New report documents severe violations of human rights in Hamburg’s partner town of Shanghai

Shortly before the beginning of CHINA TIME 2008 the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) and the Regional Group Hamburg of Tibet Initiative Deutschland (TID) drew attention on Wednesday to severe violations of human rights in Hamburg’s twin town of Shanghai. In a new 53-page report they document hundreds of violations of human rights which have been committed since January 20ß06 in the Chinese harbour town. Arbitrary arrests and torture of supporters of the meditation movement Falun Gong, the deaths of regime critics in prisons and work camps, the persecution of lawyers and university teachers and the suppression of the freedom of the press and internet are everyday occurrences in Shanghai. The human rights organisations appealed to the Hanse town of Hamburg to work with more dedication in the partnership for the human rights situation in Shanghai.

These dark sides to the Chinese centre of trade and commerce in 22 years of twinning between Hamburg and Shanghai have hardly come to the notice of the general public. A first positive step was however taken in May 2007 when a resolution was passed in the Hamburg Parliament against violations of human rights in forced labour camps in China.

The report documents the arrest of 173 women and 51 men on account of their religious attachment to Falun Gong. It is above all older women who have suffered most from the persecution of Falun Gong. Most of them have been tortured in prison. Some have been committed to psychiatric hospitals since they were not prepared to abjure the meditation movement. Shanghai’s authorities have acted against the signatories to the petition also with house searches, arrests and commitment to psychiatric hospitals. The report documents 556 cases of infringements by the authorities against petitioners who had protested by perfectly legal means against their being driven out of their houses. They are the victims of the economic boom in Shanghai. A great problem is also caused by the discrimination of the 4.4 million migrant workers living in the city. In sectors of the future like the internet industry there are numerous violations of human rights. Internet journalists who are well-known throughout the country have been intimidated in Shanghai for their criticisms of the regime, placed under house-arrest or taken into custody. Critical web-sites have been closed and computers confiscated. This repression does not go well with the image of an open city of industry and commerce. Prominent Chinese human rights activists have also been held in the prisons of the city. Reliable reports of former prisoners indicate that in the prisons and work camps of the city companies have toys, clothing and electrical articles made.