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China and the Internet: A Chronicle of Repression

China and the Internet: A Chronicle of Repression

The adoption in 2000 of three drastic laws limiting the circulation of the information on the Web has allowed Beijing authorities to launch a wave of unprecedented repression against cyberdissidents and Internet sites considered "subversive" or "critical". Arrests, banned sites, threats against operators, censorship of newsgroups and the shutting-down of cybercaf?s are many techniques used in this daily repression. To accomplish this goal, about twenty provinces now have special police brigades trained in pursuing "subversive" Internet users.

Just as the print media and electronic media, the Web has become a major issue for the Chinese regime who wishes to have full control of information. There are currently seventeen cyberdissidents imprisoned in the country, for trying to break through this Internet repression and censorship.

The chronology

14 August 2001: Huang Qi's trial, cancelled many times during the last fourteen months, "was held in camera in a two-hour session at the Chengdu Intermediate Court" said his lawyer, Fang Jung. The sentence has not been announced for the moment. According to Fang, none of the family members of the creator of 6-4tianwang.com was allowed to attend to the hearing. The camera of Huang Qi's wife was seized because she took a picture of her husband as he was being brought to court. Huang Qi appeared "thin but smiling" according to a relative. His trial is the first case against a web site creator for having spread "subversive" information.

13 August 2001: Mu Chuanheng was arrested in Qingdao (eastern China) for having openly request the release of his friend Yan Peng, a cyber dissident arrested on 11 July 2001 in Guangxi province (south of the country). Mu Chuanheng's computer and some of his writings were seized by a dozen policemen. The dissident is well known for being active in the first "Beijing Spring" in 1979.

2 August 2001: The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong, announced that Falun Gong follower Li Changjun died on 27 June 2001 under torture during his detention. He was arrested on 16 May for downloading and printing documents concerning Falun Gong from Internet. Li Changjun, aged 33, worked in the Wuhan land tax authority in Hubei province (center of China), and had been arrested several times for maintaining his membership to what the authorities call the "evil sect". Li Changjun's mother said her son's body was covered with wounds and cuts, that his neck and ears were purple and that he looked abnormally weak.

1st August 2001: Since the beginning of July, the pages in Mandarin Chinese on the Radio France Internationale (RFI) web site have been blocked for Chinese Internet users. These people can no longer listen to the programs of the Chinese service available on the site. RFI's executive direction plans to ask the Chinese government for some explanations.

14 July 2001: The day after the vote awarding the 2008Summer Olympics to Beijing, RSF learned that Yan Pen, a 38-year old dissident and computer salesman, was arrested on 11 July in the province of Guagxi (southern China). According to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, he returned to China after a group package tour of Vietnam. He is accused of suspicion of illegal emigration. Police of Qingdao (Shandong province, south-west of the country), where Yan Pen was born, informed his wife that he had been arrested. His computer had also been confiscated. On 16 July, three Qingdao dissidents tried to intervene in favour of Yan Pen?s release, but the police refused. Yan Pen is known for being one of the first dissidents to use the Internet in the struggle against the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. He has been detained repeatedly since 1989. The seaside city of Qingdao plans to hold yachting competitions during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

11 July 2001: On the occasion of a Chinese Communist Party conference, President Jiang Zemin has called to the Internet Laws reinforcement that he judges insufficient in order to prevent the spreading of "harmful information". Although he recognizes the Internet contribution in the economic growth of China, Jiang Zemin sentenced the presence on web sites of "superstition, pornography and violence" which undermines the ?population and youth?s mental health?.

4 July 2001: The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs website (www.dfat.gov.au) is once again accessible in China after being blocked for eighteen months. The unblocking of the web site follows an appeal from the Australian Foreign Minister to China's charg? d?affaires in Canberra, Xie Xiaoyan. Inaccessible to Chinese Internet users for more than one year, the web site reappeared briefly during a visit of the Australian Communication Minister, Richard Alston, last June. The Chinese government spokeswoman denies any censorship and claims that technical problems caused the site to be blocked. In addition, she said "the government never got in the way of solving the problem and even offered its assistance". But, according to several observers, the real reason the site was blocked is the presence of information on the web site, notably about human rights and the risks of conflict in parts of China.

2 July 2001: RSF learned that Li Hongmin was arrested in the middle of June in Guangzhou (South of China) for having distributed, by e-mail, the 2001 Chinese version of "The Tiananmen Papers". The text reveals the responsibilities of certain high Chinese officials in the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989.

2 July 2001: Chinese police statistics show that at least 8,014 cybercaf?s were closed in the last two months. 56,800 cybercaf?s were also inspected during this period.

27 June 2001: the trial of Huang Qi, arrested on 3 June 2000 for having published "subversive" information on his web site, was again postponed indefinately by the intermediate court of Chengdu (southwest of the country). A spokesman justified this decision by saying it was because of the celebration of the "80th anniversary of the creation of the Chinese communist Party." But, according to some observers, it is more a question of not wanting to attract the attention of international public opinion before the IOC?s decision in Moscow of the attribution of the 2008 Olympic Games. Judges had already suspended the trial on 13 February 2001 because of Huang Qi's health. The creator of the 6-4tianwang.com site risks at least ten years in prison if he is found guilty of "subversion" according to the law on the circulation of subversive information over the Internet.

18 June 2001: the online magazine "Hot Topic" is banned after four years of activity. This magazine notably published articles criticising the government. It has 235,000 subscribers.

2 June 2001: Wang Zhenyong, a professor of psychology in South-western Normal University, is arrested to have sent four articles about the Falungong movement by e-mail. He had downloaded these articles from foreign sites in December 2000 before sending them to a colleague, who then circulated them on Internet.

1st June 2001: RSF learns that Liu Weifang, a shopkeeper, was sentenced in Spring 2001 by a court of the Xinjiang province (northwest of the country), to three years in prison for "subversion". He was accused of having published several very critical articles the Chinese communist Party, on newsgroups in 2000 and 2001, as well as texts against and about the economic reforms begun by the government. In spite of his use of a pen name, "Lgwf", the police managed to identifying him.

18 May 2001: Hu Dalin was arrested by police of Shaoyang (southwest of the country) for having published articles written by his father on the Internet. He was not charged, but the police notified his family that he had been arrested for "subversive activities on the Internet".

14 May 2001: Wang Jinbo, a member of the Chinese Democratic Party (a banned party, whose main leaders are imprisoned), who had already been arrested in the past for his political activities, was arrested by policemen in Junan (province of Shandong) for having "slandered" the police on a web site.

5 May 2001: A statement of the public telecommunications company "Xinjiang Telecommunications" announces that, from now on, all Internet portals not officially registered will be automatically closed.

30 April 2001: Wang Sen, a member of the Chinese Democratic Party, was arrested in Dachuan, province of Sichuan (southwest of the country), for having denounced on a web site the sale at full price, by a public health centre, of tuberculosis medicine donated by the Red Cross.

29 April 2001: the authorities decide to close cybercaf?s on the main avenue of Beijing and in a perimeter of 200 metres around Chinese Communist Party buildings and the schools of the capital.

26 April 2001: Guo Quinghai, a 36-year-old bank employee, was sentenced to four years in jail by the court of Cangzhou (south of the country) for "subversion", according to the law on the Internet adopted in December 2000. He was arrested in September 2000 for having published articles in favour of democracy and political reforms on overseas web sites. Although he used a pen name to sign his articles, the police managed to identify him.

20 April 2001: Accused of "subversion", Lu Xinhua was arrested in Wuhan (centre of the country). He is the author of many articles that appeared on foreign web sites, giving information about violations of human rights in Wuhan, and openly criticising Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

18 April 2001: Leng Wanbao, a dissident from Jilin province (northeast of the country), was interrogated for more than two hours by police who blamed him for the appearance of "subversive articles" on the Internet.

18 April 2001: Chi Shouzhu, Chinese activist, was arrested in Changchun (northeast of the country), a short time after he sent texts in favour of democracy over the Internet. Chi Shouzhu had been released in June 2000 after 10 years in jail following the Tiananmen events of 1989.

14 April 2001: China decided to suspend the opening of new cybercaf?s for three months to regulate Web access.

26 March 2001: computer users in the Shanghai area were informed that it is forbidden to broadcast radio programs or circulate them on the Internet without official government approval.

13 March 2001: Yang Zili, creator of www.lib.com, was arrested in Beijing while leaving his house. The same day, his wife was detained for 48 hours, and forced to state, in writing, that she would not reveal this event. Yang Zili, 30 years old, a graduate of the prestigious University of Beijing, is the author of a series of theoretical articles published on his web site. He took a stand in favour of political liberalism, criticised the repression against the Falungong movement, and denounced the difficulties of farmers. In a poem, he calls for "striking a fatal blow" against the "spectre of communism". Since his arrest, the police has refused to reveal the charges and the place where Yang Zili is being held. The same day, three other writers for lib.126.com, Jin Haike, a geological engineer, Xu Wei, a journalist with "Consumer Daily", and Zhang Honghai, a freelance reporter, were questioned by police in Beijing.

6 March 2001: After the explosion that destroyed an elementary school in Fanglin (Kiangxi province) and caused the death of 38 children, a person in charge of Sina.com declared that he had erased hundred of messages from the newsgroup complaining about the explosion. The villagers deny the government version, that attributes the attack to an insane person named Li Chuicai. They claim that schoolteachers forced the children to make fireworks in the school.

28 February 2001: the Ministry of Law and Order launched a new software program known as "Internet police 110", created to block access to web sites dealing with religion, sex or violence.

13 February 2001: Huang Qi's trial was adjourned by the intermediate court of Chengdu (southwest of the country) after only one day of hearings. He was arrested on 3 June 2000 for having circulated sensitive political news on his web site. A spokesman of the court said that the trial was postponed for one week because of the defendant?s poor health. His wife, Zeng Li, said that her husband was beaten in prison and has a scar on his forehead. He also lost a tooth the beatings. She was not allowed to visit him, and his lawyer has only seen him once in seven months.

1st February 2001: police in Chongquing (southwest of China) force cybercaf? owners to install firewall software on their computers to identify and block sites that are against "public morality".

31 December 2000: Jiang Shihua, a teacher and owner of the "Silicon Valley Internet Caf??, was sentenced to two years in jail in December 2000 by a court in Nanchong (province of Sichuan, southwest) for "inciting subversion against the power of the state". Jiang Shihua was arrested on 18 August 2000 for having published a letter, in the Nanchong city hall site?s newsgroup, in which he disputed the role of the Chinese communist Party. The text, signed under the pen name Shumin (common citizen), discussed the corruption of Party officials. Jiang Shihua notably wrote, "we have in mind all the sentences that we shall never say: knock down the communist Party."

A list of Chinese Internet users detained for having circulated information considered "subversive" by the authorities:

1. Huang Qi
2. Li Hongmin
3. Qi Yanchen
4. Wang Zhenyong
5. Liu Weifang
6. Hu Dalin
7. Wang Jinbo
8. Wang Sen
9. Guo Quinghai
10. Lu Xinhua
11. Chi Shouzhu
12. Yang Zili
13. Jin Haike
14. Xu Wei
15. Zhang Honghai
16. Jiang Shihua
17. Wu Yilong

 
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