Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06GUANGZHOU32369
2006-12-06 06:59:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Guangzhou
Cable title:  

(C-AL6-01852) South China Rights Protection Part

Tags:  PGOV PHUM SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 032369 

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STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/16
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI CH
SUBJECT: (C-AL6-01852) South China Rights Protection Part
II: Long-term Strategies for Rights Education

Ref: A) Guangzhou 36368; B) Secstate 182540; C) Guangzhou

29575; D) Guangzhou 31041 ; E) 05 Guangzhou 29647; F) 03
Guangzhou 17541

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 032369

SIPDIS

C O N F I D E N T I A L

SIPDIS
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/16
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI CH
SUBJECT: (C-AL6-01852) South China Rights Protection Part
II: Long-term Strategies for Rights Education

Ref: A) Guangzhou 36368; B) Secstate 182540; C) Guangzhou

29575; D) Guangzhou 31041 ; E) 05 Guangzhou 29647; F) 03
Guangzhou 17541


1. (U) Classified by Consul General Robert Goldberg.
Reason 1.4 (d).


2. (C) SUMMARY: Some South China Rights Protection
Movement activists want to focus less on overt political
activities that the government will view as opposition and
more on information sharing and education, thereby
broadening the general public's knowledge of rights and
civil duties. They believe human rights primers (mentioned
by three separate activists),civil society training
centers, and independent documentaries could be effective.
Such methods might be more sustainable and could
potentially be funded by outsiders, although their results
are less immediate. END SUMMARY.


3. (C) Part one of this series described how activists are
trying to seek funding and become more organized.
Nevertheless, their aggressive political activities and
current disunity make outside funding difficult. At the
same time, some activists, because of personal experiences
of government pressure and a general crackdown on the
Rights Protection Movement, are turning away from direct
confrontation with the government to more indirect methods
of reform.

Citizen Magazine: Becoming More Mainstream
--------------


4. (C) In October, South China Normal University's Yao
Yuanguang, a Falun Gong practioner and leader of Citizen
magazine ("Shimin"),told Congenoff that additional members
of Citizen magazine have been "blacklisted," including
Zhuang Li, a professor at Guangzhou's Jinan University (ref
D). The magazine's publisher, Guangxi Normal University
Press, has also been investigated by the National Security
Bureau (NSB). The NSB wanted to know why Citizen was
allowed to be printed and where the money for its
publishing came from. Yao said that the leaders of
Citizen's parent organization, the Guangdong Humanistic

Association (GHA),have good connections with some
important former leaders of Guangdong (including a former
Governor and Party Secretary),but that these connections
do not extend to Guangxi and could not protect the
publisher. In addition to pressure from the NSB, Yao said
he faces a dilemma with his staff. Yao said the magazine's
funds are limited and he has only enough money to publish a
few more issues. Additonally, because of NSB pressure, Yao
decided to hold back Citizen's next issue until sometime in

2007. Many staff writers, who have invested their personal
savings in the magazine, have threatened to resign and
withdraw their money if the magazine deviates from its
political views or delays its publication.


5. (C) Although he may lose some writers and capital, Yao
has decided to change the content of the magazine from
strictly political to include entertainment and general
interest articles, which could also earn advertisement
revenue for the magazine. Besides Citizen, Yao said he
also tries to promote the computer software "Freegate" - a
Falun Gong invention - that allows users to avoid the
Chinese internet firewall. Yao also said the GHA was in
the process of acquiring a book number (which means the
publisher condones the book's contents) for its human
rights textbook. Previously, the GHA had "illegally"
printed and distributed about 20,000 copies of the textbook,
without a book number.

Rights Textbooks, Training and "Making Friends"
--------------


6. (C) Two activists - Li Xiaolong, formerly of Beijing's
Empowerment and Rights Institute (EARI) ("renjiquan") and
Zhen Biaoxue, formerly based in Zhejiang province where he
was working with his friend and China Democracy Party
founder, Wang Youcai - have resettled in Nanning, Guangxi,
and decided to pursue less sensitive political activities.
Li maintains close ties with many Beijing lawyers such as
Gao Zhisheng and Zhengfa university law professor, Teng
Biao, who has visited him in Nanning. Li's change in
tactics stems from the October 2005 government crackdown
against the EARI, which shut down the organization and led

GUANGZHOU 00032369 002 OF 003


to his being banned from travel outside of China.


7. (C) Li is trying to further rights protection through
two methods: a human rights textbook and a civil society
training center. In his 20 years of human rights work, Li
considers human rights education the most important new
field for the rights protection movement. He is trying to
publish a textbook entitled "What is Civil Society?". The
book describes the history of the United Nations Human
Rights Charter, outlines the Charter's most basic
principles, and gives examples for China. Thus far Li has
been unable to find an official publishing office that
would be willing to sell him a book number. In addition to
the human rights textbook, Li is also trying to create a
civil society training center with about six employees in
Nanning. According to Li, the organization plans to advise
local people on how to contact appropriate government
authorities and media groups (such as Radio Free Asia and
Voice of America) to raise attention to human rights and
environmental abuses. Li said this method - unlike the
EARI, which found legal violations and personally forwarded
them to international press - "follows the law" and
protects his organization from accusations of direct
involvement in village conflicts. Already Li has learned
of many land compensation cases from Guangxi villagers in
Nanning's "petitioners village" (similar to the one in
Beijing); the villagers visited the capital in order to
complain to the Autonomous Region's top officials.


8. (C) Zhen, a Wenzhou native, joined the democracy
movement in China in the 1980s, after becoming friends with
Wang Youcai, his classmate at Hangzhou University. From
1990-1991, Zhen was imprisoned because of his affiliation
with Wang and since then has also been barred from travel
outside of China. Zhen's goals are simpler than Li's.
After his confrontations with the law, he believes the best
strategy is to simply "make friends" and exchange opinions.
He said that if he can find enough people with similar
beliefs toward political reform, that over time an
organization will form naturally.

Digital Video: Media for the Masses
--------------


9. (C) Zhongshan University's Ai Xiaoming has been at the
forefront of the Rights Protection movement since 2003,
when she became one of the first activists to condemn the
death of migrant worker, Sun Zhigang (ref F). Since 2004,
Ai's political activities have been focused on independent
documentaries, using digital video (DV),a technology that
allows for low-cost filming and reproduction. Ai told
Congenoff that film is a powerful tool because many rural
Chinese are illiterate and are best persuaded through
pictures. So far, Ai and her editor (Hu Jie) have produced
10 documentaries, with the majority of them focusing on
gender issues, such as date rape (Note: Ai is also a leader
on gender issues, being the first person to produce the
"Vagina Monologues" in China and is the advisor of
Zhongshan University's homosexual students club, the first
of its kind in China. End note). Additionally, Ai has two
significant political documentaries: "Taishi Village" and
"People's Representative, Yao Lifa".


10. (C) "Taishi Village" documents the 2005 struggle of
the Taishi villagers (a village near Guangzhou, ref E) to
legally recall their corrupt village chief. In addition to
interviews with recently released villagers, the
documentary also follows such outside actors as Chinese
journalists, rights protection lawyers (Guo Feixiong, Tang
Jingling and Guo Yan) and independent candidate experts
(Hubei's Yao Lifa and Lu Banglie). The film's most
shocking scenes include the broad-daylight arrest of Lu
Banglie, despite showing his National Peoples' Congress
card to police, and an attack by thugs on Ai, Tang and Guo,
while trying to escape the village. This past August the
film was screened in front of the Taishi villagers on the
one-year anniversary of the incident (Note: South China
Morning Post reporter Leu Siew Ying was detained while
trying to cover the story, ref C. End note.). A second
film entitled "People's Representative, Yao Lifa" picks up
after the Taishi fallout and records the struggle of
independent candidates in Hubei (Yao Lifa and Lu Banglie)
and in Taishi village (Feng Qiusheng). Ai said the film is
important because it shows the daily work of ordinary
activists rather than leaders such as Gao Zhisheng and Guo

GUANGZHOU 00032369 003 OF 003


Feixiong. The majority of the film follows Yao as he
explains to villagers, in town hall settings, their right
to elect independent candidates and the benefit it will
have for China's reform and development. Ai also documents
police harassment of the candidates, including an interview
with Lu, two weeks after receiving a beating by thugs that
put him temporarily in a coma, and with Feng, after he
reportedly faced 85-days of interrogation and torture.


11. (C) Ai does all her own filming and her ideas often
come from conferences she attends. Her film studio
includes 20 people - five faculty members and 15 students.
She disseminates the films among gender studies faculties
in China and through friends in the Rights Protection
Movement. Ai wants the educated civil servants of China to
see her movies and potentially change their views. She has
heard that the film "Taishi" even reached Wen Jiabao's
office.


12. (C) Ai recently completed a new film entitled "The
Epic of the Central Plains" about a village affected by the
blood contamination scandal in Henan. Thousands were
infected with HIV, and the local officials' refused to deal
with the issue. During her filming, Ai said the local
people were very supportive of her work, even providing her
with free food and shelter. Ai's goal is not only to
document the villagers' complaints, but also to "provide
locals with a strategy for activism." She hopes that
everyone who watches the film will donate 1 RMB to Aids
prevention work in China.


13. (C) In the future, Ai wants to produce a film on human
rights in China. Ai said that in China, "the phrase 'human
rights' has never been seen as positive;" moreover, the
Chinese people have only been given lessons on obedience
and "never about how to use their rights." She wants to
produce an educational video that describes the history of
human rights, possibly entitled "Building Up a Common Human
Rights Culture." The video would likely include an
explanation of basic human rights and historical clips from
the signing of the United Nations Human Rights Charter.
She is unsure whether to include examples of human rights
abuses in China, as this would make the film more
controversial. Ai is increasingly sensitive to outside
pressure and decided against signing a petition on Gao
Zhisheng's behalf because of concerns raised by the Dean of
her university.

Comment: A More Viable Strategy?
--------------


14. (C) The education-based methods of some South China
activists may turn out to be more viable than aggressive
political tactics such as protests and independent
candidates. This would increase the potential for funding.
For example, the United Nations may be interested in
funding projects on human rights education. Additionally,
some donors have expressed interest in funding Citizen
magazine if its content were more mainstream. Moreover,
broad educational activities are not as threatening to
local interests. In the handling of many rights protection
cases such as Taishi or Chen Guangcheng's research into
one-child policy abuse, local officials were accused of
personal malfeasance. General education on human rights,
on the other hand, is a universal principle, the promotion
of which would not lead to criticism of any particular
group or official.

GOLDBERG