“‘Flowers of the Country’: Mistreated and Abused”

A gallery of images, cases, and statistics produced in conjunction with CHRD’s report on violations of the rights of the child in China:

http://chrdnet.com/2013/09/chrd-releases-report-on-rights-of-the-child-in-china-flowers-of-the-country-mistreated-and-abused/

Chen Ya, now 8 years old, was held in a black jail in Guangdong Province for four years before his release in January 2013. Today, Chen Ya is unable to speak, walk or grasp objects, reportedly due to years of neglect and abuse while he was illegally detained.

In 2009, Chen Fengqiang, the foster father of Chen Ya, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment after petitioning against the forced demolition of his home. Authorities then detained Chen Ya and the boy’s mother at a black jail in Zhuhai City, in part to prevent the mother from petitioning.

Child Illegally Held in Black Jail for 4 Years

Source:

http://wqw2010.blogspot.hk/2013/05/4_19.html

An 8-year-old girl in Shandong Province was kidnapped on May 12, 2013. The suspect, who is from the same village, subsequently stoned her to death after sexually assaulting her.

Source:

http://smileycharity.blogspot.hk/2013/06/blog-post_5.html

8-Year-Old Girl Stoned to Death After Being Raped

A report by Xinhua, the official news agency, cited an estimate that 200,000 children have gone missing annually in China in recent years, and only 0.1% of those missing children have been found each year.1

In May 2013, the Women’s Federation of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, released data indicating that, over the previous three years, nearly half of the 2,506 females who had reported being sexually assaulted in the city were under 14 years age. In most of the cases, the girls had been repeatedly raped.

1 “200,000 Children Gone Missing Each Year in Our Country, Almost No Criminal Responsibility Was Sought For Buying Infants” Xinhua News, June 2, 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2013-06/02/c_115997624.htm.

An 11-year-old girl in Guizhou Province suffered permanent burns on her scalp after her father pushed her head into a pot of boiling water. At one point, her father, Yang Shihai, also stitched her mouth with fishing wire to “keep her quiet.”

After years of repeated physical abuse and torture, Yang was arrested on May 22, 2013, and sentenced to 18 months in prison two months later.

Father Abuses Daughter for Over 5 Years

Sources:

http://smileycharity.blogspot.hk/2013/06/blog-post_5.html

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/798899.shtml#.Ui1-jZars2A

The school that these children originally attended in Beijing was demolished. Nearby schools then refused to enroll the migrant workers’ children.

Unable to attend school, a group of young children protested in front of the Fengtai District Education Commission on June 13, 2012, holding banners and appealing to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao by shouting, “Grandpa Wen, I want to go to school!”

Children of Migrant Workers Denied Education

Source:

http://wqw2010.blogspot.hk/2012/06/blog-post_8028.html

84% of public schools in Beijing charged migrant students various fees and tuition amounting to as much as 50,000 yuan (about 8,500 USD) per year, according to a survey conducted in 2010-11.2

60% of migrant children between 12 to 14 years old who had dropped out of school already had started to work, according to a 2000 census.3

KYE factory, which makes products for Microsoft in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, has “recruited hundreds—even up to 1,000—‘work study students’ who were 16 and 17 years old and work 15-hour shifts for six or seven days a week.”4

2 “Equality in Education Waits To Be,” September 1, 2011, http://weiquanwang.org/?p=28286.3 “The Conditions of Our Country’s Migrant Children,” Population Study ( 人口研究 ), No. 1, 2004, CRLW Report 4 “China’s Youth Meet Microsoft,” American National Labor Committee (NLC), April 13, 2010 http://www.globallabourrights.org/admin/reports/files/Chinas_Youth_Meet_Micro.pdf

Ran Chongbi 's daughter was raped in 2008 in Dongguan, Guangdong, when she was five. Currently, the girl suffers from post-traumatic stress. The 50-year-old offender was given a six-and-a-half-year sentence. After Ran appealed in 2009, the punishment was increased to seven years.

According to China’s Criminal Law, perpetrators who rape girls under the age of 14 should be sentenced to over 10 years.

Ran appealed to the local court to have the sentence increased further but was rejected. Local authorities also barred Ran’s daughter from attending school.

Mother of 5-Year-Old Rape Victim Seeks Justice

Sources:

http://wqw2010.blogspot.hk/2012/08/8.html

http://wqw2010.blogspot.hk/2013/07/blog-post_9986.html

More than 30 children underwent crystalline lens extraction surgery at a hospital in Hubei Province due to various eye problems. Parents believe that the problems were due to hospital error, when the children were given overdoses of supplemental oxygen and substandard oxygen after birth, between 1994 to 2004.

On July 19, 2010, eight parents took their partially blind children to petition in front of the Health Department in Beijing. The T-shirts read, “Return Brightness To Me.”

Children Left Partially Blind Due to Hospital Malpractice

Source:

http://www.msguancha.com/a/lanmu46/2013/0615/6363.html

The government reported that more than 50,000 children suffered kidney stones in 2008 due to consumption of toxic milk powder, but the number of victims may actually be as high as 300,000.5

A 2009 survey checked 23,000 children and found 54% had lead levels in the blood above the national standard in the city of Chenzhou, Hunan Province, which is known for its metal industry.

5 “Children Screening for Lead Poison Refused, When Will Lead Poisoning End?” Weiwei Health Net, April 1, 2012, http://news.vivijk.com/rdht/201204/229664.html.

Since 2005, Zheng Dajing and his family have petitioned in Beijing over property disputes and been repeatedly detained and beaten.

In 2006, Cao Xiangzhen (Zheng’s wife), Zheng Zhinan (13-year-old-son) and Zheng Linxin (7-year-old daughter) were arbitrarily detained in a black jail for 65 days. Both children were denied the right to education. They were freed only when Cao guaranteed that they would stop petitioning.

In October 2012, authorities detained Zheng again and took away the family’s household registration certificate, resulting in his son being unable to take the college entrance exam on time.

Petitioners’ Children Face Retaliation

Sources:

http://www.msguancha.com/a/lanmu46/2013/0615/6361.html

http://www.weiquanwang.org/?p=8056