Part II 

Initial Impact of a Nascent Movement 

While Chinese rights defenders continued to pay a heavy price, risking their personal safety and freedom to promote human rights, more and more ordinary citizens including professionals, workers, and farmers are awakening to their legal and constitutional rights.  They have demonstrated concern about these issues and in many cases joined activists and lawyers in advocating for citizens’ rights.  

The growing awareness and wider participation is largely due to the fact that the substance of some rights (rights to housing, health care, or fair pay for work, etc.) have become more tangible, their protection more feasible, and official negligence or deprivation bolder and more rampant.  Increasing awareness and participation also has to do with the positive aspects of globalization — the development and use of telecommunications technology, the remaining pressures from international bodies (such as the UN, the EU and other democratic countries’ governments), and persistent efforts by international nongovernmental organizations, and the openings that the Chinese government could not afford to shut down, as well as the legal protections it must put in place for the sake of attracting investment and trade. 

This report has shown a paradoxical picture of increasing repression and ever more assertive rights activism.  In this section, we describe the latter aspect of this paradox by highlighting the impact of the work of human rights defenders. The impact of this work can also be seen in “success stories,” though “success” is often elusive. In the following examples, “success” has a number of different manifestations: the growing strength of independent or semi-independent groups, the boldness of citizens challenging policies/regulations/laws, the achievement of the objectives of such challenges.   

In 2006, more public interest groups (known in China as “social groups” or she tuan, which often have some formal connections to the government due to the registration restrictions, or are legally registered as for-profit firms), have been able to improve their working capabilities despite restrictive conditions. Some such groups work on advocating legal rights or civil rights.  These groups include: Home of Women Migrant Laborers, Small Bird, Cooperative Cultural Communication Center, “All the Brooks (天下溪),” Friends of Nature, Hongfeng Women’s Hotline, help centers for victims of domestic violence, “Chinese Lawyers Watch Net” (Zhongguo lushi guancha wang), “Open Constitutionalism Institute” (Gong Meng),  “Beijing AIZHIXING Education and Research Institute,” “Gan Dan Xiang Zhao” (a group that works on the rights of people infected with hepatitis B, who suffer from discrimination in employment and education. 

There have also emerged groups or website-based mobilization centers or personal studios that openly focus on human rights or civil rights issues.  Most of such outfits are not legally registered and are subjected to police surveillance or raids.  These include “June 4^th Tianwang” (now “Tianwang Human Rights Information Center”), “Citizen Rights Defense Net” (Gongmin weiquan wang), “Chinese Public Opinion Surveillance Net” (Zhongguo yulun jiandu wang), “Monitor of People’s Rights to Live” (Minsheng guancha), “Free China Forum,” and many others. These organizations collectively form a rights advocacy community and are contributing to a burgeoning civil rights movement.  

It is difficult to know the actual number of non-government groups in China as they are restricted in their legal status, as we explained early in this report, or they must operate under cover. The total number is estimated as in the tens of thousands.  

In 2006, some of the more assertive groups and individuals have operated or mobilized through using online virtual networks or informal social gatherings to initiate actions such as: 

(1) Administrative appeals to high-level government leaders (though these were often ignored or, in some cases, resulted in retaliation, i.e., in the case of lawyer Gao Zhisheng). (2) Providing legal assistance to victims of rights abuses, including rights to free expression, peaceful protest, and rights to legal counsel or fair trial (though legal procedures are often interfered with by government officials and the courts often make excuses to refuse to hear certain cases).

(3) Seeking the support of public opinion by reaching a broader audience (though public discussions such as online bulletin boards and major media are controlled by the government). (4) Contacting the United Nations human rights bodies and international organizations for assistance (though retaliation for such efforts is not uncommon). 

In the following examples, A – E, “success” is measured not just by the actual achievement of the objectives (Examples A and B), but more significantly, by their impact on raising rights consciousness and on reforms of the system (the use of law, while demonstrating defects of the legal system, to push for changes in government policies and the policy making process, for instance, examples C, D, and E).  Their effect on pushing for human rights improvement is not limited to civil-political rights (Example B).  The activists aim at improving conditions of socio-economic human rights, particularly for the vulnerable and disadvantaged, better known in China as sheng cun quan: “rights to live and survive” or “rights to livelihood.” (Examples A, C-E)  They utilize the supplementary and mutual enhancement relationship between the two categories of human rights – that respect for civil-political rights are necessary for safeguarding social-economic rights.  They push for changing undemocratic policy making through the administrative law procedures – bringing lawsuits against government agencies for damages.  In so doing, these lawyers and their clients may be accomplishing more than winning these cases in court; they are engineering legal and political reform.   

A. Heilongjiang HIV-infected blood recipients receive compensation: The case of sixteen AIDS sufferers who contracted the disease after receiving blood transfusions at the state-run Heilongjiang Beian Construction Farm Hospital was resolved after a year of court proceedings with compensation of approximately three million yuan. A total of sixteen people (nineteen, according to some reports) were infected with HIV/AIDS due to contaminated blood transfusions in this hospital. The case came to light after the death of Yang Mou, who contracted HIV under similar circumstances. Yang, who was receiving in-vitro fertilization treatment, received blood supplied by the illegal blood market on her doctor’s advice. Three months later she was diagnosed with AIDS at the Harbin Medical University First Hospital and died soon afterward. An epidemiological investigation confirmed that the victim contracted AIDS because of the hospital’s use of contaminated blood from illegal sources. The investigation also found that this had caused at least nineteen other people to become infected with HIV/AIDS. Among them, eighteen showed symptoms and two died. In June 2005, the case was resolved at Beian Agricultural Court, with the court declaring that those involved, namely the hospital director, vice-director and emergency room supervisor, were all guilty of collecting and supplying blood illegally. They were then fined and sentenced to two, five and ten years of imprisonment. Zhou Bin, vice-director of a Longsheng, Shanxi Law Firm, represented the plaintiffs. Such a favorable settlement for citizens suing a government agency remains rare. 

B. Sichuan “June 4” survivor given compensation: In April 2006, Tang Deying (唐德英), mother of Zhou Guocong (周国聪), a student who died in police custody after being arrested and beaten for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations in June 1989 in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, successfully campaigned for government compensation for her “financial difficulties” due to the loss of her son. On June 6, 1989, Zhou was captured and imprisoned at a police station on Ningxia Street in Chengdu; he later died in the detention center, bearing scars all over his body, evidence of severe beating. Throughout the 17 years of petitioning for the government to admit wrongdoing and award her compensation, Ms. Tang persisted in demanding an investigation into the true cause of her son’s death, so as to hold officials and policemen criminally responsible. Ms. Tang received support from Huang Qi’s “June 4 Tianwang” (see above) in her efforts. In 2006, the authorities in Chengdu finally approved a 70,000 yuan “pension in aid of financial difficulties” to Zhou’s family; the agreement was signed by both sides, and the transaction completed. This is the first successful case of compensation – albeit in disguise – to survivors nationwide of victims of the 1989 bloody crackdown. 

C. Removal of restrictions on low-emissions vehicles in the heart of Beijing: Since 1998, the Beijing city government had restricted motor vehicles with engine displacements less than 1 liter from access to Changan Boulevard. In 1999, the government further restricted these motor vehicles from the innermost fast lanes on the main Second Ring and Third Ring Roads. At the beginning of 2006, lawyer Li Subin (李苏滨) of the Beijing Yitong Legal Firm decided to challenge this working pro bono. He himself drove a low-emissions vehicle on Changan Boulevard and was fined 100 yuan; he then sued the Beijing West City District Traffic Unit for illegal administration. Prior to the court opening, an alliance of six governmental departments, including the State Development and Reform Commission, issued a notice to remove all restrictions on fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly models of low-emissions vehicles. Since then, the Beijing government has decided to repeal all restrictions on low-emissions vehicles with engine displacements under 1 liter. The removal of these restraints is good news for those who care about clean air in this seriously polluted city and to the vast majority of low-income residents who cannot afford cars that cost more in gasoline. Soon afterwards, Li and his colleagues said that they would, in light of how “the six ministries and commissions already took actions to cancel the restrictions on low-emissions vehicles,” withdrew the charges against the West City Traffic Unit. 

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