One Night In China

Abuses included instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process. Conditions at most prisons remained harsh. In many cases, particularly in sensitive political cases, the judicial system denied criminal defendants basic legal safeguards and due process because authorities attached higher priority to suppressing political opposition and maintaining public order than to enforcing legal norms or protecting individual rights. The Government infringed on citizens' privacy rights. The Government continued to implement its coercive policy of restricting the number of children a family could have. The Government maintained tight restrictions on freedom of speech and of the press; self-censorship by journalists and writers also continued. The Government continued and at times intensified its efforts to control and monitor the Internet. The Government severely ... [Read More]

Press Availability in Beijing
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China (Includes Hong Kong and Macau)

The Government's human rights record throughout the year remained poor and the Government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses. Authorities still were quick to suppress any person or group, whether religious, political, or social, that they perceived to be a threat to government power, or to national stability, and citizens who sought to express openly dissenting political and religious views continued to live in an environment filled with repression. Overall, government respect for religious freedom remained poor and crackdowns against unregistered groups, including underground Protestant and Catholic groups, Muslim Uighurs, and Tibetan Buddhists continued. Several leaders of the unregistered South China Church were arrested in July and subsequently sentenced to death; some of those sentences were suspended and some were appealed. Also in July, authorities arrested Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang and charged him with smuggling for bringing Bibles into the country. Abuse ... [Read More]

China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)

Many individuals were jailed for their Internet publications during the year. In January, Tao Haidong was sentenced in Urumqi, Xinjiang, to 7 years in prison for "incitement to subvert state power" based on articles on democracy he posted on the Internet. In May, Sichuan website manager Huang Qi, founder of a site for missing persons from the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Also in May, four students belonging to the New Youth Study Group--Yang Zili, Xu Wei, Jin Haike, and Zhang Honghai--who used the Internet to circulate articles on political and social topics received sentences of 8 to 10 years for subversion. Their appeal to the Supreme People's Court was denied in November. Three of the four witnesses who testified against them at trial recanted their stories, but the SPC refused to hear testimony from these witnesses on appeal. In October, Internet essayist Luo Yongzhong from Jilin Province was sentenced to 3 years in prison after publishing arti ... [Read More]

China (includes Hong Kong and Macau)

The Government's poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses.  The Government intensified crackdowns on religion and in Tibet, intensified its harsh treatment of political dissent, and suppressed any person or group perceived to threaten the Government.  However, despite these efforts, many Chinese had more individual choice, greater access to information, and expanded economic opportunity.  Nonetheless by year's end, thousands of unregistered religious institutions either had been either closed or destroyed, hundreds of Falun Gong leaders had been imprisoned, and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners remained in detention or were sentenced to reeducation-through-labor camps or incarcerated in mental institutions.  Various sources report that approximately 100 or more Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of torture and mistreatment in custody.  Controls on religious practice and freedom of expression also were inte ... [Read More]

Remarks to the Press in China
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USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: PRESIDENT ON CHINA AT ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE

That's what all of you here in the Alaska Command are doing for America -- making a difference. The reach of this Command is truly remarkable, flying missions far and wide in your F-15s, AWACS, C-130 airlifters, patrolling the skies below the Korean DMZ, facing threats in the Persian Gulf, helping democracy make a new start in Haiti, running counternarcotics operations out of Panama, training with Canadian forces in the Arctic, conducting oil spill exercises with Russia and Japan. And, of course, working with the Chinese through the military-to-military exchange program you host. I understand another group of Chinese officers will be here just next month. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: USTR/Agriculture April 3 Release on U.S. Meat Exports to China

On March 22, China issued new rules governing the importation of U.S. citrus, meat, and wheat, thereby implementing the Agreement on U.S.-China Agricultural Cooperation. This agreement, signed on April 10, 1999, lifted longstanding bans on the export of U.S. citrus, wheat and other grains from the Pacific Northwest, and meat and poultry. The agreement is significant in that it is based on China 's recognition of U.S. standards and guidelines for all three commodities. For meat, this means that China will accept all imports of U.S. meat and poultry that have been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service. Previously, China would only accept imports from U.S. plants that had been inspected and approved by China's quarantine experts. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: White House Report April 11, 2001: The Timeline of China Developments

At 10:30 p.m., President Bush calls the National Security Council for "an update on where things stood" and is told U.S. and China officials are talking logistics, which the President takes as an encouraging sign. As he turns in for the night, there is no meeting between U.S. and Chinese diplomats scheduled. ...

The crew members have been on the Chinese island since making an emergency landing there April 1 following a collision with a Chinese jet fighter plane over the South China Sea. ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TEXT: U.S. AND CHINA SIGN PEACE CORPS AGREEMENT

In a press release issued June 29, the Peace Corps quoted President Clinton, in China for a state visit, applauding the agreement: "This agreement represents an important step forward in building the bonds of friendship between the American and Chinese people. As in the other 80 countries where they work, Peace Corps Volunteers in China reflect the finest traditions of Americans' idealism and pragmatic approach to assisting others." ...

Americans' interest in the Peace Corps remains strong, with inquiries from prospective volunteers increasing more than 10 percent over the past year. President Clinton has proposed expanding the Peace Corps to 10,000 volunteers by the year 2000. The proposed increase in the agency's funding would be the largest increase since the 1960s. ... [Read More]