Amnesty International cited slight legislative progress in Taiwan in its latest annual report while calling China to task for serious human-rights violations in the communist country. According to the 2002 report, which covered events from January to December of 2001, some efforts were made to curtail use of capital punishment in Taiwan.
The London-based rights group credited the island still left rooms to improve in some aspects, like granting asylum and the measures that police offices take in investigation cases.
The group recognized that the ROC government had undertaken legislative moves to formulate measures to limit the death penalty and therefore gradually eradicate it. Meanwhile, legislative changes had also been introduced to reduce the number of crimes under the Military Criminal Code that carry a mandatory death sentence.
The government was working on drafting a human rights basic law and establishing a "National Human Rights Commission," which the report saw as leading to the eventual abolition of capital punishment. The government was simultaneously conducting a review of domestic legislation to ensure that it is in line with international human-rights conventions. President Chen Shui-bian promised last year that the government would issue a report and a white paper on human-rights policies.
In China, the report found serious violations of human rights on the part of government authorities. Thousands of people remained arbitrarily detained or imprisoned across the country for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, association or belief. A "strike hard" campaign against crime also led to a massive escalation in death sentences and executions.
The death penalty continues to be used extensively, arbitrarily and frequently as a result of political interference, according to the report. Furthermore, many criminal and political detainees were denied access to legal representation and other rights associated with fair trial.
In the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, freedom of speech and religion continued to be severely restricted by the leaders in Beijing. Spiritual and religious groups, dissenters and human-rights activists continued to be repressed by the Chinese regime and arrests, torture and imprisonment continued. Around 200 Falun Gong practitioners are alleged to have died in Chinese custody as a result of torture.
Further restrictions were placed on the media and the use of the Internet in China, according to the report. Chinese authorities set up official Web sites to monitor public views, but continued to crack down on people using the Internet to disseminate information deemed to be sensitive.