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State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth
June 11, 2007
A report by Human Rights in China (HRIC)
![[State Secrets Report Cover]](/web/20080724200039im_/http://hrichina.org/public/resources/SS.Report.Cover.jpg)
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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.
Download entire report [290 pages, PDF, 2.1M]
State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth – Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Translator's Note
Introduction
Section I: Into the Legal Labyrinth
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Recommendations
Introduction and Section I Notes
Section II: State Secrets Laws and Regulations of the PRC
Editors' Introduction
- Main Statutes, Regulations, and Supreme Court Interpretation Governing the State Secrecy System in China
- Selected Provisions of Major Laws Involving State Secrets
- Four Classified Regulations Pertaining to Law Enforcement and the Judiciary
- Regulation on the Protection of State Secrets in News Publishing
- Selection of State Secrets Provisions Regulating Specific Activities
Appendices
Editors' Introduction
- Official Documents
- Cases Involving State Secrets
- Incidents of Official Cover-Ups
Appendices Notes
Glossary
- General Terms
- State Bodies
- PRC State Secrets Laws and Regulations Cited in this Report
Bibliography
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