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Reform in China
smothered by corruption: Human Rights Watch
Thu Jan 13, 2:58 PM ET Asia - AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Government promises of legal and
political reform in China were undermined in 2004 by
official corruption, media censorship and enduring
restrictions on freedom of expression, Human Rights
Watch said.
In its annual survey of human rights around the world,
the New York-based watchdog said China, despite its
vaunted economic dynamism, remained a "highly
repressive state," particularly in the regions of
Tibet and Muslim-majority Xinjiang.
"Despite efforts to strengthen the rule of law in
China, the legal system itself remains a major source
of rights violations," the survey said, citing a lack
of judicial independence, government interference and
an over reliance on confessions that promotes torture.
On a more positive note, the survey said, China
recently began to hold qualifying examinations for
judges and signaled its intent to amend laws to better
protect suspects in detention.
"However, administrative detention, a common practice
in China, still occurs without judicial process," it
added.
Last year marked the 15th anniversary of the June 4,
1989, Tiananmen Square crackdown, and Human Rights
Watch noted that Beijing continued to forbid any
commemoration of the event, with police harassing and
detaining those dedicated to securing rehabilitation
of victims and compensation.
China also stepped up controls last year over the
burgeoning use of the Chinese-language Internet,
expanding the list of topics subject to censorship and
introducing more effective methods for enforcing
compliance.
Despite those restrictions, however, the Internet
managed to emerge as "a powerful tool for the sharing
of information and mobilisation of social activism,"
the survey said.
China was rattled by rising social and ethnic unrest
in 2004, with a series of incidents late in the year
seeing mass protests and violent clashes, often as a
result of labour unrest.
"Chinese workers have yet to reap the benefits of the
country's rapid economic development," the survey said,
citing the skirting of minimum wage requirements and
the refusal of employers to implement health and
safety measures.
On the issue of ethnic unrest, Human Rights Watch said
China had used its support for the US-led war on
terror to leverage support for, or acquiescence in,
its crackdown on the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim
population in Xinjiang.
While some Uighur groups press peacefully for genuine
political autonomy and others resort to violence, the
Chinese authorities do not distinguish between
peaceful and violent dissent, the survey said, "or
between separatism and international terrorism."
The crackdown in Xinjiang has been characterized by
systematic human rights violations including arbitrary
arrests, closed trials, and extensive use of the death
penalty, it added.
Similar, "severely repressive measures" remained in
force in Tibet, with strict limits on religious and
cultural freedoms and widespread, arbitrary detentions.
While praising China's increasingly prominent
international role, the survey said Beijing shared
responsibility for the UN Security Council's failure
to impose sanctions on Sudan for its complicity in
violence in the Darfur region.
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