State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth

A report by Human Rights in China (HRIC)
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Press Release


Since the People's Republic of China (PRC) introduced economic reforms in the late 1970s, its exponential growth and the lucrative potential of its huge market have shaped how international business, media and governments engage with the PRC, often to the detriment of human rights. Growing human rights concerns include endemic corruption, growing social inequalities and unrest, and serious environmental, public health and social welfare challenges. The PRC ruling elite maintains political and social control in this volatile domestic landscape through a comprehensive and non-transparent state secrets system, which is largely shielded from the international spotlight. By guarding too much information and sweeping a vast universe of information into the state secrets net, the complex and opaque state secrets system perpetuates a culture of secrecy that is not only harmful but deadly.

This report describes and examines the PRC state secrets system and shows how it allows and even promotes human rights violations by undermining the rights to freedom of expression and information, and by maintaining a culture of secrecy that has a chilling effect on efforts to develop the rule of law and independent civil society. The report also includes a set of concrete and specific recommendations relating to governance, legislative amendments and strengthening implementation.

By classifying information as diverse as the total number of laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises; statistics on unusual deaths in prisons, juvenile detention facilities and re-education-through-labor facilities; guiding principles for making contact with overseas religious organizations; and data on water and solid waste pollution in large- and medium-sized cities, the state secrets system controls the very information necessary for citizens and policy makers to effectively address the issues challenging China.

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State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth – Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments
    Abbreviations
    Translator's Note

Introduction

Section I: Into the Legal Labyrinth

1. The International and Domestic Legal Framework
       1. International Norms and Standards
       2. The PRC State Secrets Framework
       3. Enforcement of the State Secrets System
       4. Derogations from Procedural Protections
    
2. Impact of the System on Human Rights
       1. Impact on the Rule of Law
       2. Lack of Transparency and Accountability
       3. Undermining Independent Civil Society
    
3. Reform Efforts
       1. Open Government Information (OGI): Local Initiatives
       2. The Right to Know
       3. The Declassification of State Secrets
       4. Reforms of the State Secrets System
       5. The Limits of Reforms
       6. Conclusion
    
4. Recommendations
Introduction and Section I Notes

Section II: State Secrets Laws and Regulations of the PRC

Editors' Introduction
1. Main Statutes, Regulations, and Supreme Court Interpretation Governing the State Secrecy System in China
2. Selected Provisions of Major Laws Involving State Secrets
3. Four Classified Regulations Pertaining to Law Enforcement and the Judiciary
4. Regulation on the Protection of State Secrets in News Publishing
5. Selection of State Secrets Provisions Regulating Specific Activities

Appendices

Editors' Introduction
1. Official Documents
2. Cases Involving State Secrets
3. Incidents of Official Cover-Ups
Appendices Notes

Glossary

1. General Terms
2. State Bodies
3. PRC State Secrets Laws and Regulations Cited in this Report

Bibliography