Chinese Legal System
New laws and regulations in 2005 detailing the parameters of permitted religious activities and limiting the formation of news organizations are the latest manifestations of China's ongoing attempt to position itself as a society ruled by law. Although improvements in some areas, most notably in commercial law, are in place, judicial processes are still compromised by political interference and reliance on coerced confessions. In many cases, legal procedures weighted in favour of the state, closed trials, and administrative sentencing.
Convictions on charges of "subversion" and of "leaking state secrets" continue to result from vaguely-worded state security and state secrets laws. Shi Tao, an established journalist, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term in April 2005 for "leaking state secrets abroad". In his case, the secret was a directive banning journalists from reporting on the presence of overseas dissidents seeking to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
Further to this, in September 2005, Zheng Yichun was sentenced to a seven-year prison term for "incitement to subversion." Evidence that was cited at the time included articles he had written for foreign publications and websites. Other reasons given were his association with the Epoch Times, a publication banned in China as a cult as representing a cult.
Plans to revise China's Criminal Procedure Law began, albeit slowly, in 2005.