World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

ASIAimprisonment on charges of “causing a serious disturbance” for his role in organizinga victims association to file a class action lawsuit.Migrant and Labor RightsThe All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) remains the sole legal representativeof workers in China; independent labor unions are banned. Laboractivism–mainly by migrant workers–in several foreign-invested factories insouthern Guangdong province in the summer of 2010 challenged that prohibition,resulting in improved pay and benefits for strikers at production facilities forJapan’s Honda and Denso Corporation. In August the ACFTU announced reformsaimed at developing a more democratic selection process for union leaders. Yetits insistence that reforms “not deviate from the leadership of the CommunistParty” indicates that restrictions on independent union activity will remain.The government has yet to deliver on longstanding promises to abolish the hukousystem. Access to public benefits such as education and healthcare are linked toplace of birth; China’s 230 million migrant workers are denied access to theseservices when they move elsewhere in the country.In June 2010 the State Council, China’s cabinet, announced a proposal to replacethe hukou system with a residential permit system, which would extend publicwelfare benefits to migrants in China’s cities. However, the proposal lacks atimetable and financial provisions for the hukou system’s elimination.Sexual Orientation and Gender IdentityThe government decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from theofficial list of mental disorders in 2001 but does not allow same-sex marriage. InMarch 2010 former vice-minister of health Wang Longde told state media the governmentneeded to end discrimination against gay men in order to more effectivelycombat the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.Despite such indications of progress, entrenched social and official discriminationagainst lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in China limits themfrom realizing fundamental rights of expression and association. Beijing police307