China wirft USA Internetzensur vor

Das US-Außenministerium hat vergangene Woche seinen jährlichen Bericht zur Lage der Menschenrechte in fast 200 Ländern vorgelegt. Der Staatsrat der Volksrepublik China meint, in den "2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" fehle ein Land: die USA. Er hat deshalb einen eigenen Bericht zur Lage der Menschenrechte dort vorgelegt, der von China Daily dokumentiert wird. Er ist unterteilt in Kapitel zur persönlichen Sicherheit der Bürger; zu ihren wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturellen Rechten; zur Diskriminierung von Minderheiten; zu Rechten der Kinder und Frauen; Verletzung der Rechte von Menschen im Ausland sowie zu Bürger- und politischen Rechten.

In dem Kapitel zu den Bürgerrechten heißt es, der Begriff "Internetfreiheit" sei für die USA lediglich ein Vorwand, um auf andere Länder diplomatischen Druck auszuüben und nach Hegemonie zu streben. Die USA selbst schränkten die Pressefreiheit ein, kontrollierten und beschränkten das Internet stark, beispielsweise durch den Patriot Act und den Homeland Security Act. Auch verweisen die Chinesen auf einen Gesetzentwurf von US-Senatoren für einen "Internet-Kill-Switch".

Die US-Regierung lasse zudem eine Software entwickeln, mit der ein Armee-Angehöriger verschiedene virtuelle Identitäten in sozialen Netzwerken wie Facebook oder auf Twitter steuern könne. Sie sei dafür gedacht, das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung im Internet zu kontrollieren und zu beschneiden. Das US-Ministerium für innere Sicherheit durchforste das Web regelmäßig nach Schlüsselwörtern wie "illegale Einwanderer", "Virus" und "Tod" und spüre Twitter-Nutzern nach, die inkriminierte Inhalte weiterleiteten.

Bei diesen und bei anderen Beispielen beruft sich der chinesische Staatsrat hauptsächlich auf Medienberichte. In den anderen Kapiteln heißt es unter anderem, die US-amerikanische Gesellschaft leide unter Gewaltverbrechen, das Leben und der Besitz der Bürger werde nicht ausreichend geschützt. Es habe exzessive Verhaftungen von Mitgliedern der Bewegung "Occupy Wall Street" gegeben. Da sehr viele Abgeordnete im US-Kongress Millionäre seien, blockierten sie Pläne der US-Regierung zur höheren Besteuerung von Reichen. Die USA seien gemessen an der Gesamtbevölkerung das Land mit der höchsten Quote an Strafgefangenen, die oft unter unzureichenden Bedingungen untergebracht seien – viele von ihnen unschuldig. In den USA öffne sich die Schere zwischen Arm und Reich immer mehr, würden Minderheiten diskriminiert sowie Frauen und Kindern grundlegende Rechte vorenthalten.

Die USA hatten in ihrem Menschenrechtsbericht der chinesischen Regierung unter anderem routinemäßige Unterdrückung von Organisationen und einzelnen Menschen vorgeworfen. Weiter würden in China Menschen gefoltert und ohne Gerichtsverfahren hingerichtet. Der chinesische Staatsrat meint, die USA seien für ihre eigenen Belange blind. Der US-Bericht kritisiert auch Verstöße gegen das demokratische Prinzip, ein schwaches Rechtssystem und Beschränkungen der Meinungsfreiheit in Russland. Das dortige Außenministerium wies die Darstellungen laut einem Bericht der Nachrichtenagentur RIA Novosti als nicht objektiv zurück. (anw)

View the original article here

China dissidents fear things will get 'worse and worse' after Chen case - msnbc.com

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Men guarding building G of Chaoyang Hospital, where blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng was reported to be staying, eat ice-cream at the entrance of the hospital in Beijing Saturday.

No matter whether China makes a rare concession to allow legal activist Chen Guangcheng to leave the country with his family, other dissidents say they don't expect a broader easing of controls.

Authorities may choose to tighten the screws on prominent critics to prevent them from taking encouragement from Chen's case to challenge the leadership. 

On Saturday, Chen, who fled house arrest and took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was believed to be still in the hospital, where he was taken to get medical care joined by his wife and two children.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- in Beijing this past week for annual talks -- left China Saturday, leaving Chen behind despite his reported comments that he wanted to leave the country on her plane. She apparently did not meet him in person.

A symbol in China's civil rights movement, Chen may be able to leave to study in the United States in the coming days or weeks under still-evolving arrangements announced Friday by Washington and Beijing to end a weeklong diplomatic standoff over his case. 

If negotiations are successful, Chen Guangcheng's family will come to the U.S. on a student visa where he would study at NYU. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

It was unclear if the Chens submitted passport applications, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry said they could Friday, to enable them to travel. His cell phone constantly rang unanswered. 

The blind activist's flight to safety in the embassy has provided a much-needed morale boost for a dissident community that over the last year has been debilitated by the government's massive security crackdown aimed at preventing Arab-style democratic uprisings. Dozens of activists, rights lawyers, intellectuals and others have been detained, questioned and even in some cases, tortured. 

Blind activist: What did he do to rile Beijing? 

The turn of events for Chen, while welcomed by most activists and dissidents, is seen only as an individual victory and not likely to pave the way for improvements in China's attitude toward its critics. 

"I think that after the Chen Guangcheng incident, the situation for us will just become worse and worse, because in today's society government power has no limits," said Liu Yi, an artist and Chen supporter who was assaulted Thursday by men he thinks were plainclothes police while he attempted to visit Chen in hospital. 

Carlos Barria / Reuters

A woman argues with a police officer outside Chaoyang Hospital Saturday.

Liu Feiyue, a veteran activist who runs a rights monitoring network in the central province of Hubei, noted the importance of U.S. involvement in Chen's case. "This is only an individual case. Because it turned into a China-U.S. incident, the U.S. put a lot of pressure on China, which is why the authorities made a concession to allow Chen Guangcheng to study overseas," he said. 

"Not all dissident cases can become international issues," Liu Feiyue said. 

Chen, a self-taught legal activist, is best known for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations in his community in a scandal that prompted the central government to punish some local officials. His activism earned him the wrath of local authorities who punished him with nearly seven years of prison and house arrest. 

Bill Richardson, former New Mexico governor and former United Nations ambassador, talks with Rachel Maddow about the diplomatic challenge the Obama administration faces with dissident Chen Guangcheng, and why Mitt Romney should cease politicizing the situation.

If Chen leaves, the officials who mistreated him and his family will likely not be held accountable — something Chen asked for in a video statement he made while in hiding in Beijing before entering the U.S. Embassy. 

"Chen's story is not a triumph for China's human rights, unfortunately," said Wang Songlian, a Hong Kong-based researcher with the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. "Although Chen and his immediate family might gain freedom, his extended family is likely to be retaliated against. ... None of those whose violence Chen exposed, or those who beat and detained Chen and his family, have been punished." 

There are concerns China would exact retribution on Chen's supporters who aided his escape, as well as friends who later tried to get the message out about his fears for his safety or publicly urged him to flee to the United States. Two supporters who helped him escape were detained, then released, but placed under gag orders and close monitoring. 

Others, like Chen's friend Zeng Jinyan, who — at great risk to herself — publicized Chen's worries about leaving the embassy Wednesday, have since been barred from speaking to the media and placed under house arrest. Under similar restrictions is Teng Biao, a rights lawyer who repeatedly called Chen imploring him to flee the country, then published a transcript of their phone conversations online. 

"They (the authorities) will certainly settle scores with them later," Teng told Chen, referring to the two supporters who aided Chen's escape. 

Activist: I want to leave China 'on Clinton’s plane'

Some activists say local officials who have been watching dissidents in their own jurisdictions might beef up monitoring and restrictions on them to prevent them from attempting copycat escapes into diplomatic compounds. 

"One guess is that they will learn a lesson from this experience and be stricter in guarding and monitoring similar key figures and take even harder measures against them," said Mo Zhixu, a liberal-minded author and Chen supporter. 

Meanwhile, Clinton faced a fresh test on Saturday as she moved on to Bangladesh where the disappearance of an opposition leader has fueled growing tensions. 

Clinton will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her opposition rival, Begum Khaleda Zia, and will also pay a call on Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, whose removal from the pioneering micro-lender Grameen Bank has been criticized by Washington. 

A senior State Department official said Clinton's visit would highlight growing cooperation between Washington and Dhaka on everything from counter-terrorism and U.N. peacekeeping to global health and food security. 

"Her visit is an opportunity to show Bangladesh's government and 160 million citizens that America is truly Bangladesh's partner," the official said. 

But the trip will also likely put fresh focus on the Obama administration's commitment to human rights after the standoff in Beijing over Chen.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

View the original article here

Running blind: China activist's dramatic escape - The Associated Press

Running blind: China activist's dramatic escapeBy ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press – 5 minutes ago 

BEIJING (AP) — Chen Guangcheng's blindness was a help and a hindrance as he made his way past the security cordon ringing his farmhouse.

He knew the terrain — he had explored his village in rural China as a blind child and moved as easily in darkness as in daylight. He was alert for the sounds of people, cars and the river he would have to cross.

But he stumbled scores of times, arriving bloody at a meeting point with a fellow dissident — the first of an underground railroad of supporters who eventually escorted him to safety with U.S. diplomats.

A self-taught lawyer who angered authorities by exposing forced abortions, Chen is now presumed to be under U.S. protection, most likely in the fortress-like American Embassy in Beijing. Details of his improbable escape — making his way last week through fields and forest, then being chased by security agents in Beijing — are emerging in accounts from the activists who helped him.

Chen and his family had been harassed and kept under house arrest since the summer of 2005, except for a four-year period when Chen was jailed on charges of disrupting traffic and restrictions were eased on his wife and daughter. The couple's young son lives with his mother's sister.

After Chen's release in September 2010, the family was again placed under house arrest, their movements severely restricted, with even 6-year-old daughter Kesi subjected to searches when she came home from school. Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were beaten several times.

The 41-year-old activist hatched his escape plan months ago with a simple idea — he would just lie still, said Bob Fu, founder of the Texas-based rights group ChinaAid and one of a handful of people to speak to Chen since he fled his village.

For weeks on end, Chen stayed in bed, saying he was too feeble to rise.

In fact, Chen wasn't well; his stomach was bothering him as it had for years. But he exaggerated his condition to lull the guards into a sense of complacency.

The ruse worked. The guards didn't look in on him constantly, assuming he was still bedridden, and when he escaped under cover of darkness, it took three days for them to notice.

"He did a darn good job. ... He prepared for months, at least two months," Fu said. "He didn't really move much, just laying in bed and making the impression that he couldn't move."

The night was cool with just a sliver of crescent moon in the sky on April 22 when Chen slipped out of his farmhouse in eastern China's Shandong province. Blinded by fever as a child, Chen grew up exploring the nearby cornfields and dirt paths sightless, so he had his bearings.

It wasn't the first time he had run away from Dongshigu village and his bitter, nearly decade-long feud with local officials.

In 2005, Chen, his wife and a friend made a dash out of the village, running through a cornfield to evade guards. He and his friend got all the way to Beijing, where they met with diplomats and journalists, but his wife was captured. Days later, Chen was seized by security guards on the streets of the capital and returned to house arrest.

On that brief escape he had been helped by his sighted friend; this time Chen was alone.

He followed a path to a field and from there took a road he knew would lead him to a narrow river. After crossing it, he entered a wooded area that gave way to less familiar territory, ground that continually tripped him up. He fell at least 200 times, he would tell his supporters.

He walked for hours, trying to put as much distance between himself and his heavily guarded home as possible before daring to slip a battery into his mobile phone and call He Peirong, a Nanjing-based English teacher-turned-activist who had promised to help. She was waiting with a car.

When she finally found him, Chen was wet, covered in mud and blood, and had numerous cuts and bruises.

"He was in very unbelievable shape when he was picked up," said Fu, citing a conversation with He. Chen "was trembling, was physically weak. ... But he was determined to escape from that miserable condition."

Fu said Chen took a few days to recuperate before making a video appeal.

Uploaded to YouTube and Boxun.com five days after Chen's escape, it showed the blind activist wearing a Nike wind breaker and his trademark black sunglasses, looking relaxed and sounding strong. In it, he pleaded with Premier Wen Jiabao to punish the local authorities who had subjected Chen and his family to 20 months of house arrest, repeatedly beating them.

It was apparently taped in Beijing after He drove Chen north and handed him off to another activist, who brought him to the capital.

He herself was detained Friday by police. Hours before, she told The Associated Press she had been in contact with Chen's relatives, who told her that when the local village chief discovered Chen was gone, "he was furious."

They beat Chen's wife, his brother and his adult nephew, she said.

In Beijing, Chen was mainly aided by Guo Yushan, founder of a think tank set up in 2007 in the capital's university district.

He also met with prominent activists Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, posing for smiling snapshots with the couple — pictures they later posted to Twitter. They discussed Chen's plan, saying he wanted "justice and freedom," and insisted he had no intention of leaving China.

Zeng said he seemed thinner and his hair was grayer than she remembered it, but that he was full of conviction.

"He was very certain and very clear," Zeng said. "He wants justice for his case and his family and he doesn't want to go abroad, doesn't want exile."

Despite his desire to stay in China, Fu now says China and the U.S. are close to a deal that would see Chen and his family given asylum in the United States. It could be announced within days, he said Monday.

Several others besides Guo helped Chen in Beijing, but Zeng and Fu declined to name them for fear they would be rounded up by security agents.

He, the former school teacher, has not been heard from since her detention Friday; Guo was detained and released but did not respond to a request for an interview. Colleagues said it wasn't "convenient" for him to talk, suggesting he is under pressure from authorities to stay silent.

Zeng and her husband also were questioned, with Hu spending 24 hours in custody.

The only tidbit Fu dared to offer about Chen's experience in Beijing was that he was involved in a car chase by security officials while being driven by a fellow dissident. But the agents were after the driver and didn't even know Chen was in the car.

"If they had known Chen was there, they probably would have shut down all of Beijing's traffic," Fu said.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

Chen Guangcheng escape overshadows US diplomat's China visit - The Guardian

Kurt Campbell, front, arrives at a hotel in Beijing. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP

A senior US diplomat has arrived in Beijing amid political aftershocks following the escape from house arrest of a blind Chinese civil rights activist who is believed to have sought sanctuary in the US embassy.

Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state, arrived in the capital as Chinese police moved to detain activists and relatives suspected of being involved in the dramatic bid for freedom last week by Chen Guangcheng.

After more than six years of jail and house arrest, Chen climbed over the wall of his home last Sunday night and evaded checkpoints and dozens of guards, before meeting a supporter who drove him to Beijing. According to friends and overseas human rights groups, he is now under US diplomatic protection.

Texas-based ChinaAid said on Saturday that "high level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen's status".

But neither government has yet spoken publicly about the issue, which could hardly have come at a more politically sensitive moment for the world's two biggest economies. Campbell was originally expected to visit China later this week. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, are due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday night for two days of strategic dialogue.

If Chen is confirmed to be in the embassy, negotiations about his future could overshadow efforts to improve the bilateral relationship. Friends say Chen does not want to leave China, but he will not put himself into the hands of the authorities unless there are guarantees for the safety and liberty of himself, his family and associates.

Diplomatic sources described the situation as messy, with the potential to affect US-China relations for several months. With the US presidential election looming, the White House will not want to hand over a high-profile civil rights campaigner who exposed illegally enforced abortions by officials.

The Chinese government is months away from a transition of power and still struggling to overcome a scandal sparked by the death of the British businessman Neil Heywood that brought down the municipal party leader Bo Xilai.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, of Hong Kong University, said that if Chen was at the embassy, the two governments would probably try to downplay the issue, at least until the end of this week's bilateral talks.

"Then the Obama administration will try to find a solution that may not be asylum, but an assurance from Beijing that they will stop harrassing Chen; but if that does not work, asylum will eventually be granted," he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, of Human Rights Watch, said it was unlikely the Chinese government would accept Chen's demands for an investigation into his case. In the interim, he said, Washington should offer to take Chen and his family to the US for "medical reasons".

"If Beijing is not ready for that either, they should be ready to shelter Chen for a longer time, until a solution is negotiated," Bequelin said.

Human rights groups emphasise that negotiations should also focus on the plight of Chen's family and supporters. Several were targeted by police at the weekend. He Peirong, who drove Chen to Beijing, was detained on Friday.

Another alleged collaborator, Guo Yushan, not been heard of since Saturday and is thought to have been taken away by police. The activist Hu Jia, who was photographed with Chen after his escape, was held and questioned for more than a day. The whereabouts of Chen's wife and daughter remain unknown. His nephew Chen Kegui has been arrested for allegedly fighting local officials, activists said.

In a separate case, a Chinese writer who fled the country last year alleged that officials had detained a friend for seven months in the mistaken belief that he funded the escape. Liao Yiwu, now living in Germany, urged writers and campaigners to call for Li Bifeng's release.

Liao said a court was likely to consider Li's case on 8 May, although prosecutors had twice rejected attempts to charge him with economic crimes. "The pretext provided this time was too far-fetched even for the Communist party," he wrote.

"I recently learned from several channels that the police arrested Li Bifeng because of me. The police suspect [he] financed my escape – this is a groundless lie." Liao slipped across the border into Vietnam last July after authorities had denied him permission to leave China 17 times.

View the original article here

China dissident escapes from house arrest - Los Angeles Times

Chen Guangcheng, shown in an undated photo, spent four years in prison after exposing forced sterilizations and other abuses by family-planning authorities. (Associated Press)

BEIJING — The blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest last weekend during a rescue operation mounted by supporters, but his whereabouts and condition are now unknown, activists said Friday.

The rescue of Chen, whose plight has attracted worldwide attention, was apparently timed to coincide with U.S.-China discussions on human rights taking place this week in Beijing and the visit next week by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Some reports have suggested that Chen was seeking political asylum and might have tried to flee to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

At least two people who were involved in the rescue from a village near Linyi in Shandong province have been arrested, and family members who were involved in a brawl with local authorities after Chen's escape have been arrested.

Hu Jia, a veteran activist, reported on Twitter that Chen was at the U.S. Embassy, but activists in the United States said that was not the case.

"The situation is very dangerous," Yang Jianli, a rights activist based in Washington, said in a telephone interview. "We don't know if Chen is in a safe place or has been perhaps arrested by authorities."

Details of the rescue operation have not been disclosed. He escaped Sunday from the house where he'd been held the last 18 months. The following day, according to activists who have spoken to family members, enraged local officials stormed into a family house in the village and a knife fight broke out.

"In the middle of the night, they climbed over the wall, kicked in the door and entered," Chen Kegui, the dissident's nephew, told activists in a recorded telephone call. Shuanghou Township leader Zhang Jian, who was in charge of enforcing the house arrest, was reportedly injured in the melee.

Chen Guangcheng, a 41-year-old lawyer blind since childhood, spent four years in prison after exposing forced sterilizations and other abuses by Chinese family-planning authorities. After his release in September 2010, he and his wife were placed under local house arrest and reportedly beaten.

Supporters worldwide have launched appeals on Chen's behalf, many using photographs of themselves wearing sunglasses in tribute to the sightless dissident. In December, actor Christian Bale tried to visit Chen's village but was roughly pushed away by plainclothes security.

"There are many dissidents in China who are facing the same scenario of house arrest, but Chen has received the most attention, and we hope if we resolve his case we can move forward on others," Yang said in the telephone interview.

Yang also said that He Peihong, a supporter who had led the campaign for Chen's release, had been taken into custody at her home in Nanjing on Friday morning.

barbara.demick@latimes.com

View the original article here