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Asia Society/Radio Free Asia: Reception with Author Yiyun Li on Feb. 18, Washington DC

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Radio Free Asia & the Asia Society present award-winning author Yiyun Li, who will discuss her new novel The Vagrants. Date: February 18th Time: 6:40 - 8:15 pm Location: Radio Free Asia, 2025 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Ground-floor conference center. Cost: Asia Society members and RFA staff $5, nonmembers $10. Please RSVP at https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=375965 RSVP deadline: noon, Tuesday, February 17th. Set in China in the late 1970s and inspired by author Yiyun Li's own experiences, The Vagrants is a deeply imaginative, beautifully realized story of life in the provincial city of Muddy River. "Magnificent. . . . Li records these events dispassionately and with such a magisterial sense of direction that the reader can't help being drawn into the novel, like a sleeper trapped in an anxiety dream." - Publishers Weekly (Starred review) A young woman from Muddy River, Gu Shan, always a bold spirit and a former follower of the late Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in communism. A political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissention. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the superstitious custom of burning her only child's clothing for the journey to the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Her father, who has already buried his rebellious daughter in his mind and heart, begins to retreat into memories of the past. Neither can imagine that their daughter's execution will have profound and far-reaching effects on other people, in their town, and in Beijing beyond. Yiyun Li is a winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. She grew up in Beijing and attended Peking University. She came to the United States in 1996 to study medicine and started writing two years later. After receiving a master's degree in immunology from the University of Iowa, she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an MFA. The author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Li was selected for a Whiting Award and named by Granta as one of best young American novelists. Yiyun Li teaches at the University of California, Davis and lives in Oakland, California. Sarah Jackson-Han, Media Relations Director at Radio Free Asia and formerly with NPR and Agence France-Presse, will moderate the discussion. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> ##### Sarah Jackson-Han Director, Media Relations Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

15 years, 11 months

RFA News: Party Interests 'Drive China, ' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Party Interests 'Drive China,' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre Go to www.rfa.org for more HONG KONG, Jan. 5, 2009-China's ruling Communist Party is a highly efficient political machine that drives the country's 1.3 billion people with scant regard for their welfare, a former top official has said in a series of essays broadcast by Radio Free Asia (RFA). In a blistering conclusion to a series of essays for RFA's Mandarin service to mark the 30th anniversary of China's economic reforms, Bao Tong, former aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, said the main hope for political reform now lies with the country's civil rights movement, as its citizens increasingly begin to invoke rights already enshrined in law to protect themselves against abuse. "It is a system engineered to make sure the people are governed by the interests of the Party, engineered so that the Party can drive China's billion-strong population before it in any direction it chooses," Bao wrote from his Beijing home, where he has been under house arrest after serving a seven-year jail term in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. "It doesn't matter what the task is; the system is up to the challenge, up to mowing down everything in its path, however fruitful, up to dealing with sudden incidents, up to trying the signatories to Charter 08 in court; there is nothing it can't handle smoothly," he said, referring to a recent document signed by more than 300 intellectuals and rights activists which called for political reform. "Of all the grass-roots movements that have happened in the past 10 years, the one most worthy of notice is the civil rights movement," said Bao, citing government figures detailing tens of thousands of "mass incidents" across China every year: one every five minutes. Bao lashed out in an earlier essay at late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, credited with launching China's economic reforms in 1978 and lauded in a series of official media features looking back over the last 30 years of economic growth. Bao also launched a stinging attack on the "terrifying juggernaut" that is China's one-Party state, saying it is now capable of driving all before it and now acts entirely in its own interests. The process of reforms was derailed after the 1989 crackdown, Bao said, and is now reformist only in name. China's chief hope for change still lies with grassroots activists around the country, he said. "The civil rights movement is extending its influence into every domain: from appeals and complaints about grievances and official wrongdoing, to health and safety, to land and property rights, to the right to religious freedom, to the right to ethnic autonomy, to the right to supervise those in power, and the right to self-expression and to vote," Bao said. "[This is] a phenomenon which is both unstoppable and impossible to hide." Original essays in Chinese by Bao Tong, broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service. Director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. Bao Tong's 30th anniversary essays in English: * Party Interests 'Drive China' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-01052009131839.html> * China 'in Political Dead End' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12312008181844.html> * China's Economy 'No Miracle' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12302008123051.html> * 'Two Faces' of Deng Xiaoping <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12292008165015.html> * A Pivotal Moment For China <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/thirdplenum-12272008165259.html> * Why China Had to Reform <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12272008095946.html> Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####

16 years

RFA News: ?Two-Faced? Portrait of China?s Paramount Leader Deng Xiaopeng

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Two-Faced Portrait of Chinas Paramount Leader Deng Xiaopeng HONG KONG, Dec. 29, 2008A former top aide to late ousted Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang has written a stinging attack on Deng Xiaoping, who is credited with launching China on the path to economic reform 30 years ago this month, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Bao Tong, under house arrest at his Beijing home since completing a seven-year prison term in the wake of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, published his personal reminiscences of Deng in six parts to mark the 30th anniversary of Chinas reforms. Dengs two-sidedness was like a pendulum, wrote Bao, whose voice is never heard publicly now in China, and whose essay was published in response to a wave of official eulogies for Deng and the economic reforms he permitted to take root. One minute he wanted reforms, the next he was resolutely upholding the four basic principles of socialism: One minute he wanted to escape from a political dead end, the next he had returned to it, Bao said in his essay, broadcast on RFAs Mandarin service. If he had been in primary school, his teacher would have suggested he spend a little time studying logic. If he were an ordinary person, he would have been the subject of ridicule, or of patient explanations. Saving the Party Deng, according to Bao, believed himself a man with single mission: to save not China, nor its people, but the Communist Party. People are often bemused by his inconsistency, he said. But Dengs own sense of himself was in good shape. He thought he was doing fine, because he was set apart from ordinary people. Bao said that while Deng tried to present himself as a son of the people, the Chinese people were a rather distant and hazy phenomenon for this leader who lived his life in the corridors of power, completely absorbed in its workings. He was the embodiment of the Party; he carried its spirit, Bao wrote. Louis XIV said Letat, cest moi. Well, Deng was the Party. Deng, according to Bao, knew very well that the only system that would prevent a recurrence of the Cultural Revolution was a democratic one; but he resolutely opposed the separation of powers to preserve the Partys monopoly on power." He would occasionally speak some high-flown talk of democracy, but that was just to keep up his image as a man of the people, to win the affection of the people on behalf of the Party, but the charade was never to become a reality, Bao wrote. Behind his apparent double-sidedness was a single-mindedness that was pure Party spirit, a clear guiding principle that ran through the apparent confusion. Far from being a liberal-minded reformer, Deng wasnt interested in economics, nor did he understand how markets worked, Bao said. Instead, he saw a way to breathe life into the floundering Communist Party in the wake of the turmoil of the Mao era, and took it. Bao said Deng never intended to allow liberalism to flourish in China. A lot of observers seem to think that free economic competition will naturally bring democratic politics in its train; that economic reforms will not just call for but will inevitably push forward political reform. But Deng Xiaoping made his calculations on a different abacus, Bao wrote. The price of reform The price of economic reforms was the sacrifice of any hope for future political reform. I believe that this was Dengs bottom line, and to cross it was to walk the path of liberalism, and the road to chaos; it was no less than treason. Bao said the fall of reformers Hu Yaobang and his former political mentor Zhao Ziyang, who died in January 2005, was inevitable given Dengs focus on maintaining Party rule. Hus death sparked demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which led to the military crackdown and Zhaos ouster. Original essay broadcast on RFAs Mandarin service. Director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han Media Relations Director Radio Free Asia jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 907 4613

16 years

RFA News: Media Ban on China's Charter Activists

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Media Ban on China's Charter Activists HONG KONG-China's powerful Central Propaganda Department has ordered a crackdown on Chinese media workers who signed a document which called this month for sweeping political reforms, a management executive at a state-run media organization said, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The message was given orally by the department, which is charged by the ruling Communist Party with ensuring that China's media toe the Party line, the executive said. It was aimed at anyone who had signed Charter 08, a document published online in early December, sparking a flurry of interrogations, police searches, and detentions. "It wasn't as if there was a written order issued by the Central Propaganda Department. Nowadays the Central Propaganda Department rarely issues written orders. Instructions are conveyed orally," the executive told RFA's Mandarin service. He said media outlets had been barred from interviewing anyone who signed the charter and from carrying articles penned by signatories. Some journalists had received visits or phone calls warning them "not to go to extremes," he added. Charter 08, signed by more than 300 prominent scholars, writers, and rights activists around the country, called for concerned Chinese citizens to rally to bring about change, citing an increasing loss of control by the ruling Communist Party and heightened hostility between the authorities and ordinary people. It called for a genuine use of the Constitution and institutions that uphold the rule of law, democratic reforms, and human rights, warning of disaster amid growing social tensions if change is not implemented soon. Several of the Charter's signatories were detained, their homes searched, or they were questioned and placed under surveillance even before the document had been published online. One journalist at a state-run media organization who signed Charter 08 also said he had received a phone call from his boss, telling him not to bother submitting any more articles. He said the reason given was his involvement with the Charter. Beijing-based rights activist Zhou Guoqiang, himself a signatory, said the authorities want to force Chinese journalists to show where their loyalties lie. "The policy is meant to intimidate those who have not yet signed the Charter," Zhou said. "It's like saying, you make the choice: either sign or carry on writing." Along with professional journalists and editors, the decision will likely affect scholars and academics who contribute to the media. Xu Youyu, a researcher with the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he had signed the Charter. "Recently a magazine asked me to write articles for a column," Xu said. "When I asked for approval from my superiors I was told that I couldn't do it." "But I can't say for certain if it was because I had signed the Charter," Xu added. Slap at government The Charter hit out at China's government for "clinging" to an authoritarian political way of life. "It has caused an unbroken chain of human rights disasters and social crises, held back the development of the Chinese people, and hindered the progress of human civilization," it said. A former reporter with state-run China Central Television (CCTV) surnamed Li said the government was trying to strong-arm the media. "Not allowing them to publish articles after they signed the Charter, such is the behavior of thugs," Li said. "The ideas advocated in Charter 08 are the kind of things that a government should endeavor to achieve." Meanwhile, Zan Aizong, former reporter with China Ocean News, said he doubted Beijing would be able to exert total control. "More than 300 people signed the Charter initially. And so many more people have subsequently expressed support for it. Numerous articles have been written about it. It's impossible for them to have total control," Zan said. Many writers and academics were among the Charter signatories detained and questioned earlier this month. They included constitutional scholar Zhang Zuhua and Beijing-based independent writer Liu Xiaobo. Deputy chairman of the writers' group Independent Chinese PEN Jiang Qisheng was interrogated by police for two hours after he signed Charter 08, and Hangzhou-based scholar Wen Kejian was also questioned. The Beijing home of writer Yu Jie, in the United States at the time, was also surrounded by police around the time that the Charter was published. Original reporting in Mandarin by Qiao Long. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years

RFA News: Vietnam To Police Blogs With Random Checks, Self-Reporting

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Vietnam To Police Blogs With Random Checks, Self-Reporting Also on www.rfa.org: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html/extracts-1119200 8085805.html Korean Leaflet War Escalates www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/korea-12092008081506.html BANGKOK-Vietnamese authorities plan to police the content of dissident blogs through random checks and self-policing by the country's blogging community, a senior Vietnamese Internet security expert has told Radio Free Asia (RFA) "There should be a legal corridor to assure better operation of the blogs," the director of the state-run Bach Khoa Internet Security Center, Nguyen Tu Quang, told RFA's Vietnamese service. "We'll manage them by randomly checking-we don't need to control all the blogs." "When we create a legal corridor, determining what is legal and what is a violation of Vietnamese law, the blog community will detect such things on its own and will let the government know of violations," Quang said. Earlier this month, Information and Communication Deputy Minister Do Quy Doan was quoted as saying Hanoi would seek cooperation from Internet giants Google and Yahoo! to help "regulate" the country's flourishing blogging scene. The government will soon announce new rules, stressing that Weblogs should serve as personal online diaries and not organs to disseminate opinions about politics, religion, and society, senior officials were quoted as saying. The regulations aim "to create a legal base for bloggers and related agencies to tackle violations in the area of blogging," said Information and Communication Deputy Minister Do Quy Doan, according to the official Thanh Nien daily. The ministry "will contact Google and Yahoo! for cooperation in creating the best and the healthiest environment for bloggers," he added. Quang, speaking in a telephone interview, said getting help from Google and Yahoo! would be helpful but not critical. "Our effort to detect blogs will be more convenient if we can get help from the Internet companies," he said, but added: "We can detect blogs without help from Internet companies." Quang said under the draft rules being debated violators could face up to U.S. $12,000 in fines and up to 12 years of jail time. Wary of online content According to recent government figures, nearly one in four Vietnamese use the Internet. Activity in Vietnam's blogosphere has recently increased and Hanoi is becoming more wary of online content it considers politically threatening. Authorities currently block some Web sites run by overseas Vietnamese that espouse views critical of the government, and they often seek to shut down anything seen as encouraging public protest. In September, blogger Dieu Cay was jailed for 2-1/2 years on tax evasion charges after he tried to persuade people to protest at the Olympic torch ceremonies in Ho Chi Minh City last summer. Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom monitoring group, called on authorities to release the cyber-dissident, whose real name is Nguyen Hoang Hai, and said that he was being unjustly targeted because of his outspoken criticism of China's claims over disputed South China Sea islands. Vietnam's government is also extremely cautious of internal issues that could anger its northern neighbor. Abide by local laws Robert Boorstin, director of policy communications at Google, said his company hadn't been contacted with a specific request from the Vietnamese government but is aware of the plans to further regulate bloggers in the country. "We believe that blogs are an expression of a person's personal opinions, whether those opinions concern culture, art, their daily life, or politics-whatever they want to talk about. We don't censor based on the content of blogs and would not want to do so," Boorstin said. Boorstin said Google censors "a great deal less" than other search engines around the world, but he added, "If we don't abide by local laws, we will be thrown out" of certain countries. He said that Google's policy in China, where authorities restrict much of what may be accessed by netizens, is to filter results from its search engine according to local laws, but to clearly show users that results are blocked. Google also refuses to offer its email or blogging service in China because this would force the company to operate servers within the country from which authorities could request personal information about users. "That is the kind of place where we draw the line and say 'No, we're not going to venture into those kinds of services because the risk to individual freedom and the risk to our users' privacy is too great,'" Boorstin said. "We push the limits as far as we can push them without being told to pack up our bags and leave the country, because we don't want to leave countries where we're providing a service of information to people. It may not be every single piece of information that we want them to have, but much better they have access to huge new quantities of information than the other choice, which is to show them nothing at all." Original reporting by Mac Lam and Thien Gao for RFA's Vietnamese service. Vietnamese service director: Diem Nguyen. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes and Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####

16 years, 1 month

RFA News: in Nanchang, Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft Also on www.rfa.org: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html/extracts-1119200 8085805.html Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women HONG KONG-Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Nanchang are requiring all local Internet cafes to replace their Microsoft Windows XP operating systems with a Chinese-made system, Red Flag Linux, officials and Internet cafe owners have told Radio Free Asia (RFA). An official with the Nanchang Cultural Discipline Team, which oversees the roughly 600 internet cafes operating in Nanchang city, said the new operating systems were mandatory. "We have already started installing the new software in all Internet cafes. All of them must have this new one," he told RFA's Mandarin service. The switch was mandated by the Nanchang Cultural Management Bureau in what it said was an effort to crack down on pirated software, local sources said. But cafe managers said the new system requires a licensing fee of 5,000 yuan (about U.S. $726), and that even legitimate, non-pirated copies of Windows XP were being replaced. "Our district cultural management authorities came and installed the new Red Flag Linux in all of our 13 Internet cafes," one cafe worker said. "It happened around Nov. 20, and we all paid the 5,000 yuan installation fee, even though we used to use legally purchased Windows XP. But I don't think this new system is as good as the old one." A new, legitimate copy of Windows XP costs around 899 yuan (about U.S. $130) in China, plus 15 yuan for shipping. Unwelcome switch Whether Nanchang authorities were enforcing an order from higher up, and whether the directive might apply elsewhere in China, wasn't immediately clear. An Internet cafe owner surnamed Chen said the switch was unwelcome."Every Internet cafe has to install the new software though none of us wants it. There's no other choice," he said. "We've been facing a number of new charges. Not long ago, the police asked us to install personal ID scanners for 3,800 yuan (U.S. $550). Now we're charged for this new software. We don't know what we will be charged for next. So I wouldn't pay, and I'm closing my business." Cafe owners complained online this week about paying licensing fees for an operating system that can be downloaded free for personal use. "How much of the charge goes to the Red Flag Linux Co. and how much to the cultural management authorities in Nanchang?" one post read. An employee at Red Flag Linux's developer, Beijing Zhongke Red Flag Software Co., confirmed that the system is free for personal use but couldn't comment on whether businesses are ever required to buy licenses. Suspected censorship Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley, said he saw the move to Linux as an effort to tighten censorship and step up surveillance online. "It mainly means [a] less secure and private communication environment for netizens in those Internet cafes," Xiao said. "The authorities are gaining more control." "China has a vast number of small Internet cafes, and a huge proportion of them are in a quasi-legal area. By forcing all Internet cafes to change operating systems, the authorities are making them register...and therefore all kinds of policing and surveillance software will be installed at all these large and small Internet cafes as well." Red Flag Linux was created by the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. Financial backing came from a government-owned firm, ShangHai NewMargin Venture Capital. According to the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance, Chinese piracy accounted for almost U.S. $6.7 billion in losses in 2007, up from U.S. $5.4 billion a year earlier. Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated by Chen Ping. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 1 month

RFA News Exclusive: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture

by Sarah Jackson-Han

North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> SEOUL-He's written a book about growing up in one of North Korea's most brutal prison camps, but Shin Dong Hyuk grows quiet when asked about his past. After writing Escape to the Outside World, "I thought I had rid myself of my scars-I felt uplifted, as if I'd gotten a big burden off my chest," Shin said in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA). Even his nightmares stopped. Shin was born in 1982 in North Korea's Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang. North Korea uses guilt by association to keep the public in line, human rights groups say. Shin's father was imprisoned because his relatives had escaped to South Korea. Shin is the first North Korean known in the West to have escaped from a North Korean prison camp, and his life was spent in the grimmest of circumstances: a total-control zone, where inmates are worked to death. Read extracts below from his unprecedented memoir of growing up in one of North Korea's most brutal prison camps, translated into English for the first time: Camp Rules: The 10 Commandments 1. Do not attempt to escape. The punishment is death. 2. Never gather in groups of over three people or move around without the guard's authorization. The punishment for unauthorized movement is death. 3. Do not steal. If one steals or possesses weapons, the punishment is death. The punishment for failure to report the theft or possession of weapons is death. 4. Obey your guards. If one rebels or hits a guard, the punishment is death. 5. If you see outsiders, or suspicious-looking people, report them immediately. The punishment for abetting in the hiding of outsiders is death. 6. Keep an eye on your fellow prisoners and report inappropriate behavior without delay. One should criticize others for inappropriate behavior, and also conduct thorough self-criticism in revolutionary ideology class. 7. Fulfill your assigned duties. The punishment for rebelling against one's duties is death. 8. Men and women may not be together outside the workplace. The punishment for unauthorized physical contact between a man and a woman is death. 9. Admit and confess your wrongdoings. The punishment for disobedience and refusal to repent is death. 10. The punishment for trespassing camp laws and rules is death. Childbirth, vaccinations and medical care A couple of weeks before childbirth and about one month after, women get maternity leave. That simply means that they are assigned work that can be done from home, while looking after their babies. One month after childbirth, every mother has to return to her workplace, carrying the baby on her back. While planting rice, women have to lay their babies down by the paddy. While mothers are working, the elders also have to work. There is no child care in the camp, and this lack of care often proves lethal to the babies. I remember getting my vaccinations when I entered school in 1988. That was the first and last time I was vaccinated against infectious diseases. There was one clinic inside the camp, with one doctor, assisted by a nurse, who was a prisoner herself. Regardless of how badly hurt one may be, getting out of the camp is not an option. The doctor and nurse use a saline solution to clean wounds, and patients are asked to come back in a week. It goes without saying that the workplace supervisor's approval is needed prior to the follow-up visit to the clinic, and refusal to grant that approval is rather common. After the guards cut off my middle finger, I was taken to the clinic and given medical attention, but without any anesthesia whatsoever. Prisoners are not allowed to wear glasses inside the camp, not even those who wore glasses prior to being brought into the camp. Marriage and family inside the camp Inside the camp, there are fewer people in their 20s than before. Since they are short of young prisoners, young people inside the camp are assigned a lot of work. About 60 percent of people in their 20s are married. In my father's time, only about 30 to 40 percent of people were married. Because they need more laborers, and because young people work well, more of them are matched with a spouse and ordered to marry. There are no single women in the village. Having babies is allowed. Most married couples have one or two children, sometimes even three. It is hard to have more children, as spouses are not allowed to spend much time together. Marriage is the only dream that prisoners have. Men above 25 and women above 23 are generally eligible, and since there is no standard procedure in place, permission to marry is entirely the work supervisor's decision. Once the supervisor has decided on the names of the people who will be ordered to get married, the list of names is submitted to the camp commander, for his signature. There are only a few days in the year when people can get married: Jan.1, Feb. 16 [North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's birthday], and April 15 [birthday of North Korea's late founder, Kim Il Sung]. Pregnant women 'disappear' To be allowed to get married, people break their backs working and volunteer to perform the most dangerous of tasks. Working hard and distinguishing oneself are preconditions for the ultimate recognition, permission to establish a family. Nevertheless, diligence alone is insufficient. The successful marriage candidate has to strictly obey camp rules and regulations, and must also spy on the other prisoners, and report on their behavior. Inside the camp, the ultimate reward is marriage, and the one who has the power to make that happen is the supervisor, so he is like royalty to the prisoners. Women try to win the supervisors' favors, and they take full advantage of that, while the other prisoners have to turn a blind eye on the obvious and keep silent. If a woman becomes pregnant after having a relationship with a supervisor or a guard, one day she just vanishes. If a man and woman like each other and have a relationship without camp approval, once their secret is discovered, they both disappear without a trace. While in the camp, I knew a couple of women who got pregnant and just disappeared. No consideration is given to whether the marriage would be a good match or whether the newlyweds like one another or not. Whether they like their men or not, women have no choice but to get married, because they know that this opportunity will never come again. Summary matchmaking Many of these matches are not exactly made in heaven, and men are used to hitting their female co-workers anyway. If two co-workers are matched and ordered to marry, that kind of physical violence only gets worse. The supervisor shows up and says: "You two, you've been matched, from today on, you're married. Work hard and don't waste your time. If you slack, I'll split you up!" Until that day, the newlyweds have no idea who their spouse is going to be. I once heard a camp story about a bride and groom who didn't like each other much, or didn't feel like getting married. One asked: "Sir, would it be possible at all to postpone our marriage a little?" The supervisor replied: "Sure, if you don't feel like it, just don't do it. You ungrateful pricks can forget about marriage, I'll never let you do it!" >From that day on, regardless of how hard they worked, no mention of marriage was ever made to them. The young and the old Most children born in the camp grow up without knowing parental love or care. These children are the offspring of political offenders, treated as political offenders themselves. The camp is their microcosm, and camp life is the only life they'll ever know. Their parents don't have to teach them social skills, or how to behave in society, as they will never experience a normal social life. Instead of parental teachings, parents tell their children about camp rules and regulations, and thoroughly instruct them on how to live and work inside the camp. Children learn about camp rules and regulations even before getting to know anything about their parents. The parents are to blame for the children's having born in a political prisoner camp, and children are painfully aware of that, growing up with very little affection for their parents. In South Korea, May 5 is Children's Day, and May 8 Parents' Day. I often wonder if political prisoners in North Korean camps would even know how to honor their elders and amuse their young, if ever given this opportunity. I sometimes feel embarrassed because of my having grown up in a camp. One day, I was on the subway in Seoul. I was sitting, and an elderly gentleman was standing nearby. Another young man, probably older than me, stood up and yielded his seat to the older man. I felt deeply embarrassed that day. In the camp, there is no seniority among prisoners, and no respect for the elders. From the first day of school to the day they die, prisoners are nothing but laborers, and there is no distinction, seniority, or hierarchy among them. There is no difference between the young and the old, the sick and the healthy; they simply have to do their work, and if they fail, they are beaten and they bleed. I am sure that, somewhere inside that camp, people are still dropping dead from overwork, and are still being beaten savagely and vomiting blood. Child labor Little children under 10 are forced to work in dark coal mines, pushing heavy loads on coal carts. They never complain, and no one realizes how wrong that is, as everyone has been brainwashed, their consciousness distorted, all trained to be just one of the many laborers who spend their entire lives working. When asked to do dangerous work, they laugh, to show that they're not afraid, and when they're hurt, they cry, but no one is there for them, to listen to their laughter or crying. The guards abuse the prisoners and see them as sub-human, and even the guards' children look down on the children of prisoners, thinking of them as the offspring of traitors, traitors themselves, who do not deserve to be thought of as human beings. I would like to ask the tormenters' children: "What would you be, had you been a prisoners' child? Would that make you less of a human being?" The unthinkable escape The reason why prisoners don't resist or rebel goes beyond fear of the armed guards watching over the camp. All prisoners have been brainwashed to believe that they are in the camp for a good reason, that they have done wrong and deserve to be there, and the thought of escape hardly crosses their mind. Most prisoners, including me, believed that they were supposed to be in the camp. My escape wasn't an act of rebellion against the prison camp system; I was just tired of having to work so much, and I simply wanted to get away. Parents report on their children, children on their parents, and neighbors on the people living next door, so an uprising would be impossible. Prisoners may be upset and have gripes against their guards and supervisors, but they never go as far as to think of opposing the prison camp system itself. All they do is suffer in silence. Resistance is simply unthinkable. Extracts from "Escape to the Outside World" by Shin Dong Hyuk translated and published here with kind permission from the Data Base Center for North Korean Human Rights. Acting RFA Korean service director: Francis Huh. Translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Edited and produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 1 month

RFA News: Uyghur Woman Freed Without Abortion in China

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Uyghur Woman Released, Without Forced Abortion Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> North Korean Gulag Escapee Speaks Out www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> HONG KONG-An ethnic Uyghur woman in China's northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will-and whose case drew international attention-has been released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "I am all right and I am at home now," Arzigul Tursun told RFA's Uyghur service, shortly after she was released from the Women and Children's Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. "I brought her home," the local population-control committee chief, Rashide, said. "She wasn't in good enough health to have an abortion." Tursun's case prompted calls to the Chinese authorities from two members of the U.S. Congress and from the U.S. ambassador in Beijing for a planned abortion of her pregnancy to be scrapped. Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative's home Monday afternoon after she fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, relatives said. China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja, in the remote northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up. Police operation On Monday, Tursun's father, Hasan Tursunjan, said, between 20 and 30 police cars came to the family home to search for his daughter and take her to the hospital to terminate her pregnancy. "It was a big operation-and they treated us very rudely," he said. "They confiscated all out cellphones, but I hid one. One of them was pushing my forehead and saying, 'You have connections with the separatists in America-see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.'" "I was very upset of what he did to me and said, 'I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow-they will eventually rescue us,'" Tursunjan said. "My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted... 'Don't touch my father!' The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car." High-level intervention Two members of the U.S. Congress called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortion Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania on Monday urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place." On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong. On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. Smith also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene. Randt spoke with the executive vice foreign minister Wang Guanya, Smith's office said. Detailed policy According to China's official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear. The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means. The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward. China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy. The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say. Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy. Tense relations Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing's population-control policy. Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism. It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia. Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Translated by Alim Abdulkerim. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA press releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 1 month

RFA News: Uyghur Woman Faces Imminent Forced Abortion

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Uyghur Woman Faces Imminent Forced Abortion Also on www.rfa.org: China's Quake Victims Face Grim Winter www.rfa.org/english/news/forced%20abortion-11132008173803.html HONG KONG-Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children. As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, her husband told Radio Free Asia (RFA). "Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview with RFA's Uyghur service. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet-we are waiting for instructions from the doctors." China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up. "My wife is being kept in the hospital-village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone. "When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property." Steep fines On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital. There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion. "The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said. "If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)-that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added. Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs. Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls. Carrots and sticks According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear. The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means. The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward. China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy. The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say. Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy. Congressional appeal In Washington, Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene. "Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul." Tense relations Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history. Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism. It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia. Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur. Translated by Omer Kanat. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written and produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Joshua Lipes. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA press releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 2 months

RFA News: Tibetan Monks Arrested Over Blast

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Tibetan Monks Arrested Over Blast Also on www.rfa.org Burma Jails Lawyers for Contempt http://www.rfa.org/english/news/burma/lawyers-10302008130234.html Asian Women in their own words http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women KATHMANDU-Chinese authorities in Tibet have arrested three young Tibetan Buddhist monks in connection with a September blast at a local power station, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Ngawang Tenzin, 20, Tenzin Norbu, 19, and Tenzin Rinchen, 17, are now in police custody on suspicion of causing an explosion Sept. 8 at a local power station that knocked out television broadcasts but caused no casualties, Tibetan and Chinese sources told RFA's Tibetan service. The explosion, in Markham county, Chamdo [in Chinese, Changdu], in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), came less than six months after simmering anti-China resentment erupted in massive protests and rioting throughout Tibetan regions in China. Tibetan sources, who asked not to be named, cited resentment among local Tibetans over television programming in the Kham dialect in August and September that condemned Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as a "splittist" committed to dismantling China. On Oct. 24, police found Tenzin Rinchen, shot him in the leg, and arrested him, Tibetan sources said. Ngawang Tenzin and Tenzin Norbu "were detained yesterday, Oct. 30," one source said. "They were arrested yesterday night and taken away." An official with the Chamdo Public Security Bureau, contacted by telephone Oct. 31, said Ngawang Tenzin and Tenzin Norbu "have been arrested and they are being investigated." Authorities have moved the three monks from Markham to Chamdo and ordered their family members to remain in the Markham area, another Tibetan source said. Tensions 'intense' "The tensions and restrictions on Markham are very intense. The Chamdo police chief is here, and they're still holding meetings. There's a huge presence by security forces here," the source said. On Oct. 26, Dechen Dorje, 49, the father of Ngawang Tenzin, was detained and questioned, one source said. He remains in detention. Lobsang Tenzin, 26, Tenzin Norbu's older brother, was also detained Oct. 19 while ploughing a field, one source said. He refused to talk under questioning and was unable to move his hands or feet when he was released on Oct. 27, the source said. In an interview Oct. 30, a Public Security Bureau (PSB) officer in Markham county confirmed that the three youths were wanted in connection with the explosion. "Those culprits have been hiding out somewhere for a little over a month and 20 days," the official said. "We caught one. There is no way to escape from us. If the other two culprits surrender on their own, China's legal system might show leniency." Previous blasts On Sept. 23, the Chamdo Intermediate People's Court sentenced four monks to jail terms of four to nine years for "terrorist actions" in connection with a series of small blasts during massive anti-China protests in the region earlier this year. The mostly teenage monks were among dozens who were detained in Markham county on or around May 14 and were charged with "obstructing the Olympics" and "damaging national stability." All the monks are believed to have been from Markham county's Oser monastery or one of its branches. Tibetan sources in the region reported eight separate explosions in the Markham area during the Tibetan protests early this year. No one was hurt in the blasts. Chinese authorities have made numerous arrests and launched a "patriotic education" campaign aimed at Tibetans after protests and riots that began in Lhasa in mid-March and spread to other Tibetan areas. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the rioting. Tibetan exiles say at least 140 people died in the region-wide crackdown that followed, while more than 1,000 were detained. Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama for instigating the protests and fomenting what they regard as a "splittist" Tibetan independence movement. The Dalai Lama rejects the accusation, saying he wants only autonomy and human rights for Tibetans. Original reporting in the Kham dialect by Lobsang Choephel for RFA's Tibetan service.Translated by Karma Dorjee.Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo.Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA press releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 2 months

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