An “unforgettable” year: this is how Chinese President Xi Jinping described 2014, a year in which the Chinese government, he said, achieved significant advances in the rule of law and reform. In 2015, he said, there would be “no turning back” from further advancing social justice and protecting “people’s rights.”
2014 certainly proved an “unforgettable” year for activists Gao Zhisheng and Hada, who were released from Chinese detention facilities in August and December, respectively. But the fact that they were imprisoned at all, that they were held for years and repeatedly tortured in detention, and that they effectively remain in detention following their physical release from jail serves as a powerful reminder of the shallowness of Xi’s claims.
In the early 1990s, Hada had sought to protect the rights of ethnic Mongols. In 1996, he was secretly tried on charges of separatism and spying, and was given a 15-year sentence. Upon his “release” in December 2010, he was immediately detained again to serve another four years’ “deprivation of political rights.” Although this punishment does not require restrictions on movement, Hada was held during this period at a remote location.
Gao, once named one of China’s “top ten lawyers” by the Ministry of Justice, advocated for the rights of petitioners and religious practitioners, and for greater government accountability for human rights abuses. Between 2006 and the “unforgettable” year, he was detained, disappeared, and imprisoned on charges of “inciting state subversion.” Both men were severely tortured while in detention, and their families constantly harassed by local authorities.
Although both have been “freed,” their punishment continues. Neither man is currently accused of a crime, yet both remain under round-the-clock surveillance. They are unable to communicate freely with people inside or outside China or enjoy freedom of movement. In a remarkable gesture of faith in a system that denied his rights and failed to protect him, Hada has said he will file a lawsuit regarding his detention and the harassment of his family. Gao remains under house arrest, presumably blocked from joining his wife and children in the United States.
2015 could become truly unforgettable if Chinese authorities finally decided to refrain from persecuting peaceful critics, cease manipulation of the judicial system, and abolish the practice of indefinite and arbitrary detention. Truly freeing Gao and Hada would be a real step towards social justice and the rule of law.
