China Reform Monitor: No. 1144

January 20:

An official China Daily editorial has called for Hong Kong to enact “patriotic education” in schools and quoted former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa as saying that it is “only a matter of time” before Hong Kong must enact a national security law. “The ‘Occupy Central’ movement, in which foreign forces were apparently involved, has not only placed the rule of law under strain, but also posed a threat to national security,” the article said. It called for the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which stipulates that Hong Kong shall adopt laws to prohibit treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, or theft of state secrets. The goal is “to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the city, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the SAR from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies. Patriotic education should be strengthened [and] there is still work to be done when it comes to decolonization. ‘National interest’ must be considered in the near future when the city formulates its education policy for its younger generations.

”Trade unionist Stanley Ng, a Hong Kong delegate to China’s National People’s Congress, and other delegates will suggest China incorporate its domestic national security laws into the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, Radio Free Asia reports. Meanwhile, Dennis Kwok, who represents the legal profession in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, said Tung’s aforementioned comments were “highly inappropriate and also inaccurate. It’s up to the people of Hong Kong to decide when to legislate, and how to legislate. It can't be done through a back door.” Pan-democratic lawmaker Kenneth Chan agreed. “There has always been a convention that former chief executives and high-ranking officials refrain from commenting. It makes people suspect that a gerontocracy is starting to form in Hong Kong politics, which is not helpful to the development of democracy. This is something of a crisis of governance for Hong Kong.”

January 22:

Of the 1.16 million defendants tried by China’s judiciary in 2013, only 825 were found not guilty, a 99.9 percent conviction rate, the official People’s Daily reports. Recently, however, a string of overturned convictions has revealed miscarriages of justice, including one where the defendant was executed, the New York Times reports. “These cases include some that were shaped by a presumption of guilt. There has been a stress on confessions, giving less weight to evidence, and even the use of torture to secure confessions,” the official People’s Daily reports. Another consequence is that the police are reluctant to record less serious crimes unless they are sure of arresting someone, said Shang Baojun, a criminal lawyer in Beijing. He continued: “If there’s a murder, and if you absolutely have to solve the case or the public security bureau chief or detective will lose his post or be demoted, then actually that’s the root of many cases of confession under torture that have emerged.” To reduce the pressure for guilty verdicts Communist Party of China (CPC) will end secretive performance standards – i.e. quotas for arrest and conviction for the police, prosecutors, and courts. The CPC Political and Legal Affairs Committee, which oversees the police, prosecutors and judges, has required officials to “abolish unreasonable assessment goals for numbers of criminal detentions, arrest rates, indictment rates, and rates of guilty verdicts and case conclusions.” Xi recently told the Political and Legal Affairs Committee: “Nurture a legal corps loyal to the party, loyal to the country, loyal to the people and loyal to the law. Ensure the handle of the knife is firmly in the hand of the party.”

January 24:

China’s online population, the world’s largest, was 648 million at the end of 2014, up 16 million since June. The online economy accounts for 7 percent of China’s GDP, up from 3.3 percent the previous year. Internet retail sales totaled 331 billion yuan in the first ten months of 2014, up 55.6 percent over 2013. Consumers spent more online, but many are also worried by internet security problems, such as leaking private information, the official Shanghai Daily reports.

January 28:

China’s Supreme People's Court (SPC) opened its first branch in Shenzhen, Guangzhou. The SPC First Circuit Court will primarily handle major administrative, civil and commercial cases from Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi that would previously have been heard by judges in Beijing. The SPC Second Circuit Court will be set up in Shenyang, Liaoning to cover the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The two new courts are part of a “pilot project to set up courts and procuratorates with jurisdictions across different administrative divisions within a province to reduce interference.” The circuit courts decision to “set up courts cross administrative divisions is an example for local courts,” which remain consistent with administrative divisions and whose finances “are strongly affected by local administration.” Hu Jianmiao at the Chinese Academy of Governance told the officialChina Daily: “It is not a rare case that the government interferes in certain lawsuits.”