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The Honorable Jeh Johnson

Secretary of Homeland Security

245 Murray Lane SW

Washington, D.C. 20528

Via Fax: (202) 612-1976

 

Re: Upcoming Secretary of Homeland Security Visit to China

 

Dear Secretary Johnson,

We write to urge that your upcoming visit to China visibly reflect the United States “whole-of-government” approach to supporting human rights and civil society abroad.  We urge that you, like other Cabinet members and senior US officials, raise human rights concerns frankly and publicly with your Chinese counterparts. 

Robust, unapologetic US intervention in support of a truly independent judiciary, respect for peaceful expression, and compliance with international human rights standards may help make China a better diplomatic, economic, and strategic partner, and demonstrate essential support to the country’s embattled civil society.  Conversely, a failure to publicly address China’s deteriorating human rights environment, particularly in light of the US “Stand With Civil Society” agenda, will undermine other positive efforts made by the Obama administration.  You may recall President Obama also noting in September 2014 that, “America’s support for civil society is a matter of national security.”

Since new leadership assumed power in China in March 2013, authorities have undertaken some positive steps in certain areas, including abolishing the arbitrary detention system known as Reeducation through Labor (RTL), announcing limited reforms of the hukou system of household registration that has denied social services to internal migrants, and giving slightly greater access for persons with disabilities to the all-important university entrance exam.

But during the same period, authorities have also directed an extraordinary assault on basic human rights and their defenders with a ferocity unseen in recent years–an alarming sign, given that the current leadership is likely to be in place through 2023. The crackdown is indicative of a significantly harder-line position on human rights. From mid-2013 onwards, the Chinese government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have issued directives strengthening “correct” ideology among party members, university lecturers, students, researchers, and journalists. These documents warn against the perils of “universal values” and human rights, and assert the supremacy of the Party. President Xi Jinping has publicly stressed that the Party’s focus on the “rule of law” in fact means that the judicial system remains a tool of party and state power.  The expanding security forces enjoy near-total impunity.

We expect that your visit will involve meeting with officials in government agencies about which we have long-standing, well-documented concerns, including the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Public Security, the People’s Armed Police, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, among others. Our research shows that these agencies are responsible for a variety of systemic human rights abuses, including torture and ill-treatment in detention, denial of the right to a fair trial and access to adequate medical care in detention, multiple forms of arbitrary detention, the use of unnecessary or excessive force against peaceful protesters and ordinary citizens, and the criminalization of peaceful criticism on dubious charges ranging from “picking quarrels and stirring up troubles” to inciting separatism or committing acts of terrorism.

In each of these meetings and in any public remarks, we urge that you exercise maximum caution to not legitimize any aspects of the Chinese government’s hostility to human rights, civil society, or the rule of law. Your visit to China is an important opportunity to make clear the entire US government is aligned in stark opposition to this approach, and to reaffirm US expectations of increased protection of human rights as a requirement for greater bilateral exchanges. Accordingly, we urge that you raise the following issues in all of your meetings, and publicly call for:

  • The abolition of all forms of arbitrary detention. In their 2013 announcement regarding the abolition of RTL, Chinese authorities specifically cited the unconstitutional nature of this form of detention, which denied individuals access to a trial. Yet the government continues to employ or tolerate at least a half-dozen other forms of arbitrary detention. These range from official “Custody and Education” and “Drug Rehabilitation” centers, in which sex workers and their clients, drug users, and others are held, to unlawful “black jails” to the Party’s own internal disciplinary system, known as “shuanggui.” In light of the decision to abolish RTL, you should urge your Chinese counterparts to extend that logic to all forms of arbitrary detention.
  • An end to abuses in police custody. Human Rights Watch continues to document physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment by police of those in their custody for both criminal and non-criminal offenses, and impunity for those responsible, despite recent government commitments to eradicate wrongful convictions as a result of torture. Current research reflects a concerted effort by police to deny suspects basic protections guaranteed under Chinese law, such as prompt access to family and counsel, video-taping interrogations, and only being held in designated facilities. We note your September 2014 remarks regretting the US use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”  We urge that you publicly and privately express deep concern about abusive policing in China.
  • An end to the harsh crackdown on civil society. President Obama recently spoke strongly in defense of civil society, noting its critical role not only in providing services but in informing government, and the US has recently unveiled its “Stand With Civil Society” initiative. Yet in China it is precisely these kinds of actors – from activist lawyers to advocates for victims of domestic violence to scholars, bloggers, and artists–who have been targeted over the past year. Legal reform activist Xu Zhiyong, investigative journalist Gao Yu, and 81-year-old writer Tie Lu are among those detained and/or imprisoned for the “crimes” of advocating for civil rights, access to information, and the right to peacefully criticize the government. Five women’s rights activists have now been in detention in Beijing for three weeks, as authorities have deemed their plans to distribute literature about sexual harassment on public transportation as “causing disturbances.” These people are not enemies of the state – they are essential allies as China undergoes profound social, economic, and political change. Particularly in light of your agency’s role in protecting and promoting civil rights and civil liberties in law enforcement, we urge that you publicly and privately call for the release of all individuals currently detained in China for peaceful criticism or activism.
  • A commitment to upholding human rights in combating terrorism. The Chinese government’s approach to combating terrorism is highly problematic: it often conflates peaceful criticism with terrorism, and denies the already few basic legal protections to suspects alleged to have committed acts of terrorism. In the name of combating terrorism and improving delivery of social services, it has imposed an intrusive system that breaks communities down according to a "grid" to enable close monitoring and control of families, particularly in Tibet and Xinjiang, and resumed the Mao-era practice of holding public sentencing rallies for those found guilty of terrorism. We enclose a copy of our critique of China’s first draft of a counterterrorism law, which we believe will compound rather than combat abuses, further alienate minority communities, and potentially fuel violence.  Not only should you urge the Chinese government to undertake a thoroughgoing review of its own practices, you should make clear that the US will not cooperate with China in this realm until at a minimum the government commits to a legal framework that meets international human rights standards. Building on China’s recent participation in the President’s “Countering Violent Extremism” summit, which you attended, provides an excellent opportunity to raise these concerns. We also note that various US officials at the resumption of the US-China counterterrorism dialogue in July 2014 committed to raise human rights concerns in all meetings on terrorism with Chinese officials; we hope you fulfill that commitment.

The Chinese government hears what the US is saying most clearly when the same message comes from a diversity of interests. Accordingly, as someone whose own portfolio addresses civil liberties, law enforcement, and combating terrorism, and as a senior official in an administration that has repeatedly asserted its deep concern about the deteriorating human rights environment in China, we urge you to seize every opportunity to make these important points.

We look forward to discussing these issues with you.

Sincerely, 

Sophie Richardson

China Director

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