China’s plan for secret detentions alarms rights activists

[michaelvail]

http://stratrisks.com/geostrat/996

A proposed change in the Chinese criminal code that would allow authorities to detain suspects for up to six months in a secret location is a dangerous step backward for the country, activists charged Saturday.

The change would essentially enshrine what has become a common practice for silencing dissidents, many of whom have disappeared for months without formal charges being filed. Under the change, the suspects could be held without their family members or lawyers being notified.

The proposed change in the law was disclosed last week in the respected Legal Daily.

“This new amendment will legalize ‘forced disappearance,’” Beijing attorney Liu Xiaoyuan wrote on Twitter on Saturday. Liu was briefly detained around the same time as his friend and client Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist whose arrest this spring made international headlines.

[Arctic Dave]

1. Sounds like what the US does in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Maybe we should be worried about our own backyard before we put our nose in other peoples.

[michaelvail]

2. Agreed:

Yes it does sound exactly like that. Should we just ignore these ridiculous policies by foreign governments? I would rather look back at history and in that context learn what governments are capable of. Our government has done the same thing to the Japanese during WW2. Rebuke these actions regardless of where they happen.

[jwirr]

3. What did we think would happen when we lower the bar as far as

we have on civil rights?

[Free Tibet 2011]

4. China is a pariah state

It's time to start treating them like it.

[chunter]

5. What About FEMA's secret camps?

Or, maybe they aren't so secret?