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January 19th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda “The situation has been more serious since the Jasmine protests last February, and the courts want to process all the sentences before the second half of this year, when we have the political transition,” he added.
At least 54 activists have been imprisoned in the wake of the Jasmine incidents, with a further 200 having been confined to house arrest at some point.
The authorities are now on high alert ahead of this October’s once-in-a-decade handover of power to a new generation of Communist party leaders.
One of China’s most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, said activists had been warned that between February 1 and November, every day will be “especially sensitive”.
On days which are deemed “sensitive”, Chinese dissidents can expect to be confined to their homes, or followed by police. Mr Hu said some of his friends had already been forbidden to leave Beijing and that jasmine flowers had been banned from sale in some markets.
“There is the power succession and the top leaders are deciding about China’s future direction,” said Mr Hu, who was called in for questioning by police earlier this month. “They are panicking and they will strike like thunder to snuff out problems. They are in control of all levels of society and are on full alert for any major incidents”.
Mr Liu said the Arab Spring continues to unnerve Beijing and that the current repression “is more to do with international affairs than problems inside China”. He added: “Local governments have been told by Beijing they can lock up anyone who seems like a troublemaker. Then they go back two or three years and trawl the records for anything that might implicate them.”
He added that the government was more worried about petitioners, people bringing specific grievances to Beijing, than about dissidents this year.
Meanwhile, Yu Jie, an activist whose family was allowed to leave China earlier this month, gave a graphic description of the house arrests and torture he had suffered after his friend, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
Mr Yu said he had been grabbed by state security officers the day before the Nobel ceremony in 2010, hooded and beaten. “They stripped off all my clothes and pushed me naked to the ground and kicked me maniacally. They had a camera and were taking pictures as I was being beaten, saying with glee they would post the naked photos online,” he said.
Mr Yu said one of his attackers had told him: “If the order comes from above, we can dig a pit to bury you alive in half an hour and no one on earth would know.”
The United States ambassador, Gary Locke, said earlier this week that China’s human rights record has worsened since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, contrary to the expectations when the games were awarded.
“It is very clear that in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and since then there has been a greater intolerance of dissent, and the human rights record has been going in the wrong direction,” he said, adding that the political situation in China is now “very delicate – very, very delicate”.
His words drew an angry response from the Chinese government, which said Mr Locke’s view was “inconsistent with the facts” and that China was working to improve human rights.
In some areas, activists confirmed the government has been more co-operative. Chang Kun, an activist fighting for the victims of HIV in Henan, said he was optimistic about the new leadership. “We have had some really good signs recently,” he said, adding that national security officers do not currently interfere with his work, but merely offer advice about the timing of meetings. “They did imply things would be a bit more sensitive because of the politics,” he said.
Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent human rights lawyer, also said he hoped for a smooth year. “We do not know what approach the new leaders will take, but we hope it will not be like the last two years, when Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao used hardcore tactics to ensure stability,” he said.
But, he added ominously, China’s enormous internal security apparatus, whose budget has been hugely increased since the Olympics, “always requires new enemies in order to justify growing its resources further”.
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