Day: June 3, 2022

A Vietnamese journalist is in failing health after serving two years of a prison sentence for criticizing the country’s one-party communist government, RFA has learned. Prison authorities have rejected requests he be allowed to seek medical treatment outside his jail.

Le Huu Minh Tuan, a member of the Vietnam Independent Journalists’ Association, was arrested on June 12, 2020, on a charge of “conducting propaganda against the state,” and is now serving an 11-year term at the Bo La Detention Center in southern Vietnam’s Binh Duong province.

Tuan had been held first at another detention center in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh district, where harsh conditions behind bars caused his health to deteriorate, his sister Na told RFA after speaking with Tuan on May 26 in the first family visit allowed to him since his arrest.

“My brother is in very bad health. I couldn’t recognize him,” Na said, describing Tuan as emaciated and hard of hearing. “He has scabies, and he’s also malnourished as the food and living conditions where he’s being held are so tough.”

Detention center officials have refused Tuan’s request to get medical care at an outside facility, though family members are allowed to send medicine to him inside the jail, Na said.

Tuan had been kept in his cell all day while serving the first two years of his sentence at the Phan Dan Luu Detention Center in Binh Thanh, but now is allowed outside for 15 to 30 minutes each day at his new jail in Binh Duong, Na said.

“However, the food there is horrible and has no nutrition at all,” she said. “They feed him only rice and a poor quality of soup without salt or other spices, and the rice itself is only half-cooked and mixed with sand.”

The number of family visits allowed to prisoners at the Bo La Detention Center is restricted, and relatives can bring in only limited amounts of food, Na said. “For example, when Tuan ran out of milk and wanted to have some fruit, I went to the prison cafeteria to register to buy some for him, but was told I couldn’t do it,” she said.

Tuan’s family had heard no news of him for the first two years following his arrest, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. They were finally told that he had been sent to the Bo La facility in Binh Duong on April 14, Na said.

“Now we feel relieved, because we know we can visit him occasionally from now on.”

Mother of jailed writer accepts award

Another jailed Vietnamese writer, Pham Doan Trang, this week was awarded the 2022 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, with her mother, Bui Thi Thien Can, accepting the honor in Geneva, Switzerland, on her behalf.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Can said she was proud of her daughter, who is now serving a nine-year sentence in Vietnam for “spreading propaganda against the state.”

“[Trang] has been determined and persevering in pursuing a path that she fully understands is a dangerous and arduous journey,” Can said. “She has dedicated herself and fought tirelessly for democracy and human rights in Vietnam and for the freedom and happiness of the Vietnamese people.”

Accompanying Can to Geneva were Tran Quynh Vi — codirector of the California-based NGO Legal Initiatives for Vietnam and owner of Luat Khoa (Law) Magazine — and democracy activist Will Nguyen.

Independent journalists in Vietnam are still working but face massive challenges, Vi said in remarks following the award ceremony.

“The good news is that in spite of Ms. Trang’s arrest, our newspapers are still published regularly and we have more and more contributors,” she said. “And the more they prohibit us, the more we want to work in the area.”

Also speaking in Geneva, activist Will Nguyen called on citizens of Switzerland and other developed countries to alert their lawmakers and diplomats to Vietnam’s ongoing abuses of human rights.

“I think we have a lot of leverage,” said Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American who was arrested for taking part in public protests in Vietnam in 2018 and then deported from the country by a Ho Chi Minh City court.

“The more we look into this issue, the more likely it is that the Vietnamese government will treat its citizens with more respect,” he said.

A prominent human rights activist and blogger, Trang was arrested on Oct. 6, 2020, and sentenced to nine years in prison on Dec. 14, 2021, on a charge of disseminating anti-state propaganda.

The indictment against Trang also accused her of speaking with two foreign media outlets — Radio Free Asia and the British Broadcasting Corporation — “to allegedly defame the government of Vietnam and fabricate news,” according to a letter sent by 25 human rights groups calling for her release ahead of her trial.

In addition to the Martin Ennals Award, Trang has also received the 2017 Homo Homini Award presented by the Czech human rights organization People in Need, and the Press Freedom Prize in 2019 from Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Chinese authorities forced the relatives of detained Uyghurs in the town of Ghulja in Xinjiang to attend political study sessions while monitoring their contact with others during a recent visit to the region by the U.N. human rights chief, a local officer police said.

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, visited China on May 23-28 with stops in the coastal city of Guangzhou and in Urumqi (Wulumuqi) and Kashgar (Kashi) in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). It was the first visit to the country by a U.N. rights chief since 2005.

Before her trip, China’s state security police warned Uyghurs living in Xinjiang that they could suffer consequences if their relatives abroad spoke out about internment camps in the region, a reflection of the government’s sensitivity to bad press about its forced assimilation campaign that has incarcerated as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the name of “vocational training.”

Bachelet’s itinerary didn’t include a stop in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining), the third-largest city in the XUAR and the site of a protest by Uyghurs against religious repression 25 years ago that left as many as 200 hundred people dead.

But, given the city’s history, Chinese authorities there are sensitive to signs of popular unrest, and they redoubled the surveillance and indoctrination programs imposed on the 12 million Uyghurs across Xinjiang, a territory the size of Alaska or Iran.

A village police officer said the “political study session” for the family members of detainees began in mid-April, and that authorities kept a tight rein on their work and social lives. As a result, those residents have been incommunicado with others in their community.

“The ones whose fathers or mothers or other relatives were detained, came to the sessions and spoke at the political and legal meetings organized by the village,” he told RFA.

During the sessions, the Chinese government enforced a rule for Uyghurs to immediately attend sessions whenever a bell sounded and to leave them when the bell sounded a second time, the police officer said. The attendees gathered in the morning on street corners or at residents’ committees to wait for the signal.

“They come with a sound of a bell and leave with another sound of a bell,” he said. “We hold these meetings from 8 a.m. in the morning.”

Organized by the village’s 10 family leaders or police, the attendees had to express their gratitude to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government and had to promise that they would help protect national security by not sharing any sensitive information with outsiders.

The family members of detained Uyghurs were warned against accepting international calls to ensure that no “state secrets” — meaning in this case the detention of Uyghurs or other measures to repress them — were released.

“We told them not to make phone calls or take phone calls from abroad,” the police officer said. “We told them not to directly tell [people] if they asked on the phone about their detained relatives. We warned them to first ask where they are calling from and why they need to ask for the information. We told them not take those phone calls from abroad in order to keep state secrets.”

The residents were instructed as to how not to expose information on their detained relatives to the outside world and were told how to give “standard answers” to questions raised by anyone visiting from outside China, he said.

Furthermore, if the residents were visited by relatives or friend from other cities, they would be summoned to the police station and asked about what they had discussed with their guests, he said.

“If anyone came to [see] their family for a visit from other cities such as Kashgar, we would take them to the police station and investigate who the visitors were, why are they were here and what they talked about,” the policeman said.

The mandatory political study sessions ended when Bachelet and her team left the region, he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Authorities in China have ordered dozens of pro-democracy activists and dissidents into house arrest or other forms of restriction ahead of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4.

Dissident political commentator Zha Jianguo and veteran journalist Gao Yu are under house arrest at their Beijing homes, while rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and his wife have been taken on a forced “vacation” out of town.

Security is tighter than usual for this year’s anniversary of the bloody crackdown that ended weeks of student-led peaceful protests on Tiananmen Square, as the authorities tighten their grip ahead of the 20th congress of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) later this year.

“The police have set guard detail and a car [outside my home] to watch me,” Gao told RFA on Friday. “If I want to go anywhere, they have to take me in their car.”

“Also, my landline and mobile phone are no longer acceptable international calls, including calls from Hong Kong,” she said.

Dissident commentator Zha Jianguo, who was among the founding members of the long-banned China Democracy Party (CDP), said he is in a similar situation.

“They’re stationed [outside],” Zha told RFA. “They do this every year from June 1 to June 5.”

“I went out on the morning of June 1 and saw them setting out stools and sitting themselves down outside our home,” he said. “The district police department said they would be sending some people round today as well.”

“As far as I know, about seven, eight, maybe 10 people are under house arrest like this in Beijing,” he said.

Zha said police have also warned him not to speak about the anniversary in media interviews.

“They called me yesterday and said I wasn’t to discuss June 4 with anyone, not in posts, nor in media interviews,” he said. “I told them, it’s been 33 years since June 4, and you’re still doing this?”

Sources said fellow Beijing-based dissidents Hu Shigen, He Depu, massacre survivor Qi Zhiyong and others were also under some form of restriction.

Noticeably tighter security

You Weijie, spokesperson for the Tiananmen Mothers victims group that campaigns for compensation, redress and transparency of information around the massacre, said she couldn’t talk when contacted by RFA on Friday.

“It’s not convenient for me to talk to you right now,” You said, her response suggesting that the authorities were monitoring her communications.

Asked if she had been banned from giving media interviews, You replied: “Yes, yes.”

She said she and the other Tiananmen Mothers members were being escorted to Wan’an Cemetery on Saturday to make offerings for those who died in the crackdown.

“I’ll go tomorrow; the car has been arranged. It’ll be the same families going,” she said.

Zhou Xiang, a dissident scholar in the central province of Hunan, said security was particularly tight this year.

“Several people in Zhuzhou city have been contacted [by police]. He Jiawei was the first, and they have taken away his mobile phone,” Zhou said. “I also got a call. They told me not to speak out, not to upload photos or text [relating to June 4, 1989], etc.”

“As far as I know, maybe seven or eight people received these warnings in Zhuzhou city.”

Dissidents in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing reported similar treatment.

Democracy advocate Xu Wanping, who served 23 years in jail for trying to set up an opposition party, said he is being taken out of town by police.

“They made a point of contacting me and emphasizing that I wasn’t to speak out on anything today or tomorrow,” he said.

“They’re taking me out of town for a couple of days; I’ve just gotten ready to leave.”

Hong Kong park closure

Asked if police were present as he spoke, Xu laughed and replied: “I wish you a healthy Dragon Boat Festival.”

He said many others in Chongqing were also being escorted away from their homes.

According to Zhou, the moves are part of a nationwide coordinated effort by police to prevent any form of public commemoration of the June 4, 1989 bloodshed, whether through in-person meetings or online.

He said the level of security was “unprecedented” for a June 4 anniversary, and was likely linked to political jitters ahead of the 20th Party Congress later this year.

Meanwhile, authorities in Hong Kong, where a once-annual candlelight vigil for massacre victims is being banned for the third year running, announced the partial closure of Victoria Park, the venue where it once took place.

“In view of the police’s observation that some people are using different channels to incite the participation of unauthorized assemblies in the Victoria Park and its vicinity which may involve the use of the venue for illegal activities, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) [is closing] part of the Victoria Park … until 12.30 a.m. on June 5, in order to prevent any unauthorized assemblies in the Park,” an LCSD spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

The closed area will include the soccer pitches where the vigils once took place, it said.

Police senior superintendent Liauw Ka-kei warned the public not to “test” the force’s willingness to enforce the law on June 4.

He warned that solo candlelight vigils will be treated in the same way as gatherings, and that anyone wearing black clothing or carrying candles would be regarded as suspect.

He cited recent court precedents as establishing that people could be guilty of “illegal assembly” even if they weren’t present at the scene, if it could be shown that they had in some way promoted such assemblies.

“If the purpose of the person’s appearance at the scene makes it seem that he is inciting others to participate in an illegal assembly, the police will definitely search for evidence, and the specific law enforcement action will be determined depending on the situation,” Liauw warned.

He said the police hadn’t received any application for a public gathering on June 4 this year.

Former League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng said the police claim that they could tell the intentions of anyone turning up at Victoria Park on Saturday was questionable.

“This is very strange behavior on the part of the Hong Kong police,” Ng told RFA. “They seem to know what everyone is thinking and what they are planning.”

“If you join a crowd in Causeway Bay taking a lot of photos when a celebrity is visiting, that’s OK, but if you are alone or in pairs, in black clothing, then you could be thinking about the students who died on June 4, 1989, so that’s not OK,” he said.

“By making statements like these, the police are absolutely trying to create an atmosphere of fear around the words June 4, which are very sensitive and must not be uttered,” Ng said. “This city is now ruled by man, and we can’t tell what’s legal and what’s not.”

“You won’t get a definite answer out of the police or the government,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Wuhan-based activist Zhang Hai, who has campaigned for redress after his father died in the early days of the pandemic, has had restrictions placed on his bank account, RFA.

Zhang, who has been an outspoken critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the pandemic prompted a city-wide lockdown in Wuhan and killed his father, said he believes the move is a form of official retaliation.

Zhang was recently asked to submit additional proof of ID in recent transactions via his account at the Bank of China Nantou branch in the southern city of Shenzhen, where he currently lives.

Similar restrictions have been placed on several of his bank cards since the beginning of this year, he told RFA, while online banking transactions often fail to go through, he said.

“The card I have is an ordinary bank card, which is linked to my mobile phone,” Zhang said. “All of the cards under my name are  restricted, meaning that I can’t do online transactions using payment services like WeChat Pay and Alipay, only cash.”

“The way things are in China right now, so many places rely on those services to accept payment, and some places don’t want cash at all, even if I offer it,” he said.

Staff at the Nantou Bank of China branch initially said the restrictions were requested by the Wuhan city police department, Zhang said.

“The first time I went, they said that the Wuhan police had me under investigation, and had placed the restrictions,” Zhang said.

“I went there yesterday, and they told me the bank card had been flagged by their own risk control mechanism, which made me feel as if they were just trying to inconvenience me,” he said.

“They wanted me to submit further proofs, but then they said all of my cards were under investigation by Wuhan police,” he said.

Zhang filed a lawsuit suing the Wuhan municipal government and a hospital over the wrongful death of his father in 2020, who died of COVID-19 after visiting a doctor in the early days of the pandemic, when the authorities hadn’t warned anyone about the virus.

He has also given many interviews to foreign media outlets in recent years.

“I have been called in to ‘drink tea’ by the local state security police,” he said. “The Wuhan city government is furious with me, and have used all of their power to deal with me.”

“The entire service sector in China, including banks, has to take orders from the government,” he said.

Similar restrictions

Rights attorney Ren Quanniu, whose lawyer’s license was revoked by the authorities last year, said his bank card had been placed under similar restrictions last year.

“My Bank of Communications card was restricted some time ago. I went to the bank to report it, and they said it was under investigation,” Ren said. “I asked by which department, and they said that was confidential.”

“But it wasn’t the police or a court, so it’s my guess that it was the state security police,” he said.

He said the bank should honor the terms of its contract with customers in the absence of any judicial proceedings.

“The bank has no right to inquire about customers’ transactions or how they use the funds,” Ren said. “So the problem with his account is clearly some action behind the scenes.”

“If there is a problem, the department should issue a document saying the account-holder is suspected of law-breaking and then the account will be frozen or restricted openly,” Ren said.

“But there has been no document issued [regarding Zhang], nor any result from any investigation,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.