That Plan has been promoted as protecting key civil and political rights. Its goals have been undermined through the tightening of restrictions on rights of expression, association and assembly, thereby exacerbating rather than significantly reducing the human rights abuses specifically identified by the NHRAP.
The NHRAP articulates policy objectives in categories such as social, economic, civil, cultural and political rights. It includes sections on international human rights obligations and China's human rights education initiatives.
HRW notes that in 2009-2010 Beijing -
* continued its practice of sentencing high-profile dissidents such as imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo to lengthy prison terms on spurious state secrets or "subversion" charges;Despite an NHRAP pledge that "it is strictly forbidden to extort confessions by torture and to collect evidence by threat, enticement, deceit or other unlawful means," torture of suspects remains routine. Contrary to protestations prohibiting illegal detention by law enforcement personnel and promises that "Those who are responsible for illegal, wrongful or prolonged detention shall be subjected to inquiry and punished if found culpable" illegal detention also remains widespread, with thousands of people held in 'black jails', ie secret illegal detention centers.
* expanded restrictions on the media and internet;
* tightened controls on lawyers, human rights defenders and nongovernment organizations;
* broadened controls on Tibetans and Uighurs; and
* engaged in increasing numbers of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, including use of secret, unlawful detention facilities known as "black jails.
China's police use legal powers to routinely impose administrative detention via 're-education through labor' (laojiao) and house arrest (ruanjin). Laojiao allows the police to unilaterally impose custodial sentences of up to three years while depriving detainees of any due process of law and judicial oversight. Ruanjin (which Chinese police can impose arbitrarily and outside of any legal procedure) results in detention with restricted and monitored internet and phone communications, and 24-hour surveillance by unidentified and often aggressive security forces.
Perceptions of prudence differ. The Plan indicates that the death penalty "shall be strictly controlled and prudently applied"; lots of families are paying for the bullets used for prudently executing criminals.
HRW notes that -
The NHRAP committed the government to "fulfill its obligations to the international human rights conventions to which it has acceded, and initiate and actively participate in exchanges and cooperation in the field of international human rights." Yet the Chinese government continued to have a poor record of cooperation with international bodies on issues of human rights. The government has repeatedly rejected requests for an independent international investigation into the March 2008 protests across the Tibetan plateau, refused to approve requests to visit Tibet by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights and six United Nations special rapporteurs, and made false statements during China's first Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in February 2009, including "There is no censorship in the country," and "No individual or press has been penalized for voicing their opinions or views."The report goes on to note that -
the NHRAP does not address several major human rights issues prioritized by both Chinese and foreign human rights activists: China's hukou, or household registration system; rights abuses related to rising numbers of property disputes; and human rights concerns related to China's increasingly active diplomatic, development, and investment activities in the developing world.
