STATE SECRETS: CHINA'S LEGAL LABYRINTH - HRIC

4 HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA STATE SECRETS: CHINA’S LEGAL LABYRINTH
Section I, Part C describes and assesses some government reform efforts, including
the Open Government Information (OGI) effort started in 2002. This OGI
effort continues to develop, and reflects some desire to make government information
available. However, greater superficial openness does not necessarily mean
that the government is adopting the oversight, monitoring, and accountability
mechanisms necessary to implement these initiatives in a way that are not constrained
by the overriding imperative to maintain political power at all costs. The
state secrets system itself undermines these reform efforts.
Section I, Part D presents HRIC’s recommendations for reforms of the state
secrets system to better protect the rights to freedom of expression and
information. Governments have an obligation under international law and norms
to facilitate transparency and access to information. Without access to information,
other rights are easily infringed, including the right to education, health and
criminal procedural protections. Without a transparent and accountable legal system,
the PRC has a rule by law, not a rule of law. While recognizing the limits of any
legislative reforms in the absence of political reforms, HRIC presents recommendations
for substantive revisions, as well as suggestions for more accessible and
clear legislation that defines the relationship it has to the implementing bodies—
the public security apparatus, administrative agencies and the courts. HRIC also
presents recommendations aimed at promoting the PRC’s compliance with and
implementation of its international human rights obligations.
Section II presents state secrets laws, regulations and implementation
measures, as well as other relevant provisions of the state security law,
criminal law and criminal procedure law. These documents are presented both in
Chinese and in English translation. With this report, HRIC is providing in English,
for the first time, an extensive collection of the documents and regulations that
help to describe and define the PRC state secrets system. A fundamental principal
of rule of law is that law must be promulgated and accessible. In preparing this
report, sustained effort has been made to identify law as currently effective and
amended, but a fundamental flaw in the PRC state secrets framework is the
absence of coherent systems permitting timely access to governing law. 4
As examples of the impact of the state secrets system on individuals, on the whole
society, and on the legal system, we also present, in the Appendices, information
on individual state secret cases and information on governmental cover-ups. A rare
selection of official charts and documents related to the state secrets system are
also included in the Appendices. Taken as a whole, this report provides a useful and
constructive resource for advancing greater transparency, accountability, and protection
for human rights in the PRC.