Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010“forging evidence.” The letter also included steps the government could take toprotect the rights of both Li and other lawyers in similar situations. 81• Huang Yuqin ( ), a Shanghai petitioner and victim of forced eviction,released a public letter on September 28 calling on President Hu Jintao to addressthe problem of forced eviction, the collusion between the Shanghai governmentand property developers, and the persecution of petitioners and rights activists inthe municipality. 82琴 玉 黄In addition to issuing public letters criticizing the government for its policies or thehandling of a particular issue, human rights defenders also submitted detailed legislativeproposals to the central government to draw attention to current government practices andpolicies that are violations of human rights. For example, five scholars at BeijingUniversity Law School submitted a memo on December 10 to the Standing Committee ofthe NPC arguing that the current regulations governing forced demolition of homes andeviction of residents in urban areas violate the Chinese Constitution. They proposed anumber of revisions to the regulations that would better protect the rights of citizens. Thememo was widely circulated through the media and online, and the Legal Affairs Officeof the State Council invited the scholars for a meeting to discuss the proposal. 83However, the government usually did not respond positively to these letters. Most often,it simply ignored them. At times in the past year, however, officials acted to retaliateagainst the drafters and signatories. Charter 08, a citizen manifesto calling for boldreforms promoting democracy and human rights in China, is a case in point. The charterwas published on December 9, 2008, and by January 9, 2009, CHRD had documented101 cases of individuals who were harassed, interrogated and summoned by police across17 provinces and three municipalities. 84 More signatories have been subjected to similartreatment since then.Officials believed that the prominent intellectual and activist Liu Xiaobo ( ) wasone of the main drafters of the Charter, and he was targeted for the harshest punishment.After being held for more than a year before his trial, on December 25 Liu was sentencedto 11 years of imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power,” amidst strongcriticisms from the international community and Chinese activists. 85 During Liu’sdetention, activists across the country issued public letters in his support and called forhis release. 86 The Chinese government also interrogated and threatened the signatories ofthese letters. 87波 晓 刘2. Village electionsAccording to official 2009 figures, 2.3 million currently serving village committeemembers were “democratically elected.” 88 However, the extent to which these electionswere genuinely free and fair is unclear. The government reiterated its commitment to“advancing the level of rural self-governance and democratic management by villagers”in Article 6 of its Action Plan, and the State Council and the CCP issued a joint notice onMay 30 calling on local governments to increase oversight of the elections, punish thosewho violate the relevant laws, and investigate allegations of election irregularities and22