My friend's "Shanghai Diary" - China and their lack of human rights

With the Olympic Games being hosted in Beijing, China soon, there has been a lot of "hoo-ha" going around regarding China vs Tibet and their human rights policies. Or rather, lack of. I must admit that I have not been following very closely what the big issue surrounding the Olympic Games is because:

1) it's kinda "old news" when it comes to lack of human rights in China. They've been pressured for years by international organisations such as Amnesty International, but nothing much has changed.

2) I've always believed that sports and politics should be kept separate. Countries competing (fairly) against each other in the name of sport is much better than countries fighting against each other in war.

3) I've never known anyone personally who has been a victim of China's unjust, corrupted and communistic system.

Point 3 has changed since 1 week ago, when a friend of mine became a victim of China's unjust legal system. The story of what happened is so bizzare, that if it wasn't because he is a friend, I might have found it hard to believe. But then again, it is communistic China that we're talking about.

I am all for prisons being a place of harsh conditions, and for criminals who have been found guilty to live in these harsh conditions. After all, when a crime has been committed, the gulity criminal should not be doing his time in "hotel" conditions. No lesson would be learnt then, except that you get "free food and free lodgings" when you eg. rape someone. Also, when you know that conditions in jail are harsh if you get caught and found guilty of a crime, it would (should) make you think 10 times before you commit it.

However, everyone, guilty or innocent, should have the right to be innocent first until proven guilty. Everyone should have the right to defend himself. Granted, no country in the world has a perfect justice system since a) the courts are run by imperfect humans, b) judgements can therefore be flawed or clouded, or c) you might just be able to afford a damn good criminal lawyer to fight your case for you. Nevertheless, the basic elements of bringing justice should always be there: innocent until proven guilty, and the chance to defend yourself. Basic human rights.

Did my friend and his friend have both, or just 1 of that right in Shanghai, China? NOT AT ALL!!! They were jailed for 10 days in harsh conditions and had to pay a fine of 500 RMB (375 DKK / S$99) for a crime they DID NOT COMMIT! They were NOT ALLOWED to exercise their right to a phone call, nor was the Danish Consulate in Shanghai contacted by the police on their behalf as legally required.

When I read the detailed story that my friend had sent to me (his "Shanghai Diary"), I became very ANGRY. It was almost too difficult for me to read because neither of them deserved the treatment they had received by the Shanghainese police.

I won't go into the details of the full story (the pdf file I had received was 6½ pages long), but here's the summary of it:

My friend, S, was in Shanghai on a business trip for 4 days, and would spend an extra 5 days for vacation. His friend, K, who was also on a business trip in Hong Kong, joined S on S's 4th day (19th June) so that they could vacation the rest of the 5 days together.

After a night out on the 19th, K chatted up a Chinese girl at a bar, and when he was ready to go home, they decided to share a cab because she was going in the same direction. They then agreed to have a drink in the hotel room before she continued home. Though she did try to seduce him, it did not amount to anything because K was gay.

Sometime later, S returned back to the hotel room which he was sharing with K. The girl then left (a bit frustratedly) to go home. Shortly after (5am in the morning), the police, who were apparently waiting downstairs in the lobby, knocked on their door, together with the hotel's own security guards and the duty manager by their side. The duty manager was the only one who spoke some English, so he told them that the police wanted them to go down to the station for some questioning, and that it would not take a long time. The girl who was with K earlier had been arrested by the police as she was suspected to have stolen money from a tourist some days ago.

At the station, they suddenly got to know that they were both under suspicion for being 3 people in the room at one time, which implied "immoral" behaviour. "Implied", not "proved". An immigration officer was there to attempt to translate some Chinese documents in his bad English for them, and told them that the punishment would be very mild - at best, a warning, at worst, a fine of 500 RMB. They also got to know that they had a right to make a phone call.

At 9am, they were taken to a small hallway with other tourists and locals to await further questioning, with 2 policemen guarding them. 1 of them offered to get them some coke to drink (they had to pay for it themselves), and this was the only thing they had for the whole day!

At 1pm, they were driven to a hospital to take a bloodtest. No one told them why.

At 3pm, their fingerprints were taken, and they were made to write their names on A4 paper and had their photos taken frontview and both sideviews. At this point, they started to be more nervous and frustrated, and decided that they should contact family members in Denmark for precaution's sake. By pure bad luck, both of them had left their mobile phones back in the hotel room, and by pure lack of human rights, neither of them were allowed to make that 1 phone call that they were entitled to make.

At 8pm, their case was finally brought up again. S was brought to a room and was told to sign a document (again in Chinese) about the 500 RMB fine. He refused, because no where in the document could he see the number "500" written on it. For all he knew, he could be signing his life away. After 45mins, he was sent back to where K was waiting, and with the bad news that on top of the 500 RMB fine, they were also sentenced to 10 days in prison!!! The 17hrs at the police station was already "inhuman" enough (no food, no drinks, no good explanations, no chance to exercise their rights), so they didn't dare imagine what 10 days in prison would be like!

They were driven to an unknown place in Shanghai, and luckily put (or rather, pushed) into the same 20sqm cell as each other, together with 8 others. That was to be their "home" for the next 10 days. Their entitlement to a phone call each was still not given to them, and neither was the Danish Consulate in Shanghai contacted on their behalf even though the policemen said they had already did that. Lies.

The 10 day experience in hell the cell was:

1) Sleeping on a 2m x 2m quilt on the hard floor (shared), with a smaller sized quilt for each to cover himself with. The quilts were also used by previous prisoners and stank of sweat since they were never washed nor aired.

2) Getting awoken up every morning at 6am by a loud alarm, and having to quickly fold away their quilts into a storage box in the cell.

3) Starting the day with 2 hours of listening to propaganda radio attentively, followed by 2 hours of watching progpaganda tv programmes on a tv that was placed outside the cell. This, they had to "watch" even though there was a technical failure on 1 of the days, whereby no sound or images were coming out of it.

4) Small bowls of plain rice with inedible "extras" that was not even fit for a dog, such that they could only eat 1/4 of what they were given each time or else they would throw up. These "meals", they had to pay for!

5) 2hrs of afternoon nap in the hot and humid cell (and waking up to the same day instead of a new day).

6) Not getting any real sleep at night since on top of hard floors, the lights were never turned off.

7) Ice-cold showers which you can have only in squatting position due to the short shower tube thingy.

8) Not being able to shit the whole time because of the lack of privacy in their cell.

Day 4 of their prison stay was the day they should have taken their flight back to Denmark (24th June). Family members and friends were already starting to get worried by now because of not hearing anything from them (K's brother had turned 40 on the 23rd of June). K was supposed to start work the next day on the 25th, and when he didn't show up, his boss and his family eventually called the Danish Consulate in Shanghai to find them.

On the 27th of June (K's mum's birthday), someone from the Danish consulate finally went to meet them. S, and later K, were taken to talk to their representative, and was instructed by the police to put some civil clothes on instead of their prison clothes. They were handcuffed when out of their cells, but these were removed just before they met the Consulate's representative. An obvious grand show of how they "humanely" treated their prisoners.

They were finally released on Monday, 30th June. S had lost 3½kg, K had lost 5kg. They paid their 500 RMB fine, collected their clothes that didn't fit anymore and their shoes, and were escorted back to their hotel by 3 representatives from the Danish Consulate who greeted them with sandwiches, chips and soda. They were able to catch the evening flight back home to Copenhagen and loved ones that very same day.

Hearing about this nightmare story from a friend who experienced it 1st hand has opened my eyes to the justice system in China, and I'm sure this is only just the tip of the iceberg. I am also very surprised that a big and vibrant city like Shanghai was not able to produce a capable interpreter to communicate between the accused foreigner and the police to clearly explain the crime they were accused of, and the rights they had. This should be a very basic and common sense thing in the least!

I suppose S and K could have offered a bribe to the police officers and get away from 10 days in prison (as what these officers probably expected), but that would only be feeding and encouraging the corrupted system, wouldn't it?

I have a few friends from China, so I have nothing against them as individuals, but I have to say that their country does have a very looooooooong way to go when it comes to being called "civilised", and enough of the Chinese people has got to come together to change the system from within. For now, the image I have of China is 1 in very negative light, and it would take a BIG change to happen before I will view the country positively, if that will ever happen while I am still alive.

A toast to F.R.E.E.D.O.M!!!

Danish version of my friends's story here: Dansk rejseagent fængslet i Kina

And here's a long but interesting read from Amnesty International: People's Republic of China The Olympics countdown -- failing to keep human rights promises

I think I'm going to watch the movie Red Corner from 1997 again, starring Richard Gere. And if you have not read the book Wild Swans yet by Jung Chang, I highly recommend it. It's scary $h!t.

And for the record, S was actually in Singapore for about 8 days for vacation (his first time in Asia!) before he left for Shanghai, and he LOVED it there :o). So despite his horrible experience in Shanghai, he will at least have the good memories of Singapore to bring home with him.