Big Brother Hong Kong

No, Not the Show

Hong Kong’s solution to illegal enforced disappearances is to legalize them.

The Chinese state media has announced a proposed change in the Criminal Procedure Law that will “allow police to legally detain individuals and hold them incommunicado in secret detention for up to six months without contact with either their families or legal counsel.”

The move came following a growing outcry in regards to illegal enforced disappearances, which are commonplace in the communist country. Activists outraged by the proposed change called for foreign countries to “resist China’s efforts to make them complicit in the abuse of human rights.”

Attempting to whitewash their decision, the Chinese government basically admitted they were legalizing what they were already doing, which is residential surveillance, or “soft arrest.”

The practice, they claim, is used only for suspects in “state security, terrorism or major corruption cases [and] allows police to confine criminal suspects in their homes for up to six months without trial or due legal process.”

Still, that does not explain the matter of the actual disappearances of at least 26 writers, artists, bloggers, and human rights defenders at the hands of Chinese security forces since mid-February.

While most were eventually released, the fate of three remains a mystery: Lan Ruoyu, a graduate student missing since Feb 27; Tan Yanhua, a human rights activist missing since Feb 25; and Zhang Haiboa, a blogger known to be abducted by police on Feb 20.

Those fortunate enough to be released reported that they were violently abducted, denied their legal rights, not allowed to contact a lawyer or family, and are often tortured in custody.

Read More at Global Post.