Taipei, Taiwan – 2 February 2012 - February 1st was the opening day of the 2012 Taipei International Book Exhibition at the World Trade Center in Taiwan.

Laogai Research Foundation executive director Harry Wu made a visit to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, to congratulate his friend Congressman Frank Wolf on the release of his new book, Prisoner of Conscience.  Harry met Rep. Wolf across the street from the Heritage Foundation, and the two "prisoners of conscience" walked in together for the press conference on the book release.

Laogai Research Foundation founder and executive director Harry Wu paid a visit today to the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, to offer condolences on the death of Vaclav Havel. 

On November 3, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) held a hearing in Washington, D.C. to discuss the ongoing repression in Tibet. Since January 2011, there have been eleven self-immolations in the region- a startling amount that suggests the ongoing occurrence of serious social problems.

Dalai Lama and CCP Clash Over Reincarnation Stipulations

In traditional Tibetan society, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. The current Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, for fear of his personal safety after a Tibetan uprising against Han Chinese. In India, he set up a government-in-exile, which has been in operation for 50 years. Since the Dalai Lama’s escape, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has advanced restrictions upon Tibetans’ basic rights, in all aspects of life.

                                                                                               WASHINGTON, D.C.–On November 1st, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on "Examination into the Abuse and Extralegal Detention of Legal Advocate Chen Guangcheng and His Family". Commission Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN) listened to the testimony of three experts: Professor Jerome Cohen (US-Asia Law Institute of NYU School of Law, Council on Foreign Relations), Sharon Hom (Human Rights in China), and Chai Ling (All Girls Allowed).

Tuesday's hearing was an emergency hearing to expose the case of Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught human rights lawyer, currently under house arrest in his hometown of Linyi with his wife and six-year-old daughter. Born blind, Chen began his legal career in 1996 educating disabled citizens about their rights, and later started to documented local villagers' stories of forced abortions and forced sterilizations, culminating in building briefs and lawsuits to vindicate them. For these "crimes" of standing up to injustice officials began a barbaric campaign against Chen in 2005. His September 2010 release from four years in prison only resulted in his and his family's house arrest without medical attention. Throughout October, human rights activists, writers, bloggers, petitioners and ordinary Chinese have traveled to visit him, only to be beaten and repelled by police-hired thugs.

Jerome Cohen, who has known Chen for eight years, debunked three myths. The persecution and abuse of Chinese lawyers and legal activists is not rare, but actually under a widespread, systemic official assault, covered up by CCP censorship. Chen's punishment is not merely a local abuse forbidden by the central government–Cohen has made the case apparent to the Ministry of Public Security for many years, to no avail. The third myth is that there must be some legal justification to Chen's suffering, some "veneer of plausible legitimacy"–but none has been offered by the Chinese government. While China has attained legitimacy by trumpeting a new rights-based "socialist legal system," it crushes lawyers like Chen to make certain these rights are never realized. The only way to free him and other victims is through greater transparency in China's criminal proceedings and enhanced publicity by foreign advocates and governments.

Sharon Hom pointed out that governments including the US, UN and EU have called for Chen's release throughout his imprisonment, while his supporters are currently attempting to visit him from all over China to show solidarity. Eyewitnesses report that last Sunday, October 30th, 37 visitors were beaten by around 100 unidentified thugs while authorities stood by. Residents of Linyi have reported screams and beatings heard from Chen's padlocked house. However, officials have been unable to shut down online campaigns to virtually visit Chen–most notably the Dark Glasses Portrait campaign, inviting supporters to upload photos of themselves wearing dark glasses reminiscent of Chen's. Hom warned the Commission about China's attempt to increase its "soft power" by purchasing Western news outlets and establishing Confucius Institutes in US universities and communities, which teach Mandarin with a curriculum that ignores both historical and present human rights violations like the Laogai system. The US must insist that these Institutes use a balanced Western curriculum, as Australia has, while US diplomats should start visiting Chen and making noise to release him, as Ambassador Huntsman did for Xue Feng in years past.

Chai Ling gave a detailed account of the brutal four-hour beating of Chen and his wife in July, witnessed by their young daughter. She added that China has experienced its economic revolution and is moving toward a new political revolution through the suffering of people like Chen, but is in most need of a spiritual revolution, after which such abuse would be unthinkable. She compared the US government's silence regarding Chen to the 18 passersby who left a Chinese toddler to die after a car accident on October 13th.

Rep. Chris Smith welcomed the testimony, exclaiming, "Enough is enough. The cruelty and extreme violence against Chen and his family brings dishonor to the government of China and must end. Chen and his family must be free." In response to Sharon Hom's point that overt US support for Chinese human rights no longer works, Rep. Smith passionately argued that since the de-pegging of Most Favored Nation status from human rights, the American government has silently abandoned the cause. The only way to save Chen and Chinese human rights is for the US to robustly and vocally assert an effort, and to raise concrete examples, such as the freeing of Chen, in negotiations with China. To this, the Laogai Research Foundation would add, the US must speak truth to power by exposing the Laogai prison camp system and condemning the PRC for this ongoing crime, which looms in the fate of human rights advocates like Chen Guangcheng.

October 25, 2011 - Washington, DC

Many Americans think slavery a thing of the past or only occurring in underdeveloped countries, but slavery actually hits close to home. The CIA estimates over 1 million people are enslaved in the US today. The State Department estimates 17,500 people are brought into the US yearly to become slaves; many end up as domestic servants, farmhands, or prostitutes.

On October 22nd, the Laogai Research Foundation joined nearly 2,000 people to protest modern slavery and human trafficking at the DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk. The 5K walk started at the Vietnam Women’s Memorial and circled the Tidal Basin.

After the walk, the Laogai Research Foundation and other organizations supporting the event held a non-profit information fair. LRF members met others working toward eradicating modern slavery, forced labor, and trafficking. LRF shared information about China’s oppressive Laogai forced labor prisons with these enthusiastic advocates. Walk participants enjoyed live music and listened to the testimonials of human trafficking survivors. Each presenter had compelling stories for the audience, adding a sense of urgency to the need to fight modern slavery.

Participating organizations focused on different aspects of contemporary slavery and human trafficking. Major partners included Free the Slaves, a nonprofit working to end exploitation and human trafficking worldwide through research, advocacy, and on-the-ground support, and End Slavery Now, a charity that helps coordinate actions of a variety of anti-slavery NGOs on a global scale. Despite their differences, each group is dedicated to eradicating modern slavery.

Forced labor in China is just one small piece of the modern slavery puzzle. Joint efforts such as the Walk generate support for ending human rights abuse around the world. DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk estimates that the event raised over $80,000, but as they have yet to reach their $100,000 goal, they will continue to accept donations through December 1st. It was inspiring to see so many people raise awareness about massive human rights injustices. With more people aware of modern slavery, it will be hard for policy makers to continue to ignore modern slavery on a national and a international level.

See below for photos from the walk, and to learn more about slavery and trafficking in China.

What is Slavery?

"Slavery: the condition of an individual who works for another individual against his or her will as a result of force, coercion, or imprisonment, regardless of whether the individual is paid for the labor.”

Slavery in China:

• The Laogai, or forced labor prison camps, are unique because they are government-mandated and managed. Prisoners of conscience and common criminals are often sent to labor camps without trial, and they are forced to work without pay in horrible conditions. The LRF has documented the existence of 1,007 labor camps currently operating in China, and estimates 3-5 million prisoners are in these camps at any given time.

What is Human Trafficking?

"Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them.” 

Human Trafficking in China:

• A massive gender imbalance is currently driving an increase in sex trafficking in China. The gender ratio resulting from the Chinese Communist Party’s One Child Policy is currently 119 boys to 100 girls. By 2020, there will be 30 million more men of marriageable age than women. Women from Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea are often kidnapped and sold as prostitutes or wives. The CCP considers North Korean human trafficking victims to be “economic migrants” and deports them back to North Korea, where they face serious punishment by the North Korean government.
•  
• The US government estimates 20,000 children are kidnapped in China annually. Male children are typically targeted for kidnapping, due to Chinese cultural preference for sons, but increase in demand for children has led kidnappers to also prey on females. Most kidnapped children will never see their families again.
•  
• The Chinese Communist Party has vague policies regarding human trafficking, which results in inadequate protection for victims. There are no government services for trafficking survivors, and the CCP has prosecuted victims of trafficking on the charge of prostitution, even though they were abducted and forced into prostitution against their will.

Religious persecution by the Chinese Communist Party has been ongoing since 1949. However, in recent years, controls on religious freedom have been tightened.

The 2009 State Council’s National Human Rights Action Plan seems to show a new stance toward individual rights in China. The action plan condemns religious persecution, detention, and extortion of information by torture, yet these things still happen today. If anything, the CCP is less tolerant of religion.

“Legal Religion”

China's religious policies are contradictory. The National Human Rights Action Plan is supposed to guarantee freedom, but the CCP has laws regarding the illegalities of “evil cults.” What defines that term? The CCP is not forthcoming. They exploit the laws' vagueness in arresting religious practitioners they feel threatened by.

The Chinese Communist Party recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Islam, Daoism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Other religions are illegal, and their practitioners are detained or jailed. Although the five religions mentioned above are recognized, the Religious Affairs Bureau maintains control over them. The RAB has institutions that govern each religion’s affairs. Opposition to the CCP these institutions could result in the faction being declared illegal.

Intolerance Towards Minority Religions

Prior to the 2008 Olympics, protests in Lhasa for religious and autonomous freedom turned into rioting. There have already been 5 self-immolations of Tibetan Buddhists who opposed the Communist Party’s stance on Tibet in 2011 alone. Falun Gong (a mixture of Qigong, Buddhism, and Daoism which was declared a “cult” by the CCP in 1995) practitioners have been “re-educated through labor” in Chinese jails, beaten, starved, and even executed for the past 15 years. Islam in Xinjiang is closely monitored: Government employees in the region cannot practice Islam, and teaching of the Koran in private is illegal. Several branches of Christianity have also been persecuted as “cults”.

Why does the Communist Party take such a hard stance toward religion?

Religion in China is growing rapidly: Currently, there are around 70 million Protestants, 12 million Catholics, 8 million Uighur Muslims, and 2.6 million Tibetan Buddhists, plus the millions of followers who practice “illegal” underground religions. Religion greatly influences its practitioners’ lives. The Communist Party fears religion’s influence on the public surpassing their own, which could result in the public opposing the CCP’s legitimacy and power. This is especially true in places like Xinjiang and Tibet, where religion and ethnicity are intertwined and very different from the Han Chinese perception. If these ethnic values and religions begin to override Communist Party ideals, the CCP’s rule could be jeopardized.

The Effects of Persecution on Society

In 2008, Chen Zhiping was abducted and sentenced to prison for eight years. After her arrest, she was denied a lawyer and her daughter was beaten after requesting court documents on the case. Chen was also attacked in prison and forcibly injected with drugs. Chen’s crime: practicing Falun Gong. Chen is one of many in China who are persecuted for their beliefs. The CCP routinely shrugs off criticisms of its human rights record, justifying its harsh policies with cultural relativism – individual rights are less important in China, because it is a traditionally collective society. However, the CCP's actions toward religious believers affect the society as a whole. When the CCP forces a religious follower into political reform, their entire family is torn apart, and they are persecuted by local cadres or shunned by the community. Persecution of religious followers also disrupts their fellow parish members, causing others to fear and resent the CCP’s policies. When tearing families and communities apart in religious persecution, the CCP is destabilizing its own society, which is what it fears.

Sources:

1.      Amnesty International Report. “Uighur Ethnic Identity Under Threat in China.” 2009.

2.      Falun Dafa Information Center Report. “Chen Zhenping: A Mother Imprisoned, Tortured.” October 20, 2010.

3.      Lai, H.H. “Religious Policies in Post-Totalitarian China: Maintaining Political Monopoly over a Reviving Society.” Journal of Chinese Political Science. 2006. Volume 11, issue 1. Pages 55-57.

4.      Reinstein, Ellen. “Turn the Other Cheek, or Demand an Eye for an Eye? Religious Persecution in China and an Effective Western Response.” Connecticut Journal of International Law. October 1, 2004.

To commemorate 6o years of refugee protection for the upcoming U.N. Refugee Congress, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) interviewed refugees, including Harry Wu, in the short film Six Voices for Six Decades. The conference, Aug. 3-4, brings together refugees from across the U.S., many of whom have fled persecution and unspeakable atrocities, to share their stories and discuss how to improve the protection and lives of refugees across the globe.