Report: Torture is routinely used in China to obtain confessions and silence human-rights lawyers

[Zsari]

China still uses medieval torture methods against opponents – Amnesty | World news | The Guardian
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I have a friend who was a cop there. He told me there are two rules. Rule #1, no visible wound, rule #2, make sure the guy is guilty of the crime accused, or else he'll walk out and file a complain, and you will be fired. Verbal confession by itself isn't good enough, you torture the suspect to extract whereabouts of the physical evidences, failing to do that, you are in trouble. Of course, that was some 15 years ago and of course that was in Shanghai, whereas in remote area, there could be less constraints.

 

[Aepsilons]

Human-rights lawyers, activists, and people accused of crimes are regularly tortured, detained, and subject to other forms of mistreatment, according to a report released Thursday by Amnesty International.

For the report, Amnesty interviewed 37 lawyers practicing in China and multiple experts in the Chinese criminal-justice system, as well as analyzed 590 court decisions involving torture claims and "forced confessions."

China's response has been schizophrenic at best.

The country voluntarily joined the UN Convention against Torture, or UNCAT, in 1986 and has made efforts in recent years to put an end to torture and forced confessions through a series of legal initiatives, amendments, and regulations. The most notable reform was the ending of the "reeducation through labor" system in 2013.

This summer, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a sweeping crackdown on human-rights lawyers, detaining nearly 250 of them in a move that many saw as a warning to any would-be activists.

Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told The New York Times in response to the new report that Chinese law expressly forbids obtaining confessions through torture.

"China is a country of rule of law," Hong said.

But evidence collected by Amnesty International and testimony from a wide swath of human-rights lawyers in China would seem to indicate otherwise.

"I know from personal experience how widespread torture is in China's current law-enforcement environment. I hope one day to see torture classified in China as a crime against humanity," lawyer Yu Wensheng told Amnesty in the report.

Yu, a lawyer with Beijing-based Daoheng Law Firm, was arrested in 2014 and held for 99 days, refused access to a lawyer, and questioned more than 200 times. Yu was eventually handcuffed with his hands bound behind the back of an iron chair.

"My hands were swollen and I felt so much pain that I didn't want to live. The two police officers repeatedly yanked the handcuffs. I screamed every time they pulled them," said Yu.

The Chinese government has denied any "maltreatment" of Yu.

Other reported torture techniques include being bound to "tiger benches," beatings, sleep deprivation, starvation, dehydration, and psychological torture.

According to Amnesty International, the 37 interviewed lawyers "almost uniformly concur" that police officers in China widely use torture to obtain forced confessions from suspects in pretrial detention.

Often, Chinese lawyers who attempt to litigate cases where clients have had their human rights violated find that they end up becoming victims of torture from police officials. One lawyer told Amnesty that he was beaten and detained by police officers after trying to investigate the detainment of several practitioners of Falun Gong, a banned Chinese spiritual practice.

The Chinese government claims that its courts "carry out prompt and fair trials of cases of infringement of citizens' rights involving torture."

Amnesty InternationalOfficial data from China provided to Amnesty International.

Official data from China found that the nation's top prosecutorial body received nearly 1,500 reports of "extracting confession through torture" over the last seven years. Only 279 people were convicted of the offense.

According to lawyers interviewed in the report, one of the biggest reasons that torture has remained so widespread despite official censure is that police officers still view it as an expedient way to obtain evidence.

"Trials are often a matter of dressing up police work. Police will stop at nothing to crack a case, and once they can get a confession, the presumption of guilt carries through to the very end," lawyer Tang Jitian told Amnesty.

In the cases analyzed by Amnesty International, where confessions were allegedly obtained through torture, courts routinely admitted the forced confessions. Of the 590 cases analyzed, courts suppressed the confessions in only 16 cases. Only one of those 16 cases resulted in an acquittal.

In addition, police are far more powerful in China than courts or prosecutors, thereby making it difficult for courts to prosecute police officers who torture citizens or obtain forced confessions.

"Since the establishment of the [People's Republic of China], the police have been the most powerful organ in the criminal process and the courts' role has been marginal. In this police-centric system, the court cannot be effective in vetoing a police decision," Fu Hualing, a law professor and a criminal-justice expert at the University of Hong Kong, told Amnesty.

The United Nations Committee against Torture has repeatedly called out China for it's failure to comply with UNCAT, an agreement it joined voluntarily. China will undergo another review of its torture record, as required by UNCAT, in Geneva, Switzerland, next week.
Amnesty International Report on torture - Business Insider

This is sickening to read!!!!!!!

I have a friend who was a cop there. He told me there are two rules. Rule #1, no visible wound, rule #2, make sure the guy is guilty of the crime accused, or else he'll walk out and file a complain, and you will be fired. Verbal confession by itself isn't good enough, you torture the suspect to extract whereabouts of the physical evidences, failing to do that, you are in trouble. Of course, that was some 15 years ago and of course that was in Shanghai, whereas in remote area, there could be less constraints.

These are barbarous! These are tactics of the now defunct Kempeitai!

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

This is sickening to read!!!!!!!



These are barbarous! These are tactics of the now defunct Kempeitai!

I guess you may not have read about Guantanamo before.

China is just using the US methods when dealing with the domestic terrorists.

 

[Aepsilons]

I guess you may not have read about Guantanamo before.

China is just using the US methods when dealing with the domestic terrorists.

Civil rights lawyers are not domestic terrorists. I suggest you review the word 'terrorism' and learn to apply the noun 'terrorist' in proper context, my friend.

Lastly, just because the United States uses disparaging techniques on foreign jihadist suspects doesn't mean that country A,B,C should use that as excuse to use such detainment methodology. A wrong does not give excuse to its application on various settings.

I hope and pray that the Government of Japan never implements such barbarous interrogation techniques ever again.

I pray that His Imperial Majesty the Emperor shall always guide us to humanitarian based positions.

 

[Zhang Fan]

China is just using the US methods when dealing with the domestic terrorists.

In our country there are tons of misjudged cases resulted by extort confessions by tortures,nobody knows how many innocent people are sitting behind bars right now for the crimes they didn't commit,but I bet that must be a huge number given the fact that those misjudged cases exposed by internet and those victims exonerated years after being executed are merely a tip of iceberg.I mean what the hell is this??why the reality can always scare the shit out of you?!I suppose those cops to some extent or even 100% knew those they tortured were innocent when they tortured them!maybe sending one more person to the jail under their hands adds a promotion on their resumes,maybe finding the real culprit causes them too much trouble,so they can stomach ruining the lives of some innocent people they may rub shoulders with in a mall or cinema when they are off work.jesus!what kind of thugs in uniforms we are living with everyday?oneday you may become their target too,these dirty cops and their fuckng dirty system are domestic terrorists,okay?not those lawyers or activists

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Civil rights lawyers are not domestic terrorists. I suggest you review the word 'terrorism' and learn to apply the noun 'terrorist' in proper context, my friend.

Lastly, just because the United States uses disparaging techniques on foreign jihadist suspects doesn't mean that country A,B,C should use that as excuse to use such detainment methodology. A wrong does not give excuse to its application on various settings.

I hope and pray that the Government of Japan never implements such barbarous interrogation techniques ever again.

I pray that His Imperial Majesty the Emperor shall always guide us to humanitarian based positions.

Even the ISIS can dress as the civilians, then who else can't be?

Most Chinese people support the iron fist policy against those domestic terrorists under the banner of "human right".

If Japan has spent a lot of money to sponsor those domestic terrorists in China, then I feel sorry for your investment.

In our country there are tons of misjudged cases resulted by extort confessions by tortures,nobody knows how many innocent people are sitting behind bars right now for the crimes they didn't commit,but I bet that must be a huge number given the fact that those misjudged cases exposed by internet and those victims exonerated years after being executed are merely a tip of iceberg.I mean what the hell is this??why the reality can always scare the shit out of you?!I suppose those cops to some extent or even 100% knew those they tortured were innocent when they tortured them!maybe sending one more person to the jail under their hands adds a promotion on their resumes,maybe finding the real culprit causes them too much trouble,so they can stomach ruining the lives of some innocent people they may rub shoulders with in a mall or cinema when they are off work.jesus!what kind of thugs in uniforms we are living with everyday?oneday you may become their target too,these dirty cops and their fuckng dirty system are domestic terrorists,okay?not those lawyers or activists

Who cares what do you think as individual?

The government's crack down against those domestic terrorists got the majority support, only few stupid libtards don't like it, then that's their own problem.

 

[Aepsilons]

In our country there are tons of misjudged cases resulted by extort confessions by tortures,nobody knows how many innocent people are sitting behind bars right now for the crimes they didn't commit,but I bet that must be a huge number given the fact that those misjudged cases exposed by internet and those victims exonerated years after being executed are merely a tip of iceberg.I mean what the hell is this??why the reality can always scare the shit out of you?!I suppose those cops to some extent or even 100% knew those they tortured were innocent when they tortured them!maybe sending one more person to the jail under their hands adds a promotion on their resumes,maybe finding the real culprit causes them too much trouble,so they can stomach ruining the lives of some innocent people they may rub shoulders with in a mall or cinema when they are off work.jesus!what kind of thugs in uniforms we are living with everyday?oneday you may become their target too,these dirty cops and their fuckng dirty system are domestic terrorists,okay?not those lawyers or activists

I have a colleague who graduated from UoT, finished her Ph.D in UoT (University of Tokyo), and finished her postdoctoral internship at Columbia University, then went back to Tsinghua University to assume a faculty role there. Any case, her pursuit has always been for civil liberties awareness in China and actually many of the Chinese academics especially in the higher calibre schools in China such as Tsinghuan, SunYatSen, University of Hong Kong et al -- are proponents of more austere and transparent civil liberties changes and modifications in Chinese constitutional law. The importance of this as China rises to a major economic power and as a developed nation is ever pertinent considering the higher quality life expectation in the country continues to rise concurrent with the higher standard of living in the country. I suppose internal advances and revision on old practices shall be target of modification in Xi Jinping's drive to modernize all spects of government departments ; from the national, provincial to prefectural level shall be realized.

Anyways, as an academic and researcher myself and with strong links with well published Chinese academicians there in the PRC, I stand with them by shear principle and on the spirit of humanitarian egalitarianism.


Regards.

Who cares what do you think as individual?

The government's crack down against those domestic terrorists got the majority support, only few stupid libtards don't like it, then that's their own problem.

Therein lies the problem here, i suppose a dichotomist junction in regards to perception of China. You as a Canadian based individual think and assume that Chinese in China function under a non-transparent internal audition mechanism. While that may have been necessary during China's infancy years post-CPC ascension in the early 1950s, that may not be the case now. China is developed now, continues to develop, Chinese are educated, and many are studying abroad to learn of the models and the humanistic theories abroad and are now wishing to apply that to the state and society. Your thinking may have been semblant of the older generation , but may not be the case any more for the younger generation of Chinese.

 

[Zsari]

In our country there are tons of misjudged cases resulted by extort confessions by tortures,nobody knows how many innocent people are sitting behind bars right now for the crimes they didn't commit,but I bet that must be a huge number given the fact that those misjudged cases exposed by internet and those victims exonerated years after being executed are merely a tip of iceberg.I mean what the hell is this??why the reality can always scare the shit out of you?!I suppose those cops to some extent or even 100% knew those they tortured were innocent when they tortured them!maybe sending one more person to the jail under their hands adds a promotion on their resumes,maybe finding the real culprit causes them too much trouble,so they can stomach ruining the lives of some innocent people they may rub shoulders with in a mall or cinema when they are off work.jesus!what kind of thugs in uniforms we are living with everyday?oneday you may become their target too,these dirty cops and their fuckng dirty system are domestic terrorists,okay?not those lawyers or activists

Hehe, when it comes to abuse of power by the police, Chinese police are amateurs when compared to the Americans.

 

[Aepsilons]

China, like any country, is not a static concept of ideation, rather, China is a macroscopic embodiment of a comprehensive organic entity. China, like the people whom she makes up, is dependent on the wishes and yearnings of the people. Societal advances requires individual rights as guaranteed and espoused by the Chinese constitution , and that will be more pertinent in succeeding years as China ascends from developing nation to developed nation and with her citizens enjoying the standard of living of other developed nations. There shall be requisitions on similar humanitarian provisions as guaranteed by the legalist framework.

That is guaranteed.

 

[Zhang Fan]

Who cares what do you think as individual?

The government's crack down against those domestic terrorists got the majority support, only few stupid libtards don't like it, then that's their own problem.

which means you'd rather see such misjudged tragedies,tortures happening again and again as long as you keep being allowed to call those up the food chain dad,sure thing,I expected that mentality,so be it

 

[Aepsilons]

which means you'd rather see such misjudged tragedies,tortures happening again and again as long as you keep being allowed to call those up the food chain dad,sure thing,I expected that mentality,so be it

He does not represent nor does his views represent the rest of China, however. His views represents more conservative Huaren.

 

[70U63]

Seriously, why can't those human right activist sit down and think. They can't doing the same thing again and again and expect different result.
If they want to change the attitude and the culture, start within the society. In term of political issue, changes come within the government, which is CPC. CPC will take their time to reform as several parties with their own interest are fighting for whatever they want. If those activist really want to change thing, go join the party and fight inside. No other bs, if they can't win inside the party, what else they can do outside the system? This is the reality.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Hehe, when it comes to abuse of power by the police, Chinese police are amateurs when compared to the Americans.

Seriously, a Japanese militarist fanboy now wants to lecture China about the human right, and what planet are we living now?

Yet his own country still wants to deny the human right of 35 million people.

Japan threatens to halt Unesco funding over Nanjing massacre listing | World news | The Guardian

 

[xunzi]

If our American friends can torture enemy of the state, why can't we? LOL

 

[Sanchez]

there's a weird phenomenon befuddling me a lot,and this phenomenon almost applies to all my overseas Chinese friends,which is:the longer they become an American or British(whatsoever) citizen,the more patriotic(towards China) they will be.I suppose it's the relatively free,open,mature western societies that widened their views opened their minds and gave them a broader,uncensored lense through which they can get access to inspect something they couldn't have gotten angles to unravel to themselves back in China.However,they all begin to defend China's government 360 degrees unconditionally like defending their dear big daddy after they benefit from something of west that their homeland environments can't or simply prohibit to provide.Maybe they just need a patriarchal figure more intimate to them to latch on,and obviously the westen society that more emphasizes personal value is not the right option for them.


maybe the tools are not that horrible,but fist,kick,binding also kill

You are mixing up police violence and systemic torture. It's idotic to make comments on overseas Chinese like you. They know the societies of the Chinese and the West better. They won't follow the Western media cheap shots, and they know changes take time.