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, 2010Police appeared to detain human rights defenders in black jails for two main purposes in2009: either to prevent them from speaking out during “sensitive” events, or to threatenand intimidate them. Police used detention in black jails most frequently as a preventativemeasure against human rights defenders with a long history of activism, rather than aspunishment for a specific action: for example, Xiao Changhai ( ), a Wuhan Cityrepresentative of citizens whose property was expropriated by the state in earlier periodsand are now disputing ownership with the government, was detained in a “law educationclass” between December 16, 2008, and January 18, 2009 by the Wuhan PSB. Policetold his family that Xiao was “plotting to travel to Beijing to apply to demonstrate alongwith Wuhan petitioners Zhang Jianmin (肖and Zhou Xinbao ( 161昌Qi海周 张Zhiyong ( a Beijing activist, was detained by Beijing police on the morning ofNovember 9 after he and a fellow activist applied for permission to hold a demonstrationprotesting police harassment during President Obama's visit to China. Qi was taken to theoutskirts of Beijing by officers from the National Security Unit of the Beijing PSB andheld until November 18, the conclusion of the President’s trip.齐However, there were cases of human rights defenders being illegally detained in blackjails for specific attempts to exercise their rights, such as Liu Shasha ( ) andMiaojue Cizhi ( Liu and Miaojue were taken into police custody on August 3for unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square and shouting slogans demanding the releaseof Xu Zhiyong ( ), the detained director of the banned Beijing NGO Gongmeng.Liu was detained in Juyuan Hostel, a “black jail” run by the Beijing Liaison Office of theHenan Provincial Government. Miaojue was held at the Beijing Liaison Office of HeyuanCity, Guangdong Province. Both women escaped from detention the following day. 162永 志 许 妙 沙 沙 刘) 民 建).” 宝 新), 勇 志). 智 慈 觉The existence of black jails poses a serious threat to human rights defenders. Alldetainees in black jails are at high risk of abuse, as violence and mistreatment remaincommonplace due to the lack of oversight of the facilities. There was limited cause foroptimism towards the end of the year, however, as an article appeared in November inOutlook Weekly, a publication associated with state-run Xinhua, detailing the use of blackjails in Beijing. Though the story used a different name (“a chain of gray enterprises”) torefer to black jails, some observers hoped the article, which was the first time a high-levelgovernment publication acknowledged the existence of black jails, was a sign that moreexposure would be given to their existence and operation and that the central governmentmight begin to take the problem seriously. 163b. Administrative detention, including Re-education through Labor (RTL)During 2009, Chinese officials continued to use the extrajudicial administrative detentionsystem to detain human rights defenders. For selected cases, please see Appendix I.For those human rights defenders who were administratively detained, but not sent toRTL, periods of detention commonly lasted between five and fifteen days. 164 Among thereasons given for detention were “disturbing social order,” “disturbing the order of a44