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, 2010The purpose of these summonses remained the same throughout the year: police soughtto track the spread of the Charter by asking signatories how they came to learn about thedocument, and often sought to intimidate citizens who had signed, threatening direconsequences if they did not remove their signatures. However, as a group of Charter 08signatories noted in November, “there has not been a single signatory to Charter 08withdrawing his or her signature.” 134 With reports of signatories being summoned even asthis report goes to press, there is no indication that the government plans to cease usingthis tactic to harass supporters of Charter 08. 135Police continued to periodically conduct raids on homes of human rights defenders inconjunction with these summonses. While usually cautious to provide properdocumentation authorizing their actions, police conduct these searches primarily as ameans of intimidating human rights defenders, attempting to cripple them financially, andas a method of obtaining information about rights-defense activities through confiscationof computers, notebooks, and other items which might contain lists of contacts, e-mailcorrespondence, or other evidence of a human rights defenders’ connections andactivities. Notable raids in the past year included:• A January 10 search of Beijing human rights defender Wang Debang’s ( )home. More than twenty policemen, led by the head of the National Security Unitof the Beijing Municipal PSB arrived late that night to search his home andconfiscate computers and personal belongings. Wang was taken to a PSB officeand interrogated for six hours about Charter 08 and his alleged involvement indrafting A <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2008). 136• A March 31 search of the Beijing home of Dr. Jiang Qisheng (王),德a邦former1989 prisoner, dissident writer, and vice-chairman of the Independent ChinesePEN. Dr. Jiang was taken away from his home in Beijing and interrogated bypolice for six hours. During the interrogation, police produced a print-out copy ofan article about the crackdown on the protests of 1989 that Dr. Jiang was workingon from his computer. Police threatened Dr. Jiang and warned him againstplaying any role in organizing commemorative activities to observe the 20thanniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Officers confiscated threecomputers, bank cards, many books, notebooks, and manuscripts from hishome. 137生 棋 江While searches, summonses, and “chats” may not ultimately lead to a human rightsdefender being detained for an extended period of time, they are nonetheless intrusiveand powerful reminders of the tenuous nature of a human rights defender’s personalsecurity and liberty. Furthermore, these police activities are frequently unlawful:invitations to “tea” which cannot be refused are essentially disguised summonses, withoutlegal basis, and many of the summonses carried out “legally” are used primarily to harassand intimidate human rights defenders.b. Threats to HRDs’ employment37