MCLC: crackdown on anti-corruption activists

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: crackdown on anti-corruption activists
***********************************************************

Source: NYT 
(4/21/13):http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/asia/china-expands-crackd
own-on-anticorruption-activists.html

China Presses Crackdown on Campaign Against Graft
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have detained six anticorruption
activists in recent days, expanding their crackdown on a citizen-led
campaign that, on the surface at least, would appear to dovetail with the
new leadership’s war on official graft.

The detained activists, who include seasoned dissidents and a prominent
rights lawyer, had been demanding that senior Communist Party officials
publicly disclose their personal wealth, according to lawyers and rights
advocates.

The campaign, started late last year with a petition drive that garnered
thousands of signatures, has tried to piggyback on a pledge by President
Xi Jinping to clean up the endemic corruption he says poses an existential
threat to the ruling Communist Party.

In widely quoted comments published in January, Mr. Xi promised to take
down “tigers and flies” — a reference to high-ranking officials and
middling bureaucrats — but the public clamor for mandatory asset
disclosure has so far received a tepid response from Chinese leaders.

The campaign, called the New Citizens Movement by its organizers, has
picked up steam in the five weeks since Mr. Xi consolidated power by
adding the title of president to his other titles, Communist Party general
secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The change in leadership, the first in a decade, has given liberals hope,
however faint, that Mr. Xi will shake up the status quo by increasing
government transparency.

On March 31, a small group of anticorruption activists unfurled banners at
a plaza in central Beijing, a move that quickly drew the police. Three of
those arrested are still in custody, and a fourth was released on bail for
health reasons, his lawyer said Friday. All four are charged with illegal
assembly, a crime that carries a potential five-year sentence.

Of those arrested last week, four are still being held, according to their
lawyers, who said the police had raided the homes of at least two
detainees and confiscated laptops, video cameras and other items.

The arrests have both infuriated and disappointed reformers and human
rights advocates, who say the crackdown bodes ill for Mr. Xi’s widely
trumpeted war on graft. “The party promised to publish officials’ assets
30 years ago, something it has yet to do,” said Xu Zhiyong, a lawyer and
founder of the New Citizens Movement who is being held under house arrest.
“Clearly the government is afraid of this demand.”

The men arrested last week include Zhao Changqing, a democracy advocate
who has been jailed several times in the past; Ding Jiaxi, a human rights
lawyer; and two activists, Sun Hanhui and Wang Yonghong. All four are
being held at Beijing No. 3 Detention Center, lawyers for the men said.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a nongovernmental
organization based in Washington, the whereabouts of two other activists,
Qi Yueying and Li Wei, were unknown on Friday.

Liang Xiaojun, a lawyer who represents several of those detained, said
prison officials would allow him to see only one of the detainees,
claiming that the others were still being interrogated by the police. “I
doubt this case will go through normal procedures,” he said. “Can you
imagine a trial for a group of activists who demanded that government
officials disclose their assets? I don’t see that trial happening.”

Analysts say the crackdown on dissent, coupled with newly announced media
restrictions and the absence of any new anticorruption initiatives, are
gnawing away at any hopes that Mr. Xi will embrace the rule of law and
clean government.

“These arrests do nothing to dispel the widely held opinion that public
office is in essence a way to accumulate illegal wealth,” said Nicholas
Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. “If the
party is serious about rooting out corruption, it needs to stop placing
itself above the law.”

Mia Li contributed research.