A suspicious death in detention sparks questions.

A taxi driver in southern China has died while serving a short detention as punishment for a traffic violation, according to the man's wife.
 
Liu Zhengguo, a driver in the Conghua city suburb of Guangzhou, in south China's Guangdong province, died as the result of a "brain tumor," according to police who had overseen his custody.
 
But according to Liu's wife, his body was covered with bruises that were inconsistent with the cause of death offered by authorities.
 
"My husband has never suffered from any illness before. Absolutely not," she said.
 
"But now his body is full of wounds and black-and-blue marks. His head was swollen. The police are so cruel."
 
Liu's wife said she became suspicious as a result of an uncharacteristically considerate attitude shown by the police following his death.
 
"They paid for our food and lodging when we were called to Guangzhou. They prepaid the medical expenses for my husband, saying they had done it out of humanitarian concern," she said.
 
"Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no earthquake in our home--why should we need their 'humanitarian concern?'"
 
Liu's wife said she felt certain that her husband had been beaten by his captors.
 
"The facts are clear. My husband was beaten to near-death by the police, but it took six days for him to die."
 
Traffic violation
 
Liu Zhengguo was arrested March 5 after clashing with traffic control personnel over a traffic violation and was subsequently given a 10-day detention as punishment.
 
Last Thursday, while in police custody, Liu suddenly collapsed from dizziness.

By the time he was rushed to a hospital he was already in critical condition.

Liu died Sunday in the same police-managed hospital that announced his cause of death as the result of a brain tumor.
 
News of Liu's death in detention prompted several hundred of his friends and colleagues to surround the Traffic Management Office in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou, protesting police violence.
 
But local authorities refused to answer questions.
 
An officer contacted by telephone Monday at the Linhe police station, which first detained Liu, referred the call to upper-level management.
 
At the Traffic Management Committee of Guangzhou, the managing body that oversees city traffic, a female officer who answered the phone declined to provide any details on the case, adding that all inquiries from foreign media had to go through the city's foreign affairs office.
 
But the officer said local newspapers had already reported the story and that police are now focusing on calming down Liu's family members.
 
The Information Times, a newspaper in Guangzhou, reported that "there were no wounds or blood extravasations on [Liu's] scalp," citing sources within the hospital where Liu died.
 
Meanwhile, Liu Zhengguo's death has attracted the attention of netizens all over China, who joke that the official excuse of a "brain tumor" is the newest invention by Chinese authorities hoping to avoid prosecution for police brutality.
 
Negotiations under way
 
Liu's uncle, Liu Jianguo, said the family is in negotiations with officials.
 
"Various government offices are now negotiating with us but they refused to admit any wrongdoing--they are only talking about reconciling the case. If they truly didn't make any mistakes, they wouldn't need to negotiate with us," he said.
 
Liu's wife said her husband was the family's main source of income and making ends meet would be difficult without his help.
 
"We have two daughters. One is 16 and the other is seven. My 70-year-old mother-in-law is living with us and she is blind," she said.
 
"The whole family relied on my husband to survive."
 
Original reporting by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Ping Chen. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Report 

One of China's top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be "irresponsible" and would draw a response from Beijing.

The statement by Li Yizhong, China's minister of industry and information technology, followed a statement on Wednesday by Google's chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, that "something will happen soon" in the two-month standoff over Internet censorship between his company and the Chinese government.

But it was no more clear on Friday what that something might be than it was two months ago, when Google executives first threatened to pull out of China unless the government stopped forcing it to censor the results of users' Internet searches.

Chinese journalists outside Google's Beijing offices on Friday said they had heard the company was planning to close its doors here. But a Google spokeswoman denied that in an article on Thursday in the government-run English-language newspaper, China Daily.

Google's China businesses "are still at normal," and rumors that the company had ordered its Chinese advertising agencies to cease work were not true, the spokeswoman, Marsha Wang, told the newspaper. At Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., another spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, declined to comment on the statements from Mr. Li or any other aspect of its dispute with China.

A company spokesperson said Wednesday that Google expected the dispute to be settled "in weeks, not months."

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's party-controlled legislature, Mr. Li said that he hoped for an amicable resolution to the standoff. But he gave no indication that the government would ease the censorship rules that are at the heart of Google's ultimatum.

"I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations," The Associated Press quoted Mr. Li as saying. But "if you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to bear the consequences."

Whether the company chooses to remain in China, he added, will be up to Google.

Since it opened shop in China four years ago, Google has captured roughly 30 percent of the search market in the world's largest assemblage of Internet users, and it is a favorite among the better-educated and wealthier classes that advertisers covet. But the company has long been uncomfortable with Chinese demands that it censor search results to prevent users from viewing some kinds of content, notably political matters that the government deems unacceptable.

Google's Chinese Web site does censor some of its content, but its restrictions are generally less onerous than elsewhere, and the censored items are clearly identified as having been banned by the authorities.

>> Complete Report

China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that includes training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they hadn't been properly trained. She didn't give any specific examples.

Similar comments by Li were posted on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency.

Li told Xinhua on Monday that the new qualification system would ensure all journalists learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.

"Comrades who are going to be working on journalism's front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx's view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda," Li was quoted as saying.

Communist theories of journalism say media should serve the communist leadership and not undermine its initiatives. Many democracies embrace a model where reporters serve a watchdog role independent of the government.

Chinese media have become more freewheeling since newspapers and broadcasters began relying increasingly on advertising instead of just Communist Party patronage for their survival. There have been problems with reporters demanding payment for positive news coverage or to bury a story, and instances of reporters fabricating news.

Others have run afoul of the government for reporting accurately on stories that officials didn't want publicized. Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive or destabilizing.

A senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration system, saying it discriminated against the poor.

>> Original Source

China's premier promises a more open society, but his speech to parliament meets with skepticism.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for greater oversight of government by ordinary citizens and media, but analysts and netizens have voiced skepticism that real change is on the way.

During his annual work report to the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on Friday, Wen called on China's leadership to create an environment in which it is possible for people to criticize and supervise the government.

"We must create the conditions under which people are allowed to criticize the government, to supervise the government," Wen told delegates to the country's parliament.

"At the same time, we must bring out the ability of the media to exercise a supervisory role, so that power is exercised in broad daylight."

As he spoke, Beijing police held the capital under a tight security clampdown, ensuring that anyone with a grievance against the government was kept well away from the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

Netizens joked online that Wen's promises sounded like the self-development promises made by primary school children in China: "These things are only ever a goal," one quipped.

Wen called on members of the ruling Communist Party to be scrupulous over their use of public money, following a number of high-profile online exposes of the lifestyles of high-ranking officials.

Call for official discipline

"All of the leadership, especially high-ranking officials, must resolutely implement guidelines delivered by central government regarding personal finances and property of the individual," said Wen.

"This includes their income, housing, investments, and the careers taken up by their spouses, sons, and daughters."

Wen also promised to strengthen channels for consultation with Chinese citizens, who should be given the opportunity to oversee the government's activities.

China's army of petitioners say they have repeatedly been stonewalled, detained in "black jails," beaten, and harrassed by the authorities if they try to take a complaint against local government actions to a higher level of government.

"Does central government have any measures to ensure that people who report local officials online aren't hounded and detained, or pursued by local mafia?" wrote one petitioner from the eastern city of Ningbo.

Press freedom lacking

Another wrote from Chengdu that the government should first guarantee the media's right to carry out normal reporting and newsgathering activities.

"Officials involved in a situation have the responsibility to answer questions from journalists. Those who refuse to do so should be subjected to harsh punishment: at the very least a demotion or a pay cut for failing to carry out administrative orders."

But Hong Kong media reports said Chinese media have already been forbidden to report on any negative news from Beijing during the annual parliamentary sessions.

According to the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, petitions from retired members of the People's Liberation Army, from workers in certain industries, and from evictees in Beijing are forbidden topics.

And the difficulties faced by migrant workers in getting schooling for their children in Beijing were also struck off the list of permissible news items for traditional media and online news providers.

Beijing University economics professor Xia Yeliang said that Wen's promises of greater academic freedom in China's universities have also been heard before, and remain undelivered.

Twitter police

"They have been talking about reforming China's education system for many years now," Xia said.

"Now, they are saying once again that they want to turn the universities into top-flight universities [with no Party presence and academic freedom], but they haven't said when they will achieve this by."

One Beijing-based blogger, known online by the nickname Zhang Shuji, said China's Internet police regularly patrol micro-blogging services like Twitter.

"They won't necessarily take part in the discussion. They just keep a record," he said.

"It's a bit like using [the popular chat service] QQ. The Web police just make a back-up copy of all the chats. Then, if they get a subpoena, they just print it off for evidence that the person concerned was expressing opinions tantamount to incitement."

China had more than 40,000 active Twitter users as of last week, with more than 200,000 people registered on the service. More than half of Twitter's most-followed users are civil rights and pro-democracy activists from China.

Editors cautioned

An official report at the end of last year identified microblogging as one of the most powerful drivers of public opinion in China.

Sina's home-based microblogging service employs a team of more than 300 people, not just to monitor what is being posted, but to set up blocks and filters.

One of the coordinators of the community Internet blog Kenengba, A Chan, wrote: "Sina's microblogging service used to take down my posts without notifying me. Later on, they started watching everything I wrote, but they still didn't notify me."

In recent days, editors from 13 different regional state-run newspapers have been handed official warnings after they published a joint editorial calling for an end to the household registration, or hukou, system, which they said discriminates against rural residents who move to large cities to work.

Wen pledged in his speech to abolish some restrictions on migrant workers in smaller towns and cities, but stopped short of abolishing the hukou system, saying the authorities will take a "step-by-step"
approach.

Beijing University's Xia said the same pledge has already been heard from China's leaders.

"We have heard them say this many times now, over many years, to win a bit of applause in the moment, and nothing has come of it so far," Xia said. "If they really could do what they are saying, there wouldn't be so much discontent among ordinary Chinese people."

"Right now there is a huge gap between what the government says it's going to do, and what it actually does," he said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Xin Yu and Qiao Long, and in Cantonese by Hai Nan. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Source

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.

The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states.

Nato diplomatic sources told The Times: "Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we're now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security." The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.

In the US, an official report released on Friday said the number of attacks on Congress and other government agencies had risen exponentially in the past year to an estimated 1.6 billion every month.

The Chinese cyber-penetration of key offices in both Nato and the EU has led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable.

Sources at the Office for Cyber Security at the Cabinet Office in London, set up last year, said there were two forms of attack: those focusing on disrupting computer systems and others involving "fishing trips" for sensitive information. A special team has been set up at GCHQ, the government communications headquarters in Gloucestershire, to counter the growing cyber-threat affecting intelligence material. The team becomes operational this month.

British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but "the EU is less competent", James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said. "The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy."

The lack of routine intelligencesharing between the US and the EU also contributes to the vulnerability of European systems, another analyst said. "Because of Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with America our systems have to be up to their standards in a way that some of the European systems don't," he explained.

Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, warned in 2007 that several states were actively involved in large-scale cyber-attacks. Although he did not specify which states were involved, security officials have indicated that China now poses the gravest threat. Beijing has denied making such attacks.

Robert Mueller, FBI Director, has warned that, in addition to the danger of foreign states making cyber-attacks, al-Qaeda could in the future pose a similar threat. In a speech to a security conference last week, Mr Mueller said terrorist groups had used the internet to recruit members and to plan attacks, but added: "Terrorists have \ shown a clear interest in pursuing hacking skills and they will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders with an eye towards combining physical attacks with cyber-attacks."

He said that a cyber-attack could have the same impact as a "well-placed bomb". Mr Mueller also accused "nation-state hackers" of seeking out US technology, intelligence, intellectual property and even military weapons and strategies.To help to fight the growing threat, the Office of Cyber Security, set up last year as part of the Government's national security strategy, liaises with America's so-called cyber czar, Howard Schmidt, who was appointed by President Obama to protect sensitive government computers.

British officials said that everyone in sensitive jobs had been warned to be especially cautious about disseminating intelligence and other classified information. Whether British intelligence is involved in retaliatory attacks is never confirmed. However, officials said that there was a significant difference between being part of an information war and indulging in aggressive attacks to disrupt another country's computer systems.

Dr Lewis said that neither the US nor any of its Western allies had formed an effective response to the Chinese threat, which has its origins in a massive boost to Chinese technology ordered by Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader, in 1986. The West's own cyber offensives have so far been directed largely at terrorists rather than nation states, giving China virtually free rein to penetrate Western systems with its own world-class hackers and increasingly popular Chinese-made components. "You almost have to admire them," Dr Lewis said. "They have been very consistent in their goals."

>> Original Source

Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.

It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.

"How can this happen?" The A.P. quoted him as saying. "It's a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!"

Telephone calls on Tuesday to Mr. Liao's home in rural Chengdu produced a recording saying that the line was temporarily unavailable. Calls to his cellphone went unanswered.

Mr. Liao was removed from a plane at Chengdu's airport as he prepared to fly to Germany to attend lit.Cologne, one of Europe's largest literary festivals, where he was to read from one of his books, "Miss Hello and the Farm Emperor: Chinese Society From the Bottom."

"The reason for inviting Mr. Liao was simple: he's a great writer," Traudle Berger, a spokeswoman at the Cologne Festival, said in an interview on Tuesday. "And China should be proud of such a great writer."

Ms. Berger said Mr. Liao's scheduled reading would still take place, with an actor assuming his role. Proceeds from the ticketed event will be donated to the human rights group Amnesty International, she said.

Last September, Mr. Liao was barred from traveling to Berlin to attend an event affiliated with the Frankfurt Book Fair, at which China was designated the honored guest.

A poet, screenwriter and new-journalism author, Mr. Liao, 51, is one of China's best known and most outspoken writers. Many of his works tell stories of people who have been left behind in the nation's rush to economic and political prominence, characters that include prostitutes, a grave robber, and a lavatory attendant.

His 2008 book "The Corpse Walker," another view of Chinese society's lower rungs, was published to international acclaim. His works are banned in China, but he has gained a large underground following, and pirated versions of his works can be found in some Chinese bookstores.

Mr. Liao was imprisoned for four years in the early 1990s after writing an epic poem, "Massacre," which denounced the Chinese government's suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In December 2007, when he traveled to Beijing to receive an award from the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers' rights organization, he was detained by the police and sent back to Chengdu.

In a text-message exchange last month, Mr. Liao said he had repeatedly met with Chengdu security officials to negotiate for permission to attend the Cologne event, but was told that he had been blacklisted by Beijing officials and forbidden to travel abroad.

In a Monday interview with the German network Deutsche Welle, Mr. Liao said he was seated on the plane at Chengdu's airport on Monday morning when a flight attendant approached and told him that "someone is looking for you."

"I asked who it was, and she said it would be best if I got my luggage," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I got my bags, and while I was walking to the cabin door, I saw a police officer."

Mr. Liao said the police told him, "You cannot continue doing whatever you want."

"I told them there will be many readers at the festival," he said. "I would like to go and meet them and read some of my own pieces and play the traditional Chinese mouth organ, the xiao. I said it was purely a literature festival and nothing political. They said they understood and were only doing their job following orders from the top."

On Monday, the PEN American Center, which like the Chinese organization is one of 145 affiliates of the International PEN Center, called on China's president, Hu Jintao, to lift restrictions on Mr. Liao and other writers.

"It is hard to figure what the Chinese government hopes to accomplish by preventing one of its most compelling literary voices from meeting with international colleagues and readers," Larry Siems, who directs the American center's Freedom to Write program, said in a written statement.

>> Complete Report

Applicants will have to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken. A government ministry will review the requests.

In a move that will give the government new powers to police the Internet, China will require individuals seeking to establish personal websites to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken.

The order lifts a ban on registering personal sites that was issued in December as part of a campaign to crack down on Internet pornography.

To apply, an individual must visit his or her local Internet service provider's office, submit an identification card and pose for a photograph. Applications will then be sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for review.

The new requirements add another layer of oversight in a country that is already deeply criticized for having some of the world's strictest Internet controls. Regulators have also discussed requiring stricter identity verification to purchase mobile phones and leave comments online.

Google Inc. threatened to quit China last month partly because it was fed up with having to censor its Chinese search engine.

Officials say the new rule is needed to stifle Internet porn.

"Internet security needs to be cured from its roots," Li Yizhong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was quoted as saying in a state news article Sunday.

Critics say the new requirement has little to do with pornography and instead serves to increase controls and discourage web users from engaging in any activity that challenged the government.

For all its complexity, experts say the key to the government's controls is not its filtering technology or registration requirements, but the willingness of individuals to censor themselves.

"This new measure comes as no surprise, since a key element of control has always been about how to use disciplinary punishment and surveillance to create a self-censorship environment," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley. "The government feels increasingly insecure with their ability to control the Internet, therefore more and more policies and controlling practices are aimed at enhancing a self-policing environment."

>> Complete Report

When President Obama met with the Dalai Lama in the White House on Thursday, he was following a tradition that all recent American presidents had dutifully honored.

Yet, to some Chinese Mr. Obama's support of the Dalai Lama represents something more troubling and disrespectful. The meeting, while low-profile, and the routine announcement last month of American arms sales to Taiwan, were taken as the latest signs that despite China's rapid ascent, the American government still refused to compromise on issues that China considered sacrosanct: matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called in Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the American ambassador here, to lecture him on the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, whom China considers a separatist.

"At this time, China and the U.S. cannot find any agreement on strategic issues," said Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University.

Few American officials would disagree. The rift in United States-China relations has arisen in part because the two countries have completely different items at the top of their foreign policy agendas and are talking past each other, American officials say.

They say that China emphasizes sovereignty issues while refusing to give any weight to the Obama administration's two top priorities in the relationship: containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and rebalancing currencies and trade. The Americans have also highlighted issues of Internet censorship and security.

"There's not a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram," an American official involved in China policy said on the condition of anonymity, following diplomatic protocol. "What's really the most worrisome is the degree to which we have that disconnect."

Those tensions are likely to worsen in coming months as domestic pressures in each country push the governments to assert their agendas more boldly, and as China's confidence in its economic system continues to grow.

On the American side, a struggling economy is forcing the Obama administration to make currency valuation and market liberalization top priorities. With an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent and midterm elections coming up, American officials are aware that pushing China to raise the value of its currency, the renminbi, and allowing American companies greater access to some Chinese markets could be important political victories for Mr. Obama and his party.

"We've got to look at the risk of a more populist American public and the U.S. Congress deciding that China is the reason our economy isn't growing enough," the American official said.

Economists say the renminbi is undervalued by 25 to 40 percent, a wider gap than at any other time since 2005, when, under pressure from the Bush administration, China decided to allow the renminbi to float in a narrow band against the dollar and other currencies. The renminbi appreciated 21 percent, but has not moved at all since July 2008. This month, Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, rejected an unusually public call by Mr. Obama for China to revalue its currency, saying that "the value of the renminbi is getting to a reasonable and balanced level."

>> Complete Report

President Barack Obama will host the Dalai Lama at the White House on Thursday despite China's warning that the meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could further damage strained ties.

Obama's first presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama is sure to draw angry complaints from Beijing, which is increasingly at odds with Washington over trade, currencies, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Internet censorship.

With the two giant economies so deeply intertwined, tensions are considered unlikely to escalate into outright confrontation. The White House expects only limited fallout.

But the Dalai Lama's visit could complicate Obama's efforts to secure China's help on key issues such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran, resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff and forging a new global accord on climate change.

By going ahead with the meeting over Chinese objections, Obama may be trying to show his resolve against an increasingly assertive Beijing after facing criticism at home for being too soft with China's leaders on his trip there in November.

"Chinese officials have known about this and their reaction is their reaction," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said dismissively on the eve of the Dalai Lama's visit.

>> Complete Report

North Korean children left to fend for themselves in China are afforded no protection under the country's laws.

AFP

A warning sign is shown on a barbed-wire fence separating China and North Korea, May 27, 2009.

A victim of China's 1989 crackdown says he's looking forward to his new life.

WASHINGTON--A promising Chinese athlete whose legs were crushed by a tank during the military crackdown on the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement has been granted political asylum after traveling to the United States for new prosthetic limbs.

Fang Zheng, 42, who danced a waltz at an event honoring him on Capitol Hill, which was carried on national television, said he had given two reasons to U.S. officials considering his application.

"One reason was that the Chinese government has already inflicted a great deal of physical and emotional suffering on me because I was injured in the June 4, 1989 crackdown," Fang said.

"They have refused to this day to pay me any compensation, and suppress me instead."

Fang said that just before he left China last year, he was warned by public security officials that he could face problems getting back in again.

"The second reason was that [they] threatened that if I did or said anything on this overseas trip that they didn't like, that they would prevent me from coming back to China," Fang said.

Duty to speak out

"I left the country right on the 20^th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, so I thought it was my duty and responsibility to tell the truth about what happened," said Fang, who was partially crushed and dragged on a Beijing boulevard as crowds fled the scene in panic.

Fang, whose wife and daughter are also now in the United States, said he had been welcomed and taken care of by exiled 1989 student veterans Zhou Fengsuo and Feng Congde, and was looking forward to beginning a new, happier, and healthier life.

In his senior college year when he joined thousands of students in calls for democracy and rule of law on Tiananmen Square in the early summer of 1989, Fang was an accomplished sprinter with Olympic ambitions.

Later, he went on to participate in the third All-China Disabled Athletic Games in Guangzhou in 1992, where he won two gold medals in discus throwing.

But his career was blocked from further development by Chinese leaders, who regarded him as a troublemaker, and he underwent two decades of close surveillance and harassment by police.

Original reporting in Mandarin by CK. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Report

A year ago this week, Chinese security agents made a midnight visit to the home of Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most high-profile human rights lawyers, and led him away. They told his family he was wanted for a brief chat.

In the months that followed, his whereabouts have become a mystery and a growing source of concern for relatives, colleagues and human rights advocates, who fear that he has been badly tortured or worse.

His case is highly unusual, even by the standards of China's opaque justice system. After a previous detention in 2006, Mr. Gao was allowed to return home after publicly confessing to a number of transgressions. Once out of custody, however, Mr. Gao recanted his confession and described abuse he said he had suffered. He also said his torturers told him he would be killed if he spoke publicly about the matter.

Diplomatic entreaties to the Chinese government have been brushed aside. Foreign reporters who ask about his plight have been treated to glib retorts. Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, compounded the mystery two weeks ago by saying that Mr. Gao "is where he should be." When prodded again at a regular press briefing last Tuesday, he offered a smile and said: "Honestly speaking, I don't know where he is. China has 1.3 billion people and I can't know all of their whereabouts."

Legal experts say the disappearance of Mr. Gao, whose case has been championed by American lawmakers, several European leaders and the United Nations, represents a disturbing milestone. Even in the most politicized cases, the Chinese authorities generally claim to be complying with their own criminal procedure laws. Mr. Gao has vanished with no official accounting or legal explanation.

Emboldened by China's newfound economic prowess but insecure about its standing at home, the Chinese Communist Party has been tightening Internet censorship, cracking down on legal rights defenders and brushing aside foreign leaders who seek to influence the outcome of individual cases.

In December, the authorities executed Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen, on drug trafficking charges despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown's personal plea to President Hu Jintao that Mr. Shaikh was mentally ill.

During President Obama's state visit to China in November, the plight of a pro-democracy advocate, Liu Xiaobo, was reportedly at the top of his list of concerns. A few weeks later, on Dec. 25, Mr. Liu was given an unexpectedly harsh 11-year sentence for publishing an online petition that sought expanded liberties.

John Kamm, a veteran American human rights campaigner, said that during three decades working in China he had rarely seen such a hard line toward dissidents -- and unbridled defiance against pressure from abroad. "China right now doesn't feel like it owes anyone anything on human rights," said Mr. Kamm, the founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, which seeks clemency for political prisoners through quiet diplomacy. "I've never seen a downward spiral like this."

In the 31 years since the People's Republic of China and the United States established diplomatic relations, Chinese officials have often resisted American intervention on human rights, calling the issue a domestic matter. But there has generally been some give and take, largely behind the scenes, especially in the years after the violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square, when China was eager to shed its pariah status abroad.

That leverage began dissipating in 2001 after China was admitted to the World Trade Organization, and Congress surrendered the right to review China's human rights record before granting it favorable trade status.

There is little space in Chinese society for unyielding dissidents like Mr. Gao. But until recently, the authorities often allowed them to stay at home under close surveillance. If they crossed certain unwritten lines, they might be prosecuted, often for the crime of inciting subversion or leaking state secrets. Even if stymied in their defense, lawyers can expect a modicum of information about their clients. Family jailhouse visits are not uncommon.

But Mr. Gao's case has defied these norms.

In September, a security agent who took Mr. Gao into custody told one of his brothers that he had simply disappeared during a walk. The brother, Gao Zhiyi, said he suspected the worst. "If he were alive, they would have allowed me to visit him," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Shaanxi Province. "Either that or he's in such bad shape, it would be too horrible for anyone to see him."

Rights advocates say Mr. Gao's predicament can be partly traced to his persistent and caustic criticism of the ruling Communist Party. A self-educated lawyer, Mr. Gao, 46, was named one of China's top 10 lawyers by the Ministry of Justice in 2001 for his work defending victims of medical malpractice and farmers whose land had been seized for redevelopment.

But Mr. Gao quickly ran afoul of the authorities when he began representing members of unofficial Christian churches and adherents of Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement. In 2005, the Beijing judicial bureau closed his firm and suspended the licenses of its 20 lawyers. Mr. Gao countered by publicly renouncing his Communist Party membership and writing a series of open letters to senior leaders that demanded an end to the persecution of Falun Gong believers.

A week later, Mr. Gao was arrested. In a letter published just before his latest disappearance, he documented what he said happened to him during his 54 days in custody. He was shocked and beaten almost continuously, he wrote, or forced to sit motionless, enveloped by blinding lights. By the end, he said, "the skin all over my body had turned black." He was released only after he confessed to various crimes; he retracted his confession as soon as he was let go.

A month before he vanished last February, Mr. Gao's wife and children slipped away from their minders and, with the help of Christian activists, left China. Ten days later, they were granted asylum in the United States.

Renee Xia, the international director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said the family's escape, coupled with the revelations of Mr. Gao's torture, probably infuriated those charged with reining in his activities.

Given the increasingly strained relations between China and the United States, it is unclear whether Mr. Gao's supporters abroad can have any impact on his fate. But some, like Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that Chinese leaders were still sensitive to international criticism and that a spike in global protests over Mr. Gao's mistreatment would not go unnoticed.

"Beijing doesn't care about releasing a prisoner or two," he said. "It's not going to bring about the collapse of the Communist Party but if they don't have to do it, they won't."

Zhang Jing and Jonathan Ansfield contributed research.

>> Original Report

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sugita Katya
February 03, 2010

China will never have its voice heard on the international stage unless the government loosens its tight grip over the media and film industry, the CEO of the country's No. 2 Internet portal said Wednesday.

Charles Zhang, the often outspoken chief executive of Sohu.com Inc, told a forum in Beijing that plans to create global Chinese media giants were doomed to fail if the government did not relax controls.

"Chinese newspapers and television stations completely lack meaningful competition, and have no independent personality ... so they have no authority or respect," Zhang said, according to a transcript of the speech posted on the company's website.

"If the Wall Street Journal or New York Times report something, the whole world pays attention, and believes it," he added. "China's right to speak in the world is totally lacking because it has no media organizations which can win respect."

China has tried to get its voice heard more globally mainly via the English-language channel CCTV-9, but has achieved little success despite pouring money into the venture.

The ruling Communist Party has prescribed a mix of commercial reforms and continued state control and censorship for the media and publishing sectors, while drawing a red line under issues directly challenging key policies.

China also wants to harness commercial forces to create media that can project Chinese ideas and values to a changing public and a wider world.

Zhang said these reforms risked creating media companies with no competitiveness, a "tiger's head with a snake's tail" -- a Chinese expression meaning to start well but end poorly.

>> Original Report

A new report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on press freedom in China highlights the battle by local censors to control media commentary on a wide range of topics throughout in 2009. 

Banned topics range from events associated with social unrest and public protests against authorities, to reports of photos of an actress topless on a Caribbean beach.   

The report, China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009, will be officially released by the IFJ at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong at 11am on January 31.  

It presents data gathered by IFJ media rights monitoring in China, detailing the intensifying efforts of authorities since early 2009 to control online content and commentary, and assessing the official restrictions and range of impediments faced by local and foreign media working in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.  

Amid the controversy over Google's recently stated refusal to censor the contents of its Chinese-language search engine, following allegations that China's authorities had authorised a cyber attack on Google's US-based systems, and gmail accounts held by activists in China had been breached, China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009 presents the wider context of restrictions confronting journalists and media in China. 

In calling on China to investigate Google's allegations, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says US companies need to take a "principled stand" against censorship.  

"The IFJ fully endorses Mrs Clinton's comments," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said. 

"We further call on the international community to take a principled stand to oppose all forms of restrictions on the rights of journalists to do their work in China, including the steady stream of official bans as well as new rules in 2009 which make it virtually impossible for local journalists who work in traditional or online media to receive the accreditation they need in order to conduct their profession." 

The IFJ report details 62 bans issued from January to November 2009, among hundreds of regulations issued by central and provincial authorities in the past year.  

Compiled with the assistance of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), the list below is not complete because of difficulties in obtaining information in China about instructions to the media.  

"The IFJ list indicates that much as China's censors are maintaining a vigilant eye, they are also struggling to maintain a grip on information dissemination," White said.

 >> Complete Report

China has announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4bn (£4bn).

Beijing said it would suspend military exchanges with the US, impose sanctions on companies selling arms, and review co-operation on major issues.

Ties are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship.

Taiwan's president welcomed the sale, saying it would make his country "more confident and secure".

Beijing has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control if Taiwan moved towards formal independence.

Taiwan and China have been ruled by separate governments since the end of a civil war in 1949.

Strained relations

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says China's latest moves are what the US would have expected, as the US view is that military exchanges are of limited use.

China's Xinhua state news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying: "Considering the severe harm and odious effect of US arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese side has decided to suspend planned mutual military visits."

"We strongly demand that the US respect the Chinese side's interests", it added, calling for the sale to be stopped.

The foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it would impose sanctions on US companies selling weapons to Taiwan, and that co-operation on major international issues would be affected.

The US, like the EU, has banned its companies selling arms to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, so it was not clear what effect the Chinese move would have.

Xinhua also said the US defence attache had been summoned.

Defence ties between the two countries have been difficult for several years because of differences over Taiwan, but the two countries' leaders pledged to improve them in 2009.

'More confident'

The moves came after Mr He said the arms deal would have "repercussions that neither side wishes to see".

"The United States' announcement of the planned weapons sales to Taiwan will have a seriously negative impact on many important areas of exchanges and co-operation between the two countries," Mr He said in a statement published on the foreign ministry website.

Earlier China summoned US Ambassador Jon Huntsman to give a warning about the consequences of the deal and to urge its immediate cancellation.

Taiwan, meanwhile, welcomed the US move.

"It will let Taiwan feel more confident and secure so we can have more interactions with China," the Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying.

The Pentagon earlier notified the US Congress of the proposed arms sale, which forms part of a package first pledged by the Bush administration.

Friday's notification to Congress by the Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) was required by law. It does not mean the sale has been concluded.

US lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the proposed sale, Associated Press reported. If there are no objections, it would proceed.

The arms package includes 114 Patriot missiles, 60 Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet, the agency said in a statement.

It does not include F-16 fighter jets, which Taiwan's military has been seeking.

Our correspondent says the deal has been in the pipeline for a long time and is nearing its conclusion, but China does want to stop it.

Beijing has previously warned the US not to go ahead with arms sales to Taiwan.

Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Beijing with a call to China to investigate cyber attacks on search giant Google, after the company said email accounts of human rights activists had been hacked.

The DSCA said the proposed sale would support Taiwan's "continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and enhance its defensive capability."

It added: "The proposed sale will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region."

The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Washington regards it as an obligation to provide Taiwan with defensive arms.

>> Original Report