It seems that the Chinese government’s always engaged in one crackdown or another, whether it’s corrupt officials, Internet essayists, tax evaders, you name it. Now they say they’re going after officials who violate human rights.
China has decided to launch a year-long clean-up campaign to probe human rights infringement crimes committed by government officials across the country, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) announced here Wednesday.
The sweeping investigation, starting this May, will focus on crimes like inquisition by torture, extorted confession, illegal detention, interference with citizen’s voting rights, and other crimes that lead to human rights infringement.
“China launches the campaign to practice the principle of ‘respect for and protection of human rights’ that has been newly written into the Constitution and to better protect people’s legitimate rights and interests,” said Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general of the SPP.
From 2001 to 2003, China’s procuratorates at all levels investigated 4,029 cases of human rights infringement crimes and punished a group of government officials whose dereliction of duty had caused great loss of people’s lives and assets.
The SPP has ordered local procuratorates at all levels to publicize their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses to accept supervision from the public.
Why do they need to give out an email address? All they need to do is look at the foreign papers to see examples of human rights violations being perpetrated by Chinese officials every day.
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By m.c.
maybe it’s all PR…but it’s better then nothing.
May 26, 2004 @ 7:33 pm | Comment
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By richard
Hey, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. But you probably know how they’re always announcing crackdowns, usually followed by a high-profile arrest or two, and then it gets forgotten. Maybe this time it’ll be different.
May 26, 2004 @ 7:47 pm | Comment
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By Kamelian X-Rays
Bijing’s Human Rights Olympics Mentality
du jour: Human Rights Violators” href=”http://pekingduck.org/archives/001286.php”>Richard TPD earnestly hopes Beijing is hunting for human rights violators for more than scoring cheap points against the Bush administration. However much, though, the Su…
May 27, 2004 @ 12:07 am | Comment
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By haikou homie
I realize that the gov’t here doesn’t like “outside” interference such as human rights issues. They always blame the U.S. Just recently I read a news article, not published here of course, that the EU has once again denied this country the lift on weapons technology (thank goodness) because of human rights issues. I don’t here much said about them, always us. Any way, I just wish the people knew that what is happening by this “outside” interference is helping them and not hurting them. We aren’t always the bad guys!
May 29, 2004 @ 4:48 am | Comment
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By Thomas
They can’t even fully rein in excessive investment…something they WANT to do. How can they effectively punish human rights abuses…something they care little about. Unless they are referring to feeding their 1.6 billion people…we all know that that is how CHINA defines human rights.
May 30, 2004 @ 2:23 am | Comment