China has failed to improve its human rights record in the run-up to next month’s Olympics, with the government intensifying its crackdown on activists in recent years, Amnesty International (AI) charged in a report to be released today.
Amnesty said that in the last year alone, thousands of petitioners, reformists and others were arrested as part of a government campaign to “clean up” Beijing before the games, which open on Aug. 8. It said many of those arrested have been sentenced to manual labor without trial.
Chinese human rights activists have been targeted elsewhere in the country as well, Amnesty said in its report.
It cited the case of Sichuan-based activist Huang Qi, who was formally arrested earlier this month on charges of possessing state secrets. The case, though, is believed to stem from his work helping the families of children killed in May’s earthquake bring a legal case against local authorities, Amnesty said.
The organization said the games, touted by Chinese and Olympic officials alike as a way to help expand freedoms in the authoritarian country, have instead led the government to muzzle critics in hopes of presenting an image of harmony and stability to the outside world.
“By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the games seven years ago,” said Roseann Rife, a deputy director in Asia for the London-based group. “The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the games.”
An after-hours duty officer at China’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the report, although the Chinese government routinely denies such allegations, saying it has promoted human rights by reforming the legal system and raising living standards of hundreds of millions of people.
In a recent shift, the government announced it was setting up special protest zones during the games.
The Amnesty report also took aim at China’s suppressive media censorship, noting that some foreign journalists have been harassed by authorities.
It also claimed the government had expanded its “re-education through labor” program under which security forces arrest people and sentence them to manual labor without trial.
Amnesty accused the International Olympic Committee of showing a “reluctance” to pressure China publicly on its human rights record.
Elsewhere in the report, the group welcomed China’s move last year to restore the Supreme People’s Court’s role in approving death sentences. But it criticized the government, which says the number of executions has declined, for withholding data on death penalty cases.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese