Social Stability - 32. page

China’s famous human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been missing for more than three years and the Chinese Communist authorities have yet to issue any notice to Gao’s family. At the beginning of 2021, it was learned that Gao’s elder sister was in despair and committed suicide. Gao Zhisheng’s wife Geng He, now living in exile in the U.S., said that his sister attempted suicide twice before, because of the terror and the pressure due to what happened to her brother.

Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s top lawyers, represented cases of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China. Between 2004 and 2005, Gao published three open letters to the then head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, exposing the stories of torture and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in labor camps and asking the authorities to change their unlawful policy toward Falun Gong. In 2006, Gao had his lawyer’s license revoked for speaking out for the marginalized and persecuted groups. He was subsequently abducted from his sister’s house in Shandong and sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” In 2017, after serving his sentence, he disappeared .

Now Gao has been missing for more than 1,200 days. According to his wife, Geng He, that is the longest period of disappearance for Gao. She is worried that Gao has been tortured badly and is also deeply worried about his health.

On the first day of the new year, Geng He tweeted that in May 2020, Gao Zhisheng’s elder sister in Shandong committed suicide by jumping into the river due to prolonged and deep fear, depression and despair about her brother’s situation.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 4, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/bx-01042021155959.html

The Chinese government is building walls along the China-Myanmar border in Yunnan Province to prevent illegal border crossings. The Twitter account of the first special zone of Myanmar’s northern Shan State, where the Kokang ethnic group resides, recently posted that in order to prevent its citizens from illegally emigrating to Myanmar, the Chinese government has completed the first phase of the project which is code-named “Great Wall of the South” – a 660-kilometer-long wall of barbed wire. The second phase of the project will be completed by the end of next year. By then, more than 2,000 kilometers of the Myanmar-China border will be completely detached.

The Twitter of Myanmar’s northern Shan State also claimed that the third phase of the “Great Wall of the South” will be completed in October 2022, and high-voltage electric wiring will be installed at key smuggling passages. Video surveillance cameras and infrared alarms will be installed everywhere.

Si Ling, a scholar on China-Myanmar relations, told Radio Free Asia that the Chinese government’s construction of a high wall on the China-Myanmar border is not to prevent the influx of the coronavirus.

Si said that China’s decision to build this wall was not made overnight, but after very rigorous planning. In the past, it was easy to cross the borders between China and Vietnam and China and Myanmar. The people of the two countries would be in China today, and go to Vietnam tomorrow, and even go back and forth within the same day. The purpose of Beijing’s construction of this wall is to prevent the people from leaving China.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 14, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/wall-12142020073935.html

The Ministry of Public Security recently announced that China has launched a new pilot program on “Internet ID Cards” in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Instead of using the personal ID to register for internet service, the new technology uses the applicants’ biometrics. To obtain a certificate, the applicant must provide the police with biological and personal data such as face, fingerprint and ID card chip. After verification, the Ministry of Public Security will issue a certificate. When netizens open or use different online services, they can use the certificate instead of entering identity information for authentication. According to the official statement, the network card is linked to the applicant’s biometrics and ID card, and has multiple passwords. It is extremely difficult to be forged.

The Ministry of Public Security chose Guangdong and Fujian as the pilot sites for network ID cards.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 27, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/GF1-11272020050155.html

On November 5, the School of History at China’s Capital Normal University in Beijing hosted an offline lecture, “Shen Zhihua: The Establishment and End of the Soviet Socialist Model.” The lecture was simultaneously broadcasted live on the Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili. The lecturer Shen Zhihua is a well-known expert on Cold War history. He is a tenured professor at the History Department of East China Normal University. The lecture and live broadcast were interrupted after the event had been going on for about one hour. After the incident, the organizer’s social media account issued a statement, “This lecture was forced to transfer to the Tencent meeting (an online video conference platform) halfway through it, due to malicious reporting.” The statement condemned such malicious reporting that seriously interfered with normal academic exchanges, while reserving the rights to pursue further responsibility.

This is one of many incidents in recent years in China in which academic freedom was attacked by “reporting.”

Yang Shaozheng is a former professor at the School of Economics of Guizhou University. He was discharged from office in 2018 for criticizing the government in class and online. Yang told Voice of America (VOA) that, if the authorities would abide by their own constitution and protect citizens’ freedom of speech, there would not be a market for such malicious reporting. “It is precisely because the constitutional provision of freedom of speech is ignored that anyone who says what the Communist Party thinks is politically incorrect will be punished. As a result, malicious reporting happens everywhere.”

You Shengdong, who is 73-years-old, is a former professor of economics at Xiamen University. In 2018, he was reported and later fired because his classroom lectures were not in line with the Chinese communist ideology. Professor You told VOA that the trend of reporting on Chinese university campuses has been rampant and teachers are worried that they cannot teach freely.

“In the past few years, the political and academic atmosphere in Chinese universities has deteriorated. When teachers are giving lectures, there are cameras recording them and informants watching them. I was reported and other teachers were reported. The situation is getting worse.” “If there is no freedom of speech in a country, especially in universities, how can truth be spread? How can knowledge be taught? How can students be taught? In any country, if it is for the people, then it should allow a hundred flowers to bloom instead of seeing that all speak with one voice.”

It has been reported that many universities even openly recruit informants to keep an eye on the teachers, requiring student informants to report on the teachers who spread superstitious ideas, Western values, and criticism of the principles of the Party.

In addition to professors Yang and You, there is a long list of scholars who have been punished for their words.

Deng Xiangchao, deputy dean of the School of Arts at Shandong Jianzhu University, was disciplined and ordered to retire in 2017 because he re-posted articles critical of Mao Zedong. Deng was also dismissed from all government positions.

Shi Jiepeng, a professor at Beijing Normal University, was dismissed in July 2017 for “erroneous remarks on the Internet” and “crossing the red line of ideological management.”

Tan Song, associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, was expelled from the school and detained by the police in September 2017 for investigating the history of land reform, the anti-rightist movement, the Anti-Japanese War, and the Wenchuan Earthquake, as well as for talking about the 1989 student’s movement in class.

Xu Chuanqing, associate Professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, was reported in September 2017 for blaming students for not taking classes seriously. Xu used Japanese students as role models and predicted that Japan would become a superior nation. In 2018, he was given administrative sanctions.

Zhai Juhong, an associate professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was disciplined. In May 2018, he was expelled from the Party and given an administrative penalty because he criticized Xi Jinping’s constitutional amendments and discussed the institution of China’s National People’s Congress in the classroom.

Wang Gang, an associate professor at Hebei University of Engineering, set up a Wechat group with a focus on civil rights and posted articles that conjectured that China would not embark on the path of constitutional democracy. In July 2018, the school dismissed Wang.

Cheng Ran, a lecturer at Xiangtan University, was demoted because he “quoted a large amount of false information and reports from foreign media” in the classroom and he made remarks that “impaired the image of the Party and state leaders.”

In March 2019, Tang Yun, an associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, had his teacher’s qualification revoked and he was demoted because students reported him for making remarks that harmed the nation’s reputation.

In the famous case of Xu Zhangrun, a professor at Tsinghua University Law School, Xu was suspended in March 2019 for criticizing Xi Jinping’s constitutional amendment, demanding redress of the 1989 student’s movement, and for other remarks.

In April 2019, a student reported Lv Jia, an associate professor at Tsinghua University, for “opposing the Party and violating the constitution.” The Tsinghua communist party discipline organs subsequently put Lv under investigation.

In April 2017, Zi Su, a teacher at the Party School of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee, suggested that the Chinese Communist Party implement intra-party democracy and asked Xi Jinping to resign. In April 2019, he was arrested, charged with “inciting subversion” and sentenced to 4 years.

Huang Chun, a retired female professor at Guizhou Minzu University, was put under administrative detention for 15 days due to her remarks on Twitter and WeChat about Hong Kong’s anti-extradition law amendment bill movement and the 1989 student’s movement.

Liu Yufu, a teacher at Chengdu University of Technology, was under administrative penalty in October 2019 because of his remarks in class and over the Internet.

Cao Jisheng, a lecturer at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, was subjected to administrative sanctions and a record of demerit in October 2019 for making “inappropriate remarks” in a WeChat group.

Source: Voice of America, November 17, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/academic-seminar-interrupted-malicious-tip-offs-criticized-as-deprivation-freedom-speech-in-China-20201117/5665744.html

The Epoch Times recently obtained a number of internal documents, exposing many “stability maintenance measures” that are used in the Gaochang District of Turpan, Xinjiang. These documents show that the Xinjiang government hires a large number of people to be on an online surveillance team and to be “internet watchers” to monitor online speech and control public opinion.

In July 2017, the Cyberspace Administration of the Gaochang District, Turpan, Xinjiang conducted inquiries with the Tuoling Wine Industry Company, the Huozhou Fruit Industry Company and the Xiqi Information Service Center and wrote three summary reports. The reports gave details about the party building work that the party branch office in each company performs. It disclosed how the security team of each company manages the security and stability work. Examples include giving safety and security training and drills and having a 24-hour security team on-site. In addition, following the weekly flag-raising ceremony, companies often give the employees periodic updates on the new government policies and security measures.

A separate internal document contains a list of 45 people, their contact information and their registration form. These people are on the Internet commentator team working for the local police stations in the Gaochang District of Turpan. The registration form lists the names of the online forums and websites to which each of them is assigned. Another document has a list of people who perform the function of Internet watchers who submit inside information about their assigned district. For example, in the Xincheng district, there are 10 Internet watchers. One of them, from the united front office, has submitted 84 tips under her account.

Source: Epoch Times, November 26, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/11/26/n12575940.htm

On November 11, following the arrest of Ren Zhiqiang, China’s real estate tycoon, Xu Zhangrun, a professor at Tsinghua University, and Geng Xiaonan, a publisher who openly supported a dissident law professor, Sun Dawu, a 66 year old businessman from Hebei province, was also arrested.  The charge was for alleged “disorderly behavior and the sabotage of business operations” over a land dispute. State media reported that the homes of 28 members of the senior management team of the Dawu Group, including Sun’s wife, son and daughter-in-law were raided overnight.

On November 15, Han Lianchao posted on his twitter account that Sun Dawu is a well-known farmer and businessman and is highly respected in China. After his arrest, the Internet in China was flooded with people’s reactions. Not only did people from the legal and the economic communities, the news media, and private business circles express their support for Sun in a number of different ways. They vaguely and strongly called attention to Sun’s arrest. Han also published an article a netizen from China wrote commenting on Sun’s arrest. It summarized the following four reasons why Sun was arrested:

1.   He disregarded the unspoken rules. Sun always speaks the truth and refuses to collude with the party officials from the county, the provincial level and the Ministry of Agriculture. He therefore offended the officials.

2.   He was Involved in a land dispute. When a state-owned farm tried to take land from the villagers, the Dawu group tried to intervene. The state-owned farm and the officials from the local county sent people to demolish the Dawu group’s building and got into a physical fight with the workers from Sun’s companies.

3.   He openly comments on reform and supports constitutional democracy. Sun is sympathetic to the rights lawyers and to dissidents.

4.   He owns 28 subsidiary companies. All of them are well managed and successful. They even donated money to build a hospital and schools and the locals favored them.

The article stated that people know what right and wrong are. Totalitarian tyrannies can suppress the public voice but they can’t silence it. Violent suppression will only make China’s peaceful transformation less likely. In facing future social transformation, having blood shed could be inevitable.

Source:
1. Twitter: Han Lianchao, November 15, 2020

国内网友传来一篇短文，评孙大午事件，特转发于此。中国大陆再次爆发反抗极权暴政的呼声。
孙大午是中国知名农民企业家，在民间享有很高声望。事件引爆中国网络舆论，法律界、经济学界、新闻媒体以及民营企业界人士，纷纷以各种方式表达对孙大午的支持肯定，隐晦而强烈呼吁关注孙大午！ pic.twitter.com/HyVnuCLMO3

— 韩连潮 (@lianchaohan) November 15, 2020

2. Sina, November 13, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2020-11-13/doc-iiznezxs1748082.shtml