Olympics-related temporary rules that allowed foreign media greater freedom in their work are due to end today.

The rules said that reporters could travel anywhere in China and could talk to any consenting interviewee without government permission. Although they were a step in the right direction, they have been poorly implemented. Several human rights organisations have documented numerous incidents of harassment, detentions and even death threats to foreign reporters. In practice, sensitive areas such as Tibet were off limits.

One of the great disappointments is that these ‘relaxed’ reporting rules did not apply to Chinese journalists, who bear a much higher level of censorship from the authorities.

China has not yet said what will happen exactly in the future. Will the rules expire completely? Will they be replaced by others rules? Foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said yesterday that new arrangements would be “released shortly”. “We will, as always, welcome foreign journalists to China and continue to facilitate your work and stay,” he told reporters.

The fact that China has not standardised the rules and extended them to all journalists, foreign and especially Chinese, is yet another shortcoming of its Olympic legacy.

When participants step out of a conference celebrating the “60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (UDHR) at 18.30 today, they will walk right into the vernissage of “The beautiful face of China”- an exhibition promoting the city of Guilin in southern China.

How ironic is it that, not even 50 meters apart, the European Parliament is commemorating the UDHR and promoting a country with a poor human rights record.

How ironic (and cynical) is it that you can listen to testimonies of human rights defenders during the day and go eat delicacies of a country which currently hold 4500 political and religious prisoners?! When they’ve passed the exhibition, they can watch “15 seconds”, a film screened on the occasion of the European Day Against Death Penalty.

No one is questioning the beauty of Guilin. The pictures speak for themselves. It’s the timing that leaves a bitter taste. Even more so if you recall that is was in Guilin that cyberdissident Wang Dejia was arrested in December 2007 for openly critising the organisation of the Olympic Games. He was released on bail a month later and awaits his trial, but the charges of “subversion of state power” remain. An incentive to keep him quiet. That’s the not so beautiful face of Guilin… The exhibition is missing a few pictures, like that of Hu Jia, who is top of the list of nominees for the European Parliament’s 2008 Sakharov Prize and hopeful for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
  

Just don’t forget that there are thousands of faces that you’ll probably never see if you don’t look. Here are a few: Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, Yang Chunlin, Wu Lihong, Huang Qi and Du Daobin, Yang Zili, Mao Hengfeng, Tenzin Delek, Shi Tao, Huang Jinqiu, Bu Dongwei, Liu Jie, Hu Shigen (released on 27 August in very poor health) Yang Maodong and Chen Guangcheng, Hada, Jigme Tenzin Nyima, Runggye Adak and Dolma Kyab, Yao Fuxin, Wang Ling.

More than three months after his arrest, Huang Qi was finally allowed to meet with his lawyer.

He has been detained since 10 June 2008 and was later charged with “illegal possession of state secrets” for posting articles on his website (http://www.64tianwang.com), on the plight of parents who lost children in the Sichuan earthquake and criticising the government’s handling of the situation.

His lawyer told AFP that he had still not been able to see the evidence held against his client, although the police handed it to the prosecution. He also said Huang Qi was been kept in a room with 25 other people.

Once the prosecution has reviewed the evidence, which could take another month-and-a-half, a decision will be made on whether to put him on trial. According to Chinese law, it is only when his trial begins that he will be allowed to see his family.

Huang Qi was already imprisoned from 2000 to 2005 for posting pro-democracy articles online. Despite five years in prison, he opened the Tianwang Human Rights Centre after his release. Today, the founder of one of the few NGOs defending human rights actually based in China is back in prison. The message is quite clear.

Note: Huang Qi received a symbolic Medal for Freedom last August in support of his continuous struggle to defend human rights in China.

Imprisoned human rights dissident Hu Jia was shortlisted for the European Parliament’s 2008 Sakharov Prize. Active on various issues including civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS advocacy, Hu Jia was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for writing articles about the human rights situation in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

The final decision regarding the winner of the Sakharov prize will be taken in mid October by the leaders of the political groups in the Parliament.

Read more here.

The closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games yesterday marked the end of Beijing’s Olympic party. There’s been a lot of praise for the organisation, the infrastructure and the “fabulous” show during the past weeks. Philip Craven, the President of the International Paralympic Committee, said these games had been “the greatest Paralympic Games ever.”

President Hu Jintao said China had kept its pre-Olympic promises: “The Chinese people have kept the solemn promise made to the international community. They have welcomed guests from across the world with enthusiasm and presented special and high-standard Games.” Indeed, the promise of “Two Games, Equal Splendour” was kept, but China had also promised to improve the situation of human rights during its bid in 2001. Here are a few facts which you may have missed, since the end of the Olympic Games on 24 August:

I won’t go over the numerous human rights abuses which you can read about in the article Second chance… (below) and in the detailed reports of NGOs like Human Rights in China, RSF or Human Rights Watch, amongst others.

Let’s start with the (singular) ’good’ news.

- Human rights activist Hu Shigen was released after 16 years in prison. His release is of course a positive thing, although he is now in a very poor state of health - both physically and mentally.

- Mao Hengfeng, sentenced to two-and-a-half years, continues to be physically and mentally abused in prison. She has not been allowed visits by family members for more than 10 months. There is a detailed account of the kind of torture she is subjected to here.

- 10 would-be protesters are still being held in or around their hometown. They were arrested in Beijing before they could carry out their protests. Some were beaten. It was reported that two women among the group were stripped of their clothes to make sure they wouldn’t escape.

- We learned this week that two Tibetan documentary filmakers have been detained for the past six months. The film shows Tibetans expressing their view on the Dalai Lama, the Olympics and Chinese legislation. Read more about it here: http://www.leavingfearbehind.com/

And these are just a few examples. Now that the party is over, Beijing will go back to normal. On Sunday 21 August, clean air measures will end. Factories will resume production, drivers will take their cars out everyday and pollution will come back. Protest parks (although they were nothing but a farce) are already closed. ‘Relaxed’ reporting rules for foreign journalists are set to end. While the world will be looking the other way, prisoners of opinion will be looking at the walls of their cells.

The Olympic flame was lit again on Saturday for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. It was, as was the show on 8 August, another grandiose display of Chinese organisation, a show of image above all else.

We’ve established that absolutely NONE of the pre-Olympic promises to improve the human rights situation had been kept during the Games (see Broken promises; It’s all relative and 08.08.08).

Actually, the human rights situation considerably worsened as a direct effect on the Olympics. Here is the catastrophic legacy in a few numbers:

-  Since 2001 - an estimated 1.5 million people forcibly evicted from them homes to make way for Olympic constructions

- 47 pro-Tibet activists had been arrested and at least 50 human rights activists placed under house arrest, harassed or forced to leave Beijing during the games.

- 77 applications to hold protests in designated areas denied. At least 15 people arrested for having applied

- At least, the two 77 and 79-years-old grandmothers, sentenced to 1 year re-education through labour camp for applying to protest saw their condemnation revoked.

- As of 30 June 2008, one human rights organisation estimates the number of political and religious prisoners currently jailed in China at more than 4,500 - not all Olympics-related.

- Another organisation also reported that during the Games, Chinese authorities had collected vast amounts of bio-metric data gathered on foreign tourists, journalists, and government officials

In these days of abysmal conditions of human rights in China, we must more than ever continue to monitor the situation and press Chinese authorities to keep their word. A small sign of hope perhaps, in terms of acknowledging errors: Chinese officials timidly recognised that schools in the Sichuan province had been shoddily constructed and thus collapsed during the earthquake last March. Nothing to do with promises to improve human rights, but nevertheless a small step away from the wrong direction…

Chinese human rights defender and pro-democracy activist was released today after spending 16 years in prison.

Hu Shigen was sentenced in 1994 (he has been detained since 1992) for “organising and leading counter-revolutionary group and counter-revolutionary propaganda instigation”.

He was one of the founders of Liberal Democratic Party of China (LDPC) and Free Labour Union of China. He also drafted articles on the commemoration of the Tiananmen victims. He was arrested during the preparations of a commemorating event.

A fellow activist told reporters that Hu was in a very poor physical condition. According to Human Rights in China, he suffers from intestinal and heart ailments and chronic migraines. It was reported that he received unfair treatment in prison.

This release is of course very welcome, but it is terrible that Hu Shigen had to endure 16 years of harsh treatment for his political opinions and for wanting to talk about the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

It was said Hu refused to talk to the press after his release, which is quite understandable after 16 years in jail. This is what happens to Chinese dissidents. They are released once authorities are certain that their spirit and will to defend human rights are broken.

The list of prisoners of opinion and religion is still much too long. We call on Chinese authorities to release them and to realise that allowing voices of dissent is not a sign of weakness.

Hu Shigen received a symbollic Medal for Freedom during our Olympic Rights campaign.

As the Beijing Olympic Games come to an end, the world has witnessed that China has not upheld its pre-Olympic promises to improve human rights.

Human rights groups, but also the press and even the US government are drawing a very severe assessment of China’s Olympic legacy, in terms of human rights.

From all I’ve read, a retired Chinese journalist (who I won’t name as there are already enough people behind bars) sums it up quite well: “When officials [in China] get relaxed, things go right. When they get nervous, things go wrong. They were too eager to get things perfect.”

Everyone recognises China’s rapid progress successful move towards modernity, showcased during the flamboyant opening and closing ceremonies. It’s sporting record surpassed all expectations – 100 medal in total, 51 of them gold!

The one thing, perhaps the most important of them all, that Chinese authorities failed understand is that image isn’t everything. You can spend $40 billion to organise the Games and have 1.2 billion television viewers watch them and you can reduce pollution levels, the world will not turn a blind eye to the 1.5 million people evicted from their homes, to the dozens of pro-Tibet protesters and human rights activists arrested. The world will know that the 77 applications to hold protests in designated areas have all been denied, and that those who have applied are now detained – like the two 77 and 79-year-old grandmothers sentenced to a year in re-education through labour camps.

China’s power is undeniable. We can only hope that its sporting success during the Games will bring to its leaders serenity and confidence. We can only hope that they will at last be serene enough to realise that allowing voices of dissent to be heard, in all their forms, is not a sign of weakness but of strength.

As IOC president Jacques Rogge said at the last press conference, “the world has learned about China and China has learned about the world.” Indeed, the world has learned and with it, dozens of human rights activists in China have learned that the slightest hint of opposition is met with immediate, ruthless and disproportionate repression.

Wang Ling

Wang Ling is a housing rights activist and petitioner.
Arrested: mid October 2007
Sentence: 15 months of Re-education Through Labour (RTL).
She was arrested for petitioning and preparing banners against the demolition of her property in Beijing to make way for Olympic venues. She did this with Ye Guozhu, who has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for the same reasons (officially, for “suspicion of disturbing social order”.) He was scheduled for release on 26 July 2008, but Chinese authorities postponed his release until at least 1 October, once the Olympics will be over. His son Ye Mingjun was also arrested and later released on bail, after being warned not to talk to the media as this could have a “negative impact” on his and his father’s situation. Ye Guozhu’s younger brother, Ye Guoqiang, attempted suicide to protest against their family’s forced eviction from their Beijing home. After jumping into the Jinshui River near Tiananmen Square, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for disturbing social order. He was released on bail provided he did not contact anyone overseas or continue petitioning.
Prison location: Wang Ling is being held at the Daxing Re-education-Through-Labour Facility in Beijing.