tigress001

Your impression is a little bit outdated. With development of mobile phones, digital cameras and the internet, people in China have more chance to voice their opinions, which have changed things for the better in some cases. I'll give you the example of the Sun Zhigang Incident (which took place around 3 years ago, oh I forgt the exact time). He was a young man from Hubei province working in a newly-booming city of Guangdong. One evening he was stopped in the street by the local "police assistants" (they were not formally on the police staff, but actually employed by the police station on temporary basis, thus having no power to enforce the law). Sun Zhigang was detained for not carrying his Temporary Residence Certificate (which was originally devised to facilitate social security). Sun never saw the light of another day. On the next morning, when his friends went to the hospice (or penitentiary), they found him dead with severe bruises all over the body. The authorities reported that he was tortured to death by his fellow roomates (sometimes they were ex-convicts). After the Southern Weekend published this news, all the people in the country got righteoulsly wrathful at the cruelty of the local authorities in their law enforcement. Netizers attacked vehementlt at the government, and they also built an on-line memorial for people to express their feelings and donate money to Sun's families. A lot of sholars and law specialists voiced their criticism on the inhuman nature of the forced hospice and repatriation regulations (since they violated the citizens' right to free migration), which were originally designed, in the planned-economy times, for charity purposes in the 1950's an1960's and then evolved into a convenient means to keep cities safe and presentable (one can find traces of the land-bondage philosophy of the feudal society). All the protests on the internet converged together to form a torrent, which in the end rsulted in the termination of the vicious penitentiary regulations. Sun's families also got an apology and a big compensation from the government, much to the consolement of the people although we know that however huge an amount is not worth a life.

I'm citing this example to show that things are changing in China nowadays. With progress of technology, it is less easy to control public opinion. And given the influence from the outside world, the new leaders of the Chinese government are more aware that they should pay heed to the people's opinion. I have restrained optimism in the improvement of human rights in China.