At least two activists died in custody before or during China’s Communist Party congress and tens of thousands had their movements restricted, rights groups said yesterday.
The action was part of the government’s “maintenance stability” campaign aimed at preventing any sign of unrest during the party gathering in Beijing, which ended last week, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said.
The congress ushered in a once-a-decade leadership change, with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) stepping down from his top party post to make way for Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), who is due to be named state president in March.
CHRD — a nationwide network of activists in China who compile reports of human rights violations — said Zhang Yaodong (張耀東), a petitioner from Henan Province, was beaten to death in police custody in the capital on Nov. 5.
Chen Chengxiang, a petitioner from Hubei Province, set herself on fire on Thursday in protest over local corruption in front of the Beijing office that houses the UN Commission on Human Rights, the group said.
Beijing police refused immediate comment on the two incidents and it was not clear whether Chen survived her suicide attempt.
Another campaign group, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, said Xu Wanxia, 53, a petitioner from Anhui Province, was detained by police in Beijing on Nov. 8 and pronounced dead in Anhui six days later.
Her family to believe she was beaten to death, the group said.
CHRD said that police had detained, put under house arrest, sent to labor camps or otherwise harassed a wide range of government critics, including political dissidents, human rights activists and academics.
The group said hundreds of petitioners, Christian activists and rights lawyers were also targeted during the crackdown, adding that “up to 100,000 people” had been affected according to “conservative estimates.”
Social unrest in China has risen markedly in recent years with an estimated 180,000 protests last year over a wide range of issues including corruption, government land grabs, police brutality and social welfare, studies show.
To counter the instability, China allocated US$111 billion this year for “stability maintenance,” exceeding the nation’s declared defense budget.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
RSS