U.S. Department of State

China Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1997.

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 civilian, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with the members of the Politburo, who often consult with still-influential past members of that body on major decisions. These leaders stress the need to maintain stability and social order and are committed to perpetuating rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. Citizens lack the freedom to peacefully express opposition to the party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or forms 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 success of economic reform, its abil

ity to maintain stability, appeals to patriotism, and control of the security apparatus.

The security apparatus comprises 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 is expanding rapidly. Economic reforms are raising living standards for many, strengthening entrepreneurs, diminishing central control over the economy, and creating new economic opportunities. Although there are problems in the state sector, 'individual economic opportunities continue to expand rapidly with increased freedom of employment and mobility. As the Government continues to adopt market-based policies, both state-owned and nonstate enterprises are benefiting from increased freedom to compete in domestic and overseas markets. As economic opportunities grow, however, income disparities between coastal and inland areas continue to widen. The number of citizens living in absolute poverty continues to decline, although estimates of those in poverty range from official figures of 65 million to estimates as high as 350 million out of a total population of 1.2 billion. 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 populations with many major cities counting 1 million or more such people. Urban areas are also coping with workers idled by industrial reforms. An estimated IO million state workers have been laid off, or not paid. Millions more have been idled on partial wages.

The Government continued to commit widespread and well-documented human lights abuses, in violation of internationally accepted norms, stemming from the authorities' intolerance of dissent, fear of unrest, and the absence or 'inadequacy 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 and lengthy 'incommunicado detention. Prison conditions remained harsh. The Government continued severe restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, and worker rights. Some restrictions remained on freedom of movement. In many cases, the judicial system denies criminal defendants basic legal safeguards and due process because authorities attach higher priority to maintaining public order and suppressing political opposition than to enforce' legal norms.

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Although the Government denies that it holds political prisoners, the number of persons detained or serving sentences for "counterrevolutionary crimes" or "crimes against the state," or for peaceful political or religious activities are believed to number 'in the thousands. Persons detained during 1996 'included activists arrested for issuing petitions or open letters calling for reforms and greater democracy.

Overall in 1996, the authorities stepped up efforts to cut off expressions of protest or criticism. All public dissent against the party and government was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention, or house arrest. No dissidents were known to be active at year's end. Even those released from prison were kept under tight surveillance and often prevented from taking employment or otherwise resuming a normal life. Nonapproved religious groups,, including Protestant and Catholic groups, also experienced intensified repression as the Government enforced 1994 regulations that require all such groups to be registered with government religious affairs bureaus and come under the supervision of official "patriotic" religious organizations. Discrimination against women, minorities, and the disabled, violence against women, and the abuse of children remain problems. Serious human rights abuses persist in minority areas, 'including Tibet, Xinjiang, and In

ner Mongolia. Controls on religion and on other fundamental freedoms in these areas have also intensified'.

During 1996 the National Peoples' Congress (NPC) passed new laws designed to reform criminal procedures and the legal profession. The Government's village elections program conducted closely supervised multicandidate elections 'in villages inhabited by hundreds of millions of rural citizens. Although these offer some opportunity for local clans and other groups to work out differences democratically, they are tightly controlled and do not threaten the leading role of the Communist Party. In 1996 China had limited human rights discussions and exchanges on the rule of law with foreign interlocutors and hosted a meeting of the Interparliamentary Union at which a human rights resolution was drafted.

In many respects, Chinese society continued to open further. Greater disposable income, looser ideological controls, and freer access to outside sources of information led to greater room for individual choice, more diversity in cultural life, and increased media reporting. Although the sale and use of satellite dishes are tightly regulated, satellite television broadcasts are widely available, particularly 'in coastal areas. Increasing numbers of citizens have access to the internet although the Government closed down some World Wide Web sites, 'including Chinese-language sites in Hong Kong and Taiwan, those of Western news organizations, and attempted to control the political and social content of the material available through the Internet. Controls on reporting economic information imposed in 1995 continued, and the Government placed imp

new restrictions on the news media.