Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 13:28:03 -0700
To: uighur-l@taklamakan.org
Subject: China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 U.S. Department of State
TURKISTAN-N
Volume 98-2:021-4-february-1998
#6. Excerpts from: China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997
U.S. Department of State
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1998.
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 the freedom to express peacefully 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. 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 and the security apparatus, and the greatly improved living standards of most of China's 1.2 billion citizens. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, in practice, the judicial system is subject to the "policy guidance" of the CCP.
The security apparatus is comprised 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.
China has a mixed economy that continues to expand rapidly. Economic reforms are raising living standards for many, providing greater independence for entrepreneurs, diminishing state control over the economy and people's daily lives, and creating new economic opportunities. Despite economic difficulties in the state sector, individual economic opportunities continue to expand rapidly in nonstate sectors, resulting in increased freedom of employment and mobility. The Government continues to adopt market-based policies and both state-owned and nonstate enterprises are benefiting from freedom to compete in domestic and overseas markets. As economic opportunities grow the number of citizens living in absolute poverty continues to decline; estimates range from official figures of 58million to estimates as high as 350 million. China faces growing problems,
including state enterprise reform, unemployment, underemployment, and regional economic disparities. According to estimates, rural unemployment and underemployment range from 30 to 50percent. During the year, the definition of employment was changed to working 5 or more hours per week from working 20hours per week. Tens of millions of peasants have left their homes in search of better jobs and living conditions. According to estimates, as many as 100 million people make up this "floating population," with many major cities counting 1
million or more such people. Urban areas are also coping with millions of state workers idled on partial wages or unemployed as a result of industrial reforms. Workers in Liaoning, Sichuan, Jiangsu, and other provinces increasingly organized public protests to press their demands.
There were positive steps in human rights, although serious problems remained. The Government continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses, in violation of internationally accepted norms stemming from the authorities? very limited tolerance of public dissent, fear of unrest, and the limited scope or inadequate implementation of laws protecting basic freedoms. The Constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights, but they are often ignored in practice. Abuses included torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, and arbitrary arrest and lengthy incommunicado
detention. Prison conditions at many facilities remained harsh. The Government continued tight restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, and worker rights. Discrimination against women, minorities, and the disabled, violence against women, prostitution, trafficking in women and children, and the abuse of children remain problems. The Government continued to restrict tightly worker rights. Serious human rights abuses persisted in minority areas, including Tibet and Xinjiang, where tight controls on religion and other fundamental freedoms continued and, in some cases,
intensified.
(...)
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
From:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were reports of a number of extrajudicial killings related to separatist activity in the Xinjiang region. In February police dispersed a crowd of women in Yining during the Ramadan Festival. In subsequent protests of this action, police killed at least 10, and perhaps as many as 70, Uyghur demonstrators. On April 24, in Yining security forces killed two protesters when they opened fire on a crowd that had surrounded a bus carrying individuals convicted of involvement in the February riots.
There is no reliable information about the number of extrajudicial killings nationwide. There continued to be numerous executions carried out after summary trials. These trials can occur under circumstances where the lack of due process protections borders on extrajudicial killing (see Section 1.e.).
In December 1996, the official press reported that four policemen in Zhejiang province were sentenced to up to 11 years in jail for torturing a bank robbery suspect to death.
Xinjiang separatist groups also committed killings. On February 25, three bombs exploded on buses in the regional capital of Urumqi killing nine persons. Several people were killed on March 7 when a bomb linked to Uyghur separatists exploded aboard a bus in one of Beijing's busiest shopping districts. There were also reports in September that nine officials in Xinjiang were killed in antigovernment attacks.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides for freedom of religious belief. Although there is no comprehensive legislation governing religious affairs, the Criminal Law states that government employees who illegally deprive citizens of this right may, if the case is serious, be sentenced to up to 2 years in prison. There are no known reports of persons being punished under this law. The Government, however, seeks to restrict religious practice to government-controlled and -sanctioned religious organizations and registered places of worship.
The State Council is responsible for monitoring religious activity. During the year, the Government continued a national campaign to enforce 1994 State Council regulations that require all religious groups to register with government religious affairs bureaus and come under the supervision of official "patriotic" religious organizations. Some religious groups were subjected to increased restrictions, although the degree of restrictions varied significantly from region to region and the number of religious adherents, in both unregistered and
registered churches, continued to grow rapidly.
In certain regions, government supervision appears to have loosened, but local implementing regulations, such as those for Shanghai, Chongqing, and Guangxi, call for strict government oversight. In some parts of the country registered and unregistered churches are treated similarly by authorities and congregants worship in both types of churches. In other areas, particularly in regions where considerable unofficial and unregistered religious activity has taken place,
authorities closely monitor places of worship and the relationship between unregistered and registered churches is tense. (...)
According to government figures, there are 18 million Muslims, 30,000Islamic places of worship, and more than 40,000 imams. In some areaa's where ethnic unrest has occurred, officials continue to restrict the building of mosques and the religious education of youths under the age of 18. After a series of terrorist incidents in Xinjiang province, police cracked down on Muslim religious activity and places of worship. A number of extrajudicial killings were reported (see Section 1.a.). A January Xinjiang Daily article quoted a provincial official as stating that religion must be made to conform with
socialism and that officials must "target separatism and illegal religious activity." Local authorities issued regulations further restricting religious activities and teaching. China permits Muslim citizens to make the hajj to Mecca. According to government statistics, more than 40,000 Chinese Muslims have made the pilgrimage in recent years. Muslim experts, however, state that the number is much higher. The Government subsidized these visits in some cases.
(...)
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
According to 1995 government statistics, the total population of the country's 55ethnic minorities was 108.46 million, or 8.98 percent of the national population. Most minority groups reside in areas they have traditionally inhabited, many of which are mountainous or remote. The Government's policy on minorities calls for preferential treatment in marriage regulations, family planning, university admission, and employment. Programs provide low-interest loans, subsidies, and special development funds for minority areas. Minorities, in practice, are discriminated against.
Government development policies have helped improve minority living standards. Official figures state that the Government invested $12.6billion in infrastructure development for minority areas during the period 1991 to 1995. The ninth 5-Year Plan announced in March stated that the Government would raise this figure to $27.8 billion for the period from 1996 to 2000. According to government statistics, between 1991 and 1996 the economies in minority regions grew by nearly 11 percent annually, surpassing the national average in each year. Real incomes in minority areas, especially for non-Han groups, however,
remain well below those in other parts of the country. Many development programs have disrupted traditional living patterns of minority groups, including Tibetans and the Muslim Uyghur majority of western Xinjiang. For example, there is some evidence that official poverty alleviation programs include the forced evacuation of persons from the poorest mountain areas. Plans to develop tourism in Xinjiang have also often focused on marketing and investment opportunities but paid little attention to how minority cultures and the environment might be
adversely affected. Some projects, however, have been dropped for environmental reasons--for example, a proposal to build a railway around Lake Tianchi near Urumqi. Since 1949 central government and economic policy have resulted in a significant migration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang. In 1997 there were 8 million Uyghurs and 7 million Han in Xinjiang, up from 300,000 in 1949.
According to government statistics, 15.34 million minority students attended schools between 1994 and 1996. A March white paper stated that 98.16 percent of all school-age children in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were enrolled in schools in 1996. In many areas with a significant population of minorities, there are two-track school systems using either Mandarin or the local minority language. Students can choose to attend schools in either system. One acknowledged side effect of this policy, originally designed to protect and maintain minority cultures, has been reinforcement of a segregated education
system. Under this divided education system, those graduating from minority schools are at a disadvantage in competing for jobs in government and business, which require good Chinese-language skills. These graduates must take Chinese-language instruction before attending universities and colleges (see Tibet addendum).
The Communist Party has an avowed policy of boosting minority representation in the Government and the party. In May the official press reported that there were 2.48 million minority officials in the Government. According to government statistics, there are 163,000 minority officials in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Minority officials constitute 23.3 percent of the region's total, exceeding the ratio of the minority population to Han Chinese in the region. Many members of minorities occupy local leadership positions, and a few have positions of influence at the national level. In most areas, however,
ethnic minorities are shut out of positions of real political and decisionmaking power. In Xinjiang the job of county party secretary is typically reserved for Han Chinese, even in counties that are close to 100 percent Uyghur. Many minorities resent Han officials holding key positions in minority autonomous regions.
Tensions between ethnic Han citizens and Uyghurs in Xinjiang intensified. In February police dispersed a crowd of women in Yining city (see Section 1.a.). In response to the subsequent protests of this action, police allegedly ordered to use any means necessary to suppress the demonstrators killed at least 10, and perhaps as many as 70; many others were wounded or arrested.
According to some estimates, the migration of ethnic Han into Xinjiang in recent decades has caused the Han-Uyghur ratio in the capital of Urumqi to shift from 20:80 to 80:20, contributing to Uyghur resentment. According to the 1990 census, the ethnic Uyghur population was nearly 50 percent of Xinjiang's total population. Han control of the region's political and economic institutions has also been a factor in the growth of tension. The testing of nuclear weapons in Xinjiang in past years is another source of tension because of health concerns and environmental degradation. There has been no testing of nuclear weapons
in Xinjiang since July 1996, after which China signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Although government policies have brought tangible economic improvements, Uyghurs maintain that they receive only a small share of the benefits. The majority of Uyghurs are poor farmers and 25 percent are illiterate. A campaign to stress ethnic unity and to condemn "splitism" and religious extremism began in April. This campaign pervades the Chinese-language media and reaches into the province's 1,500 schools. Authorities maintained tight control over separatist activities, announced tightened security and antiterrorist measures, and several campaigns to crack down on opposition during the year.
The educational system provides Chinese for Han students and the Uyghur language for Uyghur students until fourth grade and then gradually switches to Chinese as the principal language of instruction. Graduation from the Uyghur school system leaves Uyghurs poorly educated, with an inadequate command of the Chinese language. Possession of separatist publications is not permitted, and, according
to reports, possession of such materials has resulted in lengthy prison sentences. A Uyghur-language press exists in Xinjiang, but it has a very small circulation, and much of the population depends on international broadcasts for information. In general, central authorities made it clear that they do not tolerate opposition to Communist Party rule and responded to unrest and terrorist incidents with force and heightened security measures.