BEIJING OLYMPICS: AMCIT DETENTIONS/DEPORTATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 003934

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM; CA/OCS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/14/2018
TAGS: CASC CJAN KOLY PHUM PREL CH
SUBJECT: BEIJING OLYMPICS: AMCIT DETENTIONS/DEPORTATION
SUMMARY

REF: A. BEIJING 3685

B. BEIJING 3766

BEIJING 00003934 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: CDA Dan Piccuta for reason 1.4 (b),(d)


1. (SBU) Summary: During the period August 6-24, 2008,
Chinese authorities detained 44 Amcits. Thirty-four were
detained while staging or planning to stage Tibet-related
demonstrations; four Christian activists were detained while
protesting Chinese policies on abortion and religious
freedom. In addition, five Amcits were detained for
ticket-scalping and one was detained for an altercation with
a taxi driver. Apart from the 44 Amcits detained, another
Tibet activist was denied entry into China upon arrival at
Beijing airport on August 8 and returned to the United States
later that same day. Of the 44 detained Amcits, all but one
have been deported to the United States; the remaining Amcit
is out on bail awaiting possible trial for assaulting a taxi
driver. The number of activists demonstrating during the
Olympics to bring attention to causes such as Darfur and
Falun Gong turned out to be far fewer than anticipated. End
Summary.

2008 Olympics - Free Tibet
--------------


2. (C) Protests during the 2008 Olympics ended up being a
story of Tibet activists, including members of the Students
for a Free Tibet (SFT) and the Free Tibet Reporters, staging
"Free Tibet" demonstrations in public places. However,
pre-Olympics concerns about widespread protests conducted by
members of a variety of groups - Team Darfur, Falun Gong, and
other human rights supporters - were not realized. Tight
Chinese Government control over the three official Olympics
"protest zones" (Note: Although Chinese officials received 77
applications to hold protests, they did not issue a single
permit to protest) and close scrutiny of visa applications
(Note: Chinese officials revoked the tourist visa of Team
Darfur co-founder and Olympic Gold Medalist Joey Cheek on the
eve of his departure for Beijing) likely discouraged or
prevented many protests.


3. (SBU) For ACS, the Olympics began at 0830 on August 6
with a call from a woman identifying herself as Alma David.
She reported that two SFT members, Philip Bartell and Tirian
Mink, had just been detained by Chinese authorities while
staging a protest by climbing a light pole not far from the
entrance to the National Stadium (the Bird's Nest) and
unfurling a "Free Tibet" banner. When asked how she knew
about this, she replied that "someone" had called her. She
claimed not to know who had called her with the news, why
that person had thought to call her, nor did she explain what
prompted her to call ACS. ACS then called the Beijing Public
Security Bureau (PSB) requesting confirmation of the
detention of the pair, followed by a written request for
information on their status. Calls made to the PSB were met
with a "we have no information" response and written requests
went unanswered. Around 2100 hours on August 6, the PSB
called ACS to inform us that Mr. Bartell and Mr. Mink had
been deported from China on the 2100 Air China flight from
Beijing to Los Angeles.


4. (SBU) Six of the eight subsequent Tibet protest
activities and PSB responses followed the pattern set with
this first incident. First, SFT activists staged an event in
a public place and were almost immediately taken into custody
by security personnel. Meanwhile, other SFT members at the
protest site but not part of the event, took photos or video
of the activity (that were promptly put up on the SFT
website) and called Ms. David. Ms. David subsequently called
ACS with information on the protest, provided us with the
names, passport numbers and dates of birth of those taken
into custody. ACS then called the PSB seeking confirmation
of Ms. David's report and followed up telephone calls with a
written request to the PSB for consular access. Throughout,
all calls made to the PSB netted the "we have no information"
response and written requests were ignored. Finally, the
detainees were deported later the same day on either the 2100
Air China flight to Los Angeles or the 1330 Air China flight
to New York. A PSB officer then called ACS shortly after
each plane took off and provided the names, dates of birth
and passport numbers of those who had been deported on that
day's flight.


5. (C) The PSB handling of the final two Tibet protest
activities departed from the pattern described above. During
the evening hours of August 19 and early morning hours of
August 20, the PSB took into custody six Amcits associated

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with the group Free Tibet reporters. The group included
James Powderly, a renowned graffiti artist, who was planning
a Free Tibet laser exhibition in Beijing. Shortly after
midnight on August 21 a final two SFT members were detained
after unfurling a Free Tibet banner near an Olympic venue.
In these cases the PSB, rather than deporting the detainees
the same day, took the detainees to a PSB detention center
(Note: All previously detained SFT members were held at a
hotel or work unit until being deported.) and sentenced them
to ten days administrative detention. After high-level
engagement by the Embassy (to include the Ambassador meeting
with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yecui, the Deputy
Chief of Mission with PSB Standing Deputy Director General
Xue Dongzhen and the Consul General calling on Deputy
Director General of the Consular Division Qiu Xuejin),the
six Free Tibet Reporter activists and the two SFT members
were released on August 24. Interestingly, whereas all SFT
activists were detained while staging protests, the six Free
Tibet Reporters activists were picked up by the PSB before
having a chance to carry out a protest. It appears the
authorities discovered the plans of the Free Tibet Reporters
activists and decided to take them into custody to prevent
them from carrying out their planned protests.


6. (C) Another disparity in PSB handling of the final two
cases is that while some of those in the first six groups of
SFT protestors were deported at Chinese Government expense,
all members of the final two groups were made to buy their
own tickets back to the United States. In post-Olympic
meetings with ConOffs from other Embassies, ConOffs from the
German and British Embassies advise that all of their
citizens deported for protest activities were compelled to
buy their own airline tickets.

Christian Activists Arrested
--------------


7. (SBU) The PSB also detained four Christian activists
protesting Chinese policies on freedom of religious
expression. The Christian activists included a group of
three who staged a protest on August 7 at Tiananmen Square.
They were held briefly and deported later the same day. The
fourth, Edward Romero, defaced two hotel rooms on August 7 in
a protest against Chinese treatment of Christians then went
into hiding until he came out of hiding to stage a protest on
August 24 in Tiananmen Square, at which point he was
detained. During the early morning hours of August 26 he was
deported to the United States.

The Rest
--------------


8. (SBU) Apart from those detained for engaging in protest
activities, other Amcits detained by the PSB included five
briefly held for ticket scalping and one who got into a fight
with a taxi driver. The ticket scalpers were detained for
less than 24 hours, had their visas cancelled, then were
issued limited validity visas and told to leave China within
the following few days. The Amcit involved in the
altercation with a taxi driver is now out on bail awaiting
possible trial.

How Things Were Handled, Inside the Velvet Glove - A Velvet
Fist?
--------------
--------------


9. (C) PSB handling of these foreigners' cases, particularly
those of the Tibet activists, was much softer than would be
accorded PRC citizens. Tibetan independence is one of the
most sensitive issues in China, and PRC citizens
demonstrating in favor of Tibet independence could expect to
be dealt with harshly by the Government. During the Olympics
period, when China was under close scrutiny by the
international media, almost all the detained foreign
protestors were held at a hotel or similar facility, not at a
conventional detention facility. Most of the Amcits were
held for a short time and then put on a flight to the United
States within 24 hours. The initial group of Christian
activists was also handled in this manner. Under our
bilateral consular agreement, Chinese authorities are
required to notify the Embassy of the detention of Amcits
within four days of their detention and to grant consular
access shortly thereafter. Due to the rapid deportation of
all except the last two groups of protesters, authorities
were able to avoid notifying us of the detention of Amcits
and to forestall Embassy involvement in these cases without
violating our bilateral consular agreement. Similarly,

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although the five ticket scalpers were initially detained,
none was kept in detention for more than 24 hours. Their
cases were handled by the PSB Entry/Exit Bureau Visa office
expeditiously, and all were out of the country within a few
days. Even Mr. Romero's actions involving defacing two hotel
rooms and leaving without paying his hotel bill (a cost of
around $2,000, according to press reports),in addition to
conducting a public protest without authorization - resulted
in him being held for a day and a half before being deported.



10. (SBU) The sole remaining Amcit detained during the
Olympic period is the one who got into an altercation with a
taxi driver. His case is being handled as a straightforward
assault case in much the same way as similar cases were
handled in the past by the PSB. Throughout the Olympics, ACS
maintained contact with ConOffs from other Embassies to
exchange information on how their detained citizens were
handled by the authorities. They reported similar treatment
of those detained for protest activities.


11. (U) Embassy Beijing Consular lessons learned are
reported in Beijing 3766.

PICCUTA
PICCUTA