Strong Calls for Change on Eve of China’s National Congress

BEIJING â€" Amid lots of Communist red in the Great Hall of the People on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, China’s Parliament, the National People’s Congress, opens Tuesday with some delegates issuing strong calls to end the country’s re-education-through-labor camps.

“The reeducation-through-labor system to a certain extent makes citizens live in fear,” said Dai Zhongchuan, a delegate and law professor from Huaqiao University in Fujian Province, in a report by china.com.cn, the news portal of the State Council Information Office and the National Internet Information Office.

“Not to go through the courts to decide on a crime is to deprive and limit personal freedoms. Not to take steps to restrict and monitor this can very easily lead to the abuse of power,” said Mr. Dai.

The comments reflect an ongoing debate here on so-far vague plans to abolish, or reform, the unpopular, extrajudicial system of punisment set up by Mao Zedong in the 1950s to deal with political opponents of the Communist Party.

As my colleague Andrew Jacobs wrote recently, “re-education through labor has evolved into a sprawling extralegal system of 350 camps where more than 100,000 people toil in prison factories and on farms for up to four years. Sentences are meted out by local public security officials, and defendants have no access to lawyers and little chance for appeal.”

Yang Weicheng, a delegate and the head of the Qindao Law Firm in Shandong Province, said it ran counter to the legal system that China was building and to the pursuit of public justice, according to the china.com.cn report. It damages the country’s image and is in need of urgent reform, the report said.

Deng Hui, a law professor at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, said the system was in violation of Chi! na’s human rights treaty obligations and that change was coming. “The arrow is already on the bowstring,” the report quoted him as saying. “Not to reform is not an option.”

These and other significant issues are almost certain to be debated, often in private, at the Congress, which lasts for about 13 days and meets just once a year, unlike parliaments in democracies, which meet year-round. That means there’s a lot to talk about in a very short space of time.

The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body, also meets during this time every year in Beijing.

For weeks beforehand, special interests around the country have been lobbying the nearly 3,000 delegates to the congress try and make sure they are represented at the meeting.

Important institutional issues on the agenda: appointing Xi Jinping, the leader of the Communist Party, as state president (in Chinese, the title is chairman, or “zhuxi,” as it was during Mao Zedong’s day,) and Li eqiang as prime minister. China’s defense budget for 2013 will also be announced at the meeting. Contrary to expectations, the budget was not announced today at an opening news conference, as is customary. “You’ll know after the meeting has examined and approved it,” said Fu Ying, the congress’s newly appointed spokeswoman, holding eager reporters at arm’s length.

China’s military budget has been rising fast in recent years, but Ms. Fu said prosperity and peace in the greater Asian region, which she contrasted with turbulence elsewhere in the world, was to China’s credit. “Because what we have done is successful, in the midst of that success people should acknowledge that China’s peaceful foreign policy has played a core role,” she said.

A key issue this year: the role of state-owned enterprises. Insiders say there is a growing groundswell of support among politicians and businessmen for trying to force the powerful companies, which enjoy financial privileges such as! special,! low-interest bank loans, to privatize, or just to contribute more to public coffers, something that will be fiercely resisted by the powerful bloc.

“A group of private businessmen will meet on the sidelines to push for privatization of state firms, which they view as a ‘vital second round of reforms,’ according to a person knowledgeable about their plans,” Reuters reported.

“Fiscal reforms and changes to let private firms advance and the state retreat will decide whether this round of reforms can succeed,” Xia Bin, an economist at the cabinet think-tank Development Research Center and a former central bank adviser, told Reuters. “There is definitely no way out,” Mr. Xia wrote in the latest edition of China Finance, a magazine published by the central bank, Reuters said.

The champions of the private sector argue that private firms generate nearly 60 percent of China’s economi growth and 75 percent of jobs, Reuters reported. “Favoring state firms that thrive on political connections rather than market discipline skews the economy, undermining future competitiveness,” the news agency said.

The congress is a talking shop that approves measures already worked out by the government, and not a parliament in the democratic sense. Yet increasingly, people want it to reflect their concerns.

For a sense of just how broad is the pressure for change in this nation of over 1.3 billion people, as it experiences fast-paced social change as well as high economic growth: a leading women’s rights group, the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, issued half a dozen documents highlighting key issues it hopes will be discussed at the meeting. These include moving faster on a proposed law against domestic violence; amending laws defining the rape of someone younger than 14 differently from that of someone over 14, to the detriment of the younger vict! ims; prot! ection orders for the victims of domestic violence; and reversing a recent trend in which universities require women to score higher than men in entrance examinations as women begin to outstrip men academically.

And this year, the wining and dining that customarily precedes the congress for weeks, as special interests vie for influence among delegates, has been crimped by strong calls by Mr. Xi for less corruption and less waste of state finances.

In a sign of a different atmosphere this year, the Communist Party secretary and president of Gree, a state-owned air conditioner company based in Zhuhai in the south, Zhou Shaoqiang, was fired from his position in late February for inviting 16 officials from state-owned banks and state-owned companies to a banquet in January, where 12 bottles of red wine were consumed at a cost to the public purse of nearly 40,000 renminbi, or $6,400, Xinhua, the state news agency, reportd.

IHT Quick Read: March 4

NEWS Doctors announced on Sunday that a baby had been cured of an H.I.V. infection for the first time, a startling development that could change how infected newborns are treated and sharply reduce the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS. Andrew Pollack and Donald G. McNeil Jr. report.

Interviews with officials in five countries and a review of hundreds of pages of government and court documents provide strong evidence that a Laotian man, Vixay Keosavang, is a linchpin of wildlife smuggling operations. The case is especially frustrating to those outside Laos, who say Mr. Vixay appears untouchable as long as he remains in his home country, where, they say, officials have refused to do a thorough investigation despite the reams of evidence presented to them. Thomas Fuller reports from Hong Tong, Laos.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced Sunday that the United States would provide $250 million in assistance to Egypt after Egypt’s president promised to move ahead with negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over economic reforms. Michael R. Gordon reports from Riyadh.

On the eve of the National People’s Congress, the chief of China’s Communist Party, Xi Jinping, is emphasizing his role as a champion of the military, using the armed forces to cement his political authority and present a tough stance in growing territorial disputes in the Pacific region. Chris Buckley reports from Hong Kong.

Four months after President Obama won a second term, the only issue truly uniting Republicans is a commitment to shrinking government through spending cuts, low taxes and less regulation. Richard W. Stevenson reports from Washington.

Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, acknowledged Sunday that he had been guilty of sexual misconduct, a week after he announced his resignation and said he would not attend the conclave to choose the next pope. Cardinal O’Brien, the head of the church in Scotland, is the highest-ranking figure in the church’s recent history to make suchan admission. John F. Burns reports from London.

A brief bit of guerrilla theater last week was the latest skirmish in an escalating battle between ver.di, one of the largest unions in Germany, and Amazon, which employs 8,000 permanent workers at eight distribution centers in the country. Deservedly or not, Amazon’s labor relations have lately come under intense scrutiny by German media. Jack Ewing reports from Bad Hersfeld, Germany.

Swiss citizens voted Sunday to impose some of the world’s most severe restrictions on executive compensation, ignoring a warning from the business lobby that such curbs would unde! rmine the! country’s investor-friendly image. Raphael Minder reports from Geneva.

EDUCATION More Indian students are choosing to take the International Baccalaureate over their own national curriculum â€" even those who are not planning on heading overseas. Gayatri Rangachari Shah reports from Mumbai.

FASHION In Paris, a new take on tailoring is the story for winter 2013. Suzy Menkes reviews from Paris.

ARTS The key has long been a symbol of power, wealth, and possibility. Now the traditional key is disappearng in favor of alternative technologies. Alice Rawsthorn reports from London.

SPORTS The Premier League continues to flaunt its international soccer talent, as Japanese and Uruguayan players knocked in hat tricks for Manchester United and Liverpool on Saturday. Rob Hughes reports from London.

F.B.I. to Help Investigate American’s Death in Singapore, Reports Say

BEIJING â€" Amid growing global tensions over alleged extensive spying operations originating in China, often aimed at U.S. companies and organizations, Shane Todd’s death in Singapore last June is striking a nerve.

As a report by CNN makes clear, the parents of the 31-year-old American electrical engineer, Mary and Rick Todd, who live in Marion, Montana, believe many details about their son’s alleged suicide by hanging (he was found dead in his Singapore home on June 24) don’t match up. This Facebook page links to reports of the tragedy.

Now, after initially declining outside help into the investigation though Mr. Todd’s family requested it, the Singapore police have asked the F.B.I. for assistance, reports The Financial Times, citing an e-mail to the family and the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. Another report said the F.B.I. would comply.

Among the discrepancies alleged by the family: Mr. Todd’s mother doesn’t believe her son wrote a suicide note, one of several allegedly found in his home, since information in it was wrong, she said. The bathroom where Singaporean investigators said he died didn’t show the pulleys or holes in the wall they said were used in his suicide, the Todds said, after inspecting the site shortly after his death. A pathologist hired by the parents in the United States after their son’s body was flown back said it showed signs of struggle, and ruled the death a homicide. A computer expert they hired said someone looked at computer files he had! downloaded, days after his death, and tried to delete one.

The real reason for his death Their son may have known too much about a research project by the Institute of Microelectronics, a Singapore government research agency where he worked, and Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, to co-develop a device powered by gallium nitride, they believe. Gallium nitride is a semiconductor material that can improve cellphone and radar technology and has uses in both civilian and military technology, according to scientists.

Such a project had been under discussion, The Financial Times reported. “Huawei has said it’s discussed a venture with IME but did not proceed with the project,” reported the FT, which last month published a detailed investigation of Mr. Todd’s death, titled “Death in Singapore.”

According to a petition on We the People, a whitehouse.gov petition site, that is calling for a Department of Justice investigation into Mr. Todd’s death, “Shane told his family his life was in jeopardy from foreign parties who had used his work on gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers to compromise US national security and who might kill him to keep him from talking to US authorities.”

No one knows for sure yet what happened. In another report, Reuters wrote that “Interviews with the family, colleagues and friends revealed conflicting views on Todd’s state of mind before his death, the nature of his work and how he died.”

“Colleagues said that he was increasingly depressed in his last few months, but said that his concerns appeared to center on a sense of failure about his work, and an ambivalence about returning to the United States,” Reuters reported.

Aside from the tragedy of the loss of a son, there may be other issues at work here, the FT suggested.

The Todds “believe the loss of their son has national security implications and want it treated as such by Singapore and US authorities. They see Shane’s death as a warning to others - young, smart and ambitious - working in the global marketplace of commercial and defense research,” the newspaper wrote.

Smoother Access to Europe for the Trusted Few

LONDON â€" A European plan to introduce high-tech “Smart Borders” that would give trusted travelers speedy entry to the Continent has been attacked by critics who say its main goal is to keep out immigrants and would-be refugees.

Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for internal affairs, this week announced proposals to introduce electronic swipe cards for regular, pre-screened travelers that would allow them to bypass lengthy passport lines.

The new system would apply to the 25-nation Schengen group, which has abolished internal borders in favor of a single external frontier. Britain is the notable non-member among the 27 E.U. member states.

Ms. Malmström, who is from Sweden, said new technology would enable introduction of a Registered Traveler Program to allow smoother and speedier border entry for third country citizens.

She said the aim was not only to make lifeeasier for foreign visitors but to enhance the European economy. Business travelers and foreigners with close family ties to Europe were among visitors who were likely to visit several times a year.

“Making it as easy as possible for them to come to the E.U. would ensure that Europe remains an attractive destination and help boost economic activity and job creation,” she said when she announced the proposal in Brussels on Thursday.

However, her parallel announcement of a new electronic entry-exit system that would log the stay of all third country nationals has prompted opposition on freedom and privacy grounds.

The system would replace stamps in passports and would automatically alert inter-connected national authorities if visitors exceeded their authorized stays.

Opponents, led by the Green movement in the European Parliament, a body that must approved the measures, say the proposed initiat! ive would create an “e-fortress Europe.”

“We can’t comprehend why visitors to the E.U. are to be fingerprinted, registered and placed under general suspicion - in the same category as felons - when at the same time it’s illegal in Germany to store fingerprint data from Germans,” Ska Keller, a Green parliamentarian told Deutsche Welle.

Ms. Ska, who is German, said the real justification for the Smart Borders package was to prevent an excessive influx of refugees from the Arab world or other regions in crisis.

“In principle, there’s a tendency to now view immigration in terms of national security and to define all immigrants as a risk to that security, which is groundless,” she said.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation, a research institute affiliated with Germany’s Green Party, said in a report last year that the new border control plans would be both expensive and inefficient.

Ben Hayes, the British co-author of the report, said he believed the decision to switch to high-tech border control reflected constant and effective lobbying by the security industry.

“You do not have to be a mathematical genius to figure out that security and technology companies will earn a lot of money if smart border control systems are set up at every border crossing and airport in each of the 27 member states of the European Union,” he said.

Others are skeptical about how many visitors would actually enjoy the benefits of speedier access.

Mathias Vermeulen, an expert in the use of technology in the security sector at The Free University of Brussels, said only about one in 20 visitors would get to use the swipe card system, while the vast majority would face even longer lines! , particu! larly if authorities took visitors’ fingerprints, as now planned.

He told Belgium’s La Libre that there was always a danger in introducing different categories of travelers. “Once you create a trusted traveler list,” he said, “getting on to it will immediately become a priority in terrorist training.”