China’s new detention law divides experts

Rights activists say it legalizes torture in secret prisons, but a lawyer who was once jailed sees progress.

Human rights activists are concerned that a newly ratified Chinese criminal procedure law will officially sanction the torture and mistreatment of government critics.

But some legal experts say the law, allowing police to hold suspects in an undisclosed location for up to six months without formal charges, is actually an improvement on the current practice of secret detentions, if it is exercised fairly.

“I think that the law itself is a step forward, but it’s very hard to change what the police do in reality,” said Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer in Beijing who once represented dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

The regulations ratified Wednesday, expected to take effect next year, allow detentions in cases of suspected “engaging in terrorism” or “endangering national security.” Security officers will be required to notify a suspect’s family within 24 hours of his or her detention, but can conceal the detainee’s location and deny access to legal counsel.

The new law, replacing provisions ratified in 1996, could improve the rights of mentally ill suspects and juveniles and could protect suspects against forced confessions.

The law was approved by 2,639 of 3,000 delegates on the last day of the National People’s Congress, a twoweek meeting in Beijing. It will “better embody the constitutional principle of respecting and protecting human rights,” delegate Wang Liming told the official New China News Agency.

But lawyer Liu said the changes are significant only if they are followed adequately. “Once they feel a threat to stability,” he said of security forces, “they will abandon any legal procedure.”

Liu was detained in April after calls for an “Arab Spring”- style revolution in China triggered a wide spread crackdown on dissent. His client Ai Weiwei was detained for 21⁄ months

2 without charges being filed.

China’s courts are strictly controlled by the ruling Communist Party, which, according to human rights groups, has often used allegations of “endangering national security” to silence its critics. Outspoken bloggers, activists and petitioners have been regularly placed in “black jails,” unofficial holding pens in hotels and apartment blocks under the watch of plainclothes security agents.

“Already, many thousands of people in China are being held in secret and are at great risk of being tortured,” Catherine Baber, deputy director of the AsiaPacific region for Amnesty International, said recently.

Users of Sina Weibo, a popular microblog similar to Twitter, have compared the new legislation to the ways of the Gestapo, the Kgband even the villain from the horror movie “Saw.” One cartoon online shows a giant

‘After you send a Weibo, one day after work you don’t return home, you’ve disappeared. Then one day, your family members are suddenly given a bag of ashes.’

— User of the microblog Weibo, on the possible effects of the

new law

hand squashing a tiny person with one finger.

Some Weibo users ruminated on the possible effects of the provisions.

“After you send a Weibo, one day after work you don’t return home, you’ve disappeared,” one person wrote. “Then one day, your family members are suddenly given a bag of ashes, and told that you were detained for ‘endangering national security’ and unexpectedly died of a heart problem.”

Lan Rongjie, an assistant professor of law at Zhejiang University, said the significant public response to the legislation shows that the Chinese are growing more aware of legal rights, even if the outcry had no direct effect on the National People’s Congress.

“Ten years ago there was no Weibo at all, and it was rare that any legislation would be discussed by common people,” he said. “Now it seems that every single individual is involved in this process.”