(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged European Union (EU) member states and the European Commission to condemn China’s latest crackdown on independent websites and publications in their continuing dialogue on human rights with Chinese officials. EU delegates met with authorities in Beijing on 24 September 2004. “Beijing appears to be openly contemptuous of this so-called ‘constructive […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged European Union (EU) member states and the European Commission to condemn China’s latest crackdown on independent websites and publications in their continuing dialogue on human rights with Chinese officials. EU delegates met with authorities in Beijing on 24 September 2004.
“Beijing appears to be openly contemptuous of this so-called ‘constructive dialogue’, continuing to shut down outlets for free expression and arresting hundreds of people, even while European representatives are in the Chinese capital,” said the organisation.
On 23 September, authorities blocked access to the Chinese version of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia that relies on contributions from Internet-users and carries a number of articles on human rights abuses in China. The site has been blocked on several previous occasions.
On 13 September, one of the country’s most popular discussion forums, Yi Ta Hu Tu, was closed. The online forum was set up by a Beijing university student in September 1999 and had nearly 300,000 regular users. The forum featured discussions of sensitive issues such as corruption, human rights and Taiwanese independence. It operated through a democratic structure which asked users to vote on subjects for discussion without interference by moderators, making it difficult for the authorities to control.
RSF called on the Chinese authorities to reopen the Yi Ta Hu Tu discussion forum, the Wikipedia site and the thousands of other sites forbidden to Chinese Internet-users.
The government also closed the diplomatic bimonthly “Zhanlue Yu Guanli” (“Strategy and Management”) in September after it carried an article by economist Wang Zhongwen in its August issue that was critical of the North Korean regime. Copies of the magazine carrying the offending article were confiscated and subscribers were asked to return their copies. In 2003, the magazine had lost its official sponsorship, despite the presence of high?ranking government officials on its editorial board. Since June 2004, the Publicity Department (formerly the Propaganda Department) has been trying to shut down “Zhanlue Yu Guanli” but its publishers had succeeded in putting it out in July and August (see IFEX alert of 23 September 2004).
A China specialist told RSF that “Zhanlue Yu Guanli”, which was founded in 1993, was one of only around a dozen Chinese publications to report on debates within the Communist Party’s reformist intellectual circles. The magazine’s website http://www.zlygl.com is still accessible but the North Korea article does not appear on it.
RSF called on the government to allow “Zhanlue Yu Guanli” to resume publishing.
On 17 September, secret service agents arrested journalist Zhao Yan – recently hired by the “New York Times'” Beijing bureau – in a Shanghai restaurant, after tracking him down through his cellular phone. Four days later his family received notice from the police that he had been accused of “supplying state secrets to foreigners.” His lawyer, who has not been allowed to visit him, said Zhao is being held in Beijing and could be tried for “treason”, a charge which carries the death penalty (see IFEX alert of 27 September 2004).
Authorities appear to suspect the journalist of providing information to the US daily on the resignation of former president Jiang Zemin from his post as chairman of the Central Military Commission. The “New York Times” carried an article on the resignation on 7 September, 12 days before it was officially announced.
The paper denied that Zhao was the source for the article. Foreign desk head Susan Chira said he had been employed as a researcher and not as a journalist. She told RSF that the newspaper’s management hoped the journalist would be allowed to see his lawyer. Previously a reporter for “China Reform” magazine, Zhao is known for his reports on China’s peasantry.
RSF called for Zhao Yan’s immediate release and recalled that another journalist, Wu Shishen, has been imprisoned since 1992 for “illegally divulging state secrets to foreigners”. Wu was sentenced to life imprisonment on the direct orders of Jiang Zemin after sending a journalist in Hong Kong a copy of a speech that the Jiang was due to make to the Communist Party convention.
Finally, the Chinese press has not reported on the demonstrations and arrests of hundreds of people in Beijing attempting to make themselves heard by members of the Central Committee attending the Communist Party plenary meeting in September. Foreign journalists were also prevented from covering the events.
Hundreds, or possibly thousands of people, unable to voice their complaints through the media, descended on the capital from every part of the country to press their cases. One demonstrator from Xinjiang province, western China, was killed in mysterious circumstances on 24 September. He had come to the capital to protest the government’s ill-treatment of the Uighurs, an ethnic Muslim minority that continues to suffer repression at the hands of the Communist Party.