RFA: 王兆钧郭泉效应持续 民建成员公开信吁修宪还权

RFA: 王兆钧郭泉效应持续 民建成员公开信吁修宪还权

VOA News – 人权组织吁中国放胡佳履奥运承诺

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VOA News – 论者：中共为保政权改初衷弃民权

[经济脉搏] 中国问题成为美国大选年枪靶-华尔街日报

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VOA News – 中国官方媒体仍坚持新闻检查控制

VOA News – 中国官方媒体仍坚持新闻检查控制

中国年2008的十二个中国关注点 | 中国 | Deutsche Welle | 2007.12.30

中国年2008的十二个中国关注点 | 中国 | Deutsche Welle | 2007.12.30

BBC 中文网 | 中国报道 | 维权人士胡佳“被控颠覆国家罪”

BBC 中文网 | 中国报道 | 维权人士胡佳“被控颠覆国家罪”

2007年中国人权状况回顾

2007.12.29

(欢迎来信与我们分享您对这篇报道的看法)

我们马上就要和2007年挥手告别了。对于这一年的中国，有的人记住的也许是歌舞升平的繁荣昌盛，而有的人记住的则是不堪回首的人间地狱。在北京奥运会即将召开，中国的人权状况正在日益受到国际社会关注的时候，自由亚洲电台申铧将为我们回顾一下这一年来，宪法保障的基本人权在中国是否受到尊重和落实，中国政府离举办奥运会的承诺还有多远……

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图片：07年3月6日天安门广场：一位上访妇女被警察带上警车（法新社）

－“哎呀，可疼了，吃药钱都没有。我想到街上去乞讨，可腿疼不能走，就在床上躺着。”
－“和讯网的，法天下网的，新浪网的，很快就给你删掉了。凤凰网也给删掉过。（记者：那今年你一共被封了几个博客？）有四、五个吧 。”
－“他判他五年，我就抗议五年。所以我就每周三绝食，一直坚持到他出来为止。”

说话的这三位分别是辽宁丹东的访民王桂英、浙江网络记者昝爱宗、广东维权人士、被判监五年的郭飞雄的妻子张青。他们在过去一年的遭遇，可以说是中国人权状况的一个缩影。

访民的权益得不到保障

辽宁丹东的访民王桂英今年9月份因为当地政府不给她女儿上户口等问题开始到北京上访。由于身无分文，12月16号她就到天安门广场进行乞讨。广场警察发现后，叫来丹东市驻京办的工作人员，强行把她带回到住处，而且遭到他们的拳打脚踢，致使王桂英右腿被打断。我在22号采访她时，她还没有去看病，因为没钱： “现在一直没有人管我。（记者：您现在腿还疼吗？）哎呀，可疼了，吃药钱都没有。我想到街上去乞讨，可腿疼不能走，就在床上躺着。真是求生不得，求死不能。”

今年49岁的王桂英本身是个残疾人，她患有严重的类风湿性关节炎，四肢非常纤细，呈X形。对于如此一个羸弱的女子，丹东市驻京办的工作人员竟然拳脚相加，而且至今不愿出钱治病。王桂英的姐姐王桂兰说：“北京的110专门找来（我们驻地的）派出所（的人），他们出了好几次警，还把丹东截访的人领到俺家去了，他们亲自看到我妹妹的情况。（记者：他们怎么说呢？）一个字：等。”

图片：北京的维权人士、六四伤残者齐志勇12月20日清早与志愿者来到上访村附近，将十件军用棉衣送给了严冬中露宿街头的访民。（齐志勇提供）

由于中国有告御状的传统，北京聚集了大批的各地访民。这些访民中很多都是失地农民，或是拆迁户，或是受到司法不公对待的民众。在北京永定门火车站附近有一个远近闻名的“上访村”。但是，今年十月份中共十七大召开前，“上访村”已经被政府强行拆除，而且北京警方还发布了“五不租”的禁令，使得很多访民租不到房子，很多人只得流落街头。

北京的维权人士、六四伤残者齐志勇经常接触到访民。他说，现在正值寒冬，一些访民仍然露宿在立交桥下面的桥洞里。稍好一点的就用塑料板、铁皮等搭一个临时的窝棚。他告诉我说，他专门去看了一个湖南访民集中的“湖南村”：“在一条铁路边上搭的一个棚子里面，那边有七、八间左右，四五十人，都是湖南人，我管它叫“湖南村”。普通的双人床，上面睡着七、八个人，一人五块。他们没有经济来源嘛，都弄得倾家荡产的。（记者：是搭的一个棚子，不是房子？）不是，当地的散居户临时用一些布、简易塑料、木板子搭的，然后用砖堆个床。哎呀，太苦了。屋里屋外一个温度，很冷。”

中国政府有个政策，地方官员的政绩要和当地访民的上访量挂钩，所以，有些地方政府花大量的财力、人力、物力截访。截访在十七大召开期间达到高潮。这些访民被截访回家后，或被拘留、或被非法关押起来。四川自贡的维权人士刘正有说，在十七大期间，仅仅他们自贡就有大约 20名访民被非法关押：“很多我们自贡（的访民）在十七大从北京抓回来以后就被拘留，很多还被关进黑监狱里面。我们统计了一下，大约有二十个人。他们不讲究任何法律手续。他们专门关押上访人的一个地点，被上访人称为黑监狱。”

缪群芳唱歌

“上访多少年，天天在喊冤，春夏秋冬都心寒，青丝白发变；冤民无人权；可怜我们上访族，向谁喊冤！？”四川自贡的十年访民缪群芳借用文革时期控诉“万恶旧社会”的老歌《不忘阶级苦》的曲调，填上她自己作的新词。这如泣如诉的歌声，在几十年前唱过这个原歌的人听来，莫不具有讽刺意味……

“十七大期间人权状况恶劣”

要总结中国这一年来的人权状况，不得不重点评价一下十月份中共十七大召开期间中国各级政府为了保证会议的顺利召开所采取的各种措施。

图片：在十七大前夕，北京的民间维权人士叶国强就被逮捕。（大纪元网）

“十七大是过去五年以来中国人权状况最恶劣的一个阶段。”

这是北京的维权人士胡佳。在我采访他之后不几天，他已在12月27号被北京公安拘捕，涉嫌“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”。他在接受我采访时举例说，在十七大期间政府发动了大量的正规军警和社会安保力量：“中国政府很自豪地宣传，为了十七大的保卫，除军队、警察可能有十多万人…可能有将近二十万人，包括戒备在北京周边的，除此之外还发动了82万社会安保力量，包括保安，各单位的保卫人员，还有小脚侦辑队，带红箍的。”

胡佳说，需要如此大量的军警以及社会安保人员来保卫代表们的安全，他不得不要问这样一个问题：“为什么他要动员如此庞大的上百万的人来为他做安全保卫呢？世界上有那么多的恐怖分子来针对某一个党开的全国性的会议吗？这就说明这个党处于一个多么高度的不安全感之中。他是把老百姓，特别是被它压制的老百姓作为敌人，在这期间怕发生群体性事件，这个党处理不了社会危机的话回倒台。”

在十七大期间，除了针对访民的拆除“上访村”，大规模截访，拘捕、关押访民外，其他维权人士和异见人士都受到打压。湖北维权人士、“民生观察工作室”负责人刘飞跃说：“几乎所有的维权人士、异议人士都遭到警方的约谈、训戒、警告不得外出，不得发表言论文章。还有人遭到逮捕。比如在十七大前夕，北京的民间维权人士叶国强就被逮捕。”

湖北著名前人大代表、民间选举活动人士姚立法就在十七大期间突然失踪，引起海外媒体的很大关注，33天后他回到家，原来是被公安以一个莫须有的罪名秘密关押。

言论的尺度越来越紧

言论自由是衡量一个国家人权状况的很重要的标准，而且言论自由也是受到中国宪法保障的权利。李大同原是《中国青年报-冰点周刊》的主编，后因编辑尺度超过中宣部容忍度而被撤职。在他看来，由于中国控制媒体的制度没有变化，今年中国新闻媒体仍然有很多敏感新闻不敢报。不过他认为，在几个重大事件的处理上，中国媒体还是尽了最大努力：“一个是重庆的钉子户事件，一个是揭露山西的黑窑工事件，这都表现不错。南方（媒体）的言论都表现比较好，包括几十个专家、学者要求废除中国劳教制度的公开信，这都如实的报道了。这也是不容易的事情。”

图片：北京维权人士胡佳。在记者采访他之后不几天，他已在12月27号被北京公安拘捕，涉嫌“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”。（法新社）

不过，李大同同时提到，在中宣部的要求下，今年有几份言论比较大胆的报刊杂志被迫放弃时政报道，专门报道文化、娱乐新闻，比如，《三联生活周刊》、《北京娱乐信报》以及《百姓》杂志等。

另外，7月份《中国经济时报》记者庞皎明揭露中国政府重点工程武广高速铁路在修建工程中存在造假情况，结果被中宣部视为是假新闻，并通报全国媒体单位不得聘用庞皎明为记者。尽管庞皎明本人以及报社的一些同事都认为他没有错，但是难敌中宣部，至今他仍无法恢复记者工作。

其实，今年中国政府对媒体的控制使人们感受最深的还是在网络。

“2007年是中国政府加强言论控制，尤其是网络言论控制的一年。”

这是旅居美国的何清涟。她原是《深圳法制报》的编辑，也是《雾锁中国－中国大陆控制媒体策略大揭秘》一书的作者。她介绍了中国政府控制网络的一些典型做法： “对网络的控制方面，国内言论的尺度越来越严。去年允许在网络上出现的言论今年不允许出现了。以我自己而言，百度搜索原来有一个帖吧，大家在那里帖了几百条有关我的留言，那么当然绝大多数都是谴责中共的。今年这个帖吧已经被取消了。（今年）中共的控制更加细致。言论尺度越来越紧，禁载规定也越来越多，过虑的关健词汇也越来越多。”

浙江的独立网络记者昝爱宗是政府严控网络的受害者，他今年先后有好几个博客被封：“和讯网的，法天下网的，新浪网的，很快就给你删掉了。凤凰网也给删掉过。（记者：那今年你一共被封了几个博客？）有四、五个吧。（记者：我看到报道说，您现在把博客建到海外了，是吗？）对，我建了《道路》，那个他们删不掉。但是他们可以把网址屏蔽掉，打不开。”

像昝爱宗这样发表中国政府不喜欢听的言论就封他的博客，他已属幸运。在网上发表言论而被抓、被判刑的大有人在。杭州异见作家吕耿松因为写了一些为维权农民呼吁的文章而在8月份被以涉嫌“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”被捕。

在中国的监狱里，现在还关着很多因言获罪的良心犯。据法国人权组织“无国界记者”统计，中国被关押的记者、网络作家达到八十多名。

维权人士、异见人士受到打压

左图：高智晟（AFP）中图：郭飞雄（RFA）右图：陈光诚（公民维权网）

山东盲人维权人士陈光诚因为揭露临沂政府暴力施行计划生育政策而被判刑。除了他本人失去自由外，他的家人长期被牵连。他妻子袁伟静长期被软禁，行动没有自由，连到医院看病都不被允许。我在22号给她打电话时，她正在村里带女儿散步：

“我现在带着她田野里。”
记者：“后面有人跟着吗？有几个人？隔多远？”
袁伟静：“对，有7个，一般都是贴身的。”
记者：“每次出去都是这样吗？”
袁伟静：“对，都是这样。”
记者：“他们对您的行动有没有限制？”
袁伟静：“如果超出范围就有限制。”
记者：“那这样您出去后面跟着这么多人，碰见熟人，熟人敢跟您打招呼吗？”
袁伟静：“这里的人已经习惯了，因为都两年多了。”
记者：“你是什么感觉？”
袁伟静：“非常不方便。”

广东的维权人士郭飞雄今年被以“非法经营罪”判处五年徒刑。郭飞雄的妻子张青接受我的采访时说，12月12号，她在丈夫被捕15个月后第一次见到他，并得知郭飞雄在狱中受到残酷的虐待：

“到了沈阳以后，警察就给他更厉害的酷刑。把手反吊起来，人的整个身体的重量靠双手、双肩来承受。另外他们用高压电警棍电击他的生殖器，这些酷刑对他的身体造成了五、六处伤残。”

张青说，她要以绝食和向国家主席胡锦涛写公开信的方式表达她的不满：

“他判他五年，我就抗议五年。我每周三绝食一直坚持到他出来为止，对这个政府提出强烈的抗议、强烈的谴责。我要让世人像记住了哭倒长城的孟姜女一样，我也要让我五年的抗争在这个历史上留下来。我给国家主席胡锦涛写的公开信我会长期写下去。我有时候一个星期写一次，有时候两个星期写一次，但是我不会停下来，这五年的时间我必须把它坚持到底。”

图片：北京南教堂外的十字架，一位女信徒正在做晨祷。在美国的宗教维权组织对华援助协会的负责人傅希秋说，今年中国政府对家庭教会的打压很严重。（照片来源法新社）

宗教自由难获保障

在中国，基本人权受到践踏的另一个群体是家庭教会的成员。在美国的宗教维权组织对华援助协会的负责人傅希秋说，今年中国政府对家庭教会的打压很严重：

“无论是从打压的数量上和打压的严重程度上来讲，今年比去年明显恶化了。”

家庭教会受到打压的一个典型的例子就是张明选牧师主持的教会和孤儿院的遭遇。张明选是中国家庭教会联合会的主席，在河北三河县主持一个家庭教会和一个孤儿院。他告诉我说，最近他们受到当地政府的各种打压：

“我们是孤儿院，昨天圣诞节，孤儿被赶出来，不叫上学。11月18号他们说如果三天不搬家就停水停电。12月5号把我们的电停了，这个月17号我们起诉供电局，到法院，法院也不接我们的案子。”

张明选说，十多个孤儿从两岁到十四岁，现在无法上学。他们现在已无家可归，暂时住在旅店，而且到我采访他的12月26号，他已经禁食六天，以表抗议。

奥运会前对海外媒体的期待

图片：07年8月6日，采访奥运大厦外示威者的外国记者受北京警察盘问。其中一名是法新社记者。（法新社）

再过八个月北京奥运会就要召开。2001年北京在申办奥运的陈述中曾说，举办奥运将极大地促进中国人权事业的发展。但是，至今世人看到的却有很多相反的事实。黑龙江富锦市失地农民数千人联署公开信呼吁“要人权不要奥运”，结果组织者王桂林和杨春林被捕。北京维权人士胡佳因此呼吁将在奥运期间到北京采访的外国媒体不要仅仅报道体育比赛：

“我希望他们在中国呆的时间久一点，不要只停留在奥运会举行的那三个星期，而要在几个月之前就到达那里。奥运赛场是他们的采访阵地，另外一个地方也不可或缺，就是上访村地带，这些频繁地发生抓捕、殴打、野蛮镇压老百姓的地方，而且像新疆、西藏这些地方，大家都应该去了解。”

胡佳还说，他们准备编辑一份《外国记者访问指南》，把中国受到人权侵害比较严重的地区以及个人的信息详细汇总，为届时采访奥运会的外国记者提供方便。

自由亚洲电台申铧采访报道。

Protests in Hong Kong as China Sets Date for Democracy

By VOA News
29 December 2007

Protesters march in Hong Kong to denounce China’s timetable for full democracy, 29 Dec 2007
Hundreds of pro-democracy activists marched in Hong Kong Saturday to protest China’s decision to put off full democracy for more than 10 years.

China says it will allow Hong Kong to directly elect its leader by 2017 and all of its lawmakers by 2020. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy parties have been pushing for universal suffrage in 2012.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued a statement in which he called the delay beyond 2012 a “disappointment.”

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (China’s parliament) released its decision Saturday, after Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang submitted a report on reform.

Under the current system, only half of Hong Kong’s 60-seat legislature is elected, and the territory’s chief executive is chosen by an 800-strong committee full of Beijing loyalists.

Universal suffrage was guaranteed in the Basic Law that was established when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997, but no timetable was set.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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China’s massive dam project causes worry

China’s massive dam project causes worry

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 28 minutes ago

Wang Zhushu rarely sleeps at night. Instead, the 61-year-old retiree paces, listening to the drone of passing ships that shake the walls of her house on the banks of the Yangtze River.

Wang’s one-story, brick-and-concrete home rests, she says, on increasingly unsteady earth, weakened and waterlogged as rising waters turn the Yangtze into an ever-broadening reservoir behind China’s mammoth Three Gorges Dam.

“The house has become crooked. Water seeps through the floor and there are cracks growing here, here and here,” said Wang, pointing to the ceiling, a storeroom and a rock wall with crevices three fingers wide. At night, “I can feel the vibrations. I walk round and round the room, and I worry.”

For millions of Chinese living along the reservoir’s shores, the dam that the government said would give them a new life is stirring fresh concern.

Four years after the waters began rising in the 410 mile-long reservoir, villagers tell of warped foundations and fissures snaking along the earth. Pollution in the once fast-running river is building in the turbid reservoir. Landslides, common in the rainy region, are occurring more frequently. The ships are nothing new, but now they are one more reason for Wang to worry.

She isn’t alone. In Meiping, a hamlet with mountainsides of fragrant orange groves, villagers are hurriedly building new homes after the government declared their old ones unsafe this past summer following landslides.

“We live in constant fear,” said Mei Changxin, 45, an orange grower who covers the cracked walls of his crumbling two-story home with newspapers. “When I work in the fields, sometimes fear grips me just thinking that my house may suddenly collapse.”

The $22 billion dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric project, was supposed to end flooding along the Yangtze and provide a clean energy alternative to coal. Approved in 1992 and due to be completed in 2009, it will generate 84.7 billion kilowatts of electricity each year — the equivalent of what it takes to light the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, according to figures from 2005.

Yet along the way, more than 1.4 million people had to be moved. Though critics and experts warned the environment and people would pay too high a price, their criticisms were ignored and suppressed by a government in thrall to large engineering projects.

Even a few officials are breaking ranks to predict catastrophe. Toxic algae is blooming, feeding off industrial waste and sewage and tainting water supplies.

Experts have warned that the waters in the enormous reservoir are undermining hillsides. Water seeps into loosely packed soil and rocks, making them heavier and wetter, and can trigger landslides on steep slopes like those rising from the Yangtze.

Additionally, the huge weight of the water on the rock bed exerts a pressure that can lead to earthquakes.

Such tremors shook the area around the Hoover Dam after Lake Mead was filled up the 1930s, according to the book “Earthquakes in Human History.” A magnitude-6.4 quake near India’s Koyna Dam killed at least 180 people in 1967 and is thought to have been induced by the reservoir.

Chinese officials have denied it can happen here, but Dai Qing is unconvinced.

“Almost all my fears have come true,” said the Chinese journalist, a persistent opponent of the project whose writings are mostly banned in China. “The landslides and cracks have made people migrants once again. The water in the rivers and reservoirs is no longer drinkable. No matter how much power the project generates, it cannot make up for the losses.”

How the communist government deals with these problems has become a test for the Communist Party leadership headed by President Hu Jintao, who has promised to deliver more compassionate, responsive and environmentally sensitive government.

Hu conspicuously stayed away from a ceremony last year to celebrate completion of the dam, unlike previous leaders who often associated themselves with the engineering marvel.

In September, state-controlled media ran rare admissions by officials about the problems.

Wang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, was quoted as saying China risked disaster. Vice Mayor Tan Qiwei of Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis next to the reservoir, told of 91 reported landslides along 22 miles of shoreline.

“The ecological situation in Three Gorges areas is worse than I expected,” said Chen Guojie, a professor with the Institute of Mountain Hazards and the Environment at the government-backed Chinese Academy of Sciences. He ticked off a list of worries — tremors, erosion and pollution — and said the social impact was equally grave.

“Farmers lost their land and moved to new towns, but these towns had no industry and there were not enough jobs,” he said. “So many of the young farmers were forced to leave their homes and work in other cities.”

As criticism has mounted in recent weeks along with the problems — a landslide in the region killed at least 34 people last month — the government has launched a renewed public relations campaign stressing the project’s benefits.

“We have resolved all the problems in the past decade and everything is under control,” Sun Zhiyu, director of the Three Gorges project’s Environment Protection Bureau, told foreign reporters last month on a government-organized tour of the area.

Beijing also says it will shore up the area’s environment with new measures to control pollution, close industrial and mining enterprises and monitor geological hazards. Meanwhile, local governments are relocating the tens of thousands of people living in dangerous areas.

In the heart of Badong county, where Wang Zhushu lives, the county resettlement office says some 25,000 people will soon be moved again — the third time for some of them. Wang and her 67-year-old husband haven’t had to move yet, but that may come if the waters rise high enough to engulf their home.

The first human displacement was for a smaller dam project in the 1980s. Then, a decade later, the threat of landslides forced residents to move about three miles.

“We are now planning to move most of the government departments and population to nearby areas because they are situated where geological disasters are likely to occur,” said an official with the resettlement office who would only give his surname, Lu.

Badong has long been a thriving commercial center, producing goods such as lacquer and oils and shipping them on the Yangtze.

Effects of the rising waters have become apparent in recent years, residents say. Roads are split and buckled and need regular repair. Dilapidated buildings sit abandoned, while red-and-white signs warning of landslides are everywhere.

Along Wang Zhushu’s street, her neighbors share the same complaints.

Wang Zhonghe, whose garden is less than 10 feet from the river, said she had been jolted awake twice by small earthquakes this year. Her husband had to shave two inches off the bottom of their front door so that it would close.

Xiang Zhen, who lives on the second floor of an eight-story riverside complex, said one landslide damaged her building and cracks have been developing since 2003.

“We’re afraid of heavy rains because that will affect the land,” said Xiang, 38, a laid-off worker who now lives off the vegetables she grows.

Further downstream, residents of Yemaomian are building spacious, multistory houses less than a mile from the terraced slopes where they lived for a decade after being moved to make way for the dam.

But they don’t feel much safer. In recent months, tremors have shaken the area and gaps have opened in the earth. The local government deemed the area “landslide-prone,” and in the summer, many villagers slept in a road tunnel for fear that the rains would unleash a landslide and bury them in their beds.

Most took the $930 per head in compensation the government offered them to leave their homes and carve out a new life in an area accessible only via one potholed road.

“It’s hard to start over. Whenever I move, it affects my livelihood,” said Chen Zijiang, 26, an orange farmer who was helping his younger sister and parents carry their belongings to their new home.

Each time the family has had to abandon its orange trees and house, losing tens of thousands of dollars in crops and housing costs, he said. He has had to become a part-time driver to boost his monthly income from about $50 to $130. To add food to the table, he plans to grow beans on ground that split open in April, leaving a gash six feet long and two inches wide.

“Although moving makes us poor, we have to do it,” Chen said. “Am I happy? Do I have a choice?”

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.