Human rights in Chinese prisons
Dicker, Richard
In the fall of 1992, the information office of China's State Council issued a lengthy white paper entitled Criminal Reform in China. The document is filled with sweeping pronouncements buttressed...
...The new penal regime was rooted in four "Basic Principles": (1) that people can be reformed...
...When the activists refused to submit to degrading tests forcing them to acknowledge their "criminal consciousness," they were assaulted by other inmates on the orders of the staff...
...China enjoyed an $18.2 billion trade surplus with the United States in 1992...
...As an official government statement, it sets a standard against which China's actual practice can be assessed...
...This widespread arbitrary imprisonment has drawn increasing international criticism...
...Wang, a co-founder of the Beijing Social and Economic Sciences Research Institute, a private think tank that did path-breaking analysis, was sentenced on February 12, 1991, to thirteen years' imprisonment on charges of "conspiring to subvert the government" and the familiar "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement...
...Punishments ranged from prolonged confinement in tiny isolation cells to abuse by guards wielding high-voltage electric batons...
...Many were tried and sentenced secretly...
...In reality, the health problems of a number of prominent imprisoned political activists have been ignored and their physical well-being has been allowed to deteriorate to where their lives are in jeopardy...
...He was branded as one of the main instigators of the 1989 movement...
...Prisoners who violate regulations are punished in accordance with prison rules...
...But the central theme of Criminal Reform in China—its emphasis on the rights of prisoners and the principles of humane treatment—can be evaluated...
...Later, Liu Gang and five others were shackled with leg irons and thrown into isolation cells...
...International human rights groups have reported that thousands of activists from the 1989 Democracy movement are incarcerated within China's prisons, labor camps, and detention centers...
...3) protection for the due rights of criminals...
...Most striking to those who monitor China's human rights practices is the white paper's often stated, solemn prohibition on physical abuse of prisoners: "Chinese law prohibits any maltreatment of prisoners by the prison staff and prisoners have the right to file charges according to the law...
...The white paper declares that it is strictly forbidden to torture, insult, or otherwise mistreat prisoners...
...Li, who was the editor-in-chief of Hua Yue Publishing House, is also serving a five year sentence for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement...
...This picture is a beguiling one...
...Prisoners in solitary confinement are let out for fresh air for about an hour twice a day, and enjoy the same living conditions as other prisoners...
...The document declares that this changed with the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1949, when "a new type of prison was established—where prisoners are regarded as human beings and where their dignity is respected and they receive fully humane treatment...
...Liu was third on the government's list of "Most Wanted" student leaders after June 4, 1989...
...2) humanitarianism...
...In February 1992, Shaanxi provincial authorities rejected his appeals for hospitalization...
...Prisoners are supposed to enjoy prompt, free medical care and a regular checkup every year...
...q * As this article went to press I learned that Li Guiren was "released on bail for medical treatment...
...Liu Gang, Wang Juntao, and the other imprisoned pro-democracy activists deserve that much...
...During the winter of 1991-92, Li complained on three occasions of heart palpitations but received no medical attention...
...Because Beijing has barred all independent access to its vast prison system, these statistics cannot be verified...
...The Chinese government is concerned that the United States will demand human rights improvements as a condition of continuing China's mostfavorednation trading status...
...According to a detailed report from inside Lingyuan between April 1991 and April 1992, political activists there were routinely subjected to torture and humiliating treatment...
...If a warden or guard beats or otherwise mistreats a prisoner, the victim has the right to appeal to the People's Procurate or the People's Court...
...Humane handling of prisoners in accordance with the law "is the basic principle governing the management of prisons and reform through labor institutions in China...
...These documents represent Beijing's effort to respond to stinging international criticism...
...Citing the experience of pre-revolutionary China, the white paper describes prisons that "were the tools of the feudal, bureaucratic and comprador classes who used them to slaughter revolutionaries and the oppressed people...
...Despite a diagnosis of a serious heart condition and gallstones, all appeals for a transfer to a modern medical facility have been denied.* The white paper also lists a prisoner's right to exchange letters and to meet regularly with family members...
...Tang, an assistant automobile plant engineer and alleged leader of a "counterrevolutionary group," SPRING • 1993 • 243 Notebook was sentenced to twenty years—the longest known sentence given to a 1989 democracy advocate...
...244 • DISSENT...
...In February 1992, Wang Juntao appointed his wife, Hou Xiaotian, as his agent to pursue two separate legal actions against the government...
...In August 1992 Wang went on a hunger strike to protest the state's interference with his right to legal redress...
...Prison staff are urged "to have heart-to-heart talks with prisoners" and "to establish emotional and intellectual ties" with them...
...A democracy activist since the mid-1980s, Liu helped to initiate the campus "Democracy Salons" in 1988...
...Two others were force fed through tubes inserted down their esophagi...
...In March, after repeated intemational calls, members of the security police visited him in prison to determine how news of his medical condition could have reached the West...
...They are also required to take meals with inmates on major holidays and participate in recreational activity with them...
...This unprecedented sensitivity is partly rooted in China's extensive trade relations with the United States...
...This facility includes a vast auto assembly complex, where prisoners labor to produce vehicles for export...
...The document is filled with sweeping pronouncements buttressed by statistics on China's penal system: the number of prisoners enrolled in classes of various kinds, the rate of recidivism, the employment rate among released prisoners in Beijing and Shanghai, and so on...
...While Criminal Reform in China paints a highly misleading picture, the standards it sets forth are now a matter of public record...
...The plight of Li Guiren is a case in point...
...There are specific legal provisions concerning the rights a criminal must enjoy during the entire process...
...Among the political prisoners there are Liu Gang and Tang Yuanjuan...
...In retaliation for a hunger strike by thirteen of these prisoners in November 1991, two of them were severely abused with electric batons...
...By the end of July, Li was unable to walk and had trouble standing...
...This move, taken after the authorities had allowed his health to deteriorate, only underlines the medical plight of China's political prisoners...
...These grand pronouncements would come as quite a surprise to pro-democracy activists incarcerated in the huge Lingyuan prison in Liaoning province in northeastern China...
...The document's declared purpose was to "help the people of the world better understand our socialist system with Chinese characteristics...
...Punishment by solitary confinement, limited to fifteen days and reserved for serious violators, must be collectively discussed by the prison staff and reported to the leaders of the unit for approval...
...In a section entitled "Basic Principles of Criminal Reform" it is asserted that "China strictly protects the due rights of criminals...
...The white paper depicts a system where the procedures for penalties and privileges are codified and the staff is required to abide by them...
...others were sent for "reeducation through labor" without any judicial proceedings at all...
...The publication of Criminal Reform in China comes less than a year after a November 1991 white paper on Human Rights in China...
...There has been no indication that any of the guards or wardens have been punished for this...
...The white paper does have a potential value that the State Council may not have anticipated...
...and (4) encouragement for criminals to see their incarceration as a time for reform...
...Wang had prepared documents to give to Hou, but the authorities at Yanqing Prison refused to pass them on to her...
...While there, guards applied electric shock to Liu's genitals...
...He was arrested, tried for sedition and "counterrevolutionary propaganda," and sentenced to six years' imprisonment...
...This new "yardstick" can benefit human rights in China, if the international community holds Beijing accountable to it...
...In April, he was transferred to another prison, but received no better medical care...
...Observance of this right would be especially welcome news for Wang Juntao...
Vol. 40 • April 1993 • No. 2
