An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 94 31 December 1998 In this issue: (1) HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE WITH US TO RESUME
(2) CHINA EXPRESSES STRONG RESENTMENT OVER U.S. CONGRESS REPORT ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS.
(3) UYGHUR MEDICINE MEET NATIONAL STANDARD
(4) STABILITY SOUGHT IN 'SENSITIVE' YEAR
(5) CHINA EYES STABILITY IN TIBET, MUSLIM REGION
(6)BEIJING "TOUGH GUY" FOR FOREIGN POLICY
(7) UYGHUR CULTURAL EVENING IN MUNICH.
(8) CHINESE COURT CONVICTS UYGHURS TO DEATH
(9) OSCE SAYS NOT TO OBSERVE KAZAKH PRESIDENTIAL POLL.
(10) JIANG SIGNALS RETURN TO HARD TIME.
(11) AFTER DISSIDENTS, CHINA TARGETS PUBLISHERS.
(12) MAJOR AREAS OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN WITH CHINA’S TREATMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
(13) 50,000 CHINESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN RUSSIA FAR EAST.
(14) NO JUSTICE IN CHINA
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An official dialogue between Beijing and Washington on human rights will begin next month for the first time in nearly five years. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Harold Koh will host a team of Foreign Ministry counterparts in Washington for two days of talks, tentatively scheduled for January 11 and 12. The talks will take place against the backdrop of Beijing's crackdown on members of the fledgling opposition China Democracy Party, which has left United States officials deeply concerned at the disruption it could cause to the overall relationship. A group of human rights organisations has already written to Mr Koh urging him to postpone the discussions in the wake of the harsh sentences handed down to party members Xu Wenli, Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin . But the Americans are determined to go ahead, believing they can make the case that holding an official dialogue on the highly sensitive issue is a step forward."On balance, it's better to have these kinds of talks than not to have them," said a US administration source.In another move, the State Department's representative on matters of religious freedom, Bob Seiple, will visit Beijing early next month to discuss American concerns. The Washington meeting will be the first official human rights talks since mid-1994, when China broke off the initiative in the wake of the row caused by a meeting held in Beijing between dissident Wei Jingsheng and Mr Koh's predecessor, John Shattuck. However, President Jiang Zemin agreed to resume the dialogue during his June summit meeting with President Bill Clinton in Beijing. Apart from expressing concern over the recent sentences, and possibly handing over a new list of political prisoners Washington would like to see released, the Americans will be asking the Chinese to explain how the mainland's crackdown conforms to its recent signing of two key United Nations social and human rights covenants. Tibet and religious freedom are also likely to feature on the agenda. The letter to Mr Koh, sent by a group including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Human Rights in China, says of the talks: "We welcome all effective measures to improve rights in China, but believe recent conduct by the Chinese Government makes a dialogue inappropriate and unlikely to be productive."We urge you to suspend this meeting to avoid sending the wrong message to the Chinese Government." (2) CHINA EXPRESSES STRONG RESENTMENT OVER U.S. CONGRESS REPORT ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS.
BEIJING -- China on Thursday blasted a report by the U.S. Congress which concluded that high technology deals with Beijing have damaged U.S. national security. "The report is groundless and irresponsible," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao. "We express our strong resentment over this." The report was compiled after a six-month inquiry by members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was sparked by allegations that Hughes Electronics Corp and Loral Space & Communications Ltd had transferred technology to China after satellites belonging to the two companies were destroyed in Chinese rocket explosions. Congress members involved in the inquiry said on Wednesday that the transfer of sensitive U.S. technology has harmed U.S. national security, but they refused to provide details. Zhu countered that the normal exchange of trade and technology is "in the interest of both sides" and he urged Washington to help smooth the way for future cooperation. "We hope the United States will take into consideration the overall development of ties and take measures to remove obstacles to the normal development of economic and trade relations between the two countries," he said. The United States slapped a ban on transfers of sensitive technology to China following the bloody 1989 army crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. (3) UYGHUR MEDICINE MEET NATIONAL STANDARD 30 December 1998, East Turkistan Information Center Recently 202 types of traditional Uyghur medicine have passed the national standard test. Like Tibetan and Mongolian traditional medicines Uyghur medicine is part of Chinese traditional medicine. From early days, the Nomadic Uyghurs used the herbs, animal parts and minerals to treat minor aliments. The Uyghurs developed the 4-element system --- fire, gas, water and earth elements and also developed theories regarding body fluids, organs and different types of illnesses. There are 2200 types of herbs, animal parts, and minerals in Xinjiang that can be used in traditional Uyghur medicine. (Translated from Dianzi Ribao News, 20 December) (4) STABILITY SOUGHT IN 'SENSITIVE' YEAR
President Jiang Zemin has set up a high-level group to maintain stability in the coming year. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said the Communist Party Central Committee had earlier this month established a Temporary Leading Group on Rectifying National Affairs. The group, headed by Mr Jiang, had been tasked with upholding social stability and combating "infiltration" by foreign countries. "Jiang has indicated the party needs to use a combination of police control, economic measures and diplomatic initiatives to maintain order in the sensitive year of 1999," a Western diplomat said. "For example, Beijing will serve warning on Western countries not to maintain ties with dissident organizations in China."Such countries will also be asked to desist from criticising China should more arrests of 'troublemakers' take place." Sensitive anniversaries, including the founding of the People's Republic, the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the May 4th Enlightenment Movement of 1919, will fall next year. As head of the party's Leading Group on Foreign Affairs, Mr Jiang has the final say over the extent to which pressure should be applied on foreign countries to stop "infiltration" of the mainland. It is understood that various control mechanisms, including the police, the state security apparatus and the People's Armed Police (PAP), will be boosted. Mr Jiang is discussing the subject with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji , who has expressed fears that boosting the police or PAP would go against the principle of administrative streamlining. Security sources in Beijing said authorities had also asked banks to keep closer tabs on the movement of funds which might benefit dissidents. They said police suspected that funds, including aid from organizations in unnamed foreign countries, were first transferred to the accounts of private companies with links to dissident groups. Mr Jiang has instructed the party's Publicity Department to draft articles for each of the anniversaries. The articles, to be approved by politburo member Ding Guangen , will explain the party's attitude towards the significance of events such as the May 4th Movement. (5) CHINA EYES STABILITY IN TIBET, MUSLIM REGION
BEIJING -- Communist Party bosses in China's restive, remote regions of Tibet and Xinjiang have pledged to tighten their iron grip to prevent instability, according to official newspapers seen in Beijing on Monday. Echoing a warning by President Jiang Zemin, Raidi, the party's deputy secretary in Tibet, called for "vigilance against infiltration, subversive and splittist activities by international and domestic hostile forces". Raidi, who is also chairman of Tibet's regional parliament, vowed to eliminate "disturbances and ignorance" in the region, according to the Dec. 15 edition of the Tibet Daily which printed the full text of his speech. The authorities consider devoutly Buddhist Tibetans to be ignorant and superstitious. Tibet has been rocked in the past decade by several often violent, pro-independence demonstrations led by monks and nuns. Many clerics have been sentenced to long prison terms. Wang Lequan, the party secretary in the Muslim region of Xinjiang, said the struggle against separatists there was getting "acute and complicated", according to the Dec. 23 edition of the Xinjiang Daily which ran the full text of his speech. Wang vowed to "strike separatists cropping up" and "take the initiative and hit out at the enemy". Both Raidi and Wang said stability would be the watchword in their regions in 1999. Xinjiang, home to Turkish-speaking Uighurs who make up about 47 percent of the region's population of 17 million people, has been rocked by rioting, bombings and assassinations since last year. Uighur militants have agitated for an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and three former Soviet Central Asian republics. In February last year, nine people died and nearly 200 were injured in rioting in Xinjiang's Yining city. Three weeks later nine others were killed and dozens wounded when a series of home-made bombs exploded in the regional capital Urumqi. China executed 20 people between April and July last year for their roles in the Yining riots and Urumqi bombings. China is bracing for trouble around the dates of politically sensitive anniversaries next year. March marks the 40th anniversary of an abortive uprising against communist rule in Tibet and the flight to India by the Dalai Lama, the Himalayan region's exiled god-king. He now heads a government-in-exile in a north Indian town. March also marks the 10th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in the Tibetan capital Lhasa after three days of separatist riots in which up to 50 Tibetans were shot dead by police. Martial law was lifted on May Day the following year. Raidi accused the Dalai Lama of being a "loyal tool of international anti-Chinese forces" and vowed to discredit him. The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and is revered in the West. He counts U.S. President Bill Clinton among numerous admirers in the West. Raidi urged party cadres and the public to "mercilessly expose and criticize the crimes and plots of the Dalai Lama to create disturbances in Tibet and bring calamity" to Tibetan Buddhism. He vowed to "sweep the Dalai Lama's prestige to the ground". China's critics accuse it of engaging in a systematic attempt to crush Tibetan Buddhism and culture and flood the region with ethnic Chinese settlers. China denies this and says communist rule has brought wealth to the impoverished region. (6) BEIJING "TOUGH GUY" FOR FOREIGN POLICY
Vice-President Hu Jintao is to play a bigger role in foreign policy, particularly as spokesman for a tougher line on world affairs. An informed source in Beijing said yesterday the "hawks" were having a big influence on the conduct of foreign policy given recent setbacks on the American and Japanese fronts. The source said President Jiang Zemin anticipated "trouble" in Sino-American relations with political difficulties plaguing President Bill Clinton. Mr. Jiang's advisers thought China bashers in Congress would take advantage of Mr. Clinton's plight to attack Beijing on issues including human rights and arms proliferation. The source said the Chinese leadership was also disappointed with Tokyo over issues including Taiwan and the lack of a written apology for wartime atrocities. Diplomatic analysts in Beijing said that faced with these challenges, the mainstream faction of the foreign policy establishment thought Beijing should act tough. "Vice-President Hu has been given the task of projecting a more assertive Chinese foreign policy," a Western diplomat said. "By contrast, President Jiang will act the role of senior international statesman and make pronouncements of a more lofty, neutral nature." At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hanoi earlier this month, Mr. Hu surprised observers by attacking Washington's decision to bomb Iraq. Mr. Hu, a member of the politburo's Standing Committee, is considered Mr. Jiang's heir apparent. Meanwhile, Beijing has indirectly confirmed that the leadership is pursuing a "big country diplomacy". This is a reference to the fact that, particularly after the two summits between presidents Jiang and Clinton, Beijing believes it has attained the status of a First World power. In a commentary yesterday entitled "Diplomacy among major powers", Xinhua said China's "unprecedentedly active exchanges with other major world powers" was its major diplomatic achievement this year. The official news agency said China was holding its own in a world marked by "multi-polarization". "Diplomacy is undoubtedly based on national strength," Xinhua said. "It's hardly possible for an economically poor, backward and politically unstable country to conduct successful diplomacy." (7) UYGHUR CULTURAL EVENING IN MUNICH.
An Uyghur cultural evening was held in Munich, Germany on 19 December 1998. It was organized by the Third World Friendship Association with the help from Marwayit Hapiz, an Uyghur artist living in Munich. Members of the above association including Germans, as well as those from African and Asian countries, and Uyghurs living in Munich attended the concert. Mr. Albrecht Goring, a lawyer and close friend of Uyghurs, gave a brief introduction of Uyghurs regarding their past and present situation. It was followed by the performances of Halisa, a brilliant Uyghur dancer and Zulpiye Zakir, a talented singer. While enjoying the concert, the audience also had a chance to sample Uyghur cousin. The concert helped the multi-national audience get acquainted with Uyghur culture and awakened their awareness of the present situation of Uyghurs. Recently in Europe, especially in Germany, there have been several cultural events aimed to introduce Uyghur people and their culture. A dance troupe organized by the European East Turkistan Union had performed in several European cities. Marwayit Hapiz, a well-known Uyghur artist, opened her personal exhibition on the 6th of November at the Dritte Welt Cafe. (8) CHINESE COURT CONVICTS UYGHURS TO DEATH
[ETIC, 12/26/98] The court of the Ili region has recently convicted one more group of young Uyghurs to death two years after the Ghulja events. At the end of October, 1998, the court of the Ili region prepared cases and conducted secret trials of a group of young Uyghurs who took part in the demonstration in Ghulja two years ago. On February 5, 1996, about 500 young Uyghur men went on the streets of Ghulja protesting arrests of their friends and relatives in the so-called "Strike Hard" campaign for the alleged illegal religious activities. The government of China launched "Strike Hard" two years ago "to fight crime". The campaign has zealously been used to suppress religious and pro-independence activities in East Turkistan. The peaceful demonstration was brutally suppressed by the Chinese paramilitary police resulting in deaths of more than 100 people. The court convicted these Uyghurs "in founding an anti-revolutionary organization to split the motherland" and delivered them death sentences. The sentences are planned to be carried out by shooting in the beginning of February, 1999. Some of the parents of the convicted young men appealed the court decisions to the Supreme Court of the Xinjiang-Uyghur autonomous region, but it denied their appeals. One of the convicted is Abdusalam Shamshidin, a worker of the Ghulja spinning factory. He was born in 1969, married, have a child. Abdusalam was arrested in June, 1998, and is currently awaiting for his execution. [Ablikim Baqi, Istanbul] (9) OSCE SAYS NOT TO OBSERVE KAZAKH PRESIDENTIAL POLL.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reiterated on Thursday that it was unhappy with preparations for Kazakhstan's presidential election, and said it would not observe the January 10 poll. "We have not sent an observation mission," said Judy Thompson, coordinator of the OSCE's election assessment mission. "We are not here to assess the election as an observer, and to put our stamp of approval or disapproval on it." The OSCE repeated its criticism of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's decision with parliament to bring the poll forward by over a year. He announced the decision on October 8, three months ahead of the new election date. "The mission remains convinced that the campaign period is too short considering the constitutional changes that led to an early election," the organization said in a statement. It also said that a decision to ban two candidates from taking part in the poll for minor administrative offenses, including former Prime Minister and leading opposition figure Akezhan Kazhegeldin, was unjustified. The Central Election Commission has countered that its decision to bar the candidates was correct and in accordance with Kazakh law. Thomson told Reuters that the assessment mission would look at and report on the overall election process, and how it corresponds to commitments made by OSCE member states, including Kazakhstan. Thompson said that a low-key presence during the vote should not be mistaken for an observation mission. OSCE staffing would total just 15 people, while a full observation mission would have up to 300 people in a country the size of Kazakhstan, she said. The resource-rich Central Asian state of 16 million people is five times the size of France. Washington has also expressed anxiety over the election in the ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, and what it means for the process of democracy in the region as a whole. U.S. oil majors are among the biggest foreign investors in Kazakhstan's huge hydrocarbon reserves, but there is no sign yet that the multinationals are paying too much attention to election criticism. Lucio Noto, chairman of Mobil Corp, met Nazarbayev in the capital Astana on Tuesday, and voiced his support for the 58-year-old former metal worker, who appears to be heading for a landslide victory against three relatively weak candidates. "If I were allowed to take part in the election, I know who I would vote for," he told reporters after the meeting, praising Nazarbayev's market reforms and attitude to overseas investors. Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov added political weight to Nazarbayev's candidacy on Wednesday. "I can say for sure that there is big support from Russia for the incumbent president of Kazakhstan," he said after meeting Nazarbayev and Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev. Moscow is a key political partner for Kazakhstan and accounts for around 40 percent of merchandise trade. (10) JIANG SIGNALS RETURN TO HARD TIME.
President Jiang Zemin has signaled that Beijing will sustain a crackdown on dissent throughout next year. In his second hard-line speech in six days, Mr. Jiang vowed to crush any challenges to Communist Party rule and preserve "social stability". He demanded that officials "talk politics", a euphemism for following party orders. The speech, to cadres attending the National Meeting on Political and Legal Work, used uncompromising language heard less frequently over the past 18 months as leaders sought to improve relations abroad. Mr. Jiang's harsh tone punctuated the summary trials and convictions for subversion this week of dissidents Wang Youcai , Qin Yongmin and Xu Wenli who tried to form the opposition China Democracy Party. To underscore the Communist Party's intolerant mood, newspapers ran brief accounts on Tuesday and yesterday of the long prison terms given to the three. Dissidents are rarely mentioned by the media and the reports served as a warning. In the speech, reported by state television, Mr. Jiang said stability was crucial over the next year. He noted two key events on the political calendar: the 50th anniversary of Communist Party rule on October 1 and Macau's handover on December 20. "We must strengthen the ideological and political education of officials and raise their awareness of, and resistance to, the sabotaging acts of hostile domestic and foreign forces," China Central Television quoted Mr. Jiang as saying. "Whenever any element that undermines stability raises its head, it must be resolutely nipped in the bud." Mr. Jiang did not exclusively target political enemies. He likened their threat to that of white-collar and ordinary criminals and ticked off a list of potentially volatile problems - inefficient state industries, legions of laid-off workers, stagnating farmers' incomes and corrupt officials. The emphasis on stability and warnings to those who would disrupt it were reminiscent of party pronouncements in the waning years of Mr. Jiang's mentor, Deng Xiaoping . Mr Jiang cited China's enhanced international stature, saying: "Our active developments of foreign affairs has reached new achievements." But he made no reference to demands made by the country's intellectuals for pursuing international norms in political reform. Senior cadres, including Premier Zhu Rongji and the Politburo member in charge of security, Wei Jianxing , also attended the meeting. After Xu Wenli's imprisonment, China's dissidents face renewed pressure. China's Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin, has urged the country's judicial authorities to crush any attempt to undermine political stability. Addressing a law enforcement conference broadcast on national television news, he said any attempt to undermine national security must be nipped in the bud. In a speech peppered with references to hostile forces abroad and dissatisfaction among laid-off workers at home, Jiang Zemin warned that the 50th anniversary of Communist Party rule and the return to China of the Portuguese colony of Macao would make 1999 a vital year for China. Preserving stability was paramount, he said. Publishers warned. Jiang Zemin: 'Preserving stability is paramount'. The People's Daily newspaper also chimed in with a warning to publishers that they would in future be held responsible for any subversive material appearing in their publications and charged accordingly with attempting to overthrow the state. After the prison sentences handed down earlier this week to three veteran dissidents - between 11 and 13 years each - no one will take such threats lightly. An intellectual community, which only a few months ago had been emboldened by an apparent relaxation in the political mood, is now likely to return to mouthing the Communist Party's slogans. Appeal to UN. But defiance is not entirely dead. On Wednesday four intellectuals sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, appealing for international pressure on Beijing. Western governments have already protested over the dissident trials. For British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the United States President, Bill Clinton, these events were a double disappointment. Both leaders visited China earlier this year, and argued that a softly-softly approach to the human rights dialogue with Beijing was the best strategy. They pointed to China's signing of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a sign of progress. But the imprisonment of Chinese citizens for the crime of trying to organize their own political party makes it clear that Beijing's definition of the freedoms of expression and association is very much narrower than that of London or Washington. (11) AFTER DISSIDENTS, CHINA TARGETS PUBLISHERS.
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities on Wednesday turned their sights on the publishing and entertainment industries, having cracked down on dissidents in recent weeks. Under new rules carried in major newspapers, book and magazine publishers as well as music producers and filmmakers face life in prison if they were found guilty of "inciting to subvert state power." That charge was leveled against three founders of a banned opposition party who were sentenced to long jail terms this week. Publishers are barred from knowingly allowing publication, printing, reproduction, circulation or dissemination of written or recorded works with subversive content, the latest Supreme People's Court interpretations showed. The maximum punishment is life in prison. The new rules cover writing, music, movies, television, video recordings and computer software. On Tuesday dissident Qin Yongmin was jailed for 12 years for trying to set up the Chinese Democratic Party. Xu Wenli was sentenced to 13 years and Wang Youcai to 11 years in jail. In an ominous sign, President Jiang Zemin warned last Friday that subversive activities would be "nipped in the bud" and said China would never tolerate Western-style democracy. The new rules also outlaw material that "endangers social order"-- the catch-all phrase for words or deeds that challenge the Communist Party's five-decade monopoly on power. "What we are seeing could be a policy tightening across the board," one Western diplomat said of the rules, which are contained in 18 articles. The rules also ban material aimed at "splitting the nation"-- a reference to separatist activities in Tibet and the Moslem region of Xinjiang-- sabotaging reunification with Taiwan and overthrowing the socialist system. Politically sensitive books by reformist authors have slipped through the cracks in recent years and found their way into the shelves of bookshops in the wake of economic reforms that have forced state publishing houses to sink or swim in the marketplace. China's propaganda tsars moved recently to cleanse the media and publishing industry of liberal influences, industry sources said. Authorities have ordered a best-selling book "Political China: Facing the Era of Choosing a New Structure" removed from shelves and banned any reprints, the sources said. The book, a compilation of 39 essays by 32 authors, including journalists, academics and former officials, called for political reforms. One source said the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party had ordered the popular broadsheet Southern Weekend in the city of Guangzhou to stop running expose articles for which it is famous. "Southern Weekend was told to praise the Communist Party more and to stop printing exposes," said the source with close ties to the newspaper. The broadsheet has a circulation of more than one million. Its sensational yet carefully crafted investigative pieces tested the far boundaries of free speech and civil liberties in China. The liberal monthly magazine Way, or "fang fa," was struggling for survival after being targeted in the drive to bring the publishing industry into line, said one of the top editors of the magazine, who requested anonymity. "There could be problems with our work but it has not been finally decided that we can no longer exist or not allowed to exist," the editor said. (12) MAJOR AREAS OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN WITH CHINA’S TREATMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
In a recent letter from Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla), he stated that there are three major areas of concern with China's treatment of human rights. They include the treatment of prisoners, coercive family planning policies, and religious freedom. His letter on China's prison system contained the following: China's prison system has been widely criticized for its treatment of prisoners. Because the requirement that all prisoners work is the central feature of the Chinese prison system. many Chinese prisoners are used to manufacture consumer products. The United States has been concerned with the extent to which products made by Chinese prisoners are exported to the US market. Not only does this practice place American companies at a competitive disadvantage, it results in American consumers unknowingly purchasing goods manufactured by involuntary laborers. In 1992, in an effort to prohibit trade in prison labor products, the United States and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In 1994, a Statement of Cooperation was signed, detailing the work procedures for the implementation of the MOU. This agreement permits U.S Customs officials to inspect stes suspected of using forced labor. Hopefully, during future correspondence with Senator Graham, I can find out the reporting procedure to make sure the U.S. Customs officials are pointed at all the right spots. Any leads to sent along to be investigated can be mailed to tikan@usa.net (13) 50,000 CHINESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN RUSSIA FAR EAST.
MOSCOW -- About 50,000 Chinese are now living illegally in Russia's Far East and their number could outstrip that of the indigenous population within 20 years, according to Russian border guards quoted by Itar-Tass news agency. Nearly 200 illegal immigrants have been deported to China this month alone, the frontier guards said. The number of illegal Chinese migrants apprehended by the Russian authorities has increased 10-fold in the past five years, they said. Chinese nationals are allowed to enter Russian territory for short periods without a visa and many overstay and try to settle in Russia. Others simply sneak across the border particularly in the areas near Vladivostok, Khabarrovsk, the Amur river and China, the border guards said. (14) NO JUSTICE IN CHINA
"China's signature on a human rights treaty isn't worth the paper it's written on if this is what it does to peaceful political activists," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights last October in a move that many governments welcomed as an indication of Beijing's growing commitment to international human rights principles. Xu Wenli, fifty-five, was given a thirteen-year sentence on Monday, and Wang Youcai, thirty-two, received an eleven-year term following his trial last Thursday. The verdict in the trial of a third activist, Qin Yongmin, has not yet been announced. All three men were involved in trying to set up the Chinese Democracy Party, and all three were accused of attempting to subvert the government. "China says it respects freedom of expression, but then arrests these men for calling for democratic change," said Jones. "It says it respects freedom of association, but then arrests virtually everyone associated with a new political party. It says it respects the rights of defendants, but then applies the principle of verdict first, trial second." Human Rights Watch said that under the circumstances, it was time for governments now engaged in "human rights dialogues" with China--including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the E.U.--to rethink what purpose these dialogues were serving. "We have no problem with seminars on law and justice," said Jones, "but if the Chinese government persists in ignoring law and denying justice, the governments holding these seminars better look for a more forceful way of raising human rights concerns with Beijing." Human Rights Watch is urging governments to bring a resolution condemning China's human rights practices at the annual meeting in Geneva of the UN Human Rights Commission this coming March. This past April the effort was abandoned in favor of the less confrontational dialogues. Human Rights Watch urged China's dialogue partners to make immediate, high-level appeals to Beijing for a commutation of the sentences handed down to Xu and Wang and to suspend any high-level trade delegations scheduled to visit China in early 1999 in protest against the harsh sentences. For more information contact: Mike Jendrzejczyk 1 202 371-6592 x.113 Sidney Jones 1 212 216-1228 Mickey Spiegel 1 212 216-1229 Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |