China
China is a Communist state, with President HU Jintao as the Chief of State. After stagnating for more than two decades under the rigid authoritarianism of early communist rule, China now has the world's fastest-growing economy and is undergoing what has been described as a second industrial revolution.
Human rights campaigners continue to criticize China for executing hundreds of people every year and for failing to stop torture. The country is keen to stamp down on what it sees as dissent among its ethnic minorities, including Muslim Uighurs in the north-west.
The authorities have also targeted the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which they designate an 'evil cult'. Chinese rule over Tibet is controversial. Human rights groups accuse the authorities of the systematic destruction of Tibetan Buddhist culture and the persecution of monks loyal to the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader who is campaigning for autonomy within China.
The Chinese Government places heavy restrictions on freedom of expression, which have only increased in 2006. The government has prevented the circulation of several types of news items. A 'Law on the Handling of Sudden Incidents' was proposed. This law would require that journalists obtain permission to report on certain national news (for example, natural disasters but also events concerning demonstrations during which protestors were attacked). Newspapers reporting on political scandals or on politically sensitive issues have been reprimanded and closed down.
In September 2006, a new measure mandated that foreign news agencies can no longer sell their stories to Chinese agencies, but must first go through the official Chinese news agency Xinhua for clearance. Journalists remain free to practice their profession in Hong Kong, although a poll revealed that nearly half the population believes they operate self-censorship. The authorities have so far proved incapable of clearing up a murder attempt with a letter bomb against the editor of the daily Ming Pao.
There has been an increased push by the Chinese government to strengthen the 'Great Firewall of China' which greatly limits the freedom of expression on the Internet on the basis that 'internet censorship is necessary to safeguard national, social and collective interests.' People who send news or write on political issues out of China are subject to losing their employment, or being imprisoned. The information coming into China over the internet is also limited by using censoring filters or internet police. Aid has been given to the government by large internet corporations (Yahoo! Skype, Google) to assist them in filtering information, or providing personal information on users.
The Beijing Olympics 2008, instead of improving freedom of expression in China, has seen to contribute to increased censorship. 'Sensitivity' of both printed and internet materials has increased sharply and has prompted closure of access to thousands of websites in 2007, including Wikipedia and Flickr. It is estimated that since April 2007, more than 18,000 individual blogs and websites were closed as a result of censorship. In August 2007, censors expanded their attention to internet data centres, for which a large numbers were shut down.
For more information on Shi Tao, an Honorary Member of English PEN, imprisoned for an article of his that appeared on the Internet, please click here.
Tibet
In 1949, when the People's Republic of China began its military invasion of Tibet on the pretext of 'liberating' the country the Tibetan government protested to the UN, but Britain and India advised the UN General Assembly not to take any action and, since the communist countries supported the Chinese, any debate on the issue was postponed.
In 1951, a Tibetan delegation that had gone to Peking to hold talks on the invasion was forced with threats of more military action to sign an agreement, which the Chinese called the '17 point Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet'
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The Chinese then began to carry out their plan to turn Tibet into a province of China and to eradicate the Tibetan culture through the systematic destruction of monasteries, suppression of religion, denial of political freedom, widespread arrests and killings and by promoting a mass migration of Han Chinese into Tibet to dilute the Tibetan population. This brutal process is still going on.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama, then 24, managed to escape to India. In that same year the UN held its first debate on the status of Tibet and in 1961 the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 1723 XVI, which recognised the right of the Tibetan people to self-determination and called on China to cease all practices which deprive the Tibetan people of their fundamental human rights and freedoms. But nothing has been done to enforce the resolution.
Since 1949 China has consistently tried to revise history to create the illusion that Tibet was never an independent country and that instead Tibet was always part of China. Writers who contradict this official history face retribution.
Most assaults on freedom of expression in Tibet are initiated by the Chinese government. Most activities, written or verbal forms of communication in Tibet, are interpreted as 'separatist' by the authorities. Writers, human rights activists and resistance fighters have been charged with heavy prison sentences.
Sources: For further information, based on primary research, see the annual reports from Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/), the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (http://www.cpj.org/), Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.fr/) and the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (http://ifex.org/) . See also Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/). For more general information on China, see the Foreign and Commonwealth Office country profile (www.fco.gov.uk).