The Beijing Trials: Secret Judicial Procedures and the Exclusion of Foreign Observers

Abstract

Since January 5, 1991, more than 30 leaders of the 1989 Chinese pro-democracy movement, including Chen Ziming, Wang Juntao, Wang Dan, Ren Wanding and Bao Zunxin, have been brought to trial in Beijing on charges of "counterrevolution" and sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to thirteen years.' (Where verdicts have not been announced, human rights organizations are concerned that the sentences may have been considerably heavier.) Many more of those detained after June 4, 1989 remain in prison awaiting trial. While insisting that these trials were openly and fairly conducted, the Chinese government ignored all requests by outside groups to be allowed to observe the trials. Foreign journalists were prevented by squads of uniformed and plainclothes police officials from approaching courthouses where trials were underway, or from filming posted trial-notices. In some cases, even the spouses and