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1 1 (June 4, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govzyg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ° 'Congressional Research Service ~inforn q he legislative debates sice 1914 June 4, 2019 Human Rights in China Thirty years after the June 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Communist Party of China (CCP) remains firmly in power. People's Republic of China (PRC) leaders have maintained political control through a mix of repression and responsiveness to some public preferences, delivering economic prosperity to many citizens, co-opting the middle and educated classes, and stoking nationalism to bolster CCP legitimacy. The party is particularly wary of unsanctioned collective activity related to sensitive groups, such as religious and labor groups, ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and human rights activists. PRC authorities have implemented particularly harsh policies against Tibetans, Uyghurs, and followers of the Falun Gong spiritual exercise. Trends Under the previous PRC leader, Hu Jintao (2002-2012), the CCP tolerated limited public criticism of state policies, relatively unfettered dissemination of news and exchange of opinion on social media on some topics, and some human rights advocacy around issues not seen as threatening to CCP control. During the final years of Hu's term, however, the party began to reassert its control over society, a trend that has intensified and expanded since 2013 under the leadership of CCP General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping. One of Xi's first targets was the budding network of Chinese rights activists. In July 2015, the government launched a crackdown on more than 250 human rights lawyers and associates, detaining many of them and charging and convicting more than a dozen of them of subversion, disturbing social order, and other crimes. The PRC government has enacted laws and policies that enhance the legal authority of the state to counter potential ideological, social, political, and security challenges, including three new major laws in 2017. A law regulating foreign non-governmental organizations places them under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security, tightens their registration requirements, and imposes greater controls on their activities, funding, and staffing. The Cybersecurity Law gives the government broad powers to control and restrict internet traffic, and places greater burdens upon private internet service providers to monitor online content and assist public security organs. The National Intelligence Law obliges individuals, organizations, and institutions to assist and cooperate with state intelligence efforts. Since 2013, China has dropped three places, from 173 to 177 (out of 180 countries), on Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index. More than 60 PRC journalists and bloggers are in detention. The PRC government, which oversees one of the most extensive internet censorship systems in the world, blocks access to 8 of the 25 busiest global sites. State authorities and private companies also monitor and regulate social media use in order to prevent sensitive topics and information from being discussed and disseminated. PRC methods of social and political control are evolving to include sophisticated technologies. The government seeks to develop a social credit system that aggregates data on individuals' credit scores, consumer behavior, internet use, and criminal records, and scores citizens' trustworthiness. China has deployed tens of millions of surveillance cameras, as well as facial, voice, iris, and gait recognition equipment, to reduce crime generally as well as to track the movements of ethnic Tibetans and Uyghurs and other sensitive groups. Since August 2018, public security agents in Beijing have attempted to silence student labor activists at Peking University, one of the country's most prestigious institutions of higher learning. The party appears to fear that the student movement could help workers to independently organize and stage protests at a time when labor demonstrations are rising across the country, or encourage other forms of social activism. Religious a d Ethnic Minoriy Policies In 2016, President Xi launched a policy known as Sinicization, by which China's religious practitioners and ethnic minorities are required to conform to Chinese culture, the socialist system, and communist party policies. Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, make up about 910% of the country's population and dominate its culture. The party's Sinicization policy and the 2018 amendments to the government's Regulations on Religious Affairs have affected all religions to varying degrees. New policies further restrict religious travel to foreign countries and contacts with foreign religious organizations and tighten bans on religious practice among party members and religious education of children. All religious venues now are required to raise the national flag and teach traditional Chinese culture and core socialist values. China's Sinicization campaign has intensified government efforts to pressure Christian churches that are not formally approved by the government, and hundreds reportedly have been shut down in recent years. PRC authorities have ordered mosques throughout China to be Sinicized- minarets have been taken down, onion domes have been https://crsreportscorg gessg(

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