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, 2010In addition to detention and arrest, police and government officials continued to use anarray of alternative methods to exert pressure on human rights defenders in 2009. Formany human rights defenders, harassment and threats have become commonplace. Forexample, since his release from three years in prison on June 2, 2006, debarred humanrights lawyer Zheng Enchong ( has been summoned for questioning by Shanghaipolice 76 times as of January 3. 127 While calling activists in for a “chat,” to “tea,” orsummoning them for interrogation were among the most common forms of policeharassment, restricting activists’ movements, particularly around events of nationalsignificance, continued to be widely practiced by police as well.郑) 宠 恩a. “Chats,” “teas,” summons, and searchesFor many human rights defenders, their first interaction with the police, be they from thePublic Security Bureau (gongan), the National Security Unit (guobao) under the PSB, theMinistry of State Security (guoan), or any other uniformed or plainclothes official, comesin the form of a “chat” or an invitation to “drink tea.” These actions have a number ofintended effects: to let individuals know that the police are aware of their activities, togather information about that person’s relationships and contacts, to clearly warn themagainst certain pursuits, and so on. Because human rights defenders are often warned notto discuss their “chats,” or are so frequently harassed by police that they have gotten usedto these acts of intimidation, the use of this tactic is often not reported or documented.However, CHRD believes that it is very likely that police had more “chats” with humanrights defenders in 2009 than in previous years.While an invitation for “tea” or a “chat,” is made informally by a police officer, asummons (chuanhuan) is a different story altogether. The procedure for summoning acitizen for questioning is outlined in the Criminal Procedure Law, and interrogations arelimited to no more than 12 hours. Though police are legally required to issue a formalsummons notice, 128 CHRD has documented numerous cases in which officers havearrived at the home of a human rights defender and orally informed them that they werebeing summoned for questioning without producing any legal documents. 129 In the pastyear, summonses were used particularly heavily: according to one estimate, more humanrights defenders were summoned for questioning in 2009 than in any year since 1989. 130This was largely due to the government’s anxiety regarding Charter 08.The Chinese government began summoning and interrogating signatories of Charter 08even before it was released: Zhang Zuhua ( and Liu Xiaobo ( weresummoned for questioning on the night of December 8, 2008. 131 While Zhang wasreleased after 12 hours, Liu was placed under residential surveillance and held in a secretlocation until his formal arrest more than 6 months later. Within a week, nearly 40signatories were summoned. 132 By December 2009, the one-year anniversary of therelease of Charter 08, the government had summoned over 100 Charter 08 signatories,some on multiple occasions. 133 With the exception of Liu, none of the signatories havebeen arrested for their support for Charter 08.刘 张36) 桦 祖) 波 晓