Ex-ICAC Chief Free from Prosecution

Ex-head of the anti-graft agency won't face further prosecution or investigation

Today there was finally an announcement of former ICAC chief Timothy Tong Hin-ming's fate -- that he would not be further prosecuted, nor further investigated.

Case closed.

What? Really?

When he was commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption from 2007-2012, Tong was found to have spent taxpayer money on lavish gifts and hosting dinners, for not only his mainland counterparts, but other Chinese officials too. He also invited his friends and relatives to dine at these dinners at taxpayers' expense.

For example, Tong hosted 206 meals that were listed as "official entertainment", and overspent on 77 of them. This compares with only two percent of the 460 meals hosted by other ICAC officers that overspent.

Apparently there isn't enough evidence to prosecute him -- or there is no law that he has broken.

ICAC's report says Tong didn't break rules in lavish spending

"With respect to the purchase of hard liquor, it is noted that there were neither regulations nor internal rules within the ICAC prohibiting the consumption or purchase of hard liquor, including Maotai during Mr Tong's tenure," the department for Justice said in a statement.

"It is also noted that even before his tenure, there had been occasions of serving hard liquor at official functions. It is unfortunately that the relevant rules and regulations in this regard at the time were not clear."

Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said applicable internal ICAC rules, that have since been revamped, made it difficult to prosecute Tong.

Yuen and current ICAC commissioner Simon Peh Yun-lu denied the decision was politically motivated, though Tong was appointed a CPPCC official in 2013; it made some wonder if all that wining and dining he did was to help him get that political position.

It is very disappointing that Tong did not get prosecuted, based on the fact that there were no strict rules in place about entertaining or giving lavish gifts, that it was more based on the officials' sense of morality and responsibility.

Did Tong know that before he bought all that booze? Now that's a question worth asking.

Regardless, the optics of this whole fiasco make the ICAC and the justice department look bad.

Who is the public supposed to believe?

A former ICAC investigator as well as several lawmakers are calling for full disclosure of the legal advice given to the justice department to lead it to today's announcement.

We shall see how the request is received...

Meanwhile today Transparency International released its latest Corruption Perceptions Index, where Hong Kong was ranked 18th along with Ireland and Japan. Hong Kong's score was 75 for 2015, up one from 2014. It was at 75 for 2013, and 77 for 2012.

It's intriguing that Hong Kong is thought to have improved on becoming less corrupt, though the number of complaints about corruption increased by 20 percent last year.

Is it me, or is it coincidence that the announcement about Tong is the same day Transparency International's report comes out? Makes one wonder what's really going on...

Trying to Crush Civil Society

Xu Zhiyong on the cover of Esquire in 2009

We are not surprised but very disappointed to see Chinese President Xi Jinping crushing any kind of development of civil society.

This morning lawyer Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to four years in prison for "gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public place".

His crime? Calling for transparency and accountability of the Chinese government, that the country should be governed by rule of law.

The government likes to say that is is, and hopes the more times it says it, the more it becomes fact.

But the government's claims are far from the reality.

In fact Xu's own case was hardly an exercise in the rule of law.

His lawyers were not allowed to cross examine the prosecutor's witnesses, who only had to give written testimony and not appear in court;

His lawyers were not allowed to bring in their own witnesses; and they unsuccessfully challenged the legality of holding separate trials for Xu and the other activists, as it would have helped them in their defense.

As a result Xu and his lawyers did not speak during the one-day trial and in the end he tried to read out a manifesto calling for democratic change, freedom of speech and rule of law. After 10 minutes he was cut off by the judge, but the entire speech was put online.

After the verdict was read out and Xu said, "The court today has completely destroyed what remained of respect for rule of law in China," according to his lawyer Zhang Qingfang.

There is no rest for the wicked because the Chinese government has arrested another mild-mannered, rational activist, a Uighur professor by the name of Ilham Tohti.

Ilham Tohti lecturing to students in 2009

The authorities have accused him separatism and inciting ethnic hatred, and to indite him further, have suggested he has links to the terrorist group ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement).

Tohti has been detained since January 15 when he was escorted out of his apartment on the campus of Minzu University of China by police. They took some 15 bags of documents, computers and cell phones while his wife and two children watched.

The Urumqi State Bureau of Security accuses the academic of inciting violence against the Chinese authorities and recruiting people to join the movement for an independent East Turkestan nation.

"Ilham Tohti exploited his status as a teacher to recruit, entice and coerce people to form gangs, and to collude with 'East Turkestan' leaders in planning, organizing and assigning people to go abroad to join in separatist activities," the statement said.

However, interviews with Tohti and his writings couldn't be further from these claims.

Ever since the Urumqi riots in 2009 that claimed almost 200 lives, he has been trying to explain that Uighurs feel repressed thanks to pro-Han Chinese policies in Xinjiang. Much of Tohti's academic work is about the high unemployment of young Uighurs who cannot compete for jobs with Han Chinese migrants.

He was advocating that the Chinese government revisit its economic policies in Xinjiang as well as its heavy-handed presence there.

But there continue to be eruptions of violence -- though we are not quite sure to what extent because foreign journalists are not allowed in the area. We are dependent on Xinhua reports that are not always accurate or spin a news story into opinion...

Officials say last Friday 12 people were killed in a town near Xinjiang's border with Kyrgyzstan in a clash involving explosive devices. State-run media said police shot six people in Aksu prefecture and six others died from three explosions with no further details.

Exile Uighur groups claim the clashes are caused by aggressive police tactics, while the police describe them as "terrorists" armed with knives and farming tools.

Tohti, who is fluent in both Mandarin and Uighur, has been trying to be the voice of reason, the middleman who is trying to diffuse the tensions between the two ethnic groups.

But the government deems him as unacceptable and in fact wants to brand him a terrorist.

What has he done wrong? What has Xu Zhiyong done wrong?

Both are trying to gently push the government in a direction towards greater harmony and less tensions, but yet the authorities see these two as a threat.

At this rate the hope for a flourishing civil society has been set back for the next few years. Meanwhile Xi's main goals are to further consolidate his power and the power of the Party.

Rule of law has become a metaphor for what the Party wants, not the People.

Fighting Words

Xu wants to create a more just society in China... what's wrong with that?

Xu Zhiyong is an activist lawyer and academic who is considered to be the leader of the New Citizens' Movement. In 2012 he wrote the movement sought "to completely destroy the privileges of corruption, the abuse of power, the gap between rich and poor and to construct a new order of fairness and justice".

The group called for the end of corruption, which is also in line with what Chinese President Xi Jinping is doing with his current campaign, but the leadership was not happy that this grassroots organization was advocating this and promptly arrested Xu.

He was put on trial yesterday without specific charges -- and no foreign media nor diplomats allowed in. As a result, Xu and his lawyers felt the proceedings were not open nor just, so they refused to speak in court.

Xu's lawyer said his client tried to read out a statement that spelled out his ideas of "liberty, justice and love", but was cut off by court officials after 10 minutes after he asked why China did not follow the practices of other countries having officials declare their assets.

His full statement was made available online, in which he questioned whether the authorities took citizens' constitutional rights seriously and said they had "deep fears" of public trials and "the looming free society".

Six other activists were also put on trial today and Xu added in his statement that the others were not guilty because they were pushing for democracy and the rule of law, and that he was willing to pay a price for his ideals.

There's no verdict yet in Xu's trial, but it is expected he and the others will be found guilty of the alleged crime of "assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place".

The thing is, 40-year-old Xu is anything but a radical. He is a soft spoken, rational person who has thought a lot about what is wrong about China and wants to fix it in a logical way -- on a case-by-case basis.

Born in central China's Henan province, Xu was 14 years old when he decided "to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation", he said in 2008. "I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change."

He studied law at Lanzhou University in Gansu province and then later at Peking University. He then became a law lecturer at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

In recent years he has tried to help many people, such as doing pro bono work in 2009 for families who were affected by the melamine milk scandal, and he was beaten for trying to visit blind activist Chen Guangcheng who was under house arrest.

He and a group of legal scholars started the Open Constitution Initiative in 2003, a grassroots organization promoting rule of law and constitutionalism. However, the authorities tried to shut down OCI by slapping it with a massive tax bill (claiming its donations were from overseas and should be taxed), and declared the group illegal. Xu was arrested but then released a month later after international outcry.

By arresting Xu and putting him and others on trial this week show the government's paranoia in grassroots groups that are pushing for rule of law and more openness, and is trying to squash the New Citizens' Movement.

Conversely by trying to destroy this group, other Chinese have taken an interest in New Citizens' Movement -- because if the government doesn't like it, the group must be doing something right.

So if and when Xu gets locked up behind bars, there is hope others will pick up the mantle and continue spreading his words behind the New Citizens' Movement. All he wants is for people to be more aware of their rights, as well as their right to protect their rights.

They shouldn't have to fight for rights that are inherent... but in China it's an ongoing battle between the state and the individual.