The Widening Net

China's crackdown on human-rights lawyers, activists, and online dissidents goes from bad to worse.

BY RENEE XIA | APRIL 5, 2011

In China, the most extensive crackdown against pro-democracy and human rights activists in more than a decade continues with no end in sight. In the four weeks since my Foreign Policy article "Missing Before Action" -- on Beijing's nervous response to calls within China for a "Jasmine Revolution," modeled on the revolutions sweeping across the Arab world -- the situation for Chinese human rights activists and lawyers has only gone from bad to worse.

Over the weekend, the prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who has been vocal about human rights abuses in China, was detained at Beijing Capital Airport. Previously, his high international profile may have afforded his some greater protection, but no longer.

Today, he's just one name among many. Since mid-February, the nonprofit I work for, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), has confirmed that Chinese authorities have detained at least 28 individuals, disappeared more than 30, and put more than 200 under house arrest or round-the-clock scrutiny. Three of the criminally detained have been formally arrested, five have been released on bail to await trial, and two have been sent to "residential surveillance" in unknown locations. At least a dozen of the disappeared remain missing, including a number of prominent human rights lawyers.

But these numbers only provide clues to the real picture. CHRD has received information about many more cases of criminal detention, disappearances, and torture than we can currently verify or make public. For instance, there is an unconfirmed report about four artists being criminally detained for "creating disturbances" after opening a performance art installment, called "Performance Art in Sensitive Zone," wherein an artist strapped with jasmine flowers was buried in the ground. One artist who filmed the exhibit in Beijing and put it online was also reportedly detained. Families have told CHRD that they have been warned against talking publicly about such detentions, on threat that their loved ones will face longer sentences.

One nagging question is why these particular individuals -- some with no apparent connection to calls for a Jasmine Revolution -- have been singled out for punishment. Many of those detained were previously not known internationally; so what does the persecution of this particular group of activists say about the regime's tactics and motivations?

Getty Images/Peter Parks

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Renee Xia is the international director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

PARVUS

10:04 AM ET

April 5, 2011

Response

Thank you for all this information--it's truly chilling. Amid all the negative news I'm inspired by the courage of the Chinese dissidents. They are true heroes. So what is the Obama administration saying about all this? Anything? Nothing?

 

ODYSSEY8

2:49 PM ET

April 6, 2011

Obama won't say a word

You can bet your bottom dollar, literally, that Obama is not going to say anything about the human rights abuses going on in China. Why? It's all about the money, honey; specifically, all the foreign debt that the U.S. owes to China.

If the U.S. tries to press China on its human rights abuses, China can strike back by pressing the U.S. to pay off its debt to China, a debt that is getting monstrously bigger every single day. What is being done by our so-called "elected representatives" in Washington to address the massive foreign debt our country now has? ZERO, nor do they show any interest in addressing this or any other issue that is dragging the U.S. economy further and further into the abyss, and her citizens right along with it!

Suffice to say, this gives China free reign to whatever it wants with its political dissidents. It's all about the money honey; in this day and age, that is what it always boils down to.

 

MARTY MARTEL

3:03 PM ET

April 5, 2011

U. S. embrace strengthened Communist Party's hold

Chinese people have to thank none other than this beacon of democracy, freedom and human rights called U. S. of A. for their plight under the Communist rule for foreseeable future.

That Nixon-Kissinger embrace in 1972 and subsequent U. S. actions have strengthened Communist Party’s hold on Chinese society by allowing it to adopt a capitalist model under party and state authority. All the Western and East Asian democracies stayed away from China following the U. S. lead until 1972 and rushed to embrace China after Nixon visit. Opening of Western and East Asian markets has afforded Chinese Communist dictatorship to employ millions of Chinese, thereby preventing any popular outburst due to economic hardships that is causing lot of current Middle East unrest.

Had it not been for that Nixon embrace in 1972, China’s economic progress would have been far more slower with all the US, West European and East Asian markets closed to cheap Chinese products. Had it not been for that Nixon embrace, China’s technological progress would have been far slower in the absence of West’s technology transfers. Had it not been for that Nixon embrace, China’s military progress would have been far slower in the absence of huge forex reserves that China accumulated from the massive exports of cheap Chinese products and China used those forex reserves to acquire latest military technology.

China’s rise to super power status to challenge US is a fitting monument to the much-celebrated foresight of Nixon-Kissinger to embrace China to counter Soviet Union in 1972 just as 9/11 attacks is a fitting monument to the Reagan embrace of Islamic fundamentalists to counter Soviet Union in 1980s Afghanistan.

 

AGRICOLA

3:33 PM ET

April 5, 2011

Thanks Marty

Thanks marty for filling in the required "It's America's Fault" comment. Someone has to always blast America for too much intervention then turn around and blast them for not enough.

The Evils of the CCP can't be the CCp's own fault.

 

AGRICOLA

4:39 PM ET

April 5, 2011

But I do agree, China's rise

But I do agree, China's rise would have been slower had we not opened up... also more hostile.

Nixon just didnt expect the US to be spineless in its dealings with modern china.

What? only 25% of Windows product updates in China are to a registered product? No surprise. We did nothing but send them a moderately upset letter? Again no surprise.

 

TVNEWSWATCH

3:58 AM ET

April 6, 2011

Hardly surprising

This latest arrest and detention is of no real surprise from what has been labelled a "terror state" by several politicians in recent years, such as MEP Edward McMillan-Scott and Norman Baker MP. Prior to the Beijing Olympics the authorities promised change and reform and to adopt a less restrictive approach to the media. The relaxation of the Internet lasted a few short weeks, media controls soon tightened once again, and now we see the rounding up of anyone seen as a threat to the CCP.

China will continue on this road while the rest of the world does business with it and cares little or turns a blind eye to the continuing abuses of human rights. Ai Weiwei will become another symbol, along with the likes of Liu Xiaobo, of the deepening oppression existing in China.

Pay homage to the system and embrace the current doctrine and you will be left alone. Question the status quo and like countless unnamed individuals the strong hand of the Chinese state will silence you. It happened in the 1930s as Hitler rose to power and silenced his enemies. In many respects China is no less different, though there are no extermination camps quite yet.

 

WASLOVE101

2:22 AM ET

April 9, 2011

it works

The system that is in place in China has brought millions out of poverty. It made sure that western companies don't just profit from its markets but also shared their technology. Its working to counterbalance the only super-power in the world. China now has almost a hundred percent literacy rate, capped unemployment rate, solid infrastructure in all its major cities and good access to healthcare for most its citizens. Stuff that other developing countries of its size(india/pakistan) can only dream of. The development of China is surreal to its own citizens who wouldn't have dreamt a car ride in their lifetime, let alone witnessing millions of cars on well paved highways.

Not completely unexpected, theres a price to pay to have running water and a working flush in your toilets. But, as anyone who has lived in china can testify, there is complete liberty for the common man to choose his path and make a life for himself. The CCP doesn't curtail the right of individual to get any education or a job of his choosing as long as it doesn't interfere with the party.

Western writers choose to highlight the ills of other societies as a means to glorify their own lifestyle as "exceptional" through their articles. Critical press is important but should be kept in context. The CCPs detention of "democracy activists" is wrong on many levels but how about comparing them to the 100s of detainees that have been locked by the sentinel of democracy in subhuman conditions without trials or charges, with just one explanation, because "yes, we can".

The world isn't black and white. The system in china is working for a billion plus ppl and if it is warranted to take a few extreme measures to prevent it from destabilizing.

 

ALANNEWMAN

12:21 PM ET

May 3, 2011

Not a local issue...

Good article Renee, I would hope that the media in general would be less hypocritical and make more situational attributions to the events going on the fastest growing economy. Of course, that would be detrimental to foreign policy so I guess I can't expect much. My friend who works in a local company suggests that human rights issue is a major concern however most Chinese people are used to it and find it not a big issue.