September 2000
Vol. 12, No. 5, (C)
CHINA
NIPPED IN THE BUD:
The Suppression of the China Democracy Party
I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations
II. BACKGROUND
III. GENESIS OF THE CHINA DEMOCRACY PARTY
The Founding Of The CDP
Efforts to Register the Party
The Screws are Tightened
IV. THE CRACKDOWN
The Trials
New Activities Under The Eye Of The Police
V. THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE CDP
Violating Freedom of Association
VI. CONCLUSION
APPENDIX I: TEXT OF THE "OPEN DECLARATION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
ZHEJIANG PREPARATORY COMMITTEE OF THE
CHINA DEMOCRACY PARTY"
APPENDIX II: Partial List of China Democracy Party Prisoners
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We must be on guard, from the beginning to
the end, against infiltrating, subversive and splittist activities by international
and domestic hostile
forces. Any political behavior that is aimed
at damaging the stability and unity of our country runs counter to the
will and the fundamental interests
of the Chinese people. No matter where these
factors which damage social stability come from, we must firmly hold to
the Four Basic Principles
and have a clear-cut stand in increasingly
opposing them and firmly nipping them in the bud.
(Jiang Zemin, speech on the occasion of the
twentieth anniversary of the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Party Congress,
December 18, 1998)
I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This report documents the Chinese government's reaction to the efforts
of a small number of democracy activists in 1998 and 1999 to take the first
steps toward
establishing a legal opposition party. It illustrates how tightly the
government continues to control and restrict freedom of expression and
association, despite China's
signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and public assurances by its leaders of their concern for human rights.
It shows that, while China
has undergone phenomenal economic and social transformation over the
last two decades, there has been no significant change in the government's
policy toward
any organization which overtly challenges the Communist Party's control:
suppression.
The China Democracy Party (CDP), a loosely linked group of political
activists, operating nationwide, emerged in mid-1998. It was significant
because it was the
first time since the establishment of the People's Republic of China
in 1949 that an attempt was made to obtain the formal legal registration
of an opposition political
party. Over the next eighteen months, however, it was systematically
crushed. Known members of the CDP were summarily arrested and detained,
and though most
were held for relatively brief periods, at least thirty-four of them
were sentenced to prison terms of up to thirteen years on charges of attempted
subversion. At least
four others fled into exile abroad. Others, who remain in China but
are not in prison, live under close police surveillance and have ceased
to be openly active.
The CDP called for multiparty democracy in China and respect for human
rights. Chinese leaders saw it as a group that aimed to undermine the basic
principles and
the monopoly of power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). CDP members
were veteran dissidents, many of them former political prisoners. They
were skilled
in modern communication techniques and strategic in their timing of
statements and actions. They were determined to test the Chinese government's
stated
commitment to improved respect for human rights and willing to face
the consequences of doing so.
Three of the group's founders, Wang Youcai, Wang Donghai and Lin Hui,
seized the opportunity presented by U.S. President Bill Clinton's state
visit to China in
June 1998 to announce the formation of the CDP's first local preparatory
committee in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Then, taking advantage of the
relatively relaxed
political atmosphere at the time, CDP activists sought to register
preparatory committees in other provinces. And as the government announced
that China would
sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
they cited that treaty's provisions on freedom of association and expression
as evidence of
their right to organize.
At first, local authorities to whom CDP members applied to register
their preparatory committees appear to have been uncertain how to react.
But when the CDP
announced that it planned to create a national structure, the central
government, led by National People's Congress chairman Li Peng and President
Jiang Zemin,
denounced the fledgling party, and CDP leaders were arrested and imprisoned.
The first wave of arrests took place in November and December 1998, but
neither it
nor a subsequent series of arrests in May 1999 deterred the remaining
CDP members from continuing their efforts to build the party, issue public
statements, or hold
discussion groups. It was only in late 1999 that the CDP was effectively
silenced.
CDP members stressed during their efforts to obtain legal recognition
that they were seeking to do so in accordance with existing laws. In the
absence of regulations
specifically governing the registration of political parties, they
sought to register with the relevant provincial branches of the Civil Affairs
Ministry in view of its
responsibility for the registration of "social groups." They also invoked
the Chinese constitution and official regulations on social groups issued
in October 1989 and
pointed to China's stated commitment to the rights enshrined in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Finally, when all
else had failed, they tried to
go directly to the State Council, China's equivalent of an executive
cabinet, to register. The end result, however, was that the embryonic party
was declared an
"illegal organization."
The main regulation used to try and sentence CDP leaders was Article
105 of the 1997 Penal Code, which penalizes "those involved in organizing,
scheming or
acting to subvert the political power of the state and overthrow the
socialist system." Since the offense of "counterrevolution" was dropped
from the 1997 Penal
Code, Article 105 has become one of the charges used by the government
to punish peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association,
and
assembly.
Civil society has been growing increasingly rapidly in China since 1979:
to date more than 200,000 social groups are officially registered with
the Ministry of Civil
Affairs. As of this writing, however, no organization has been allowed
publicly to challenge the role of the Communist Party, and any open expression
of opinions
that deviate from the official party line remains hazardous.
In this report, Human Rights Watch documents the emergence and suppression
of the CDP. The report is based on CDP documents, original court material,
and
interviews with members living in exile in the United States or resident
in Hong Kong.
Recommendations
Human Rights Watch urges the government of the People's Republic of
China to:
· Release all those detained and sentenced for their peaceful activities in connection with the CDP.
· Revoke all laws and regulations that illegitimately curb the right to freedom of association, expression, and assembly.
· Take steps to bring domestic laws into full accordance with
the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
· Ratify, as soon as possible and without reservations, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights.
At the same time, Human Rights Watch calls upon the international community to:
· Use international fora and the occasion of state visits involving
Chinese leaders, to press for the release of CDP members and all others
detained solely for the
expression of their political and religious beliefs.
· Urge China's early ratification, without reservation, of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights.
· Use any bilateral human rights dialogue meetings with China
to raise the case of the CDP's suppression and publicly press for the release
of CDP activists and for
full recognition of the rights to freedom of association, expression,
and assembly.
· Call on the World Bank, in its policy dialogue with China,
to promote an open approach on the part of the Chinese authorities to the
creation of social groups and
civil society generally.
· Signal to China that its prospective entry into the World Trade
Organization (WTO) must be accompanied by significant measures to respect
international human
rights norms, and that the crackdown on the CDP, anti-corruption groups,
the Falun Gong, and others, undermines international confidence in Jiang
Zemin's
willingness to implement both political and economic reforms.
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II. BACKGROUND
China's economic reforms, initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, brought
about tremendous changes. The changes were not just economic; they included
greater
personal freedom for much of the population and unprecedented growth
in publications and social organizations. Today, some 200,000 social organizations
are
officially registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The number
of newspapers and magazines has increased dramatically over the last two
decades. But the
Chinese government's policy of zero tolerance for political opposition
remains firmly in place, in part because of its fear of the consequences
of liberalization. "When
you open the windows," the president of the state-run China Human Rights
Association told foreign correspondents in Beijing in 1999, "flies and
mosquitoes come
in."1
Chinese government and Communist Party policy towards political opponents
has not fundamentally changed since 1978 when Deng Xiaoping closed down
Democracy Wall in Beijing. Democracy Wall was a nondescript stone structure
in central Beijing on which people started putting up posters criticizing
the Cultural
Revolution. They then shifted the focus of their criticism to the government
and Deng himself. In response, Deng laid down strict guidelines as to how
far freedom of
speech and assembly would be allowed to go. The official slogan, reflecting
Deng's thinking, was "One Center, Two Fundamental Points." The "center"
of Chinese
policy was now economic construction, not class struggle. The two points
were reform and the "Four Basic Principles" -- commitment to socialism;
the thinking of
Marx, Lenin, and Mao Zedong; the leadership of the Communist Party;
and the "dictatorship of the proletariat." The bottom line was and remains
that no one would
be allowed to challenge the CCP's monopoly on political power.
Officially, the CCP permits the existence of eight other parties.2 They
are of little relevance, however, and only exist because they have sworn
allegiance to the
leadership of the CCP. They play an advisory rather than an oppositional
role. Under the term "multiparty cooperation" (duo dang hezuo) they were
incorporated
into China's political structure to give an appearance of democracy.
The CCP is a Leninist party by nature and sees itself as the only legitimate
holder of power. Its leaders argue that a multiparty system will trigger
"chaos." They
witnessed the factional struggles of the Cultural Revolution and how
those struggles resulted in direct attacks on the state leaders as well
as virtually complete
destruction of the government apparatus. CCP leaders now assert that
China will never adopt a western-style multiparty system (duo dang zhi).3
Over the years, many individuals and groups have nevertheless tried
to form political organizations independent of the CCP. Unlike the CDP,
however, they did not
try to achieve legal recognition or develop a nationwide base. In attempting
both of these, the CDP organizers drew on a network of activists, including
some who
had been challenging China's leadership since the Democracy Wall period.
Xu Wenli, one of the most prominent, had been sentenced to fifteen years
in prison in
1981 for his defense of democracy, and other leading CDP members had
been active in the 1989 democracy movement.
The crackdown against the CDP resulted in violations of freedom of expression
and association and the right not be arbitrarily detained. These freedoms
are
enshrined in Articles 19, 20, and 9 respectively of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, and in Articles 19, 22, and 9 of the International Covenant
on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 35 of the Chinese constitution
also guarantees the right to freedom of expression and association, and
Article 37 protects
Chinese citizens against arbitrary detention.4
As a member of the United Nations, China is obliged to uphold the principles
of the Universal Declaration. At the time the arrests of CDP members began,
China
had not yet signed the ICCPR. The Chinese government signed the treaty
in October 1998, ostensibly indicating its commitment to respect its provisions,
but the
arrests and trials of CDP activists continued.
1 Zhu Muzhi during a meeting organized by the Foreign Correspondents
Club of China in April1999, referring to people with views differing from
the official CCP
line.
2 The Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (Zhongguo guomindang
geming weiyuanhui), the China Democratic League (Zhongguo minzhu
tongmeng), the China Democratic National Construction Association (Zhongguo
minzhu jianguo hui), the China Association for Promoting Democracy
(Zhongguo minzhu cujin hui), the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic
Party (Zhongguo nong gong minzhu dang), the Party for Public Interests
(Zhongguo zhi gong dang), the September 3 Society (Jiu san xueshe)
and the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (Taiwan minzhu zizhi tongmeng).
3 Li Peng quoted by Xinhua News Agency, December 1, 1998.
4 Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "No
one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." Article
19 states, "Everyone has
the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers." Article 20 (1) states,
"Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."
Article 9 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states, " Everyone
has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected
to arbitrary arrest or
detention." Article 19 of the ICCPR states "(1) Everyone shall have
the right to hold opinions without interference. (2) Everyone shall have
the right to freedom of
expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally,
in writing or in print, in
the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. (3) The
exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries
with it special duties and
responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions,
but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights
or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security
or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals." Article
22 says "Everyone shall
have the right to freedom of association with others, including the
right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
No restrictions may be placed
on the exercise of this right other than those which are prescribed
by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests
of national security or
public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public
health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
Article 35 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China Adopted at the First
Session of the Seventh National People's Congress on March 29,1993, states,
"Citizens of the
People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of
assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration." Article
37 states, "Freedom of
the person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable.
No citizens may be arrested except with the approval or by decision of
a people's procuratorate
or by decision of a people's court, and arrests must be made by a public
security organ. Unlawful detention or deprivation or restriction of citizens'
freedom of the
person by other means is prohibited, and unlawful search of the person
of citizens is prohibited."
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III. GENESIS OF THE CHINA DEMOCRACY PARTY
The CDP first emerged during a period of political thaw in China that
some publications referred to as a "Beijing Spring." Over a period of roughly
a year, from
September 1997 to mid-November 1998, Chinese authorities relaxed official
control over intellectual debate and expression of political views. The
thaw may have
been linked to the relatively trouble-free passing of three key events:
the death of Deng Xiaoping in February 1997, the return of Hong Kong to
China on July 1,
1997, and the Fifteenth Party Congress in September 1998. None of the
events had triggered social unrest or political power struggles, despite
predictions to the
contrary.
The easing of controls may also have been part of an attempt to create
international goodwill in advance of planned visits by U.S. President Bill
Clinton in June 1998
and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson in September
1998. On October 27, 1997, China signed the International Covenant for
Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and hinted that the signing of
the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) would
follow. Leading dissident
Wei Jingsheng, sentenced to fourteen years in prison in 1996, was released
on medical parole on November 16, 1997 and sent into exile. In this more
relaxed
climate, dissidents began to organize once again.
In March 1998, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen formally announced China's
decision to sign the ICCPR.5 Almost immediately, veteran dissident Xu Wenli
applied in
Beijing to register a human rights organization, China Human Rights
Watch (Zhongguo renquan guancha).6 At the end of March, Mao Guoliang and
Wang
Donghai, two dissidents based in the eastern province of Anhui, sent
an application to the Ministry of Justice for permission to register a
newsletter called China
Human Rights News (Zhongguo renquan). In the city of Wuhan, capital
of Hubei province, meanwhile, Qin Yongmin, a worker and former political
prisoner, set
up a human rights fax-letter called Human Rights Watch (Renquan guancha).
It issued eighty-six reports before authorities stopped it in May 1998
as part of the
yearly tightening of control before the June 4 anniversary of the 1989
massacre in Beijing.7
Throughout this period, dissidents sent petitions to the central government
in Beijing, and open letters to U.S. President Clinton and U.N. High Commissioner
Mary
Robinson, asking for international attention to China's human rights
situation. At the same time, Beijing's intellectuals discussed political
change more and more
openly. The government also allowed the publication of books such as
Zhengzhi zhongguo (Political China), an appeal for political reform by
thirty-four authors.
These included veteran party cadres such as Li Rui, a former secretary
of Mao Zedong; Li Shenzhi, a former secretary of Zhou Enlai; and Zhu Houze,
a former
director of the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department.
The Founding Of The CDP
Concrete ideas for creating an opposition party originated in late
1997.8 Wang Youcai, a former student activist who had been jailed for two
years for involvement in
the 1989 pro-democracy movement, discussed the formation of an opposition
party with a group of other dissidents.9 The idea had come to him while
he was still in
prison, but it was not until well after his release that he acted upon
it. Initially, he proposed to create a party called the "China Justice
Party" (Zhongguo zhengyi
dang), but then changed the name to "China Democracy Party" (Zhongguo
mains dang) because, he believed, people would be more familiar with the
term
"democracy" than "justice."10
Chinese dissidents abroad took a close interest in the establishment
of the CDP. Some had already had the same idea. For example, before the
CDP's creation,
Wang Bingzhang, a dissident living in the U.S. who had been active
during the Democracy Wall period, slipped into China on January 26, 1998.
He planned to form
an opposition party and distribute a manual for democracy activists,
but he was detained on February 6, 1998 in Bengbu, Anhui province, and
sent back to the U.S.
three days later. Several of the dissidents he met during his visit
were briefly detained, including Wang Donghai, Yang Qinheng, Zhang Rujun
and Zhang Yuxiang. All
later became active in the CDP, perhaps reinforcing the authorities'
conviction that "foreign hostile forces" were involved in the organization.
The CDP was to be based on the principles of "openness" (gongkai), "peace"
(heping), "reason" (lixing), and "legality" (an falu). Its aim was to establish
direct
elections and the formation of a multiparty system. In early 1998,
its founders decided that their general strategy would be to form local
preparatory committees to
test the response to this by local government authorities. The preparatory
committees would be in close contact with each other. In any province where
there were
enough members to form a group, an application would be made to the
local civil affairs bureau to register it as a preparatory committee of
the CDP. Since no
formal procedures existed to provide for new political parties to apply
for legal status, CDP members chose the civil affairs option on the grounds
that this appeared
most closely to approximate a system for lawful registration. Once
preparatory committees had been established in a number of provinces, a
national preparatory
committee would be formed. Meanwhile, individual pro-democracy activists
who did not belong to local preparatory committees would be able to join
the national
committee. That committee role would pave the way for the formation
of a national opposition party which would engage directly in politics,
including by putting up
candidates for the National People's Congress.11
Early meetings of the CDP were kept secret. On the eve of the Clinton
visit, however, members of the Hangzhou Preparatory Committee, led by Wang
Youcai,
decided to go public, believing that the Chinese government would not
act against them while the visit was taking place.12 On June 25, 1998,
therefore, they signed
the "Open Declaration of the Establishment of the CDP Zhejiang Preparatory
Committee" and circulated it over the Internet.13 This was the group's
founding
document. They also published a draft party constitution. On the same
day, they requested the Zhejiang Province Civil Affairs Bureau (Zhejiang
sheng
minzhengting) to approve the party's application for formal legal status
for the preparatory committee. It was the first time that dissidents had
tried to register a
committee that intended to work towards the formation of an opposition
party in the People's Republic of China.
The "Open Declaration" declared that:
all political power can come only from the
public and can only be [used] in the service of the public; a government
can only come into being according
to the wishes of the public and [can only]
act according to the wishes of the public; a government is the servant
of the public and not the one which
controls it.14
It went on to criticize the ruling party for not allowing the existence of opposing groups:
The CDP forcefully condemns the behavior of
ruling groups which suppress political opposition groups by force; forcefully
condemns the application of
methods such as torture and reform-through-labor
against those who carry differing political views; and forcefully demands
the authorities release all
persons detained for differing political views.
15
The declaration also openly asserted that political power obtained through the use of "violence and violent intimidation" was "illegal without exception."16
As other preparatory committees were formed, the same basic text was used, though with local modifications as members saw fit.17
Lacking a secure communication system and without the funds to invite
potential members to assemble at one place, the founding members called
upon dissidents
nationwide to take action themselves:
The CDP calls upon persons of the democracy
movement in the various regions nationwide to enter the CDP, to prepare
and establish local
committees of the CDP in the various provinces
and cities, to elect and appoint delegates, to take part in the National
Delegates Congress and to
organize a nationwide committee.18
After the CDP was formally launched in Hangzhou, Wu Yilong, one of the
founding members and author of its "Guidelines for Activities," made a
sixteen-day
nationwide tour and was instrumental in the formation of other local
preparatory committees. He did not contact potential members by telephone
for fear that their
phones were bugged, and he did not sleep in hotels to avoid registering
his name, as hotel registers are routinely checked by officials.19 By December
1998, his
efforts had contributed to the formation of some twenty-four provincial
preparatory committees. The party also had some 200 individual members
whose telephone
numbers and addresses were posted on Internet websites.
Efforts to Register the Party
The authorities took their first action against the CDP on July 10,
1998, shortly after President Clinton left China. They detained Wang Youcai,
who had invited
dissidents to attend a "tea party" in Hangzhou to discuss strategy,
and fourteen others. On August 7, Wang was officially arrested and charged
with "inciting to
overthrow state political power."20 In an unusual move, however, the
government released him on August 31, apparently into a form of house arrest
known as
residential surveillance. The Chinese authorities rarely release indicted
suspects from detention; his "release" was seen as a breakthrough brought
about by
international pressure and open letters and petitions from dissidents
within China. CDP members then decided that the time was ripe for another
preparatory
committee to go public.
Accordingly, on September 10, 1998, Xie Wanjun and Liu Lianjun, two
CDP members in Shandong province, went to the Office for Social Groups
under the
Shandong provincial Civil Affairs Bureau and sought to register the
CDP Shandong Province Preparatory Committee. Xie and Liu saw this action
as a means of
showing authorities that the committee had been established, and to
make clear that they intended to proceed openly and legally.21
Two deputy directors and a clerk received them and read from what the CDP activists said looked like a prepared statement. The statement said:
[T]he central government is considering the establishment of the China Democracy Party, but there are four conditions:
1. There must be a registered capital of RMB50,000
[approximately U.S.$6,098].
2. An office space carrying the name of China
Democracy Party must be applied for in written form.
3. Resumes of the chairperson, vice chairperson,
and secretary must be submitted.
4. A list of fifty members of the China Democracy
Party must be submitted. 22
The officials added that the registration of the party must be "according
to the Regulations Concerning the Registration and Administration of Social
Groups."
Therefore, approval should be sought first from the danwei or work
unit, the basic building block of the Chinese administrative structure.
But with this case, the
officials said, as the "China Democratic Party" was a fully independent
group, it presented a "new situation," and it would have to be solved according
to "new
considerations." They made no effort to clarify what these might be,
but added that the registration procedures should all proceed "according
to the law."23
CDP members in Shandong took it as a good sign that local authorities
had received, but not immediately rejected, their application. Encouraged,
CDP members in
Hubei province tried to register. Chen Zhonghe, Lu Xinhua, and Ren
Qiuguang, representing the seven-member preparatory committee, were received
by officials of
the Hubei Provincial Civil Affairs Bureau and were given the same explanation
that their Shandong colleagues had received the day before.24 The next
day, however,
a Beijing official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs said during a
press conference for international media that provincial bureaus of civil
affairs had no authority to
permit the establishment of political parties.25
After that, local authorities became more careful and refused even to
consider registering groups that they perceived as politically problematic.
For example, when
two CDP members, An Fuxing and Leng Wanbao, tried to register a group
unrelated to the CDP with the Jilin provincial Civil Affairs Bureau in
mid-September,
they were turned away. The group, called the Economic and Social Rights
Promotion Association (Jingji shehui quanli cujinhui), was set up to monitor
China's
compliance with the International Covenant for Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.26 An official told the two CDP members that the National
People's Congress
was revising the "Regulations Concerning the Registration and Administration
of Social Groups" to bring them into conformity with the ICESCR, so their
application
to register the new group could not proceed.27
CDP members then decided on another tactic. On September 13, activists
from Jilin and two other northeastern provinces, Heilongjiang and Liaoning,
announced
that they had established a Northeast Preparatory Committee of the
CDP and that, as it involved more than one province, they would seek official
registration
directly from the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Beijing. They sent the
application by mail. With Wang Wenjiang, a lawyer based in Anshan, Liaoning
province, acting as
the committee's representative, they invoked both the PRC constitution
and the new Regulations Concerning the Registration and Management of Social
Groups in
support of their application.28
The Screws are Tightened
After these first attempts, the authorities became less tolerant. On
September 16, five well-known dissidents in Beijing -- Ren Wanding, Ma
Shaohua, Zhao Xin,
Yang Qing, and Wang Linhai -- all veterans of the pro-democracy movement,
established the CDP Beijing Preparatory Committee.29 They planned to try
to register
the party officially with the Civil Affairs Bureau on September 18,
but on the evening of September 16 two of them, Ma Shaohua and Wang Linhai,
were called to a
local police station and interrogated for up to three hours. Meanwhile,
the home of Zhao Xin, who was out of town, was ransacked. The next day,
police told Ren
Wanding to give up his plans to register the party. "We're still under
the Communist Party's leadership," they said. "Setting up political parties
is not permitted."30
On September 18, the Shanghai branch submitted its petition for registration.
Signed by Han Lifa, Zhou Jianhe, Xu Hong, Yao Zhenxian and Li Guotao,31
the
petition was delivered to the Beijing municipal Civil Affairs Bureau
by Han Lifa. As the relevant officials were in a meeting, he left it with
a note attached. At the same
time, the Shanghai group sent the petition through the post. It was
sent back.32
The day after Han delivered the petition, police came to Zhou Jianhe's house. He told Human Rights Watch:
Around 8:00, or 9:00 in the evening, police came looking for the five
signatories, that is how important they considered the matter. So many
people came to [the]
house that they couldn't all fit in. Two were from the Civil Affairs
Bureau. They introduced themselves. They were very polite and explained
their jobs. They said that
the registration submitted had been received, that as those responsible
for registration they had to inform [the signatories] that the application
was not accepted, not
approved, and that it was thereby returned. The officials of the Civil
Affairs Bureau then left, but the police stayed behind and told the activists,
"You can't go on like
this - we'll take you in. This is a directive from above. This is political
activity, political thought."33
Police also told Han Lifa, who was questioned separately, that he and
his colleagues would be held "fully responsible if anything else happened,"
and that they would
not agree to register the CDP even if its members "made a hundred applications."34
At the end of September, police in Changchun, capital of Jilin province,
issued a warning to the CDP Northeast Preparatory Committee, saying the
committee was
"an illegal organization (feifa zuzhi)." Tang Yuanjuan, a prominent
dissident and CDP member who had just been released from imprisonment,
was again detained
on September 18, although it was not clear whether this was because
of his CDP affiliation or because of his activities to promote labor rights.
His detention,
however, underscored the fact that many CDP members were engaged in
a variety of dissident actions, some of them outside the scope of the CDP
itself.
The five preparatory committees that had tried to register -- Zhejiang,
Shandong, Hubei, Northeast and Shanghai -- issued an open statement on
September 23 to
protest against the term "illegal organization" used by the Changchun
police and against the detention of Tang Yuanjuan.35
On September 24, 1998, Liu Lianjun, one of the founders of the CDP Shandong
province preparatory committee, was detained, thirteen days after he and
his
colleagues had attempted to register.36 He described a discussion on
the definition of "political party" he had with the police:
"[T]he police said, "A political party is not a social group."
"No?" I asked. "The definition of a social group includes political parties."
They said, "That is the broad meaning. The narrow meaning is that a political party is not a social group."
I said, "In a narrow meaning, a political party is also a social group."
They said, "Then our understanding is not the same." [...]
I said, "If it is not possible to establish
a political party according to the current Law of [Social]Groups, I can
only conclude that the Law on [Social]
Groups has problems."37
On October 5, 1998, China signed the International Covenant for Civil
and Political Rights. Marking the occasion, Qin Huasun, China's permanent
representative to
the United Nations, said that "to realize human rights is the ideal
of all humanity. It is also a goal that the Chinese government has long
been striving for."38 Ten days
later, the CDP's Sichuan Preparatory Committee, led by Liu Xianbin,
She Wanbao, and Huang Xiaomin, attempted to register at the Sichuan Provincial
Civil Affairs
Bureau's Office for Registration of Social Groups. The application
was refused on the grounds that a political party was not within the scope
of social groups. "The
Sichuan provincial Civil Affairs Bureau only accepts registration by
social groups involved in arts and sports," they were told.39
The last two CDP preparatory committees to attempt to register with
the authorities were in Guizhou and Henan provinces. On October 21, 1998,
Zeng Ning and
Wei Dengzhong submitted an application to the Guizhou Civil Affairs
Bureau's Office for Registration of Social Groups, declaring that the committee
"recognizes the
position of Jiang Zemin as head of state" and was willing to cooperate
with any political parties and social groups in China.40 On October 24,
Cui Weimin, Wang
Bing, An Ning, Li Zongshang, and Liu Shangguang mailed the registration
of the CDP Henan provincial preparatory committee to the authorities. There
was no
immediate reaction.41 In retrospect, it was the calm before the storm.
5 Qian Qichen retirement statement at the National People's Congress, March 13, 1998.
6 The organization had no connection with the U.S.-based Human Rights
Watch and later changed the English translation of its name to "China Rights
Observer" to
avoid confusion. The Chinese title remained the same. The organization
only survived the changed translation by about a month, however, so the
new name never
caught on.
7 At least twenty dissidents planning commemorative activities were rounded up on the eve of June 4, 1998 and briefly detained.
8 Li Wanfang, "Bei `jianshi jujia' de Wang Youcai," (Wang Youcai Under "Residential Surveillance") Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring), October 1998, p. 44-46.
9 Wang Youcai was No.15 on a blacklist of twenty-one 1989 pro-democracy
student leaders of the movement. He was initially sentenced to four years
in prison in
January 1990 but was released on parole in November 1991.
10 Li Wanfang, `Bei "jianshi juliu" de Wang Youcai' (Wang Youcai under Residential Surveillance), Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring), October 1998, p. 44.
11 Wang Youcai, "Ruhe zujian quanguoxing gongkai fanduitang" (How to
Organize and Open Opposition Party), in Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring),
October
1998, p. 42-43.
12 Human Rights Watch interview with Yao Zhenxian, April 5, 2000.
13 Lorien Holland, "Chinese Dissidents Apply To Form Opposition Political Party," Agence France Presse, June 25, 1998.
14 Zhongguo minzhudang zhejiang choubei weiyuanhui chengli gongkai xuanyan
(Open Declaration of the Establishment of the CDP Zhejiang Preparatory
Committee), published on June 25, 1998, translated by Jan van der Made.
For translation of the full text, see Appendix I.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 For example, the Shanghai Preparatory Committee, which was established
in September 1998, added the following text: "The CDP's Shanghai Preparatory
Committee will, after its establishment, continue to recognize the
position of the Chinese Communist Party as the party in power. Meanwhile,
it will also continue to
respect the position of Jiang Zemin as state president. The CDP is
willing to exist together with the Chinese Communist Party and the other
parties on a long-term
basis, to supervise and respect each other in order to improve the
political system, to strengthen the legal system, to protect human rights,
and to struggle for the
promotion of a democratic and constitutional government."
18 Zhongguo minzhudang zhejiang choubei weiyuanhui chengli gongkai xuanyan
(Open Declaration of the Establishment of the Zhejiang Preparatory
Committee), June 25, 1998.
19 Human Rights Watch Interview with Yao Zhenxian, April 5, 2000.
20 Li Wanfang, "Bei jianshi juzhu de Wang Youcai" (Wang Youcai Under Residential Surveillance) in Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring), October 1998, p. 45.
21 "Minyun de liliang zai yu zuzhi - fang zhongguo minzhu dang quanguo
chouweihui chuangjianzhe zhi yi - Xie Wanjun" (The Force of the Democratic
Movement is
Being Organized - Interview with one of the Founders of the CDP National
Preparatory Committee - Xie Wanjun) in Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring),
September
1999, p. 72-79.
22 Ibid. Xie said that he suspected the request for the fifty-member name list was a trick, and he was afraid people on it could be arrested.
23 "Zhongguo dangju shou zhongguo minzhudang zhuce shenqing" (Chinese
Authorities Receive CDP Registration Application), Beijing zhi chun (Beijing
Spring),
October 1998, p. 50
24 Ibid., p.50.
25 Central News Agency (Taiwan), September 11, 1998.
26 "China Dissidents Attempt To Set Up Rights Watchdog," Agence France Presse, September 7, 1998.
27 "Jilin Minyun rent dengji chengli Renquan zuzhi wei huo zhun" (Jilin
Democratic Movement Representatives do Not Get Approval for Establishment
of Human
Rights Organization) in Xiao cankao (VIP Reference), September 8, 1998.
Xiao cankao is a Washington D.C.-based Chinese-language publication which
is
aimed at the dissident community. Article 10 of these new "Regulations
Concerning the Registration and Administration of Social Groups," officially
published on
November 3, 1998, said that a social organization required the following:
1. It should have more than fifty individual members or more than thirty
unit members. If it is composed of individual members and unit members,
the total number of
its members should not be less than fifty.
2. It should have a standardized name and corresponding organizations
3. It should have a permanent address
4. It should be staffed with full-time personnel to carry out relevant
activities
5. It should have legal assets and resource of funds. A national social
organization should bave more than RMB100,000 (U.S.$12,195) for activity
funds. A local
social organization or a social organization that operates in two or
more administrative areas should have more than RMB30,000 (U.S.$3,659)
for activity funds.
6. It should have an ability to independently bear civil responsibility.
Article 11 states that the following material is required for registration:
1. A preparation application
2. An approval document issued by the authorities concerned.
3. An asset examination report and a certificate of the use right of
a location
4. Certificates showing the basic situation and identification of the
initiators and designated responsible persons
draft rules of the social organization.
28 "Three More Provinces Join Call For China Opposition Party," Agence
France Presse, September 14, 1998. Wang Wenjiang gave up his membership
of the
Communist Party on September 14.
29 Ren Wanding was a veteran of the 1979 Democracy Wall period. He was
sentenced to a four years in prison then and got another seven years for
his
involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Ma Shaohua had been
a student leader during the 1989 pro-democracy movement who was detained
for
sixteen months after the June 4, 1989 crackdown. Yang Qing was among
fifty-six people who signed a 1995 letter calling on the government to
allow greater
freedoms; he had served a seven-year prison term after the Democracy
Wall movement in 1978-79. Zhao Xin was a former Beijing University of Science
and
Engineering student who was expelled from school and imprisoned for
fifteen months as a result of his participation in the 1989 movement.
30 "Chinese Police Tell Dissidents They Can't Form Party," Associated Press, September 18, 1998.
31 All had been active in past dissident movements or had ties to other
activists. Han Lifa, a motorcycle mechanic, had served three years in prison
for
pro-democracy activities and was only released in April 1998. Zhou
Jianhe was a fifty-year-old shipyard worker who had been involved in the
1979 Democracy
Wall movement. Xu Hong, a worker in a software company, was married
to Lin Hai, the man sentenced in March 1998 to two years in prison for
supplying 30,000
e-mail addresses to an overseas Internet publication. Yao Zhenxian
had been detained together with his brother Yao Zhenxiang between 1996
and 1998 for their
involvement in dissident activities. Li Guotao had been president of
the unofficial Shanghai Association for Human Rights in 1994.
32 Human Rights Watch interview, Zhou Jianhe, April 7, 2000.
33 Ibid.
34 "Shanghai Warns Landmark Opposition Party Illegal," Agence France Presse, September 20, 1998.
35 "Chinese Dissidents Vow To Defy Party Ban, Appeal To Jospin," Associated Press, September 23, 1998.
36 "Chinese Dissidents Released, But Harassment Continues," Associated Press, October 8 1998.
37 "Liu Lianjun zishu: guanyu jiu yue ershisi ri bei juya jingguo,"
(Liu Lianjun Narrates: Proceedings of a Detention on September 24) in Xiao
cankao,
October 10, 1998.
38 Renmin ribao (People's Daily), October 6, 1998.
39 "China Dissidents Make Ninth Attempt To Register Opposition Party," Agence France Presse, October 15, 1998.
40 "Guizhou gaoyuan minyun renshi dingfeng zuoye, xuangao chengli zhongguo
minzhu dang guizhou sheng choubeihui" (Democratic Movement Leaders Of The
Guizhou High Plains Go Against The Wind And Proclaim The CDP Guizhou
Province Preparatory Committee) in Xiao cankao, October 22, 1998.
41 "Defying Crackdown, Dissident Chinese Renew Efforts To Form Party,"
Associated Press, October 24, 1998.
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IV. THE CRACKDOWN
The crackdown against the CDP started in earnest in late 1998. On September
25, 1998, China's State Council had approved the "Regulations for Registration
and
Management of Social Groups" (Shehui tuanti dengji guanli tiaoli)42
and Premier Zhu Rongji signed them into law on October 25.43 The new regulations
were
more detailed and more restrictive than those they replaced and were
clearly a response to the increasing number of social organizations emerging
in the country. In
the words of one analyst, the system of registration they mandated:
effectively nullifies freedom of association,
since any unregistered group is "illegal." It also bars former political
prisoners for life from forming non-profit
groups or acting as their officers, as well
as setting very high financial and other requirements for the establishment
of a group, which will effectively
block the poorest and most vulnerable from
exercising this right.44
The new regulations also demanded total conformity with state policy:
Social groups/units must abide by the Constitution,
the laws and regulations and state policies; may not violate the basic
principles established in the
Constitution; may not harm national unity,
state security and the solidarity of the nationalities; may not harm the
interests of the state, society, other
groups or individuals; and may not go against
society's morality and customs. 45
The signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
however, led CDP members to speed up the process of consolidating the embryonic
party
and bringing the various provincial preparatory committees together
as one organization. But China's commitment on paper to the ICCPR offered
little protection in
fact.
On November 2, Wang Youcai was moved back into detention from house
arrest. The police claimed that he had left his house too many times without
informing
them. Officers of the Cuiyuan district station in Hangzhou telephoned
Wang's wife saying that they had received instructions from their superiors
to apprehend her
husband, but they refused to disclose where he was being held.46
Other CDP members proceeded with their plans despite Wang's detention.
On November 6, Xu Wenli established the "First CDP National Congress Preparatory
Work Group." The group consisted of Xu Wenli, Gao Hongming, and Zha
Jianguo, all Beijing-based veterans of the 1979 Democracy Wall movement.
Then, on
November 9, Xu, Gao, Zha and a Tianjin-based former Democracy Wall
activist, Lu Honglai, established the "CDP Beijing-Tianjin Regional Party
Branch," with Xu
as chairman.47 The branch adopted a revised party charter, and on November
11, the group issued a first statement declaring that it would take two
years to
establish the CDP and that they hoped to organize a first national
congress in the beginning of 2000. The group saw its role as that of a
temporary vanguard that
would undertake consultations leading to the establishment of a more
permanent core CDP leadership. It called on dissidents in prison and in
exile abroad to join in
such preparatory efforts.48
Xu's decision to create a "party branch" rather than a "preparatory
committee," however, caused controversy within the dissident movement as
this implied that the
party was already operational, not still in the process of formation.
Activists in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shandong and elsewhere considered the
move premature but
other "branches" were soon formed, resulting in a hybrid structure
where "preparatory committees" and "party branches" co-existed.
Meanwhile, on November 10, the CDP National Preparatory Committee issued
an open letter directly appealing to the State Council to enable it to
exercise the
"heaven-bestowed right to organize a party," in accordance with the
guarantees of freedom of association, expression, and assembly contained
in Article 35 of the
Chinese Constitution and the recently signed International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights. The letter argued, as the CDP's Hangzhou
Preparatory Committee
had done, that to be successful, economic reforms should be accompanied
by political liberalization, and it repeated the CDP's "Four Principles"
of "reason, peace,
openness and legality."49 The letter made no reference to the Civil
Affairs Bureaus or to the new Regulations for Registration and Management
of Social Groups. It
was signed by fifty-three people from nineteen provinces and four municipalities:
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing.50 It elicited no reaction or
response from
the authorities.
Following the formation of party branches by activists in Beijing and
Tianjin, the CDP Hubei preparatory committee took the same step. On November
26,
spokesman Qin Yongmin announced that the Hubei branch respected the
provisional CDP charter and planned to submit it "to the First CDP National
Congress for
deliberation, revision and approval."51 The Hubei members then published
the full texts of the CDP party charter, the party oath, and a list of
their leading members
on the Internet. All of these actions were indications that the CDP
saw itself as a nationwide organization and was moving toward the formation
of a national
structure.
Meanwhile, the police were starting to tighten control. On November
21 in Hangzhou, they briefly detained Yao Zhenxian, Li Guotao, Wu Yilong,
and Zhu
Zhengming before a planned meeting at a hotel. Other party members,
Zhu Yufu and Mao Guoliang, were told not to leave their homes. In protest,
the CDP's
National Preparatory Committee published an "Urgent Proclamation Regarding
the Authorities' Limiting the Civil Rights and Repressing the Zhejiang
CDP
Members." In it, they complained about the detention and interrogation
by police of committee members and police confiscation of CDP documents
and a fax
machine. On November 21, Mao Qingxiang's wife received a notification
from the police that her husband would be kept and interrogated for twenty-four
hours for
activities on behalf of "a social group which was not yet approved."52
Then, in an interview with the German daily Handelsblatt published on
December 1, 1998, Li Peng, chairman of the National People's Congress,
made clear the
government's attitude to any group which dared challenge the Communist
Party:
If the purpose [of the group] runs contrary
to the Constitution or the basic policies of China, or against the socialist
market economy, national unity and
independence, or against social stability,
and if it is designed to negate the leadership of the Communist Party,
then it will not be allowed to exist.
He added:
China's National People's Congress will not
use the Westminster formula, whereby members of parliament are noisy and
even rude to each other during
debates.53
The Trials
After this unmistakable signal from the top, the official clampdown
on the CDP gathered momentum, and over the following months there were
three distinct waves
of arrests, interrogations, and trials of CDP activists.
The First Wave
The first wave of arrests resulted in the detention of at least seven
prominent CDP members, including Xu Wenli, Wang Youcai, and Qin Yongmin,54
all of whom
were then tried and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Xu Wenli
Court proceedings against Xu Wenli started on December 9, 1998. He was
accused of plotting to overthrow the government and undermine state security,
in
violation of Article 105(1), Article 106, and Article 66 of the PRC
Penal Code.55 The indictment also noted that Xu had advocated "ending one-party
dictatorship,
establishing a third republic, [and] guaranteeing human rights and
freedom." In addition, he was alleged to have given interviews to foreign
journalists, accepted funds
from abroad and "linked up with foreign hostile element" Yan Jiaqi,
the exiled advisor to former CCP general secretary Zhao Ziyang. Xu Wenli
was accused of
collaborating with Yan Jiaqi in drafting the constitution of the CDP,
which he then was said to have circulated.
In response to the charges, Xu Wenli's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, who was
defending him free of charge, argued that there was no evidence that he
was directly
involved in drafting the CDP charter and that other allegations against
him had no basis.56 For his part, Xu told the court:
This trial is a grave political repression
of the China Democracy Party by a small minority of Chinese Communist Party
leaders. I therefore refuse to
answer any questions from the prosecution.57
He went on to stress that the formation of the CDP report was not aimed
at "beating down or overthrowing" the Communist Party but merely "ending
one-party rule
by peaceful means."58 The prosecution, however, contended that Xu's
calls for an independent labor union, his willingness to be interviewed
by foreign journalists,
and his acceptance of U.S.$500 from abroad were evidence of his subversive
activities.
On December 21, 1998 the court sentenced Xu to thirteen years in prison
and three years' deprivation of political rights. He is due for release
on November 29,
2011. He did not appeal. After the trial, according to his wife, he
was transferred from the Banbu Detention Center in Beijing to the Tuanhe
Reform Through Labor
Farm on the city's outskirts,59 but he is now held in Yanqing Prison.
Wang Youcai
Wang Youcai was indicted in Hangzhou one week after his formal arrest
on November 30, 1998 and a month after his detention on November 2. His
"crimes,"
according to the prosecution, included drafting the CDP declaration;
being the prime mover of the CDP; intending to hold a CDP meeting in the
form of a tea party;
and sending eighteen CDP documents abroad by electronic mail. While
under house arrest, according to the prosecution, he had held a meeting
with Wang Ce, a
dissident based in Spain who was later accused of "illegally crossing
the border" into China and giving him over U.S.$780 in cash which he used
to buy a
computer.60 Like Xu Wenli, Wang was treated as a "recidivist" on the
grounds that he "once again hooked up with foreign hostile persons" after
his release from
imprisonment in connection with the June 4, 1989 crackdown.61 On December
21, Wang was convicted of violating Article 106 of the Criminal Code and
sentenced to eleven years in prison.
Qin Yongmin
Qin Yongmin was sentenced after a two-and-a-half-hour trial on December
17, 1998 in the Wuhan People's Intermediate Court. He was convicted of,
among other
things, "preparing to organize the CDP, editing China Human Rights
Watch, reporting on human rights to the United Nations, and linking up
with foreign hostile
organizations." His elder brother, Qin Xiaoguang, arrived a few minutes
late and was denied entry to the court. But when the verdict was announced
on December
22, he was able to shout to his brother, "Qin Yongmin, what is the
crime? What is the sentence?" In response, Qin called back, "Subverting
state power. Twelve
years. I am not going to appeal. I have contempt for this court."62
Qin Yongmin was transferred to the Shayang Reform through Labor Farm in
Zhongxiang District,
Hubei province, in early January 1999.63
The trials provoked an immediate response. More than 200 dissidents
addressed a petition to the government demanding the prisoners' release
and launched a
hunger strike in protest. The strike was scheduled to start on December
24, 1998 and continue until April 10, 1999; in practice, it continued through
January 1999.
The U.S. State Department criticized the trials, publicly characterizing
them as "a step backwards in what had been an improved human rights performance
over the
last year or two."64 Derek Fatchett, a senior British Foreign Ministry
officials, said he was shocked at the severity of the sentences, and German
Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer said the sentences threatened Sino-German talks on
human rights.65
But even before the verdicts were handed down, President Jiang Zemin
echoed Li Peng's hardline position in a speech that he made in Japan on
December 18,
1998, the twentieth anniversary of China's economic reform policy:
We must be on guard, from the beginning to
the end, against infiltrating, subversive and splittist activities by international
and domestic hostile forces.
Any political behavior that is aimed at damaging
the stability and unity of our country runs counter to the will and the
fundamental interests of the
Chinese people. No matter where these factors
which damage social stability come from, we must firmly hold to the Four
Basic Principles and have a
clear-cut stand in increasingly opposing them
and firmly nipping them in the bud.66
Five days later, after the harsh sentences had been announced, Jiang
Zemin returned to the same theme, this time before a Chinese audience.
"Stability should prevail
over everything," he said, using a slogan that Deng Xiaoping had used
in a speech just after the Tiananmen crackdown, and adding:
Nineteen ninety-nine is going to be a very
important year in the history of development of our party and our country.
We will celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the establishment of the country,
Macao will return to the Motherland. The importance of continuing to protect
social stability is
enormous.67
He added once more that any developments which might undermine social stability should be "nipped in the bud."
Despite the arrests of at least twenty CDP members in November and December
1998, Yao Zhenxian, the first CDP member to reach the United States, testified
before the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1999, that "the essential core
[of the CDP] remains functioning ... many Party members not known to the
authorities or the
public are still very active." They, he said, would "continue to expand"
the CDP's activities and "overcome present adversities."68
New Activities Under The Eye Of The Police
After the first trials had taken some of the top leaders out of action,
a second layer of CDP leaders came to the fore, and once again, the focus
of activity was in
Hangzhou. These leaders continued to hold meetings and issue open letters
to the Chinese government in the face of steady harassment. For example,
Wu Yilong, a
main CDP organizer who had traveled around the country to gather support
in 1998, was expelled from Hangzhou University on January 16. His hukou,
the
residence permit which allowed him to live in Zhejiang, was automatically
cancelled, and he was expelled from the province. Later, in April, he was
detained by
Guangzhou police when he traveled to Guangdong province to look for
work. They sent him back to Hangzhou, where local police detained him on
arrival and
accused him of being a vagrant (mangliu). He was told that he would
be released after the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown on June
4, 1999, but he
remained in detention until he was brought to trial in October 1999.69
Another Hangzhou activist, Zhu Zhengming, was interrogated by police
on January 16, 1999 after he protested against Wu Yilong's expulsion from
the university.
The deputy chief of the police station to which he was taken told him,
"Your sort of people, we should put you in a hemp bag and beat you to a
pulp." "Beating
people is illegal," said Zhu. The policeman then replied, "Of course
we won't beat you [ourselves], others will beat you, and we won't know
it."70
Zhu contrasted his treatment on this occasion with an earlier incident on July 8, 1998:
If that harassment [the first time] was comparatively
civilized -- materials they checked were placed back in their original
place -- then this one [in
January 1999] was definitely barbaric. Everything
was turned upside down; the house was in a mess. The police chief said,
"After this, we'll come to
make a mess every two weeks."71
CDP members were also active in other provinces. On February 10, 1999,
for example, the Liaoning CDP activists in Liaoning called on other dissidents
to
"comfort and economically support" the families of victims of the suppression
of the Tiananmen protests in June 1989.72 Gao Hongming, who had taken over
the
leadership of the Beijing-Tianjin branch after the detention of Xu
Wenli, called upon the National People's Congress to scrap the "Four Basic
Principles" in order to
guarantee civil rights. He also proposed the depoliticization of the
army, direct elections for delegates to the National People's Congress
(NPC), and the amending of
Article 35 of the Constitution to include "the right to organize parties."
In Jilin province, An Fuxing called for the NPC to "review the judgment
about June 4" and
implement a general amnesty for all political prisoners.73
In early February, CDP members in five provinces -- Shaanxi (Xi'an city
branch), Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, and, Hunan (Huangxiong city) -- announced
that they had
formed "party branches," but they did not seek to register them with
the Civil Affairs authorities. On March 5, Shi Liuchuan and Wang Zemin
established the CDP
Inner Mongolia Preparatory Committee in the city of Chifeng. This brought
the total of CDP organizations nationwide to twenty-nine, including nine
party branches,
nineteen preparatory committees, and one national committee.74
Gao Hongming announced the establishment of the national committee on
February 6 and plans were made to hold a national congress in Wuhan from
March 1 to
3.75 The meeting was to coincide with a seminar on human rights, organized
by China Human Rights Watch magazine, to which the director of the official
China
Human Rights Association had been invited. But the police intervened,
summoning Fu Shen and Zha Jianguo, CDP leaders from Shaanxi and Beijing
respectively, for
interrogation, and briefly detaining Wang Zechen from Liaoning and
Lu Xinhua from Wuhan. All were told to cease their party activities.76
Police in Wuhan
summoned Fu Shen twice more and warned him, "If we meet you again,
it will be in jail."77 Chen Zhonghe and Xiao Shichang, leaders of the Hubei
Branch, were
detained on February 13. The planned national congress never took place.
In Hangzhou, meanwhile, dissidents tried to gather in informal meetings
but without much success. Shortly after Chinese New Year, on February 16,
police broke up
a party organized by the CDP Preparatory Committee in Zhejiang province.
Uniformed and plainclothes police surrounded the venue, questioned the
partygoers,
checked their identities, and recorded their names. They also detained
a CDP member from Shandong, Wang Jinbo, who had come to Zhejiang to look
for work.78
On February 28, however, a CDP meeting was allowed to go ahead, perhaps
because U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was then visiting Beijing.
On
March 14, 1999, police detained fourteen CDP members in Zhejiang after
they announced their intention to hold a seminar on "how to promote the
democratic
process in China." Wang Rongqing, Zhu Yufu, and Zhu Zhengming were
taken in and questioned, but then released.79
Undeterred, the CDP Zhejiang preparatory committee announced on March
19 that it would hold biweekly meetings to discuss further development
of the CDP and
the promotion of democracy.80 Police broke up the first meeting when
the activists tried to hold it in a Hangzhou teahouse two days later. They
detained Lai Jinbiao,
Wang Rongqing, Mao Qingxiang, and Li Xi'an and questioned them for
five hours and ordered others present to leave the teahouse.81
The government issued a further warning at the end of March, as the
tenth anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy movement approached. Minister
of Public
Security Jia Chunwang declared that "the situation of social safety
this year is grave" and spoke of the need to guard against "foreign hostile
forces" that aimed to
destroy the Communist Party.82 Li Zhiyou, of the Guangxi preparatory
committee, was formally arrested and charged with instigating the overthrow
of the
government. He had gone back to Guilin and was detained after putting
up CDP posters. He was eventually sentenced to three years in prison.
Yue Tianxiang, Guo Xinmin, and Wang Fengshan, labor activists from Gansu
with close connections to the CDP, faced the same charges. Guo and Wang
each
received a two-year prison sentences but Yue was sentenced to ten years
in prison for having had contact with an overseas organization.83 Another
activist, Wang
Ce, was charged on February 4 with illegal border crossing, illegal
funding of individuals in order to subvert the state, and endangering state
security.84 According to
the court documentation, he was also convicted of giving U.S.$1,000
to Wang Youcai in a teahouse in the Yuquan Park in Hangzhou. He was sentenced
to four
years in prison, two years' deprivation of political rights, and a
fine of RMB5,000 (U.S.$610).85 By May 1999, at least six core CDP members
had been tried and
convicted.
The Second Wave
A new surge of nationalism was sparked by the May 7, 1999 NATO bombing
of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. This, together with the unexpected
rise of the
Falun Gong spiritual movement, and official fears of demonstrations
and dissent in connection with the tenth anniversary of the 1989 Beijing
crackdown, led to a new
wave of repression against anyone perceived to be deviating from state
policy. Across the country during this period, more than 190 people were
detained, including
some CDP members.
On May 17, the People's Daily took aim at dissidents living in exile abroad:
You have your mouth full of the struggle for
democracy. What kind of democracy are you struggling for? Is it a democracy
where Chinese people stand
up and are the masters in their own house?
Or do you show the Chinese people and the people of the world a wink of
hegemonism, and is it a
democracy by hegemonism which goes to any
length to achieve its wicked purpose? For more than fifty days, the ugly
performance by you and your
masters has already given the answer.86
On May 19, Han Shubin, chief of the Supreme People's Procuratorate,
stressed that "any activities harming state security" would be suppressed.
One day later, on
May 20, the CDP Beijing branch called for a peaceful commemoration
of the tenth anniversary of June 4. It asked people to wear light-colored
clothing on June 4.
People could go to Tiananmen Square but not interrupt the construction
work, which the government had begun in late 1998, conveniently restricting
access through
the period of the anniversary. "One can stand or sit still for a while,"
CDP instructions went, "but definitely not paste posters or shout slogans."87
Protests remained
low key but there was a new wave of detentions, indictments, and formal
arrests.
Zha Jianguo and Gao Hongming
The case of Beijing CDP representative Zha Jianguo was heard on July
5, 1999. He stood trial at the same time as Gao Hongming. Both men were
accused of
subverting state political power. The indictment alleged that Zha Jianguo
and Gao Hongming had planned:
to establish, with Xu Wenli (already sentenced)
the "CDP Beijing-Tianjin Region Branch" in November 1998 at No. 423, Entrance
4, Street 2,
Baiguang Road in Xuanwu District, the house
of Xu, where Xu was to be the chairman and Zha Jianguo and Gao Hongming
the vice-chairmen. They
approved the "CDP Constitution" (provisional)
which they had formulated together with overseas hostile element Yan Jiaqi.
The said constitution
stipulates that "the prime objective of the
CDP is to put an end to the dictatorship of one-party rule and establish
a Third Republic."88
The men were accused of publishing articles in the overseas dissident
magazine, Beijing Spring. The authorities also alleged that in February
1999, Zha and Gao
established the CDP United General Headquarters in order to organize
the various provincial groups and drafted a "CDP United General Headquarters
Constitution"
(Zhongguo minzhudang lianhe zongbu dangzhang). The men were also accused
of designing a party flag, a symbol, and a song.89
On August 2, Zha was sentenced to nine years in prison and two years'
deprivation of political rights. Gao Hongming was sentenced to eight years
in prison and two
years' deprivation of political rights. One CDP member, He Depu, tried
to attend the trial. Two days before it began, on July 30, he went to ask
for an "visitor's
permit." He was received by a woman in the reception office near the
gate of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, who told him that
passes in advance
were not given. On August 2, the day of the trial, he went early, and
at 7:30 a.m. was the first to apply for a permit. But police had cordoned
off the north and west
entrances of the building and did not allow people go inside. When
the office opened at 8:30 a.m., He was received by a male official to whom
he showed his ID
and asked to attend the trial of Zha Jianguo and Gao Hongming. The
official told him that permits were only given when the applications were
made "in an organized
way and approved by leaders." It was not possible, he was told, to
get a permit on his own. He was then detained by plainclothes police and
kept in a police station
for eight hours.90
On September 17, 1999 the Beijing High People's Court rejected the appeal of Zha Jianguo and Gao Hongming.91
She Wanbao
She, who worked as deputy head of a municipal bank branch and was director
of a trust association, was taken from his home on July 7, 1999, by public
security
officials.92 The officials also searched his home. He was formally
arrested on July 10 on charges of subverting state power. On August 4,
he was sentenced to twelve
years in prison.93 SheWanbao was a core member of the CDP who helped
coordinate party activities nationwide after Wang Youcai, Qin Yongmin,
and Xu Wenli
were sentenced and imprisoned. He had been active during the 1989 democracy
movement and had written essays about it which were published in Hong Kong.
After the 1989 crackdown, he was arrested and sentenced to three years
in prison. After his release in 1992, he became a private entrepreneur.
Liu Xianbin
Liu Xianbin was detained on July 7, 1999 and formally arrested one week
later. He was sentenced to thirteen years in prison by the Suining City
Intermediate
People's Court in Sichuan province on August 6.94 The trial lasted
four hours, and Liu's wife, Chen Mingxian, attended. Liu, formerly a student
in the personnel
management department of People's University, had served a two-and-a-half-year
sentence in the early 1990s for publishing Democracy Forum, a magazine
promoting political reform. He became involved in the CDP in 1998 and
coordinated a liaison group which was dedicated to campaigning for the
release of Xu
Wenli.95 As a co-founder of the CDP-Sichuan chapter, he was detained
three times during 1998 and 1999. He did not have access to a lawyer either
before or
during his trial and did not defend himself. He was convicted of subverting
state power under Article 105 of the penal code.96 In an open letter to
President Jiang
Zemin, Liu's wife wrote:
... the Suining city state security [personnel]
announced the detention was "ordered from above" ... they took a congratulatory
phone call by an
overseas organization as proof of [Liu's]
crime of linking up with overseas organizations, to organize and plot the
establishment of the CDP; they [also]
took some words in a certain issue of China
Human Rights Watch as evidence as well as the notes of a journalist.97
Even as repression peaked, dissidents in three provinces, Jiangxi, Guangxi
and Yunnan announced the establishment of new CDP committees and issued
a "founding
declaration" on July 5.98 This time, however, the committees did not
post telephone numbers of members on the Internet, nor did they mention
going to the Civil
Affairs Bureau to register.
The Third Wave
On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic of
China on October 1, 1999, a new wave of arrests and trials began. As the
anniversary drew near,
the CDP had released several documents, including an "Open Declaration
by CDP Branches of Twenty-Five Provinces and Cities."99In it, the party
once again
recognized Jiang Zemin as head of state and the CCP as the ruling party,
but it also called for direct democratic elections and a system of division
of powers.100 The
CDP Sichuan Preparatory Committee called for a general amnesty of all
political prisoners, pointing out that many countries give a general amnesty
in connection
with important festivals. The CCP, it said, should do the same and
use the amnesty to lay the groundwork for political reform and improving
human rights.101
But instead of releasing political prisoners, Chinese authorities detained
more people for their political activities. Liu Shizun, who had worked
together with Xu Wenli,
Zha Jianguo, and Gao Hongming in the party's Beijing-Tianjin branch,
was formally arrested on September 17, 1999. His house in Dalian was searched,
and
address books were confiscated. On the morning of October 1, a CDP
member from Zhejiang, Nie Minzhi, was taken into custody.
Shortly after October 1, the wives of four top CDP activists, Mao Qingxiang,
Zhu Yufu, Xu Guang, and Wu Yilong, received an "urgent announcement" from
the
Hangzhou City Procuratorate that they should get their husbands a lawyer,
since the proceedings against them were about to begin. All four men had
been in
detention for months. Wu Yilong had been detained on April 26 in Guangzhou.
Zhu Yufu and Mao Qingxiang, together with another CDP member named Wang
Rongqing and two friends from Shanghai had been in custody since June
19, 1999, although Mao's wife was only informed of the detention on September
20, some
three months later. On September 24, the four wives had written an
open letter to the Chinese government, faxed to foreign journalists, demanding
the release of
their husbands and clarification as to where, what for and for how
long they were detained.102They received no response until the procuratorate
informed them that
the trials were imminent.
The trials started at 7:00 a.m. on October 25 in the Hangzhou Intermediate
People's Court and lasted until 3:00 p.m. The court building was sealed
off by police,
and only two family members of each of the defendants were allowed
in. The four defendants were told that their attempts to establish the
CDP constituted a plot to
subvert state political power. The prosecution also noted that they
had established a magazine, Opposition Party (Zai yedang), posted "subversive"
material
regarding the CDP on some Chinese-language bulletin boards on the Internet,
and "plotted to link up with overseas organizations." 103 The four spoke
in their own
defense, but judges cut them short because they made "anti-government"
statements.104 Two weeks after the trial, the four were sentenced. Wu Yilong
was given
eleven years in prison, Mao Qinxiang eight years, Zhu Yufu, seven years,
and Xu Guang, five years.
Further trials took place in 2000. Tong Shidong, from Hunan province,
was sentenced to ten years in prison on January 3, after having been in
detention for almost
half a year. On the same day, Liao Shihua a CDP member who had helped
Tong Shidong edit a non-official publication at Hunan University in Changsha,
received a
six-year prison sentence. Liu Shizun, a CDP member from Liaoning province,
who took over the leadership of the CDP Beijing-Tianjin branch after Gao
Hongming
and Zha Jianguo were taken into custody, was sentenced to six years
in prison on February 16. Zhu Zhengming, one of the main organizers of
the CDP Zhejiang
preparatory committee, was tried on March 17 and given a ten-year prison
sentence on April 29, 2000. On July 7, Xiao Shichang and Chen Zhonghe,
core
members of the CDP Wuhan chapter, were sentenced respectively to five
and a half and seven year prison terms. All were charged with subversion.
Other members
of the Wuhan chapter were also tried but received lighter sentences.
For all practical purposes, CDP activities had been silenced by January
2000. In December 1999, foreign news organizations had received a lengthy
declaration in
which the CDP's program for the new millennium was set out.105 But
from January onwards, to the extent that there were pamphlets or protests,
they were mainly
issued by CDP members living abroad. The resistance was effectively
broken. One of the few remaining active members, He Depu, was stripped
of his position at
the Academy of Social Sciences on March 28, 2000 and as of this writing
remains under close surveillance .106
42 Zhonghua renmin gongheguo guowuyuan ling di erbai wushi hao (Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No. 250).
43 The Fazhi ribao (Legal Daily) published the rules when they were finally mentioned in the press on November 3, 1998.
44 "China: Freedom of Association Regulated Away," Human Rights in China,
1999, in Three Freedoms Project,
http://www.threefreedoms.org/finalreport2/1-cfoa.htm.
45 Ibid.
46 "Hangzhou Police Detain Dissident, Two Others Go Missing," Agence France Presse, November 4, 1998.
47 Xu apparently took the lead in the Beijing region after an attempt
to found the CDP Beijing Preparatory Committee by Ren Wanding failed when
Ren was
warned by the police not to proceed.
48 "Di yi hao wengao" (Proclamation No. 1) in Xiao cankao, November
11, 1998. Proclamation No. 1 also planned to invite the "six gentlemen
Sun Weibang,
Chen Ziming, Liu Xiaobo, Zhang Jingsheng, Hu Shigen and Chen Lantao"
to join the preparatory work "at a time of their convenience" ... at the
time of proclamation
No. 1, all six were in prison or under strict surveillance. Apart from
them, the proclamation invited some seventy dissidents and other outspoken
people residing
abroad, such as Wang Dan, Wei Jingsheng, Liu Qing, Hu Ping, Chai Ling
and Wu'er Kaixi to return to China and join the preparatory work. Some
20 others, such
as Bao Tong, Wu Zuguang, Bao Zunxin, Chen Yizi and Fang Lizhi would
be asked to become "advisors."
49 Some CDP documents refer to "non-violence" (fei baoli) instead of "peace" (heping).
50 Zhongguo minzhu dang choubei weiyuanhui zhuce Gonggao (Statement
of Registration of the CDP National Preparatory Committee), November 10,
1998.
The document gives Hangzhou-based Wu Yilong as the main contact person.
The document points to certain discrepancies among the dissidents in a
footnote which
says that "the "First CDP National Congress Preparatory Work Group"
which is established under the CDP National Preparatory Committee "is to
be decided by
vote of majority " by people who signed the "Statement of Registration
of the CDP National Preparatory Committee." Xu Wenli and Liu Shizun are
among the
signatories of that document, but not Gao Hongming, Zha Jianguo, Liu
Shizun and Zhang Hui.
51 Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring), February 1999, p. 11.
52 "Police Detain Six CDP Members," Agence France Presse, November 21, 1998.
53 Li Peng quoted by Xinhua News Agency, December 1, 1998, from an interview in Handelsblatt, November 23, 1998.
54 The others were Li Guotao, Yao Zhenxian, Li Li, and Xie Wanjun. Yao and Xie were later released and are now living in exile in the USA.
55 Beijing shi renmin jiancha yuan fenyuan qisu shu (98) di 609 hao
(Beijing City People's Procuratorate Branch Indictment (98) No. 609), Beijing,
December 9,
1998. Article 105 (1) reads "whoever organizes, plots, or acts to subvert
the political power of the state and overthrow the socialist system, the
ringleaders or those
whose crimes are grave are to be sentenced to life imprisonment, or
not less than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment; active participants
are to be sentenced from
not less than three years to not more than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment;
other participants are to be sentenced to not more than three years of
fixed-term
imprisonment, criminal detention, control, or deprivation of political
rights." Article 106 reads "whoever colludes with institutions, organizations,
or individuals outside
the country and commits crimes stipulated in Articles 103, 104, and
105 of this chapter are to be heavily punished according to the stipulations
in the articles." This
refers to sentences up to life imprisonment for "splittism and destroying
national unity" (Art. 103), sentences up to life imprisonment for "armed
rebellion" (Art. 104).
Article 66 reads: "Criminal elements endangering state security who,
at any time after their punishment has been completely executed or they
have received a pardon,
commit another crime endangering state security are all to be treated
as recidivists." Recidivists, according to Article 65 of the PRC Penal
Code, "shall be given a
heavier punishment." However, commission of a crime through negligence
is an exception.
56 Bianhu Ci (Defense) by Beijing Mo Shaoping Law Firm, Beijing, December 21, 1998.
57 "Xu Wenli an fating shenpan jilu"(The Case of Xu Wenli, Records of
a Trial in Court) in: Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring), February 1999.
The notes were
taken by Xu Wenli's wife, He Xintong.
58 Ibid.
59 "Dissidents `Moved To Harsh Prisons'," South China Morning Post, January 15, 1999.
60 Beijing zhi chun (Beijing Spring) February 1999, p. 8, 9. According
to court material regarding Wang Ce's case, Wang Ce is accused of having
given
U.S.$1,000 to Wang Youcai.
61 Zhejiang sheng Hangzhou shi zhongji renmin fayuan xingshi panjueshu
(1998) hang fa xing chu zi di 183 hao (Zhejiang Province Hangzhou Intermediate
People's Court Criminal Case Sentence (1998 no. 183)).
62 "Dissidents Released After Qin Yongmin's Sentencing: Brother," Agence France Presse, 22 December 1998.
63 "Dissidents `Moved To Harsh Prisons'," South China Morning Post, January 15, 1999.
64 U.S. Department of State, daily press briefing, December 22, 1998.
65 "International chorus of protest at jailing of Chinese dissidents," Agence France Presse, December 22, 1998.
66 "Zai jinian dang de shiyi jie sanzhong quanhui zhaokai ershi zhounian
dahui shang de jianghua" (Speech At The Grand Meeting To Commemorate The
Twentieth
Anniversary Of The Third Plenum Of The Eleventh Central Committee Of
The Party), Renmin ribao (People's Daily) Overseas Edition, December 19,
1998.
67 "Jiang Zemin yu quanguo zhengfa gongzuo huiyi daibiao zuotan shi
zhichu dang zheng lingdao yao chengdanqi weihu wending de zhengzhi zeren,
zhengfa jiguan
yao quebao gaige kaifang jianshe shunli jinxing." (Jiang Zemin, During
A Session At The National Meeting For Political And Legal Work, Points
Out That The
Leaders Of The Party And The Government Must Be Held Responsible For
The Protection Of Stability; The Government And Legal Departments Must
Guarantee
The Smooth Implementation Of Reform And Open Door), Renmin ribao (People's
Daily) December 23, 1998, speech to delegates of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference.
68 Congressional Testimony by Yao Zhenxian, Federal Document Clearing House, January 1, 1999.
69 Radio Free Asia, May 8, 1999.
70 "Zhu Zhengming - jueshi ganyan" (Zhu Zhengming - Reflections On A
Hungerstrike, March 18, 1999), Xiao cankao, April 10, 1999,
http://homepages.go.com/~bignews3/990410.txt.
71 Ibid.
72 "Minzhudang liaoning zhibu haozhao chunjie qijian daui "liu si" sinanzhe
jiashu jinxing weiwen" (CDP Liaoning Branch Calls On Comforting, During
The Spring
Festival, The Families Of Those Who Were Killed And Wounded on "June
4") in Xiao cankao, February 10, 1999.
73 Radio Free Asia, February 24, 1999. Full text of the proposal was
published in "Zhongguo minzhudang quanguo choubeihui guanyu xiugai xianfa
de shixiang
jianyi," (Ten Suggestions on the Revision of the Constitution by the
CDP National Preparatory Committee), Xiao cankao, March 5, 1999.
74 Ming Pao, March 8, 1999 . The two men were the same who in 1998 had
founded the 1,000 member strong Pine Tree Literature Association (Songshan
wenxue hui), an informal discussion group.
75 "China Detains Activist As Opposition Party Prepares To Hold Forum," Agence France Presse, February 7, 1999.
76 "Zhongguo gong'an bumen jinggao zhongguo minzhu dang chengyuan tingzhi
huodong," (Chinese Public Security Departments Warn CDP Members To Stop
Activities), Radio Free Asia, February 9, 1999.
77 "Xi'an zhongguo minzhudang chengyuan fu shen bei xianhou chuanxun
liang ci," ("Xi'an CDP Member Summoned For Interrogation Twice In A Row"),
Radio
Free Asia, February 10, 1999.
78 Press release issued by the CDP Zhejiang Preparatory Committee on February 20, 1999.
79 "Police Break Up China Democracy Party Meeting, Detain Members," Associated Press, March 14, 1999.
80 "Zhongguo minzhudang zhejiang choubeihui biaoshi jiang dingqu juxing
huiyi" (The CDP Hangzhou Preparatory Committee Expresses It Will Hold Fixed
Meetings), Radio Free Asia, March 19, 1999.
81 "Zhongguo yiyi renshi xinwen" (China Dissident News), Radio Free Asia, March 21, 1999.
82 "Police Urged to Implement Laws Strictly," China Daily March 29, 1999.
83 "China Jails Gansu Labour Activists For Up To 10 Yrs," Associated Press, July 6, 1999.
84 Wang Ce was charged under Articles 322, 107, 69 and 56 of the criminal
law. Article 69 deals with recidivism, 56 with endangering state security.
(Zhejiang
Province Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court Criminal Case Sentence
(1999 1))
85 Zhejiang sheng Hangzhou shi zhongji renmin fayuan xingshi panjueshu
(1999) hang chu zi di yi hao (Zhejiang Province Hangzhou Intermediate People's
Court Criminal Case Sentence (1999 1)). Wang's punishment for illegal
border crossing was one year and a fine of RMB5,000 (U.S.$610), punishment
for his
"aiding people who carry out activities harming national security"
was four years in prison and two years deprivation of political rights.
The sentences were to run
concurrently. Article 322 of the Penal Code deals with "violating the
regulations concerning the management of national boundaries," which carry
a maximum penalty
of 1 year. Article 107, which deals with "funding of domestic organizations
or ... individuals by ... overseas organizations" in violation of Articles
102 - 105 which
concerning national security, entails prison terms up to five years,
but up to life when their "situation is grave." Article 69 deals with multiple
crimes and Article 56
imposes the sanction of "deprivation of political rights" to those
who commit crimes endangering state security.
86 Renmin ribao (People's Daily), May 17, 1999. The "fifty days" refer to the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
87 "Zhongguo minzhudang beijing dangbu `gao beijing shimin shu'" (CDP Beijing Branch "Appeal to the Citizens of Beijing") in Xiao cankao, May 20, 1999.
88 Beijing shi renmin jianchayuan di yi fenyuan - qisu shu (Beijing
City People's Procuratorate Number One Branch - Indictment (1999) no. 89.),
Beijing, July
5, 1999.
89 Ibid.
90 "Zhongguo minzhudangren He Depu yaoqiu pangting Zha Jianguo Gao Hongming
shenpan bei ju ji" ("Record Of CDP Member He Depu Asking To Attend The
Trial Of Zha Jianguo And Gao Hongming And Being Refused") in Xiao cankao,
August 25, 1999.
91 "Chinese Court Rejects Appeals Of Two Dissidents," Associated Press, September 17, 1999.
92 "Four Opposition Party Members Detained In Southwest China," Agence France Presse, July 8, 1999.
93 "Democracy Fighter Jailed For 12 Years" South China Morning Post, August 6, 1999.
94 "Chinese Dissident Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison For Subversion," Associated Press, July 15, 1999.
95 "Chinese Prosecutors Investigating Prominent Dissident," Associated Press, December 9, 1998.
96 "Chinese Dissident Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison For Subversion," Associated Press, August 6, 1999.
97 Open letter by Chen Mingxian, August 16, 1999. Human Rights Watch refers to the magazine issued by Qin Yongmin
98 "Zhongguo minzhudang mieshi fengkuang zhenya, jixu xiang zhonggong
yi dang ducai zhanzheng faqi tiaozhan" (The CDP Disregards Wild Suppression,
Goes On
to Challenge the One Party Dictatorship of the CCP" in Xiao cankao,
July 5, 1999.
99 The number and name of the various branches differs. The only organization,
which consistently calls itself a "branch" (dangbu), was the "Beijing-Tianjin
Branch."
In provinces such as Liaoning and Hebei, party chapters were sometimes
described as "branches" sometimes as "preparatory committees."
100 Yanzheng shengming (Solemn Declaration), signed by the China National Preparatory Committee, dated October 1, 1999, on file at Human Rights Watch.
101 "Zhejiang zhongguo minzhudang fuzeren Nie Minzhi `guoqing' bei bu"
(Zhejiang CDP Leader Nie Minzhi Detained During `National Day') in Xiao
cankao,
October 1, 1999.
102 A copy of the letter is on file at Human Rights Watch.
103 "Hangzhou fayuan shenpan minzhudangren Wu Yilong, Zhu Yufu, Mao
Qingxiang he Xu Guang" (Hangzhou Court Sentences CDP Members Wu Yilong,
Zhu
Yufu, Mao Qingxiang And Xu Guang), Xiao cankao, October 25, 1999.
104 Ibid.
105 "Chinese Dissidents Break Silence With Call For Democratic Change,"
Associated Press, December 24, 1999. The full text of the declaration was
posted on
the Internet. See "Zhongguo minzhudang yingjie xin shiji xuanyan" (Proclamation
of the CDP Welcoming the New Century) in Xiao cankao, December 2,
1999.
106 Letter written by He Depu protesting his resignation, dated March
28, 2000. The CASS said that "Considering the assessment that He Depu's
work over the
years 1998 and 1999 was not up to standard, it is decided that he is
fired in accordance with the regulations of the personnel bureau and the
regulations of our work
unit and after study by the office of the director of the academy.
The letter is on file at Human Rights Watch.
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V. THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE CDP
Why was the government response to the China Democracy Party so harsh?
Its members had never used or advocated violence. Their weapons were faxes,
e-mails, and public declarations. They were determined to raise issues
of democratic reform and exercise rights guaranteed in two international
human rights treaties
that China had just signed. What Chinese authorities were calling efforts
to subvert state power, most people would have called advocacy of peaceful
political
change.
By Chinese standards, moreover, this was a tiny group of people, probably
never numbering more than 200 activists at its height. Most had a history
of openly
challenging official policy, with some 70 percent having been active
during the 1989 pro-democracy movement. A smaller group, including many
of the leaders, had
been active during the 1979 Democracy Wall movement. They were represented
in all but three of China's twenty-seven provinces, with a particularly
strong
presence in Hangzhou (at least seventy members) and Shanghai (at least
twenty members). But in part because of the risks involved in overt confrontation
with the
authorities, the CDP was never likely to attract a mass following.
What, then, did the government fear? It was clearly concerned about
possible unrest as a series of sensitive anniversaries approached, in particular
the tenth
anniversary of June 4, 1989, and the fiftieth anniversary of the PRC
on October 1, 1999. Added to this was a chain of unexpected events which
caused authorities in
Beijing to be more nervous than usual. On April 25, 1999 the Falun
Gong spiritual meditation group staged a massive protest around Zhongnanhai,
the residential
compound of the Chinese leadership. On May 7, 1999 the NATO bombing
of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade generated a new wave of nationalism
and anti-West
emotion. It was not coincidental that the authorities, who often saw
demands for multiparty democracy as evidence of negative influences from
the West, made a
point in the trials of CDP members of stressing their contacts with
foreigners or "hostile outside forces."
However, it was not just bad timing which made the Chinese government
respond so harshly. It clearly saw the demands of the CDP activists as
undermining the
very core of the Communist Party's guiding principles.
Violating Freedom of Association
The government crackdown against the CDP is an example of how the Chinese
Communist Party uses the law, implemented by judicial and public security
organs,
to prevent the exercise of freedom of association. After the Cultural
Revolution, for example, some people, dissatisfied with the new policies
which effectively
undermined Mao Zedong's ideas of socialism, tried to set up parties
supporting the "Gang of Four," a leftist political group headed by Mao's
wife, Jiang Qing.
Others, aiming for new freedoms, tried to set up parties which resembled
western-style opposition parties and aimed either to challenge the CCP
or to establish a
western-style multiparty democracy. None ever had more than a few dozen
members, and none survived.
· In 1987, a Chinese People's Democratic Party (Zhongguo Renmin
Minzhu Dang, CPDP) was established in Fujian province. The founders, Li
Jingdong, Chen
Shanhui and Pan Guihui, from Ningde in Fujian province, formulated
a party charter and established the "CPDP's Fujian and Zhejiang's Temporary
Provincial
Committee" and the "East Fujian Special Committee." The party had its
own flag and at least thirty-five active members, all of whom had to take
an oath. The group
set up factories to fund itself. In 1989, the CPDP, in hundreds of
posters, criticized the PLA's 1989 crackdown against peaceful protesters
in Beijing. Seven of its
organizers were then accused of "setting up a counterrevolutionary
group" and imprisoned; no information is available on their sentences.107
While the specific
charges against them are not known, they seem likely to have been convicted
of "organizing counterrevolutionary groups," under an article of the penal
code then
commonly used to punish political dissent. It carried a penalty of
ten years in prison to life imprisonment.
· In mid-1991, three students, Wei Guanjun, Chen Xiangrong, and
Xiong Jiang, established a Chinese People's Party (Zhongguo Renmin Dang,
CPP). The
organizers had designed a "council" for the party and appointed Wei
as "chairman"; other posts included a "chief of finance," a "chief of security"
and a "chief of
propaganda." The party issued essays, such as "An Angry Cry" (Fennu
de hushen) and "Appeal to the Entire Nation" (Gao quanti guomin shu), in
which they
called for social transformation. Wei Guanjun was sentenced to twelve
years in prison and three years' deprivation of political rights, Chen
Xiangrong to six years in
prison and one year's deprivation of political rights. Both were charged
with the crime of "organizing a counterrevolutionary group." Xiong Jiang
was sentenced to
three years in prison and one year deprivation of political rights
for the "crime of actively joining a counterrevolutionary group."108 Human
Rights Watch has no
further details of the case.
· In 1993, the Democratic Youth Party (Minzhu qingnian dang),
with 179 members, was active in Kai Xian in the Three Gorges Reservoir
Area in Wanxian
Prefecture, Chongqing. It is not clear what the objectives of the party
were or what was the fate of the organizers, although there were reports
that they were
arrested in connection with protests against the population resettlement
policies connected with the construction of Three Gorges Dam.109
· On July 14, 1994, sixteen dissidents belonging to the Liberal
Democratic Party of China (Zhongguo ziyou minzhu dang, LDPC), some of whom
also
belonged to the China Progressive Alliance (Zhonghua jinbu tongmeng,
CPA), and a group promoting labor rights, the Free Labor Union of China,
were
sentenced to heavy jail terms. This was the largest group trial since
the prosecution of dissidents three and a half years earlier in the wake
of the 1989 Tiananmen
crackdown. The heaviest sentences were meted out to LDPC founders Kang
Yuchun and Hu Shigen: they were sentenced to seventeen- and twenty-year
prison
terms respectively on charges of "organizing a counterrevolutionary
group." Kang was also accused of being one of the founders, on June 27,
1991, of the China
Progressive Alliance and of being instrumental in drafting its political
program (thereby illustrating the interlocking nature of many of these
dissident organizations).
The crackdown against these groups formed part of a larger, nationwide
suppression of dissident organizations which had started in 1992. The groups
were
established by people who had apparently been encouraged by Deng Xiaoping's
famous tour to southern China in January 1992, during which he reinvigorated
the
economic reforms which had ground to a halt after the 1989 crackdown.
Dissidents mistakenly thought the time was now ripe to advocate for political
reforms as
well.110
· In 1999, Chinese local press reported that China XX Great Army
South West Yangzi River Column (Zhongguo xx da jun xi nan changjiang zongdui)
had
been established in Chongqing. The group, composed of peasants, had
established an organizational structure and appointed ministers of departments,
a politburo,
an organization department, and a propaganda department. According
to unofficial reports, this organization was created by people critical
of official corruption. The
official Chinese account, however, states that the members "were responsible
for reactionary slogans and poetry that appeared in public places in twenty
villages and
townships" in the Chongqing region. On August 8, Yang Jiahua and eight
other founders were detained and charged with "subversion of state power."111
Their
sentences are not known.
What distinguished the above groups from the CDP was that each had a
relatively narrow geographic focus and little contact with organizations
outside China, as
opposed to the nationwide network of CDP and its sophisticated means
of communication. None of the above, unlike the CDP, ever tried to secure
formal legal
status. Even so, their members also paid a heavy price for political
action.
It is also worth comparing the Chinese government response to the CDP
with its response to two other groups that emerged about the same time:
the China
Development Union (CDU) and the Falun Gong. The first called itself
a non-governmental organization; the second was a mass movement with tens
of thousands of
members. Neither was overtly political in orientation. Leaders of both
were arrested, but there were interesting differences in the government's
attitude toward the
groups as a whole.
Formally, the CDU "aimed to promote the green peace movement in China."
Members stressed repeatedly they were not a political party. Indeed, they
were not
seeking recognition as a party and did not field candidates, seek political
office or a share in power.
But, in fact, the CDU had a party-like organization. During its "First
National Congress," which was held in Beijing on October 4 and 5, 1998,
"Forty-five delegates
representing 3,058 CDU members passed [the] "Constitution of [the]
China Development Union" [...] and elected the first leading organs."112
An elaborate
bureaucratic structure was created, with a leadership consisting of
thirty people.113 The organization was formally prohibited in October 1998
when employees of
the Ministry of Civil Affairs went to its office and stated that the
organization was illegal. However, members went on with activities, giving
interviews to foreign
journalists and issuing statements. On November 1, its main leaders,
Peng Ming, Wang Yun, and Wen Dehao, were stopped at the Shenzhen-Lowu border
and held
for four hours. The CDU offices in Beijing were searched and equipment
confiscated; the CDU office in Chifeng, Inner-Mongolia was reportedly searched
as well,
with ten members subjected to questioning on November 16.114
Most CDU leaders then faced more police harassment and detention. Peng
Ming, the founder and chairman, was sentenced to eighteen months in administrative
detention on January 25, 1999, but not for subverting state power or
any other political crime. He was charged instead with "soliciting prostitutes,"
a crime that
carries an administrative penalty of up to three years in prison. He
was released on August 9, 2000. Qi Yanchen, editor of the CDU's magazine,
Consult
(Canzhao), faced a secret trial in March 2000 for publishing parts
of a book, The Collapse of China (Zhongguo de Bengkui), which discussed
political reform, on
the Internet. Qi Yanchen is still awaiting a verdict as this report
goes to print, but like Peng Ming, the charges brought against him did
not relate directly to the CDU's
activities.115 In general, CDU members received much less severe penalties
than those of the CDP, possibly because the CDU never explicitly saw itself
as a
political challenge to the Communist Party.116
The Falun Gong is a spiritual movement that has been active since 1994.
It is based on Buddhist and Daoist teachings combined with breathing exercises
called
qigong, but was criticized in the official press for convincing followers
that Falun Gong practices could cure certain ailments. It gained worldwide
attention with its
response to that criticism -- a silent demonstration of more than 10,000
people in the center of Beijing on April 25, 1999, the largest protest
since the 1989
Tiananmen Square demonstrations. There had reportedly been more than
twenty earlier protests in various places in China, also against official
criticism, but these
went largely unnoticed. The government was clearly unnerved by the
size and strength of the Falun Gong organization, not only because it had
a mass following but
because it reached up into the highest ranks of the government. As
a result, perhaps, the punishment meted out was even more severe than for
the CDP members.
The heaviest sentence for a Falun Gong leader was eighteen years in
prison, compared to thirteen for a CDP leader.
107 Fujian sheng zhi (Fujian Provincial Records) 1999, pp. 22, 23.
108 Zhonghua renmin gongheguo xianxing falu panli fenxi quanshu (Encyclopedia
of Current Chinese Legal Analysis), 1995, pp. 1166-1168. The current
situation of Wei Guanjun, Chen Xiangrong and Xiong Jiang is not known.
Wei is supposed to be released in the year 2003; the others were due to
be released in
2000.
109 Human Rights Watch/Asia: China: Three Gorges Dam, Forced Resettlement, Suppression of Dissent and Labor Rights Concerns. February 1995.
110 See Human Rights Watch Detained in China and Tibet...
111 Yangcheng wanbao (Yangcheng Evening News), August 26, 1999. A Hong
Kong based human rights organization reported that the "XX" stood for
"Anti-Corruption." Interestingly, the Article describes the group as
a "reactionary farce" (fandong nauju) but shuns the word "antirevolutionary."
Fandong used to be
a term reserved for the Nationalist Kuomintang.
112 Pamphlet spread by the China Development Union in October 1998,
on file at Human Rights Watch. In total, twenty-one members of an "executive
committee"
were elected; five "secretaries" of an "executive bureau" and seven
"committee members" of a "supervisory committee." In total seven sub-offices
and "departments"
were created within the CDU among which were a "propaganda department"
and an "organization department" and Consult magazine, the official publication
of the
CDU.
113 Ibid.
114 "Chinese Police Question Dissident Intellectual, Detain Six Others," Associated Press, November 23, 1998.
115 "China Puts Democracy Advocate On Trial, No Verdict," Associated Press, May 30, 2000.
116 When the CDU was active, unconfirmed reports spoke of links between
the organization and the Chinese government but Human Rights Watch has
found no
proof supporting the validity of this charge.
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VI. CONCLUSION
The outlook for people who challenge the CCP is grim. President Jiang
Zemin has continued to champion China's economic reform. He has supported
efforts to
reduce corruption and to improve the criminal justice system. But he
has done nothing to change the basic line of Deng Xiaoping's "four basic
principles." On the
contrary, he has worked to strengthen the leadership of the CCP by
running political campaigns. The start of the "Three Stresses" (san jiang)
campaign coincided
with the arrests of CDP members at the end of 1998.117 The campaign,
mainly aimed at party officials, was merged with another one, the "Three
Representatives"
(sange daibiao)118 campaign, which started in February 2000. Both aimed
to incorporate Jiang's ideas of a clean government and "spiritual civilization"
into the
broader set of Marxist-Leninist principles which guide the Communist
Party.
Those who go beyond the Four Principles, the Three Stresses or the Three
Representatives, it is clear, will be dealt with harshly. Jiang is reported
to have indirectly
referred to the crackdown on the CDP as an example of his success:
in a visit by Kim Jong-il, North-Korea's leader, who visited Beijing on
the eve of the historic
Korean summit in June 2000, Jiang is reported to have said that the
secret of maintaining control was to "snuff out any challenge [to the administration]
when it is still
at the embryonic stage."119
The emergence and suppression of the CDP reflects the cycles of tolerance
and intolerance that have characterized all Chinese government policies
since the end of
the Cultural Revolution. It also shows that China has a long way to
go before its actions in signing the two major human rights treaties can
be said to reflect progress
on human rights. The Chinese government will be taking steps to protect
human rights when it releases all members of the CDP and other advocates
of peaceful
reform, and when it stops treating efforts at peaceful political change
as efforts to subvert state power.
117 Jiang Zemin launched the "Three Stresses" campaign and the official
press mentioned it first on December 5, 1998. The program "targets leading
officials above
the county level through criticism, self-criticism and education, with
stresses on studying theory, increasing political consciousness, and cultivating
healthy trends."
During a television conference on December 5, 1998, Jiang's hand-picked
successor, vice president Hu Jintao, said that it was meant to "improve
the cohesion and
effectiveness of the Party's organizations and strengthen their relationship
to the people" (see Xinhua News Agency, December 5, 1998).
118 The "Three Representatives" started with Jiang making an inspection
tour to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. On the eve of the 11th anniversary
of the
Tiananmen crackdown, Jiang stressed that "what is needed [with relation
to] China's problems is that what should prevail over everything is stability"
and stressing
that "what the people hate most is behavior which threatens social
stability." He warned once again against "foreign hostile forces carrying
out plots to "westernize"
and "divide" our country" (see for instance Fazhi ribao June 1, 2000).
119 Willy Wo-Lap Lam, "Jiang's Role In Korean Summit Lauded", South
China Morning Post, June 20, 2000.
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APPENDIX I
TEXT OF THE "OPEN DECLARATION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ZHEJIANG PREPARATORY
COMMITTEE OF THE CHINA
DEMOCRACY PARTY"
(Zhongguo minzhudang zhejiang choubei weiyuan hui chengli gongkai xuanyan)
Translated by Jan van der Made
June 25, 1998
--Considering that no one has the right to use force to preserve his own rule over others and that this kind of phenomenon still exists in our society;
--Considering that modern civilization and reason have already spread
all over the world, and that a haze of feudal autocracy, stupidity and
decay still covers our
society;
--Considering that all kinds of weaknesses still exist in human nature
and that checking political dictatorship and political corruption is [part
of] an ongoing struggle
for justice;
--Considering that the broad public needs to have its own political organization and its own political mouthpiece;
--Considering that a civilian's [right to] freedom of association is a sacred and inviolable right that comes with birth;
We, a group of idealists from all walks of society who are willing to
so devote our lives, have been discussing the establishment of the China
Democracy Party
(CDP) in order to enhance freedom, democracy, justice and peace.
The CDP firmly believes that all political power can come only from
the public and can only be [used] in the service of the public; that a
government can only come
into being according to the wishes of the public and [can only] act
according to the wishes of the public; and that a government is the servant
of the public and not the
one which controls it.
The CDP firmly believes that a government must be established through
the conscious approval of the public [and must be] established through
free, impartial, and
direct democratic elections; and [that a government