Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Thursday 19th November

- Millions of university graduates face unemployment

- No rule of law in China, says Chinese lawyer

- Shanghai petitioners send open letter to Obama

- Dams in China source of strife

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Millions of university graduates face unemployment
(1:02)

In recent years, the employment rate among Chinese university graduates has remained at 72%. Up until the end of 2008, over a million graduates could not find jobs.

According to mainland Chinese media, the Educational Sciences College of East China Normal University conducted a study into the ‘living conditions of job-seeking university graduates’, targeting students in Shanghai. The result showed 68.1% of the group believed finding a job was the most important task every day. 43.3% used the free time to study on their own or attend various training courses for self-improvement.

During the course of job search, many felt tired and depressed. 57.1% felt exhausted, 40.1% felt lost, 22.6% were disappointed with life. “Eating from the old” is a label despised by this group as they’re forced to rely on their families for support. Rather than intentionally ‘eating the old’ however, most feel guilty about being supported financially. This guilt puts them under tremendous psychological pressure.

According to the study, many graduates have made accurate assessments of themselves. The current employment environment and industry structure has something to do with the group not finding jobs easily. In other words, the plight of these graduates is due to a combination of there being too many graduates and inadequate social structures.

Daniel Teng of the SOH Radio Network.

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No rule of law in China, says Chinese lawyer
(2:40)

“There is absolutely no rule of law in China,” says Chinese lawyer. Li Renbing is defending Wei Cheng, a Falun Gong practitioner accused of being, well, a practitioner of Falun Gong. This spiritual practice of mind and body teaches the tenants of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. It was outlawed in China in 1999. Since then reports have come out of China daily, about the brutal persecution suffered by these people, under the Communist regime.

This strong statement by Wei’s attorney comes after seven Falun Gong practitioners were dealt hefty prison terms by the Changchun City Intermediate Court. One of the accused, Wei, was first sentenced to 8 years in his initial trial. His case then went through a second trial and Wei was sentenced to an additional 10 years. The sentences were combined to 18 years incarceration, with deprivation of political rights for four years. A total of 22 years of punishment / all because / of his beliefs.

Wei’s attorney told SOH he had never seen any court violating the law to such an extent. Saying it is “simply irrational”.

He said, “This case has gone through investigation by the Changchun City Procuratorate, the Changchun City Intermediate Court, the Changchun City Politics and Law Committee, Jilin Province Politics and Law Committee, Jilin Province Procuratorate and the Jilin Province Supreme Court. It has gone through so many levels of investigation, but still, the final result is to keep the original judgment. It is very unfair to sentence Wei Cheng in the manner of combining different kinds of punishments. The first trial sentenced him to eight years; the second trial, ten years. When combined, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison, far exceeding the highest punishment of 15 years stipulated in [China's] Criminal Law. This judgment itself is an unabashed violation of the law. It is the first time I have ever encountered this situation in my career as a lawyer. That is to say, there is absolutely no rules of law in China. The law is not even a decoration in today’s China.”

The attorneys for the accused, 14 of them in total, were informed of the trial with just two days notice. They rushed to Nong’an County to participate, but in the end were denied access to their clients, and to the trial. Officials from the Politics and Law Committee even told the attorneys frankly that they care only about politics and ignore the rules of law. The attorneys felt the court procedure had seriously violated the law, which they now believe doesn’t even exist in Communist China.

Tang Jitian was employed to represent one of the accused, Han Xixiang.

Tang told SOH, “The first trial was a violation of the law to begin with. It is illegal from all aspects including the procedure and the nature of the judgment. The second trial was a public trial. The detention center tried all means to prevent me from seeing my client. In the end, two of my colleagues went to the Politics and Law Committee. The way the receptionist behaved, basically, was as the saying goes – ‘I am a ruffian and who would I be afraid of’? They did not care about the law or basic rules at all. In the end, he said, ‘do not talk about laws with us. You may try to look for whoever you want to see, but you definitely cannot get to see them’.”

These seven practitioners filed an appeal in March. It took nearly seven months for the judgment to finalize despite the nation’s Criminal Law Procedure saying the court must handle the appeal within one and a half months.

Another of the accused, Zhang Wanjun, was sentenced to nine years in prison, with his political rights being deprived for three years. Zhang’s attorney believed the judgment lacks factual evidence.

The Clearwisdom website published an article on the situation at 1 p.m. on October 23. According to the article Han Xixiang and Li Fengming were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Wang Xiuping and Zhao Yushu to 10 years in prison; Wei Cheng to 18 years in prison. Qi Yunchao and Zhang Wanjun to nine years in prison. The court was surrounded by military police dressed in bullet-proof clothing during the illegal trial.

Caden Pearson; Li Yifei and Wang Zhen of the SOH Radio Network

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Shanghai petitioners send open letter to Obama
(7:34)

On the night of November 15th, US President Barack Obama arrived in Shanghai on Air Force One to begin his four day state visit to China. Over 200 Shanghai petitioners have sent an open letter to Obama; hoping the Nobel Peace Prize winner will push forward the progress of democracy in China.

Whilst the petitioners welcomed Obama in their open letter, numerous civil rights activists have been captured or placed under house arrest due to his visit.

The petitioners state in their letter their hope that Obama will do what he promised during his election campaign to support international democracy and a system valuing human rights. They ask the president to speak up on the major issues of human rights and not to use diplomacy solely for economic profit.
The letter also reminds Obama not to be ‘confused or vain on the superficiality of Shanghai, for behind every superficial building lies an abyss of suffering and misery.’

A Shanghai petitioner, Mao Hengfeng, spoke to SOH on the 15th. She told us the aim of the letter was to encourage Mr Obama to show concern for Chinese human rights.

She said (recording):
“When the US President or any other leader comes to China, regardless of whether they’re just looking around or here on business. It’s best they demand our Chinese leaders don’t take away our personal freedom. We ask for the freedom to welcome heads of state and to petition just like the citizens of other free nations. Even when our country’s leaders go abroad, they see a different scene. Why don’t the Chinese people have the same freedom? Why can’t we express our wishes? Furthermore, the World Expo will be held in Shanghai. Because he is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, he should push forward democracy, freedom and human rights for Chinese citizens. This way, we, the Shanghai civil right activists, or other persecuted peoples can reveal to the world the state of our economy and human rights whilst improving the state of human rights in this country. We hope President Obama can propose such a discussion with President Hu Jintao.”

Many Shanghai petitioners were apprehensive regarding Obama’s visit. His arrival may bring hope to petitioners, but at the same time the Communist regime is keeping a close watch over them. However, for those already apprehended, they will not even have a chance to make their wishes heard.

Perry Luo; Wen Fang; and Yu Liang of the SOH Radio Network.

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Dams in China source of strife
(10:19)

On November 14, water conservation expert Wang Weiluo spoke at the 2009 Future Science and Culture Forum. He said that the Chinese Communist regime’s approach for water conservancy directly betrayed the traditional Chinese ideologies of respect for nature. Wang said that over 80 000 dams had been built within the 60 years of communist rule, causing strife, hardship, and the deaths of Thousands.

Wang has carried out in depth studies into China’s waterworks infrastructures. He recently published a book “36 calculations on the Yangtze River’s three gorges dam”. Wang believes that the Chinese Communist regimes political ideal of “fighting against heaven and earth”, resulted in the construction of 87 000 dams. At present, one half of the world’s dams are located in mainland China. One third of these dams are considered to be extremely unsafe, and vulnerable to collapse. During the construction of these dams, more than 20 million Chinese people were forced to relocate, with one third of them already being poverty stricken.

Wang Weiluo gave two examples of dam project disasters that had been censored by the Chinese Communist regime: In 1975 the collapse of The Banqiao Dam of upper Huaihe River, lead to the subsequent collapse of 52 downstream dams killing 240 000 people. This catastrophe was censored from 1975 until 1995, and to date the regime stills admits a death toll of only 20 000, far from actual figures.

Another event took place in 1963 on the prairies of Huabei, when significant flooding of Haihe River destroyed more than 200 dams. Casualty figures have not been made public, and the truth has also been censored by authorities.

Wang Weiluo said (recording):
“This information was sourced from a letter to a minister in the Department of Water. The letter was written by Huang Wanli, and revealed his own blunders in the event. However it did not reveal the death toll and China has never announced this figure.”

Dr Wang explained how the degradation of China’s Water works resulted from the regimes political ideals. He said they fought against heaven and earth, meeting constant defeat. This created even more battles, and the damage this has caused the natural environment will seriously affect future generations. He also fears that inadequacies in national water management will bring more disasters, and cripple China as a result.

Mr Wang said (Recording):
“It isn’t wrong to establish a nation in many hardships. People can stand up after one or two disasters, and human beings also learn experiences from disasters. Yet the fault is in the word ‘many’. Many disasters and tribulations can render one unable to stand. The book “Guo Yu” said “landslides and dry rivers imply governance leading to the nation’s demise!””

Chris Thomas; Zheng Fan; and Xi Wen of the SOH Radio Network.

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