China

The G20 Hangzhou Summit Declaration calling for greater “burden-sharing” to address the refugee crisis reveals how little most G20 countries have done to share responsibility so far, said Amnesty International today.

There are currently 27 countries in the world with regular programmes for resettling refugees. Only 9 of them are in the G20. Amongst the G20 only Canada has shown genuine openness on resettlement, taking in 25,000 refugees from Syria since late 2015 and indicating it will take more.  Germany’s strong stance, accepting over a million refugees, was unmatched by other European members of the G20.

As the Prime Minister begins his first trip to China, the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China is releasing an Open Letter, documenting serious human rights concerns and laying out recommendations for human rights reforms in China.  The Coalition has also urged the Prime Minister to press for freedom for thirteen prisoners.

The Prime Minister’s first trip to China comes at a critical time.  There has been a clampdown on human rights lawyers and activists and intensified measures to curtail freedoms of expression, association and assembly.  These are indications of a deteriorating climate for human rights protection in the country.   

Event:             Press Conference

Speakers:      Sonam Chokey, National Director, Students for a Free Tibet Canada

                     Gloria Fung, Director, Canada-Hong Kong Link 

Chinese authorities must end their ruthless assault against human rights lawyers and activists, Amnesty International said ahead of the first anniversary of the start of an unprecedented crackdown.

At least 248 human rights lawyers and activists were targeted during the nationwide sweep which began on 9 July 2015. One year on, 18 17 individuals caught up in the onslaught remain detained, eight nine of whom could face life imprisonment after being charged with “subverting state power”.

“Human rights lawyers have faced the full wrath of China’s secretive machinery of repression. The detained lawyers must be released and this systemic assault against individuals defending the rights of Chinese people must end,” said Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International.

“President Xi Jinping has the gall to claim the Chinese government upholds the rule of law even when lawyers face life in jail for trying to do just that.”

March 2016 marks the 10th year that Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil has spent in a Chinese prison.

As Prime Minister Trudeau prepares for a trip to China later this year, he must raise Huseyin Celil’s case with the Chinese authorities and call for his release.

Huuseyin Celil, an ethnic Uighur, was imprisoned and abused while in prison in China in the 1990’s. He fled the country with his wife and they were resettled to Canada as refugees.  He became a Canadian citizen in 2005.  Huseyin Celil was detained by the Uzbek authorities and deported to China in 2006 while on a family visit to Uzbekistan.

Amnesty International believes Huseyin Celil is imprisoned because of his advocacy on behalf of the rights of the Uighur minority group in China. He was originally sentenced to death, which was commuted to life in prison in 2007.  This sentence was further reduced, to less than 20 years in February 2016.  A reduction in his prison term is not enough.  Huseyin Celil has never had a fair trial and must be released from prison.  

Chinese women’s rights activist Su Changlan has been in prison since October 27, 2014. She was held incommunicado for months. In February 2017, the court extended the deadline for issuing its verdict for the fourth time. Meanwhile, Su Changlan continues to be held in deplorable, cramped conditions while her health deteriorates. At times she has been denied access to her family and lawyer.  Her brother and husband were arrested and detained for a month simply for advocating on her behalf. She has conducted weekly hunger strikes since November 2016 and plans to do so until a verdict is issued in her case.  

So what is Su Changlan’s ‘crime’? “Inciting subversion” for making online posts in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. It is believed that the charges against her are partly due to her activism on women’s rights issues. She is now paying a terrible price for her peaceful work and faces life imprisonment.

Three Chinese human rights campaigners who were handed jail sentences on Friday for publishing books on democracy and activism are the latest victims of politically motivated “national security” charges used to silence government critics, Amnesty International said.

Tang Jingling, 44, Yuan Xinting, 44, and Wang Qingying, 31, were convicted by Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court for “inciting subversion of state power”, and were sentenced to five years, three-and-a-half years and two-and-a-half years in jail respectively.

“Today’s verdict against the three activists is a gross injustice. Their peaceful and legitimate work never threatened state security, this is solely about the authorities arbitrarily silencing government critics,” said Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International.

“The authorities appear to be stepping up the use of spurious “national security” charges as they escalate their attack against human rights activists and peaceful critics of the government’s abuse of power.”

The three year suspended prison sentence handed down against human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang is a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to shackle a champion of freedom of expression, Amnesty International said today.

On Tuesday, a court in Beijing sentenced Pu Zhiqiang to three years in prison, suspended for three years, for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and “inciting ethnic hatred”. The conviction was primarily based on seven social media posts, in total approximately 600 characters, in which Pu criticized government officials and polices.

“Clearly it is positive that Pu Zhiqiang is unlikely to spend another night in jail, yet that cannot hide the gross injustice against him. He is no criminal and this guilty verdict effectively shackles one of China’s bravest champions of human rights from practicing law,” said William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International.