By Courtney Cox
Chinese Human
Rights Defenders allege that the government
has begun to infiltrate “thought police” into universities to monitor
instruction that promotes Western ideals like freedom of speech. To that end, despite
the abolition of re-education through labor camps (camps
designed to punish minor offenders for up to four years without a trial) allegations
of security agents arresting and detaining government critics, academics, and
journalists pervade human rights discourse. Aljazeera
reports that detentions are occurring in “secret gulags and psychiatric facilities”
and often involve torture. China has ratified the Convention Against Torture. However, the Committee Against Torture has
condemned the Chinese government for regularly violating the treaty. For
example, the Chinese government has never comprehensively investigated the
Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, which involved an armed assault on peaceful
pro-democracy protesters.
