The HRIC Daily Brief is a daily selection of news stories and commentary related to human rights in China, drawn from Chinese- and English-language news and online media sources that we monitor daily. In addition to headlines and source links, HRIC also provides English translation of Chinese headlines.

Friday, January 28, 2005

January 28, 2005

Top news of the day

June 4th – prisoners – Zhao Zi-yang (趙紫陽)
Hundreds to attend Zhao's funeral
SCMP, January 28, 2005
It is expected that hundreds of people would bid farewell to the former party leader Zhao Ziyang at a low-profile funer at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery tomorrow. However, the authority keeps silence on the presence of senior officials and cadres at the funeral.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZ0HTAHJ3E.html


Xinjiang – imprisoned dissident – Rebiya Kadeer
US to press case of sick, jailed dissident
SCMP, January 28, 2005
US will push harder for Beijing’s release of Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent advocate of women’s and minority rights who is now serving her remaining 12-month imprisonment in Xinjiang. Kadeer has been awarded the Norwegian Rafto Prize recently.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZ21TAHJ3E.html


News

Border Issues - North Korea
UN Report on North Korean Human Rights Cites 'Egregious' Situation
Voice of America, 28 January 2005
The United Nations is circulating a draft of its first report on the human rights situation in North Korea. The draft includes sweeping recommendations for changes in North Korea, and in the way China treats refugees from that country.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-28-voa11.cfm

Border Issues- Taiwan
Anti-secession Law expected to promote cross-Straits relations
Xinhua News Agency, 28 January 2005
BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's Anti-Secession Law, of which the legislation procedures has been recently set in motion, will uphold the basic policy of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" and the eight-point proposal ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/28/content_2521054.htm

Corruption
List of bribers helps anti-corruption battle
Xinhuanet.com, January 28, 2005
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate is examining a blacklist of bribers and considers for further actions against them as part of the government’s prevent drive against corrupt government officials and businessmen.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/28/content_251751
4.htm

Death Penalty
In possible nod to Europe, China says it may narrow use of death penalty
Agence France Presse, 28 January 2005
BEIJING, Jan 28 (AFP) - China may decide to narrow down the types of crimes for which the death penalty can be used, state media said Friday, in a move observers said was possibly designed to address European concerns.
http://www.afp.com/

Education – basic education / Rural issues
Rural education still ministry's top priority
SCMP, January 28, 2005
The Ministry of Education has given top priority to the promotion of 9-year compulsory basic education in rural areas in this year education agenda.
http://china.scmp.com/chimain/ZZZ8T3DHJ3E.html

Environment
Fighting plagues demands more funds, says expert
SCMP, January 28, 2005
Environmental expert calls for bigger budget on pest programs because the plagues of insects and rodents are rampant in many part of the country due to worsening global warming.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZSCA9HJ3E.html

46 polluting thermal power plants blacklisted
Xinhuanet.com, January 28, 2005
After the halt of 30 large projects that failed to meet environmental standards, the environmental bureau blacklisted another 46 environmental-unfriendly thermal power plants due to the lack of desulfurization equipment in the plants.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/27/content_2516481.htm

Gender
Plan to bring back wet nurses opposed
SCMP, January 28, 2005
A re-employment initiative in Yangzhou, Jiangsu proince, aiming to provide ‘wet-nurses” services to young mothers who do not want to breastfeed their children, has drawn stiff opposition from local women’s groups who claim the service “a thing of the feudal past” and should not be promoted in the society.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZFS3DHJ3E.html

Gender – status
Women in politics – a bumpy road
盘点中国女性高官从政之路
Nanfang Weekend, January 28, 2005
The appointment of Song Xiuyan(宋秀岩) to be the mayor of Qinghai province draws attention on the rising power of women in politics; however, statistics show that women holding senior official position remains far too small in a male-dominated Chinese political system.
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/zm/20050127/xw/szxw2/2005
01270024.asp

June 4th – prisoners – Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽)
Zhao Death Shows Limits of China's Media Freedom
Reuters via YahooNews.com, January 27, 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050127/lf_n
m/media_china_dc_1

Featured article from Liu Xiaobo: political reforms can delay no more – commemorate the death of Zhao
刘晓波：中国政治改革刻不容缓──再祭紫阳
Chinesenewsnet.com, January 28, 2005
http://www1.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/Opinion/2005_
1_27_15_1_46_829.html

China Bars Dissidents From Memorial For Zhao Ziyang
Dow Jones International News, 28 January 2005
China will bar dissidents from a weekend memorial for Zhao Ziyang, a former Communist Party leader ousted in 1989 after sympathizing with Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters, but will allow some 2,000 other mourners.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10758951.htm?1c

Hukou
Beijing police might scrap permit system
SCMP, January 28, 2005
Beijing may drop temporary residency permit, one of the most discriminatory treatment to migrant residents for many years, if a recent proposal on abolishing restrictions on migrant residents are adopted and smoothly carried out in the city.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZRY3DHJ3E.html

Law – legal reforms
Direction of the revision of the Administrative Procedure Law
《行政诉讼法》的修改方向
Legal Daily, January 28, 2005
According to a legal expert, the revision of the Administrative Procedure Law should be focused on directions of the content for revision, rather than specific articles for revision.
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/bm/2005-01/27/content_183193.htm

Examining the reform of Chinese release-on-bail system with the bail models in the west
从西方保释制度看我国取保候审制度的改革
Legal Daily, January 28, 2005
Amid a wide discussion of reforming China’s release-on-bail system (取保候審), some legal experts advocate to replace the system with a Western bail model that is based on the basic legal principle of “suspect are innocent before trial”.
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/bm/2005-01/27/content_183202.htm

Multilaterals - World Economic Forum
China's huge shadow at economic forum A growing influence of Asian power
International Herald Tribune, 27 January 2005
DAVOS, Switzerland: High-profile diplomacy with the European Union, trade accords in Latin America, oil deals in Africa and a string of corporate acquisitions all over the world: China is on an offensive to take its economic miracle.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/26/news/yuan.html

Police – administrative detention (Re-education through labour)
300,000 RTL inmates in China
中国有30多万劳教人员
Voice of America via Dajiyuan.com, January 28, 2005
It is estimated that there are about 300,000 “re-education through labour (RTL)’ inmates in China. Scholars claimed the role of RTL in relieving limited capacity of Chinese prisons, while former RTL inmates accused the system encourage abuse and arbitrary detention of the police.
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/5/1/28/n795785.htm

Population
China to overhaul sperm banks
Xinhuanet.com, January 28, 2005
China is to monitor closely on institutions offering assisted reproductive techniques and human sperm banks in the country.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/28/content_25180
61.htm

Population – one-child policy
Fertility pills blamed for increase in twin births
SCMP, January 28, 2005
The Guangzhou authority has raised concerns to the high incidence of twin births in several hospitals, suspecting that couples might be resorting to fertility pills to exploit a grey area of the one-child policy.
http://china.scmp.com/chimain/ZZZGAU6HJ3E.html

Hands up who hasn't got a girlfriend
SCMP, January 28, 2005
The consequence of the one-child policy surfaces in light of worsening sex-ratio imbalances. The high proportion of boy students in primary school is common in many Chinese rural villages, and has placed great concerns over the society’s future.
http://china.scmp.com/chitoday/ZZZNYSAHJ3E.html

Illegal sex identification and abortion in the lens of China’s Criminal Law
从刑法角度看非法鉴定胎儿性别和人工终止妊娠
Legal Daily, January 28, 2005
Legal experts said that the Criminal Law should be revised to specify the illegal nature of sex identification and illegal abortion to close the gap of vague references to these harmful practices in the society.
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/bm/2005-01/27/content_183194.htm

Public health – HIV aids
河南两会代表建议立法防治艾滋病 实行强制检测
EastDay.com, January 28, 2005
In a combined conference of NPC and Politico Bureau of Henan province, legislators and party officials propose to draft law for prevent the spread of aids in the province and adopt compulsory aids test on drug addicts, pregnant women and hospitalized patients.
http://china.eastday.com/eastday/news/node37955/node37957/
node37979/node48397/userobject1ai831465.html

Resettlement – forceful eviction (Petitions)
Housing protester petitions to the Chinese leaders for a probe into the corruption of senior Shanghai government officials and business tycoon on redevelopment project
中国人权：沈婷投书胡温要求调查周正毅案官商勾结黑幕
Chinesenewsnet.com, January 28, 2005
Shu Ting (沈婷), a Hong Kong resident who has been protesting against forceful eviction in a Shanghai re-development project, sent a petition letter to the Chinese leaders in calling for an investigation of corruption of senior government official and the business tycoon Zhou Zhengyi (周正毅).
http://www1.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/SinoNews/Main
land/2005_1_27_15_40_55_61.html

Tibet – imprisoned dissident –Tenzin Delek Rinpoche
Tibetan Monk's Family Insist on His Innocence
Radio Free Asia, January 27, 2005
After the death sentence of the Tibetan monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was commuted yesterday, relatives and supporters of the monk stressed his innocence of the charge and called for greater international pressures on Beijing for his release.
http://origin.rfaweb.org/english/news/social/2005/01/27/tibetan
_monk/


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