The law prohibits torture; however, police and other elements of the security apparatus employed torture and degrading treatment in dealing with detainees and prisoners. Former detainees and the press reported credibly that officials used electric shocks, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, incommunicado detention, beatings, shackles, and other forms of abuse against detained men and women. Prominent dissident Liu Nianchun, who was released in December 1998, reported that guards used an electric stun gun on him. Persons detained pending trial were particularly at risk during pretrial detention due to systemic weaknesses in the legal system ...

Arbitrary arrest and detention remain serious problems; there were more reports of long incommunicado detentions than in 1998. Because the Government tightly controls information, it is impossible accurately to determine the total number of persons subjected to new or continued arbitrary arrest or detention...

Some dissidents are under heavy surveillance and routinely had their telephone calls with foreign journalists and diplomats monitored; there were reports that surveillance of dissidents increased during the year. Before he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in prison for alleged subversion, Beijing CDP member Gao Hongming's meetings with foreign diplomats often were monitored and sometimes even videotaped by security personnel.

The Constitution states that freedom of speech and of the press are fundamental rights to be enjoyed by all citizens; however, the Government restricts these rights in practice. The Government interprets the Communist Party's "leading role," as mandated in the preamble to the Constitution, as circumscribing these rights. The Government does not permit citizens to publish or broadcast criticisms of senior leaders or opinions that directly challenge Communist Party rule.

The Constitution provides for freedom of peaceful assembly; however, the Government severely restricts this right in practice...At times police use force against demonstrators. In January the Western Press reported that one protester was killed and more than 100 others were injured when police dispersed 3,000 villagers in Hunan province protesting corrupt government and high taxes...In late October, police in Ganzi township, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region, western Sichuan reportedly clashed with up to 3,000 ethnic Tibetans protesting the detention of 3 monks, including the respected Buddhist teacher Sonam Phuntsok, from nearby Dargye monastery a few days before... The police reportedly fired upon the crowd injuring some protesters. It is unknown whether any persons were killed. Up to 80 ethnic Tibetans reportedly were detained in connection with the incident.