Written Statement – Item 11 (c) of the provisional agenda

Freedom of expression in the People’s Republic of China

China became a signatory member to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 5th October 1998. However, it must be regret to note that to date China has not ratified this Covenant.

The article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: „Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers“.

Beijing’s release of the White Paper entitled, „Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet – 2004” in May 2005 maintains protecting ‘by law its citizens’ freedom of information, association, expression, privacy, speech and press’. In reality, China systematically violates all these freedoms through policies of censorship, surveillance and punishment. Every publication and news goes through a sophisticated screening process and requires the consent of the Communist Party. The general public has little knowledge about the outside world since the information inflow and outflow are strictly screened and monitored by the authorities. Most of the journals and media are state-owned where people are fed with news laden with official party ideologies and propagandas.

The Chinese government blocks some radio broadcasts and access to several Internet news sites including the Voice of America and the BBC. Bill Baum, Chief of VOA’s Chinese Branch, says China began blocking both its Chinese and English language web sites in 1999.

In 2002, China adopted new Internet regulations requiring all China-based websites to censor content or risk being shut down. Access to the websites perceived as threatening to national security is limited by a filtering mechanism known as the „Great Fire Wall”. China’s cyber crackdown escalated with the publication of new Internet regulations on 25 September 2005. The new regulations aim at preventing the distribution of any uncensored news in both websites and e-mail. They are a major threat to civil society by prohibiting the publication of any news „inciting illegal assemblies, associations, marches, demonstrations and gatherings that disturb social order” or „any activities in the name of an illegal civil organisation. Only „healthy and civilized news that are beneficial to the improvement of the quality of the nation, beneficial to economic development and conducive to social progress” are allowed. The new rules are prohibiting any independent reports on Chinese websites on the major social, political and economic problems of the country.

In addition, Beijing has set up surveillance system within the Ministry of Public Security employing cyber police force of some 30,000 to keep track of so-called „internet dissidents”. As a result sites providing foreign news, human rights information, and information about sensitive issues such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Falun Gong have been banned or made inaccessible, while numerous internet users in China have been arrested and incarcerated for violating these restrictions.

In February 2004, the Tibet Information Network reported that TAR authorities had banned Tibetan author Woeser’s book, „Notes on Tibet,“ for its politically „sensitive“ content leading to the termination from her job. When a local television station, Tibet Television 3, inadvertently showed footage of a man in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu with a Tibetan national flag behind him, the station suffered an immediate crackdown from the Chinese officials. The head of the station was forced to acknowledge his ‘mistake’ while staffs at the station were forced to undergo re-education and to write self-criticism acknowledging their error.

Contrary to Beijing’s claim of guaranteeing its citizen’s civil and political rights, „as of December 2005, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has recorded 132 known political prisoners languishing in various Chinese administered prisons and detention centres across Tibet”.

Chinese authorities consider exercising freedom of expression, opinion and association as dissent and separatist activities that endangers state security. In Tibet it is still a crime to express faith in the Dalai Lama through possession or display of his photos, conducting prayer ceremony or having a Tibetan national flag or political literature.

The Kardze Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Lobsang Khedrup, 22, and Gyalpo, 26, to eleven years‘ imprisonment term in April 2004 for hoisting a banned Tibetan national flag, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy(TCHRD). Lobsang Khedrup, 22, hails from Dado Township, Kardze County, Kardze „TAP“, Sichuan whereas Gyalpo, 26, belongs to Shungteng Township in Kardze County.

In 2002, Kardze Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Jampa Namgyal to nine years‘ imprisonment term for distributing political leaflets and hoisting Tibetan flag. He was then sent to Maowan Prison Maowan Qiang Autonomous County in Ngaba „TAP“, Sichuan, to serve the term. These are few cases that clearly highlight the lack of freedom of expression and freedom of press in the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China.

The Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Committee to:

• urge to ratify International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its optional protocol,

• urge to release all political prisoners of conscience held in prisons, labour camps and detention centres,

• urge to review the legal provisions of Chinese Criminal Law and the Law of the State Secrets that is used to infringe upon the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and information,

• demand Chinese authorities to clarify the scope and extend of the term „endangering state security” in its Criminal Procedural Law,

• urge to allow free and unlimited access to all sources of information including internet, radio, newspapers and televisions.