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 Chinese government has long threatened the jobs of human right defenders whomthey seek to keep in line. Because many professionals—including journalists, professors,and lawyers—still require official licenses or permits to hold their positions, governmentofficials are able to exert significant pressure on employers to threaten human rightsdefenders whose livelihood depends on this official approval. For example,• Wang Qingying ( ), a professor of economics at Guangdong University ofTechnology’s Huali College, was forced to resign from his teaching post onDecember 8 under pressure from school authorities. Wang, a Charter 08 signatory,had joined fellow dissidents in an outing to Guangzhou's Baiyun Mountain duringwhich they wore t-shirts bearing the slogan “One Party Dictatorship is aDisaster.” 138营 清 王What was unique in 2009, however, was the government’s use of this tactic on a largerscale to punish lawyers in Beijing who were defending human rights and advocating for amore democratic and autonomous Beijing Lawyers Association. In May, Beijing officialspressured law firms to “fail” at least twenty human rights lawyers in their annualperformance evaluations and in February, Beijing’s Yitong Law Firm was ordered toclose for six months for “re-organization” after some of its lawyers became involved inadvocating for direct elections of the leadership of the Beijing Lawyers Association. (Seep. 24)2. Restriction of movement: “soft detention” and “forced travel”Although police subject human rights defenders to unlawful “soft detention” and “forcedtravel” throughout the year, these restrictions on personal liberty are most frequentlyimposed on human rights defenders during “sensitive” periods or events, such as theannual Two Meetings in March, visits by foreign officials, and the anniversary of theTiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, during which the government has a particularinterest in preventing people from speaking out about rights abuses. CHRD believes thenumber of human rights defenders subjected to “soft detention” and “forced travel”during 2009 was higher than in years past, thanks largely to the number of sensitiveevents which took place during the year. “Forced travel” and “soft detention” are equallyunlawful, having absolutely no basis in Chinese law.The two types of restrictions are similar in objective, but differ slightly in execution.Individuals subjected to “soft detention” are guarded by police stationed outside theirhomes. Though some individuals may be allowed to leave their homes during “softdetention,” they are closely followed and monitored by police or required to travel inpolice vehicles, and often they are barred from meeting other “sensitive” individuals.Others are not allowed to leave their homes at any point during the “soft detention.”“Forced travel” refers to a mandatory trip ordered by the police or government officialstaken outside of one’s city of residence with a police escort. Sometimes these trips spanas long as one month and cover wide swaths of the country; other times they may onlyinvolve spending a few days in a nearby town.38