(CNN) — Human rights watchdog Amnesty International says a growing
number
of Chinese citizens are being arrested, tortured and could even face
execution for using the Internet as a tool of peaceful political
expression.
In a report released Wednesday, Amnesty said that at least 33 people had
been jailed by the Chinese authorities for online subversion — a group
it
said was quickly becoming a new class of prisoner.
“Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their views or other
information on the Internet or for accessing certain Websites are
prisoners
of conscience,” the group said. “They should be released immediately and
unconditionally.”
In a wide-ranging report on Internet control in China, Amnesty also said
several American companies were helping authorities monitor online
activity
through sales of software and other observation equipment.
“As China’s role as an economic and trading partner grows, multinational
companies have a particular responsibility to ensure that their
technology
is not used to violate fundamental human rights,” the group’s report
said.
In all Amnesty said it had collected documentation on 33 cases of people
detained or imprisoned for offences related to their use of the
Internet.
The group said that among those jailed was former police officer Li
Dawei,
who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for downloading articles from
pro-democracy Websites.
It said two of those detained for Internet-related offenses, both of
whom
were members of the outlawed Falun Gong movement, died in custody —
apparently as a result of police torture or ill-treatment.
Rule of law
Asked about the report at a regular press briefing China’s Foreign
Ministry
spokesman Kong Quan said he had not seen the document, but added: “The
Amnesty International organization in the past has often issued
statements
with no basis whatsoever.”
“China is country ruled by law,” he said. “All people must abide by the
laws
and regulations.”
Almost 50 million Chinese are thought to be online — a number second
only
to the United States
The number of Chinese Internet users is second only to that of the
United
States, with some 45.9 million Chinese thought to be regularly online.
However, that figure still represents only a tiny proportion of the
overall
Chinese population.
The Amnesty report is the first time the rights group has pulled
together a
comprehensive report on what it says are documented abuses of human
rights
related to the Internet.
China has been keen to encourage growth of the Internet as a business
tool,
but has put in place rigid controls to prevent it being used as a
political
forum:
. All Internet Service Providers operating in China are state-owned with access to Websites strictly monitored by a special Internet police
service
staffed, according to Amnesty, by some 30,000 officers.
. Many search-engines, media, and political sites are blocked outright,
along with those such as pornographic sites deemed socially undesirable.
. Internet cafes must register with authorities and install special
monitoring software to keep tabs on usage.
. Content providers operating in China, including the Chinese arm of
Yahoo,
have been obliged to sign up to a sweeping self-censorship agreement
taking
responsibility for any political content posted on their Websites.
Sweeping powers
On top of that, authorities have been given sweeping powers to detain
anyone
considered to be using the Internet to threaten state security, Amnesty
says.
“Internet users are increasingly caught in a tight web of rules
restricting
their fundamental human rights,” the Amnesty report said.
“Anyone surfing the Internet could potentially be at risk of arbitrary
detention and imprisonment,” it added.
In extreme cases, the group said, under Chinese law anyone publishing on
the
Internet information deemed by authorities to be a state secret could
even
be sentenced to death.
However, the report concluded that the continued growth of the Web would
eventually only serve to increase pressure for improved human rights in
China.
“As the importance of the Internet grows,” the report said, “so too will
the
millions of users and the demands of those seeking justice and respect
for
human rights in China.”
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/TECH/11/27/china.amnesty/
Posting date: 28/Nov/2002
Original article date: 27/Nov/2002
Category: Media Reports
