India: 51 years after the India - China war of 1962 still no raparations Indian chinese who were interned and hugely discimininated against

51 years after war, it is Diwali for seven people deported to China from Assam
Samudra Gupta Kashyap : Makum, Sun Nov 03 2013

It's Diwali that she missed the most, says Chang Yuet Ho. She was around 12, Chang estimates, when she last saw her friends lighting hundreds of earthern lamps and bursting crackers.

Fifty-one years later, last month, Chang found herself back in the midst of the

Minxin Pei: Communist China's Perilous Phase

Nowadays Chinese leaders seem too busy putting out fires to think about their regime's long-term survival. Last month, they had to dispatch Politburo member Bo Xilai in a messy power struggle on the eve of a leadership transition. This past week, the daring escape of blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng from illegal house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing provoked another crisis. When rulers of one of the most powerful countries in the world have to worry about the defiant acts of a blind man, it's high time for them to think the unthinkable: Is the Communist Party's time up?

Asking such a question seems absurd on the surface. If anything, the party has thrived since its near-death experience in Tiananmen in 1989. Its ranks have swelled to 80 million. Its hold on power, bolstered by the military, secret police and Internet censors, looks unshakable. Yet, beneath this façade of strength lie fundamental fragilities. Disunity among the ruling elites, rising defiance of dissidents, mass riots, endemic official corruption—the list goes on. For students of democratic transitions, such symptoms of regime decay portend a systemic crisis. Based on what we know about the durability of authoritarian regimes, the Chinese Communist Party's rule is entering its most perilous phase. To appreciate the mortal dangers lying ahead for the party, look at three numbers: 6,000, 74 and seven. Statistical analysis of the relationship between economic development and survival of authoritarian regimes shows that few non-oil-producing countries can sustain their rule once per capita GDP reaches $6,000 in purchasing power parity (PPP). Based on estimates by the International Monetary Fund, Chinese GDP per capita is $8,382 in PPP terms ($5,414 in nominal terms).

This makes China an obvious authoritarian outlier. Of the 91 countries with a higher per capita GDP than China now, 68 are full democracies, according to Freedom House, 10 are "partly free" societies, and 13 are "not free." Of the 13 countries classified as "not free," all except Belarus are oil producers. Of the 10 "partly free" countries, only Singapore, Tunisia and Lebanon are not oil producers. Tunisia has just overthrown its long-ruling autocracy. Prospects of democracy are looking brighter in Singapore. As for Lebanon, remember the Cedar Revolution of 2005?

So the socioeconomic conditions conducive to a democratic breakthrough already exist in China today. Maintaining one-party rule in such a society is getting more costly and soon will be utterly futile. This brings us to the second number, 74 - the longest lifespan enjoyed by a one-party regime in history, that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917-1991). One-party rule in Mexico had only a slightly shorter history, 71 years (1929-2000). In Taiwan, the Kuomintang maintained power for 73 years if we count its time as the ruler of the war-torn mainland before it fled to Taiwan in 1949... Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304746604577380073854822072.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#printMode

See also: Beijing Leaders Considering End of Communist Rule - By Li Heming
According to a high-level source in Beijing, key leaders in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo have reached four points of consensus that will be announced on or around the 18th Party Congress. The tenor of the decision is that China will take the path of democracy. The news has been circulated hurriedly in Beijing. According to the source, the four points of consensus are:
1. People from all walks of life, political parties, and social organizations should send representatives to form a preparatory committee for a new constitution. They will draft a new constitution that protects the rights of citizens to freely form associations and political parties.
2. It will be announced that the Chinese Communist Party has finished its historical mission as the ruling party. Party membership will need to be re-registered, with the free choice to re-enter the Party or leave it.
3. “June 4,” Falun Gong, and all groups who have been wrongly persecuted in the process of devoting themselves to China’s realization of democracy will be redressed and receive compensation.
4. The military will be nationalized.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/beijing-leaders-said-to-reach-four-consensuses-before-18th-congress-230394.html

Chen Guangcheng's nephew flees in fear for his life

Four days after the blind activist Chen Guangcheng made his audacious bid for freedom, dropping over a wall under cover of darkness and limping away on an injured leg, his nephew also made a desperate escape through fields of peanut and sweet potato plants. Friends say the older man reached the safety of the US embassy in Beijing, but when last heard from on Sunday night, his nephew, Chen Kegui, was on the run – penniless, frightened, struggling for breath and hiding from a black car he feared was following him. The 33-year-old's flight is the most potent reminder that his uncle's incredible escape from 19 months of house arrest has come at a bitter cost.

On Monday, the European Union urged China to avoid harassing the activist's family and associates. But many are already in the hands of furious officials; Chen Kegui fled after lashing out with a knife at men who had broken into his home and detained his father. Shortly afterwards, two police officers marched his mother away from the hospital where she was caring for his sick child. Chen Kegui's wife is now too frightened to reveal her location. "She's afraid she will be next and the whole family will be taken away. She's terrified," said lawyer Liu Weiguo, whom she hired before she left.

The family lived just a few hundred metres away from Chen Guangcheng, in the village of Dongshigu in eastern Shandong province. But the family members had not seen each other for more than a year thanks to the state of siege in which the activist lived following his release from jail in 2010. His wife, Yuan Weijing, their six-year-old daughter and his mother are thought to remain under the watch of up to 100 hired guards – armed with hi-tech surveillance and phone-jamming equipment – who have beaten, threatened or harassed supporters, journalists and even diplomats trying to visit. They are said to have broken Yuan's bones in one beating last year...


Perhaps the most immediate cause for concern is Chen Kegui. Hours after the incident he told blogger Cao Yaxue that a group of men – armed with wooden clubs and led by a local official – had broken in at around midnight on Thursday after realising his uncle had escaped. Sobbing as he spoke, Chen Kegui described how he had grabbed kitchen knives to use for self-defence and slashed at the intruders as they tried to grab him. It is unclear how badly the men were injured.

"In China, law is trampled over at will. I love my motherland, but this is what she gives me," he told Cao. "Chen Guangcheng is innocent. But they forced a charge on him. My father is getting old, couldn't walk, and where did they take him? I feel helpless. "If I am sentenced to death, I hope someone will help take care of my father, my mother, my family, my child … I hope the case will be dealt with according to rights provided for by the law, not manipulated by the privileged people."...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/30/chen-guangcheng-nephew-flees

See previous report: China dissident escapes:
http://dilipsimeon.blogspot.in/2012/04/china-dissident-chen-guangcheng-escapes.html

China dissident Chen Guangcheng escapes house arrest

One of China's best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and has released a video addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao. In it he makes three demands, including one that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen, who is blind, calls the brutal beating up of his family members. Rights activists say Mr Chen slipped out of his home in Dongshigu town in Shandong province on Sunday. His whereabouts are unclear, but supporters say he is safe in Beijing. Unconfirmed reports say Mr Chen may have taken refuge in a diplomatic mission. Mr Chen, 40, had been under house arrest since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.

In the video, delivered from a darkened room and posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, Mr Chen asks that:

Premier Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Mr Chen says beat up his family members
The safety of his family be ensured
Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law
Mr Chen names some local officials who told him that they "do not care about the law" and that "a few hundred people" were hired by the local government to "lock down" the village he lives in.

The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up. In the video, Mr Chen says: ''I may be free but my worries are for my family… my wife, my child, my mother. Perhaps because of my leaving, they may become the target of more brutal abuse.'' The plight of Mr Chen has become famous around the world. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly called for his release and is due to visit Beijing next week. An activist based in the United States who has been in close contact with Mr Chen confirmed that the dissident had left Shandong - about eight hours' drive from Beijing.

"Now I can share with you Chen is now in the 100% safe location in Beijing. That's how much I can share with you,'' Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, based in Texas in the US, told the BBC via email. Another activist based in China, He Peirong, who has been campaigning for his freedom, told various sources that she drove him to "a safe place" outside Shandong. There are also unconfirmed rumours that Mr Chen is at the US embassy in Beijing. The US embassy ''would not comment'', says an Associated Press news report. In the same report, Ms He denied the rumours published in Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao newspaper, saying that she had spoken to people at the embassy.

"I can tell you he's not at the US embassy, and he's not in Shandong,'' she told AP. The authorities appear to be moving against those believed to have been involved in Mr Chen's escape. Reports on Friday said that local authorities had surrounded the house of Mr Chen's brother, Chen Guangfu, and nephew, Chen Kegui, in Dongshigu, near Linyi...

The fact that Chen Guangcheng has chosen to address Premier Wen Jiabao rather than President Hu Jintao or other leaders suggests he wants to challenge Wen Jiabao to put into practice his repeated calls for political reform and action to root out corruption among officials. Wen Jiabao often presents a more caring side than most in the leadership, frequently appearing in disaster areas and showing sympathy with the victims. In this case, however, it is highly unlikely that Premier Wen - or anybody else in the Chinese leadership for that matter - will respond to Mr Chen's request.

Nevertheless, Mr Chen's dramatic escape and videotape once again put his situation in the spotlight of international attention. Awkward questions will be asked of Chinese officials at news briefings, and human rights organisations are likely to resume putting pressure on the authorities in China over the treatment of Mr Chen and his family. While dissidents like Chen Guangcheng pose a constant headache to the authorities, they themselves have few options. If they leave China and start a life in exile in the West, they gain freedom, but lose contact with their families, relatives and friends.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17865465

Chinese activist fears 'insane retribution' on family after escape:

In a video message, Chen confirmed he was beaten and said 90 to 100 local officials were involved in his detention. He expressed "extreme concern" about retaliation against his family. Chen confirmed reports about his maltreatment that have appeared over the years. "The truth was even worse," he said. "I formally made three requests to Premier Wen Jiabao. First, severely punish criminals. Second, look into this yourself, and third, send a special investigation team to find out the truth." Chen is believed to have used the cover of darkness in which his blindness – he lost his sight at the age of five – gave him an advantage over his captors. He previously attempted to dig a tunnel without success.

It is not yet clear how Chen evaded the officials, police and plainclothes thugs who have been permanently camped in and around his home in Linyi since his release from prison in 2010. But activists said it was not an individual, opportunistic bid for freedom. "This wasn't a sudden thing. In order to escape from a place with so many guards must have taken a great deal of planning," said Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch. Chen's exact whereabouts are unknown. Several sources said he was in a place that was safe from the scrutiny of security agencies, prompting speculation that he may have taken refuge in a foreign embassy or consulate. The US embassy has declined to comment on the case.

According to the US-based group China Aid, Chen was "100% safe" in Beijing. But the group said that the activist He Peirong, one of the people who helped Chen flee, was arrested at her home in Nanjing on Friday morning. He, who is said to have been in close contact with the Chen family, had earlier told CNN that Chen's hands were trembling, but his spirits were high. She said he was injured in the escape... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/chinese-activist-fears-insane-retribution

Ousted Chinese Leader Is Said to Have Spied on Other Top Officials

When Hu Jintao, China’s top leader, picked up the telephone last August to talk to a senior anticorruption official visiting Chongqing, special devices detected that he was being wiretapped — by local officials in that southwestern metropolis. The discovery of that and other wiretapping led to an official investigation that helped topple Chongqing’s charismatic leader, Bo Xilai, in a political cataclysm that has yet to reach a conclusion. Until now, the downfall of Mr. Bo has been cast largely as a tale of a populist who pursued his own agenda too aggressively for some top leaders in Beijing and was brought down by accusations that his wife had arranged the murder of Neil Heywood, a British consultant, after a business dispute. But the hidden wiretapping, previously alluded to only in internal Communist Party accounts of the scandal, appears to have provided another compelling reason for party leaders to turn on Mr. Bo.

The story of how China’s president was monitored also shows the level of mistrust among leaders in the one-party state. To maintain control over society, leaders have embraced enhanced surveillance technology. But some have turned it on one another - repeating patterns of intrigue that go back to the beginnings of Communist rule. “This society has bred mistrust and violence,” said Roderick MacFarquhar, a historian of Communist China’s elite-level machinations over the past half century. “Leaders know you have to watch your back because you never know who will put a knife in it.”

Nearly a dozen people with party ties, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution, confirmed the wiretapping, as well as a widespread program of bugging across Chongqing. But the party’s public version of Mr. Bo’s fall omits it. The official narrative and much foreign attention has focused on the more easily grasped death of Mr. Heywood in November. When Mr. Bo’s police chief, Wang Lijun, was stripped of his job and feared being implicated in Bo family affairs, he fled to the United States Consulate in Chengdu, where he spoke mostly about Mr. Heywood’s death. The murder account is pivotal to the scandal, providing Mr. Bo’s opponents with an unassailable reason to have him removed. But party insiders say the wiretapping was seen as a direct challenge to central authorities...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/world/asia/bo-xilai-said-to-have-spied-on-top-china-officials.html?_r=1

Blackboard slogan of schoolgirl provokes Chinese re-education across Tibet

TibetanReview.net:  The Chinese authorities have cracked down massively across Markham (Chinese: Mangkang) County in Chamdo Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region after a middle school girl wrote “Long Live Dalai Lama” on blackboard, reported RFA.org (Radio Free Asia, Washington) Apr 22, citing local residents. Large Work Teams of party cadres were reported to have been dispatched to conduct political re-education in schools across the county. Residents have been cited as saying the campaign was being led by the county party secretary Bao Luo. In talks given to the children and staff under the campaign, the officials have been accusing the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India of "advocating separatism and using religion to deceive Tibetan Buddhists”.

"We had to launch this campaign to cleanse students and staff of the wrong influence of the Dalai clique, so that the students can grow up with a healthy and stable mind to [adhere] to the [directives of the] Chinese Communist Party," a resident was quoted as recalling an official’s remark. The report did not say what happened, if any, to the girl who wrote the slogan on blackboard.
http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/2012/04/blackboard-slogan-provokes-chinese-re.html


More news from Tibet: http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/

Fang Lizhi: distinguished professor of astrophysics (1936–2012)

Fang Lizhi, a distinguished professor of astrophysics, luminary in the struggle for human rights in contemporary China, and frequent contributor to The New York Review, died suddenly on the morning of April 6...News of his passing spread quickly on the Chinese Internet. Students whom he had taught in the 1980s and admirers of his eloquent championing of human rights wrote their accolades. State Security officials noticed, and within hours ordered Internet police to delete all messages that mentioned the words “Fang Lizhi.” After that, tweets about Fang on weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) disappeared about a minute after posting...


Fang’s father was a postal clerk and he grew up in modest circumstances. But soon it became clear that Fang had a brilliant mind, and his outstanding work as a student led him to the Physics Department of China’s elite Peking University in the early 1950s. The campus atmosphere of optimistic socialism attracted him, and he joined the Communist Party. In courting his girlfriend (a fellow student who later became his wife, the physicist Li Shuxian), he once invited her to “watch me grow into a good Communist.” During Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, he was persecuted and confined in a reeducation camp at a coal mine in southern Anhui province. It was this treatment that led him to specialize in theoretical astrophysics, which he later told me was “the only field of physics I could pursue without equipment.” After Mao died Fang’s star rose again, and in 1984 he became vice-president of China’s prestigious University of Science and Technology in Anhui.

By then he had shed his attachment to Marxist dogma and, in addition to teaching physics, began delivering trenchant speeches on human rights and democracy. For example, when the government of Deng Xiaoping began using the slogan “modernization with Chinese characteristics” (i.e., modernization without power-sharing by the Communist Party), Fang responded satirically by asking students if they believed in physics with Chinese characteristics. Students were charmed; the authorities were not. In January 1987 they fired him from his university job (for this and other speeches), expelled him from the Party, and compiled excerpts from his speeches that they then distributed to campuses all across China as examples of “bourgeois liberalism” that students should avoid. But students found the excerpts themselves far more attractive than the warnings, and Fang suddenly became famous everywhere in China. He became the spirit behind the nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in the spring of 1989. He lived on the outskirts of Beijing at the time, but refused to go to Tiananmen Square. He wanted to make it clear to the authorities that the students were acting autonomously.

After the June 4 massacre that ended the protests, the government published a list of people wanted for arrest. Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were numbers one and two. On June 5 they took refuge in the US embassy in Beijing, where they lived for thirteen months in a basement apartment that had no windows. On being told that Deng, in a conversation with Henry Kissinger, had said he wanted him to write a confession, Fang wrote one in the form of a forthright statement of human rights principles. In June 1990 the Japanese government negotiated the release of Fang and Li by offering economic concessions to China, and for the next nearly twenty-two years they lived in exile.

Fang’s path through life observed a pattern that is common to China’s dissidents: a person begins with socialist ideals, feels bitter when the rulers betray the ideals, resorts to outspoken criticism, and ends in prison or exile... http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/apr/13/on-fang-lizhi/

Neil Heywood: Death, corruption & intrigue in China

It has been a week like no other in China. There have been allegations of poisoning, corruption, extortion and political intrigue spanning three continents. Every day new shockwaves have rippled out from the death of British businessman, Neil Heywood, who is now at the epicentre of Beijing's biggest political earthquake since the Tiananmen protests of 1989. In Britain, MPs are demanding to know if Heywood was a UK government spy. David Cameron has held urgent meetings in Downing Street with China's propaganda chief, and foreign secretary William Hague has called for an internal investigation into the handling of the case by consular officials.

Washington is also being dragged into the morass, with details emerging this week of the terrified chief investigator Wang Lijun's bid for refuge at the US consulate in Chengdu in February – and the stand-off that followed as the building was surrounded by Chinese security personnel demanding he be turned over. Throw in additional – apparently untrue – rumours of military coups in Beijing, lovenests in Bournemouth and claims of murder and torture in Chongqing, and the story – shaped largely by leaks from the Chinese authorities – could come from a Le Carré thriller.

The victim is a Jaguar-driving British businessman with murky links to a corporate intelligence agency. The alleged villain is a Chinese lawyer, Gu Kailai, described by some as an unforgiving "empress". Her husband, Bo Xilai, was one of the most powerful men in China, who was betrayed by his closest ally, first to a foreign power and then to his rivals in Beijing. Key facts remain elusive. Evidence of a crime even more so. But enough details have emerged over the past few weeks to draw a timeline of the relationship between an ambitious British businessman and a powerful Chinese family that has resulted in the death of one and the downfall of the other....


The story might have then faded into obscurity were it not for a stunning appearance three weeks later at the US consulate in Chengdu of Chongqing's chief of police, carrying a bag full of documents about the case and asking for protection from Bo. Wang Lijun said his life was at risk because he had discovered evidence implicating Gu Kailai in Heywood's death, the New York Times reported this week. US officials pre-empted efforts to claim asylum but reportedly kept him safe from the security forces loyal to Bo who had surrounded the consulate until a senior Chinese official from Beijing came to take him out of his former master's stronghold.

The murder allegations became impossible to ignore. On 7 February, the UK government called for an investigation. Two months later, on 10 April, the Chinese government announced the detention of Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun for murder. Bo was removed from all party posts and investigated for a "serious breach of party discipline". Since then, no evidence has come to light to prove the allegations, but a drip-feed of leaks from the authorities has strengthened public perceptions of guilt. Unnamed sources said to be close to the investigation suggest Heywood was poisoned with cyanide after quarrelling with Gu over his commission for transferring funds overseas. Whether that is the truth may never be known...The scandal could hardly be more sensitive, coming ahead of a once-in-a-generation shift of power in China later this year..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/21/neil-heywood-murder-gu-kailai

China's censors tested by microbloggers

In the opaque world of Chinese censorship, a few red lines shine through the murk. One of the clearest is: no gossip about top political leaders, their families or internal party affairs. But just as the authorities had vowed to tame China's rumbustious microblogs, they have seen an unprecedented wave of speculation and comment on the most sensitive subjects: political infighting, lurid allegations of murder and even (unfounded) claims of a coup. State attempts to control the web, including stern admonitions, large-scale deletions, real-name registration, website closures and even detentions have failed to rein in users. More intriguingly, some of the most startling rumours have proved at least partially true – leading some to wonder whether this is simply a battle between bold users and anxious censors, or something more complex.

The bombshells dropped by officials late on Tuesday – that the high-profile leadership contender Bo Xilai was suspended from his key political posts and that his wife, Gu Kailai, had been detained for the suspected murder of the British businessman Neil Heywood – mark China's biggest political upheaval for years. Yet microbloggers have received advance warning of almost every development in the unfolding scandal. Users detected the event that triggered it – the flight of Bo's ally and former police chief, Wang Lijun, to a US consulate – two days before the official admission. A post predicting Bo's dismissal as party secretary of Chongqing circulated widely two hours before the announcement. And claims that Gu had poisoned a Briton called Heywood emerged weeks before Tuesday's official statement.

"Because of the rumours of political struggle it has got hotter and hotter. You can't see any sign of people being unwilling to spread them," said Chinese writer and avid microblogger Michael Anti. International attention tends to focus on the Great Firewall, which stops Chinese citizens from reading sensitive content overseas, and constraints put on familiar western brands – the blocking of social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or the Chinese government's clash with Google, which saw the internet giant relocate search services to Hong Kong rather than continue to censor results.

But the world's largest internet population is far more interested in what happens on domestic sites – and particularly the "weibo" or microblog services, which boast about 300 million registered users. Microblogs, particularly Sina's Weibo, are where the clash of political controls, commercial interests and the urge of millions to share their thoughts on official scandals, or just last night's TV, play out.

"Weibo plays a much more important role in China than Twitter in the west, because of the heavy censorship imposed by the regime on the other media," said Beijing-based scholar Michel Bonnin...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/internet-china-censorship-weibo-microblogs

China land rights lawyer Ni Yulan and husband jailed

Ms Ni was sentenced to two years and eight months, while her husband was handed a two-year term. The couple are known for providing legal help to people whose homes have been seized by the government. They were jailed on charges of "picking quarrels, provoking trouble and wilfully destroying private and public property", a court spokesman said. The couple were detained last April as authorities rounded up scores of activists amid online calls for protests similar to those taking place at the time in the Arab world.



Their trial took place in December 2011, with the hearing closed to the press and foreign diplomats. Their supporters said charges were meant to silence them and the trial was a sign of China's growing intolerance of dissent. Their daughter, Dong Xuan, told reporters then that the trial had been "a very abnormal legal process". "This is completely unfair, I urge the government to release my parents," she told AFP news agency after the sentencing on Tuesday. "Both my parents looked very thin. I was unable to see my mother's face, she didn't turn around. She was in a wheelchair and looked very weak. My father saw me and asked me how I was. He told me that he was OK."


Fighting 'land grabs': Ms Ni's fight against land grabs began in 2002 after her home in central Beijing was requisitioned and later demolished. She has been banned from working as a lawyer but she and her husband have continued to advise others whose land has been seized. She was sentenced to a year in jail in 2002 for "obstructing official business" and to two years' imprisonment in 2008 for "harming public property". Fifty-one-year-old Ms Ni uses a wheelchair - a consequence, she and her supporters say, of mistreatment by police. Amnesty International said her kneecaps and feet were broken during her detention in 2002. She has also described the ill treatment by authorities in media interviews, saying that she was pinned down and kicked until she was not able to walk. The European Union issued a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" about Ms Ni's sentence and calling for her immediate release given her poor health. The sentencing took place with heavy security around the courthouse, reports said.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17661224

Wave of Tibet immolations among history's biggest; Talks possible if Dalai Lama gives up independence demand: China

Read Tibet News blogspot: http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/


Dozens of Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year to protest Chinese rule, sometimes drinking kerosene to make the flames explode from within, in one of the biggest waves of political self-immolations in recent history. But the stunning protests are going largely unnoticed in the wider world — due in part to a smothering Chinese security crackdown in the region that prevents journalists from covering them. While a single fruit seller in Tunisia who lit himself on fire in December 2010 is credited with igniting the Arab Spring democracy movement, the Tibetan self-immolations have so far failed to prompt the changes the protesters demand: an end to government interference in their religion and a return of the exiled Dalai Lama. Still, experts describe self-immolations as, historically, a powerful form of protest, and the ones in Tibet might yet lead to some broader uprising or stir greater international pressure on Beijing...


********
As suicide bids continued unabated in Tibetan-inhabited areas seeking return of the Dalai Lama, China, for the first time in recent months, has indicated its willingness to reopen the stalled talks with him if he "truly gives up Tibetan independence." "The central government has also made clear its willingness for talks if the Dalai Lama truly gives up Tibetan independence. The door remains open to him," the state-run 'China Daily' said today.

This is perhaps the first time that an indication has come up in the official media after the previous dialogue between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama failed to make any headway in 2010. It follows a barrage of criticism unleashed against him in recent weeks, with China alleging that he was instigating suicides, specially among the Buddhist monks in Tibetan-inhabited areas. Besides, he wanted his authority to cover all of Tibet, including, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan. All these regions put together constitute one fourth of China's territory, Qu said. Though the Dalai says on one hand that he renounced the independence demand, his other demands that all troops and mainland Chinese should leave the areas amounted to seeking independence, he said. Asked about the prospects of the resumption of talks, Qu had said the Chinese Central Government can consider if the Dalai abandons his "independence political objective.".. 
Read more:  http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/

China unveils new legislation on police powers of detention

"The real issue is not what the laws say, but how they are enforced," Pu Zhiqiang

China has unveiled legislation enshrining police powers to hold people at unknown locations, but has removed a controversial secrecy clause after an outcry. Experts had warned that the original draft would have legalised disappearances by allowing police to hold some suspects for up to six months without informing their families.

The revisions to the criminal procedure law were unveiled at the National People's Congress on Thursday, and will be passed by what is essentially a rubber stamp parliament. Lawyers have welcomed other elements offering additional protection to suspects. Reformers have long battled for such measures – which include improving legal access, increasing protection for juveniles and outlawing evidence gathered through torture – although many are sceptical about how they will be observed.

"The real issue is not what the laws say, but how they are enforced," Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing lawyer who has taken on sensitive cases such as those involving dissidents, said. "The pattern is that the Communist party can play by rules when there aren't special circumstances – but whenever there are special circumstances, it doesn't have to play by them."

Police later arrived at Pu's office, preventing him from granting further interviews. Many of the dissidents detained in a sweeping crackdown last year, including the artist Ai Weiwei, appear to have been held under "residential surveillance" at unknown locations. Some experts believe that is illegal, while others say the existing law does not spell out whether the measure should only apply at someone's usual residence.

"The law has not only not changed to prevent that practice but has embraced it, and that is what I find disturbing," Joshua Rosenzweig, an independent human rights researcher in Hong Kong, said. Many of those held last year said they suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and other abuses.

The new law states that police have the right to hold suspects or defendants at places other than their home or an official detention centre if they are "involved in crimes concerning state security, terrorism or especially serious corruption and notification of where they are residing could obstruct investigations"...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/08/china-legislation-police-powers-detention

Learning How to Argue: Interview with Chinese intellectual Ran Yunfei

"They say I’m a running dog of the Americans. But I’m just my own running dog."


One of China’s most outspoken public intellectuals, Ran Yunfei was detained last year after calls went out for China to emulate the “Jasmine Revolution” protests sweeping North Africa. He was held without trial for six months until last August. Interestingly, prosecutors turned down police requests for Ran to be formally charged, sending the case back to police with requests for more evidence. When police failed to come up with more evidence, he was then held under house arrest until early February.

Ran works for the government-run Sichuan Literature, where he writes often about classical Chinese. He is also the author of over a dozen scholarly books, including a meticulous history of a local temple, The Lungs of Old Sichuan: The Temple of Great Charity, which was released after he was detained last year. But it was his blogging—where he sometimes goes for the jugular, mixing humor and exaggeration—that got him into trouble. After anonymous calls were made on overseas exile Chinese websites for a Jasmine Revolution in China, Ran wrote China needed reform or would end up like the North African states that were then in turmoil. (He also has an account on Twitter (@ranyunfei) with 57,000 followers—viewable in China only with a VPN or proxy—and another blog on a permitted Chinese microblog, Sina Weibo with 70,000 followers.)

Most recently, Ran, who is 47, has been concerned with freedom of expression and what he sees as a need for a change in the country’s moral education. Born in a rural county that is now part of the city-state of Chongqing, he is a member of the Tujia ethnic group, one of China’s 55 recognized minorities...

Ian Johnson: Since you were detained last year, the word on the street has been that police thought you were involved in the Jasmine Revolution here in China. Of course there was no revolution here—not even really a protest movement inspired by North Africa. So what were they worried about?

Ran Yunfei: They’re worried about networks. But the thing is, I’m not someone who’s often in touch with others. They asked if I was in touch with Wang Juntao (the famous Tiananmen uprising leader) and other (leading dissidents). I said: none. I really am not in contact with anyone. I’m just me with my views. I think the guobao (State Security agents) eventually believed me but at first they couldn’t. They think everyone is linked up.

What did you do in jail?

Mostly I read. Books like the Bible are banned because they think it’s against the government. But they allowed me to read all the classical Chinese literature I wanted. What they didn’t realize is that classical Chinese also has some (subversive) ideas. But they can’t understand classical Chinese so they let me read what I wanted.

It’s interesting that despite all these troubles you still have a job with a government-run publication. How can that be? Do the authorities see it, in effect, as a way of paying you off?

No, the money is almost nothing and I rarely go to work. It’s a management technique. If something happens, then they don’t have to deal with you directly; they let your relationships and obligations put pressure on you. Let’s say you have a good boss, you like him and then he’s under pressure. They ask him to deal with you and then he asks you…well, what do you do? So they say, “Hey, what’s up with Ran?” Then they ask you and then chat with you about how [whatever you are doing] is going to hurt your boss and then you feel, well, do I want to hurt him?..


You’re working on a new book about education in China. What’s the link between belief and education?

You have a society where the educational materials are all about loving the party—of course it leads to a spiritual crisis.

How?

Everything they teach you to admire is jiade (fake). Right now they’re pushing Lei Feng (the Communist hero who was a model of selflessness) again. But everyone knows that Lei Feng is made up. All of their model heroes are false: Wang Jie, Liu Wenxue, Lai Ning: fake fake fake. So when they teach morality their teaching tools are fake. Completely fake. After a while the students learn that Lei Feng is a fake. He existed but all the stories are made up. It’s destructive—it destroys everything you’ve been taught. You feel that nothing is real. How can they teach virtues? It’s impossible. The problem is they don’t have a bottom line. There is no bottom line in society. You find out that the things you’re supposed to admire the most are untrue. So it seems nothing is real. So the only way the party can succeed is by cheating you. That becomes their biggest success. That’s who you’re ruled by.

How do you combat that?

You have to learn how to argue. Too few public intellectuals in China have learned to argue logically. They don’t know how and end up cursing each other all the time.

Like Ai Weiwei?

Old Ai reacts excessively. Like that guy from Global Times (a nationalistic newspaper that criticized the famous artist). The editor called Ai names, but then Ai put a recording of his telephone conversation online. That’s just not right. You can call me names but it doesn’t give me the right to disclose private conversations. This country makes you angry but you should be angry at the government or the system. Don’t destroy your own standards. To defend freedom you can’t use methods that destroy freedom. The main point of most discussions in China is to make someone so angry: “Hahaha, I’ve got you, take that!” “[I] Tweak your nose, spit in your face. Na na na na na!” That’s an argument? No...

People are saying that this year might be a year of reform. The leadership will change in the autumn and there seems to be more recognition about the need for reform in official thinking. There was a widely read People’s Daily editorial last week calling for more reform.

I saw it but you have to understand that People’s Daily always has some articles like this to give intellectuals false hope. They are talking about reform. EvenGlobal Times talks about it. They see there are problems but I’m doubtful it will lead to political reforms. Maybe some more economic reforms.

The good news is that blogging and the Internet have damaged the CCP’s monopoly on information. So change is happening slowly, from the grassroots. But the damage of years of living under this system is profound. You, as a foreigner, can live here and learn to use chopsticks and learn Chinese perfectly but you might not know how Chinese people think, especially in sensitive areas. If you ask ordinary people about a sensitive thing, how they react is different than how you’ll react. It’s hard for you to imagine their sense of fear. You might be expelled but it’s not like being here. The system of language has to be analyzed. The CCP created a parallel language system (of untruth) that is on an equal basis with the language of truth. You have to analyze what it’s like to grow up in this kind of an unfree country. This is the only way to really know this country...

Read more: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/02/learning-how-argue-interview-ran-yunfei/

Tibetan Group Releases Photos of Chinese Crackdown

Tibetan Group Releases Photos of Chinese Crackdown: February 4, 2012

A Tibetan activist group has released photos it says are from the sites of recent protests, showing Chinese riot police beating and dragging bloodied demonstrators. The group says the photos prove China is acting brutally toward unarmed, peaceful demonstrators.

The photographs, released by the group Students for a Free Tibet, show Chinese riot police standing over and dragging protestors, one of them appearing to have blood on his head. The group says the photos were taken in Serta, in China's Sichuan province. Dorjee Tseten, the India director of the group, based in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, says the photos show China has not been telling the truth about the demonstrations in recent weeks.

"The Chinese government says like those protestors were shot on self defense but in the picture we can clearly see the protestors are like unarmed, they are protesting with non-violent protest and then police crackdown the protest very brutally and kill Tibetans," he said. Tibetan exile Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay was quoted Thursday as saying he is “very disturbed by the growing number of Chinese military personnel” moving into Tibetan areas with truckloads of paramilitary forces and automatic machine guns. Senior Chinese officials say the demonstrations were "well planned beforehand" by "trained separatists" who tried to use violence against police. 

Dorjee, a member of Students for a Free Tibet, says getting images like the ones the group released this week is not easy. "The area around Serta and nearby place where there are lot of protest happening are totally locked down. Whether it's Internet, whether it's online, it's all locked down," he stated. "So one of his friend who is actually there and taken the picture. He actually came out of the province, out of the region and then he could able to send it from the different place to India."

Tibet analysts have expressed concerns that a younger, more restive generation of Tibetans may become embroiled in mass riots like the ones that took place in Chinese-controlled Tibet in 2008 -- especially if the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, dies without returning to his historical home.

The Dalai Lama crossed into India with tens of thousands of followers after a failed uprising in 1959. Dorjee says young Tibetans will continue to express themselves peacefully. "It is not true that Tibetans' younger generations are like frustrated and getting to violence. But then we are taking the non-violent protest, our movement in a more active way," he explained. The exiled Tibetan prime minister has called for a global vigil next week to protest events in Chinese-controlled Tibet, and is pleading with the United Nations to send a fact-finding team to the region. To view releases photos of Chinese Crackdown, please visit www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.com

China Gets Restive Taste of post-Dalai Lama Era

(Reuters) - China over the years has derided the Dalai Lama as a jackal in Buddhist robes, choreographer of a separatist Peking opera and, lately, instigator of a plot that led some Tibetans to set themselves on fire and other forms of protest. Even so, China's hardline rulers may have reason to miss him when he's gone. The aging spiritual leader's presence and message of non-violence have kept a damper on unrest but, once he dies, things could worsen rapidly.

The protests in Tibetan plateau communities in Sichuan province in January follow a year in which at least 16 Tibetans -- most Buddhist monks and nuns -- have self-immolated in protests seeking a return of the exiled Dalai Lama and freedom for Tibet. China has branded the immolators as terrorists and, in a familiar refrain, Beijing on Wednesday blamed Tibetan separatist forces for fomenting hatred among the people and sparking the protests that were put down by armed police using deadly force.

With unrest in once-quiet areas of the Tibetan plateau and little prospect for direct talks between China and the Tibetan government-in-exile, concern is growing that violence will boil over upon the death of the Dalai Lama. If nothing changes, Beijing will likely respond with the same tough measures it has used for decades.

"Positions have hardened," Khedroob Thondup, nephew of the Dalai Lama, told Reuters from his part-time home in Taiwan. The Dalai Lama has generally managed to restrain Tibet's youth with his message of non-violence, said Thondup, a former member of the exiled government who traveled to China 15 times for official talks before negotiations went sour. The 76-year-old monk is in good health, Thondup said, exercising daily on a treadmill, with access to on-call doctors. He recently underwent cataract surgery in New Delhi but expects he'll live at least another 20 years.

"As long as His Holiness is alive, we are non-violent and respect his views," said Thondup, who runs a centre for exiled Tibetans in Darjeeling, India. "If His Holiness were to suddenly leave the scene, yes, there will be many more problems for the Chinese government."
A TASTE OF WHAT'S TO COME

The latest violence is the worst since riots killed at least 19 people throughout Tibetan parts of China in 2008. What Beijing terms the Tibet Autonomous Region has remained under tight security since. Overseas advocacy groups say up to seven Tibetans were shot dead and more than 60 wounded as police snuffed out the Sichuan protests. State media said police fired in self defence.

Security forces have since thrown a blanket across a huge swathe of Tibetan China. Hundreds of kilometres from the scene of the Sichuan violence, police surrounded the town of Danba with road checks in an effort to prevent the Tibetan defiance from spreading and foreign reporters from entering. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries were sealed off by police road blocks and an official turned back reporters, saying road conditions were unsafe.

That may be just a taste of what is to come...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/us-china-tibet-idUSTRE8120BQ20120203

Caging a Monster: In My Country (Today's China) by Murong Xuecun

A moving and honest plea by a Chinese citizen:
I am a Chinese writer. Allow me to say a few words about my country. Everyone knows that in the past thirty years China has built countless skyscrapers, commissioned countless airports, and paved countless freeways. My country’s GDP is the world’s second largest and her products are sold in every corner of the planet. My compatriots can be seen on tour in London, New York and Tokyo wearing expensive clothes, chattering raucously. My compatriots also fill up casinos and line up to buy LV bags. People exclaim in amazement: China is rising, the Chinese are rich! But behind this facade of power and prosperity there are details of which many people are unaware, and it is precisely these details that make my country a very strange place.


Living in China is like watching a play in a giant theatre. The plots are absurd and the scenarios are unbelievable—so absurd, so unbelievable that they are beyond any writer’s imagination.


My country manufactures powdered milk containing melamine, feeds fish and shrimp contraceptive medications to enhance their growth, uses industrial alcohol in fake wine, preserves beancurd with human excrement, and produces “gutter oil,” the product of a notorious practice in which waste oil from gutters outside restaurants is recycled for human consumption.


In my country, the legal system works like this: countless laws are enacted, and then countless procedures are created, followed by countless enforcement regulations and detailed judicial interpretations, but ultimately it is up to the political leaders to decide who wins and who loses a case. In my country, many cases cannot be pursued in the courts. Even if legal action is taken, courts can refuse to hear a case. Even if the case is heard in court, the judgement is made well before the hearing starts.


In my country, many innocent people disappear, and some people lose their freedom without ever being sentenced by a court. Some people attempt to have their grievances addressed at a higher level by following procedures prescribed in law. These people are branded “petitioners.” In my country, the word petitioner conveys the sense of a nuisance, a mentally ill person, a terrorist. To deal with these petitioners, the government mobilises a huge amount of resources to herd them home, jail them, and in a particularly creative measure, incarcerate them in insane asylums...


In my country, there are many peculiar ways to die in detention and officials are more creative than a novelist like me in coming up with explanations: died playing hide-and-seek; died while dreaming; died of psychosis; died sipping water. But in all cases the bodies of those who die in custody are covered in bruises and wounds


In my country, every city has demolition crews equipped with bulldozers and truncheons. The bulldozers are for levelling people’s homes and the truncheons are for bludgeoning stubborn homeowners. To protect their homes, some homeowners beg on their knees, others cry, and some threaten to kill themselves or even actually self immolate. But nothing can stand in the way of the demolition crews and no official is ever brought to account when demolitions result in deaths.


In my country, elections are a charade—the government decides the results in advance. Their candidates are always elected. Very often people are asked to elect two out of two candidates...


Over two thousand years ago, Confucius said one should only serve the state if it is righteous, otherwise one should eschew serving the state. However, to become citizens of a modern society, I say we should criticize the government if it does not do the right thing, and we should also keep an eye on the government even if it is already doing the right thing. This is my belief and this is what will I do for the rest of my life.


Finally, I hope you believe me that I am not a class enemy, nor an over-thrower of governments. All I want is to cage the monster. Yes, I am criticizing my country, but that doesn’t mean I hate my country. Rather, I love my country. I love her splendid mountains and rivers and her great civilization. I appreciate the suffering she has experienced. In fact, I love my country even more because of the suffering she has been through. Yes, I am criticizing her rotten system, but I do not want to see bloodshed while my country is improving herself. I hope the system will improve gracefully. I hope in the near future, in my country, flowers of freedom will blossom and children will smile without fear. I hope in the near future, my country, an ancient civilization, a land of suffering, will become a nation of prosperity, peace and freedom, for all.

Murong Xuecun
Read the full article:
http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/tien-hsia.php?searchterm=028_murong.inc&issue=028