By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Dec 30: China has been using collective punishment as a means to clampdown on dissent and further its repressive policies, according to a new report byMadrid-based human rights organization Safeguard Defenders (SD) . The report titled ‘FAMILIES IN FEAR: Collective Punishment in 21st Century China’, accuses the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of employing these method as a coercive tool over the years.
SD’s report presents documented cases of Chinese citizens alleging the CCP’s utilization of collective punishment to extract confessions, intimidate family members of activists, and silence critics abroad. Relying on interviews and media sources, the report highlights instances where this penalty was applied across a spectrum, ranging from loss of freedom through forced disappearances, involuntary psychiatric commitments, detention, and house arrest to instances of physical violence that tragically led to fatalities.
One case spotlighted in the report details the demise of Dong Jianbiao, a former miner in 2022, under “suspicious circumstances” in prison. This incident is alleged to be a punitive measure by the government due to his daughter Dong Yaoqiong’s public criticism of President Xi Jinping. Yaoqiong herself faced government targeting after splashing ink on a portrait of the president in 2018. Subsequently, she was subjected to detention and placement in a psychiatric institution, followed by multiple episodes of arrest and release.
Collective punishment, characterized as a state’s sanction against an individual for an act committed by an associated person, is considered arbitrary and potentially in violation of international law. Highlighting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9, which stipulates protections against arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile, the report underscores the potential conflict between these practices and established human rights norms.
In Tibet, Chinese government have arrested and sentenced family members as accomplices of self-immolators, in a bid to discourage the non-violent form of protest. These inhumane method of collective punishment has resulted in imprisonment and torture of Tibetans without any form of protection or oversight.
