Reporters Without Borders and La Découverte expose massive human rights violations in "China, the Black Book"

Reporters Without Borders on 13 May releases "China, the Black Book". Drawing on reports from organisations and first hand accounts it lifts the veil on massive human rights abuses. The book, published by La Découverte, will be essential reading for those unwilling to be fobbed off with the polished official version peddled by Beijing for the "Year of China in France". France in January 2004, welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao with much pomp and ceremony. Once again human rights were only very cautiously broached. The Chinese head of state defended "socialist democracy" in a speech to the NationaI Assembly (parliament) without promising any improvement in basic freedoms in the world's most populous country. The Chinese police state brooks no challenge to the Party monopoly on political life and ministries of Public and State Security, employing hundreds of thousands, ensures undisputed mastery. Its methods are: the death penalty, re-education work camps, torture, political abuse of psychiatry, repression of ethnic and religious minorities and control of the Internet. This black book on the Red Empire is the first to appear in French featuring devastating accounts of how the Chinese dictatorship treats its opponents, along with previously unpublished portraits illustrating the courage of the dissidents. A descent beneath the surface gloss of China's economic success. On sale in bookshops from 13 May 2004. Reports and files from: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, The Laogai Research Foundation and Reporters Without Borders. Collection: "Cahiers libres" published by La Découverte 224 pages, 16 euros. Available in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. Press contacts: Pascale Iltis, La Découverte, [email protected], Tel: 01 44 08 84 21, Fax: 01 44 08 84 17 Sandrine Beauzée, Reporters Without Borders, [email protected], Tel: 01 44 83 84 72, Fax: 01 45 23 11 51