrested and charged with leaking state secrets.
Last month, the government effectively banned his organization, stripping it of its legal registration and closing down its offices in Beijing, overseas human rights groups and HIV/AIDS activists said. Xiao Qiang, executive director of Human Rights in China, said the timing behind these incidents was a clear indication that Beijing was seeking to silence political dissent for the next administration.
"HRIC believes all these activities are all part of the tightening control of information in Chinese society by Chinese security apparatus before the congress," he told UPI.
Other activists and dissident groups have reported heavy police supervision in recent weeks. At least eight well-known, pro-democracy activists in Shanghai - including Yao Zhenxiang, Han Lifa and Yang Qinmin - have been detained and interrogated by security police over the past month.
Fang Jue, a pro-democracy activist recently released from prison, was interrogated by government agents for several hours last Thursday, HRIC said, after they learned he planned to meet with a delegation of human rights representatives and officials from the United States.
"Because of the coming power transition, the leadership is particularly afraid of loosing control of the public opinion at this moment," Xiao said.
China's leadership change coincides with a time of massive social and economic change as the nation of 1.3 billion people comes to terms with the shift from a planned to market economy.
Painful Reforms
Painful reforms in China's redundant industrial sectors are driving unemployed workers into the streets to protest factory closings, fueling fears of rising social unrest throughout the country. In the restless countryside, farmers are clashing with officials over taxes and the closure of farms.
Beijing has also ordered a major crackdown on crime, calling for a wider use of the death penalty.
Human rights groups, including London-based Amnesty International, have raised concerns that the congress will be proceeded by mass executions of suspected counter-revolutionaries.
As usual, the key to curbing political dissent in China has been impeding the steady flow of news and information in and out of the country, a traditional feature of Chinese authoritarian-style rule.
Scores of electronic versions of published books, online newspapers and periodicals have been banned by the government in recent months, sources said, as China tightens its Internet controls.
Over the past two weeks, China has escalated its attempts to block access to the Internet using more sophisticate technologies to filter out politically sensitive information, including U.S.-based search engines Google and AltaVista, which have been rendered inaccessible in the past week.
While the block on Google has apparently now been eased, many articles related to the party congress and the leadership change cannot be viewed online.
Ironically, even articles written by foreign news organizations about the Internet crackdown have been selectively blocked. Users can access the Web sites, but individual articles are inaccessible.
Authorities have also taken steps to keep domestic and foreign media organizations in check.
This month state propaganda authorities began circulating a 32-clause document to major Chinese media organizations warning them to toe the party line in a bid to ensure social stability for the congress.
"We've been told by our party secretary not to report on sensitive issues such as class divisions and entrepreneur entry to the party," said one reporter at a state-owned newspaper in Shanghai. Foreign journalists have reported higher-than-normal observation of their work-related activities and travel plans by the Public Security Bureau.
Sources said top party officials have been "outraged" by a number of recent foreign media reports exposing political divisions between the so-called "third" and "fourth-generation" leaders.
"They don't want the Chinese public to get the impression from foreign media that there is any disagreement over who will take over control of the government next year," said one source.
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