China jails woman over Web post

[tonado]

Becareful what you post in internet in China

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Report: China jails woman over Web post

By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer, 4/1/2004

 

SHANGHAI, China -- A woman who posted an article on the Internet criticizing the way China's government handles public complaints has been sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp, a human rights group said Thursday.

 

Ma Yalian used several Chinese legal affairs Web sites to post the article documenting her fruitless efforts to petition over the destruction of her Shanghai home, New York-based Human Rights in China, or HRIC, said in a statement.

 

Ma described police violence and harassment of her and other petitioners, the group said. She said some protested by committing suicide outside government offices.

 

HRIC said Ma was sentenced on March 16 by Shanghai's Re-education Through Labor Management Committee. It said the committee accused her of "falsely accusing Shanghai authorities of causing her physical injury," and having "turned petitioning into pestering."

 

Shanghai police said they had no information about Ma, and the phone number for the Re-education Through Labor Management Committee was not listed.

 

Chinese law permits such committees to sentence people to up to three years in labor camps without trial. Intended to punish minor criminals, prostitutes and drug addicts, the system is also frequently used to quiet political and religious dissenters.

 

Critics call the system unconstitutional, but officials say it's needed to maintain order across the huge nation.

 

Ma's case underscores China's efforts to squelch dissent on the Internet, which it polices heavily for content critical of the government and Communist Party.

 

Dozens of people have been sentenced to prison for posting or downloading such materials and authorities recently expanded their reach by cracking down on blogs -- online diaries that sometimes include critical commentary on politics and society.

 

China allows citizens to register complaints through a nationwide network of offices, but the system is frequently criticized as slow, bureaucratic and ineffective. Chinese legal scholars say officials aren't legally obligated to respond.

 

During the annual session of China's parliament last month, hundreds of people who had made their way to Beijing from other parts of the country to present petitions to lawmakers were detained in a gymnasium in the capital.

 

Many complaints arise from the loss of homes to redevelopment projects. Petitioners usually say they were victims of collusion between officials and developers or weren't compensated.

 

HRIC said authorities appeared to be cracking down harder on petitioners. It cited recent cases of people in Shanghai being sentenced to labor camps after protesting forced relocations.

[keelec]

Sounds like "Small Town America"

 

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Obviously one of the charges of government is to provide "order" within the country. Although, I wonder when the government will become more responsive to the needs and desires of the individuals.

 

----- Clifford ------

[Robert S.]

In Dalian if the govt takes your home, as they did my wife's previous apartment building, you definitely are compensated.

[skibum]

This taking of homes has been a problem in Nanjing also with at least one suicide in protest. I think that a large problem is that the people are being relocated from the center of the cities to the burbs and it causes a big change in their lives. My Mom-in-laws family had two homes taken with no compensation. One a nice, large single family in Shanghai was taken for a highway and the beach house was taken for others to live in. Each year 5 of the 6 sisters make a trip to the government offices to ask for the house back and the reply is they can have it if they find a place for the 6 families that live there to move to. Now my wife just told me that her Mom says that in the last big govt meeting it was decided that the homes that were taken would be returned if people have the documents showing ownership. We shall see. My wife lived in the Shanghai home with her grandmother and she loved that house so much that she wants us to get a two story home now.

[Robert S.]

I saw in the news where their constitution had been amended to read "private property, legally obtained, is inviolate."

[keelec]

Ok,

 

In communism, there is no property ownership.

 

In capitalism there is.

 

Who owns the houses in a "transition" period between capitalism --> communism --> back to capitalism?????

 

Does occupying a house during communism mean that it would remain that person's property in capitalism? Before critisizing a country's approach to property ownership and condemnation for public projects, it would be helpful to actually learn more about their approach to "ownership".

 

Maybe this is something that Charlotte could enlighten us on.

 

----- Clifford ------

[se_lang]

Ok,

 

In communism, there is no property ownership.

 

In capitalism there is.

 

Who owns the houses in a "transition" period between capitalism --> communism --> back to capitalism?????

 

Does occupying a house during communism mean that it would remain that person's property in capitalism?  Before critisizing a country's approach to property ownership and condemnation for public projects, it would be helpful to actually learn more about their approach to "ownership".

 

Maybe this is something that Charlotte could enlighten us on.

 

----- Clifford ------

Yes Robert they just passed that law protecting private property, However how many people have lost their family homes due to progress here in the US, We are not much different here.

One thing I don't hold much regard in is these groups(New York-based Human Rights in China, or HRIC, Amnesty international etc...) that report about the poor suffering people of the world, their views I believe are slanted to serve their own purpose like when it was reported that the Iraq army was removing babies from incubators and taking the equipment which was later wrong or like the group that told our government Iraq had WMD. We always believe what we want to believe to fit our own ideas.

 

 

What is the difference between a communist government and a democratic government that doesn't listen.........................NOTHING

 

ok I will get off the soap box.

[Robert S.]

It is easy to imagine being in the position of being deprived of one's property, in whatever country you lived in, and yes it has happened in America.

 

If China would honor that pledge it would actually help their economy by creating the need to have a lot more lawyers, secretaries, real estate agents, and on and on.

[skibum]

I think that property ownership in China probably refers to having a 50 year lease on a home. I am sure that there must be many homes where the lease has expired but nothing has been done with the tenets. I think now most problems are the same as here, people don't think they are being reimbursed as much as they should be.

It is also safe to assume that some property is being taken just to enrich some local govt officials and the developers. And, doesn't the same thing happen here?

I think the purpose of the new law is to make foriegn companies feel more like investing in China and was not aimed at the common person.

[MoonCarolCafe]

If China would honor that pledge it would actually help their economy by creating the need to have a lot more lawyers,

 

In the muttered words of the Virgin Mary, come again?

[tonyontherock]

Sex, violence anything goes in China. Just no politics! What can I say. Nothing.

[Robert S.]

Believe it or not, in the overall picture, lawyers are a good thing. But first you have to have a legal system with some degree of integrity.

 

From what I have been given to understand, it is now possible for the individual to actually OWN property in China.