Not too political, but a pretty great story.

Three stories across the wire today regarding the Chinese government’s continued human rights abuses and disregard for the rule of law.

First, the Tibetan political prisoner advocacy group that tracks many cases inside Tibet, GuChuSum, reports that three Tibetans were executed for their participation in the spring 2008 national uprising:

Yesterday,around 11 am (Chinese Standard Time),  three Tibetan political prisoners were shot dead by the Chinese soldiers in Lhasa, according to a reliable source. Among the dead was a girl from Nyenmo County, near Lhasa. One political prisoner was identified as Lobsang Tenzin from Lhasa, TAR. The other one was Amdo Ngaba.

All the three had participated in the 2008 uprising in Tibet.

Tension is rising in Lhasa as more Tibetans are arresting recently by the Chinese police. It is an act to crack-down on Tibetans who had participated in 2008 mass uprising against the Chinese government.

GuChuSum Movement of Tibet is gravely concerned about the well being of all political prisoners languishing in Chinese prisons in Tibet. We appeal the international community to exert pressure on the Chinese government to release all the political prisoners unconditionally.

Second, the Chinese government has disappeared at least 43 Uighurs in the crackdown following this year’s protests in East Turkestan. Human Rights Watch could document 43 cases, but assume that the actual number is higher.

The Human Rights Watch report disputes that [detentions have followed Chinese law], stating that in most cases, “the men and boys detained in the course of these sweeps and raids have been missing since the security forces took them away.”

“Their families’ attempts to inquire about the relatives at local police stations or with other law-enforcement agencies proved futile,” the report stated. “The authorities either said they had no knowledge of the arrests, or claimed the inquiry was still ongoing without admitting the fact of detention, or simply chased the families away.”

The report called the 43 cases “enforced disappearances,” saying they “are serious violations of international human-rights law” as well as Chinese law.

Lastly the New York Times has an article on Rebiya Kadeer, a leader of the Uighur exile community. The piece by Andrew Jacobs points out that Kadeer’s increased profile over the last year is due both to the Uighur uprising which received international coverage and the Chinese governments vicious and public attacks on her. The Chinese government’s attacks on Kadeer as a mastermind terrorist have fallen completely flat, similarly to nearly identical charges levied by the Chinese government against the Dalai Lama. Kadeer, as a leader of the Uighur World Congress, preaches nonviolence as a means for Uighurs to attain rights and end China’s military occupation of East Turkestan. The Chinese government has still not learned that the propaganda they spin at their citizenry does not work on a skeptical, reality-based global community.

This is just one sad, sickening example of what the Empire State Building honored by lighting red and yellow to honor 60 years of Chinese Communist Party rule the last two nights.

“No witnesses.”

This is one of the governing philosophies of the Chinese government when it comes to areas that they occupy during times of unrest. Witnesses can bring photographs, videos, and first-hand accounts of what happens in China and Tibet during unrest. They can account for who initiated violence if it occurs. They can document government brutality during crackdowns. And they can take this evidence back outside the world’s largest prison and make sure the global community knows what atrocities the Chinese government has perpetrated against the Tibetan people. In fact, it was precisely this scenario that started the modern Tibetan independence solidarity movement. Westerners traveling in Tibet in 1989 documented the uprising that followed when Chinese forces fired on unarmed demonstrators and the crackdown that accompanied the ensuing uprising. Organizations like International Campaign for Tibet and Free Tibet Campaign owe their roots to witnesses of Chinese brutality against Tibetans in the late 1980s.

But China’s government has learned their lesson and now regularly expels foreigners from Tibet and bars their entrance for prolonged period of time. We saw extensive travel, journalistic, and foreign travel bans into Tibet in spring and summer 2008, as well as winter and spring of 2009. We’ve also seen an extensive travel ban in East Turkestan during Uighur protests.

Now, again, the Chinese government has prohibited all foreigners from traveling to Tibet between now and early October around fears that Tibetans will protest a parade by occupying Chinese forces mandating the celebration of 60 years of Communist Party rule. Rather than cancel this offensive celebration of a brutal military occupation out of respect for Tibetans and concern for any violence that may be precipitated, the Chinese government is simply prohibiting any foreigners from coming into Tibet for the next three weeks or more. This way, there will be no witnesses to whatever happens and they can use state media to spin whatever propaganda they choose in the event that something does happen.

This action, just weeks ahead of President Obama’s planned visit to China to meet with CCP leader Hu Jintao, is a slap against those who have pushed for liberalization of China’s policies towards Tibet. Obama is also scheduled to briefly meet with Hu at the UN opening ceremony and the G-20 meeting. President Obama must raise Tibet with Hu when they meet and he cannot pull punches. This reprehensible behavior cannot be glossed over or ignored by the Obama administration.

Dechen Pemba, writing at Global Voices, reports that the Chinese government has recently shut down a large number of prominent Tibetan language blogs and blog hosting services. Pemba tells us what is particularly suspicious and disturbing about this series of events:

Quite alarming to report that all of the most popular Tibetan language blog hosting sites (except one) have been inaccessible for almost three weeks now.

Although it is fairly common practice for Tibetan language blog hosting sites to be taken down (sometimes for “maintenance”) at times deemed sensitive by the authorities (see ‘All Quiet on the Tibetan Blog Front‘), this month holds no particular political significance as far as I can see.

Pemba includes a number of screenshots of the silenced Tibetan blogs. Additionally, and perhaps coincidentally, she reports that the Chinese government has, for the first time, launched a Tibetan language version of the state rag, People’s Daily.

As Dechen notes, this censorship is happening at a time where the online space is a particularly critical outlet amidst a tightly controlled Tibetan plateau. The Chinese government is shutting down not only the particular bloggers whose writing and politics they don’t like, but entire avenues for discussion online. The vacuum of news and discourse for Tibetans is simultaneously being replaced by official Chinese government propaganda outlets. These are not welcome developments and a clear sign that the Chinese government is seeking to tighten its control on Tibet as a means of preventing any further protests or disturbances by the occupied people.

It’s not surprising that the Beijing government is pressuring the Taiwanese government to rescind their invitation to the Dalai Lama to come visit their country. Despite the fact that the Dalai Lama has visited Taiwan twice in the last twelve years, the Chinese government is now actively waging a campaign against the Dalai Lama. One of the key planks in their strategy is to get him dis-invited from visits to countries that he has previously visited without objection. Recently this pressure has been used to get South Africa and Belgium to drop their invitations to His Holiness. The Chinese government has also pressured France, Australia, the United States, and other European countries regarding visits by the Dalai Lama or his participation in events.

This is a craven and dangerous tactic by the Chinese government, but what is worse is that some governments are listening to China and shutting out the Dalai Lama. I hope the Taiwanese government stays strong in the face of Beijing’s pressure and threats, but we shall see.

While Woeser’s piece yesterday certainly identified the incredibly difficult situation the Chinese government creates for human rights lawyers, especially in Tibet, today’s Washington Post op-ed on the assault on China’s human rights lawyers by Teng Biao is truly a break-through for American awareness in the plight of the rule of law in China. While the New York Times is America’s paper of record, the Post is our capitol’s paper. Teng’s detailed litany of abuses rights lawyers face by the government will surely open eyes in DC. Moreover, Teng identifies China’s desire to be a respected member of the global community that allows enough space for rights lawyers to function.

We can do these things not because China’s rulers are becoming more tolerant (they are not) but because, for several reasons, they find that they need a legal system in order to rule. A few decades ago problems such as property disputes, domestic violence and even murders were handled by Communist Party functionaries inside communes or “work units.” But now, because communes and most work units are things of the past, the role of lawyers and courts has to expand. Modern business also needs law. And, perhaps most important for us who do “rights law,” the government needs, for reasons of prestige at home and abroad, to pretend that it strictly observes the law. Officials still violate the law, especially in political cases, and get away with it. But they always have to pretend that what they do is “according to law,” because their claim to legitimacy depends on it.

This divergence between practice and pretense is what gives space to rights lawyers. When we insist on the rule of law and are public about it (because of the Internet, millions of people might be watching), we can at least embarrass government officials for their illegal actions and hypocrisy, and embarrassment sometimes stays their hands. But they do not like this, and sometimes we pay a price.

The price Chinese rights lawyers pay is dear – from revoking their license to practice, to blackballing them at academic jobs, to arrest, detention, torture, prosecution, and in some cases, even disappearance.  It is a testament to the strength of the desire for freedom that these lawyers continue to fight for human rights in the face of such brutal opposition. Teng concludes the op-ed with a sense of optimism:

Still, somehow, rights lawyers as a group have not lost their spirit. The letter of the law remains on our side. Moreover, the growing appetite of the Chinese people for the idea of “rights” is easily apparent on the Internet as well as through the many demonstrations, large and small, that happen almost every day in one part of China or another. We feel that history is on our side, and we put our faith in the proverb that says, “The darkest hour is right before the dawn.”

As someone who has been highly critical of the Chinese government’s occupation of Tibet and paid close attention to their lack of respect for human rights, I too am heartened by the rise of this courageous band of human rights lawyers. Teng is right – there is just enough space for them to begin to hold the government accountable. There will likely come a time, hopefully someday soon, when the tension between the government’s refusal to follow their own laws and the commitment of lawyers to hold them to the law can no longer persist without dramatic change…to a government that is accountable to their people and their laws and no longer functionally criminalizes criticism of the government and its actions. At that point, one can only expect that the Chinese Communist Party will lose its grip on power and democracy may flourish in China.