| When, Wen? Whenever... |
On the final day of its annual session, the legislature also approved revisions to the key criminal procedure law that at least on paper will restrict police powers to secretly detain people, a tactic increasingly used against activists and government critics.
At his annual news conference following the sessionÂ’s close, Wen repeated reform calls, saying they were needed to consolidate the achievements of three decades of economic growth and prevent a repeat of the mass disorder that rocked China during the violent 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
“Without a successful political structural reform ... new problems that have cropped up in China’s society will not be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again,” Wen said.
“I know very well that the reform will not be an easy one. The reform will not be able to succeed without the consciousness, the support, the enthusiasm and creativity of our people,” he said.
As before, Wen offered no specific proposals, saying reform had to adhere to China’s particular national circumstances and proceed in a “step-by-step manner.” Chinese leaders often define political reform in terms of boosting administrative efficiency, but even those paltry efforts at streamlining have gained little traction against an entrenched bureaucracy and struggle for influence ahead of this fall’s generational leadership transition.
Touching on recent unrest in Tibetan areas, Wen said economic growth was needed to counter sentiments that have prompted more than two dozen Tibetans, including several teenagers, to set themselves on fire to protest ChinaÂ’s suppression of their religion and culture and call for the return of the Dalai Lama.
“We don’t support this kind of extreme acts in disrupting and undermining social harmony. The young monks are innocent. We feel distressed about what they have done,” Wen said. “We should treat Tibetan compatriots as equals and with respect and keep improving our work.”
It was WenÂ’s last annual news conference, as he will step down before the end of the congress next year. He appeared sentimental at times, apologizing for any mistakes he may have made and saying much work still needed to be done.
“I have the courage to face the people and face history,” he said.
The changes to the criminal procedure law were the most high-profile legal measures passed by the congress. They are portrayed as offering better protection for suspects and reflecting increasing awareness in China of the need for stronger detainee rights, although legal enforcement in China remains weak.
Police and prosecutors routinely ignore current legal provisions protecting suspectsÂ’ rights and have frequently used charges of endangering national security against dissidents.
| And so they'll ignore the new rules... |
There are two relevant articles in the new law that deal with notifying families, one in regular criminal cases and the other involving a type of detention known as residential surveillance. Both have been revised to better protect detainees, though they donÂ’t do away completely with secret detentions, analysts said.
In the case of residential surveillance, a sort of house arrest that can happen in a fixed location chosen by police, a detaineeÂ’s family must be notified within 24 hours unless they canÂ’t be reached. Dissidents detained under this kind of residential surveillance are often put in suburban hotels or apartments, and many have reported being tortured by police.
Beijing human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang dismissed the legal tinkering, saying arbitrary enforcement and lack of independent oversight rendered such changes meaningless.
“I can’t get very excited about any new provisions legalizing types of detention. The authorities have always operated just as they pleased without regard to rules,” Pu said, citing the ongoing and still-unexplained detention of figures such as blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng and Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.