習政権の１０年で中国の市民社会は崩壊　活動家や知識人の声

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】人権活動家チャールズさん（仮名）は、中国で市民社会が花開き、肉体労働者の生活改善のために打ち込んでいた頃のことを今も忘れていない。（写真は中国・天津の裁判所前で撮影を阻止する私服警官。資料写真）
　だが、３期目が確実視される習近平主席が率いてきたこの１０年で、さまざまなコミュニティーの団体は解体され、再生の希望は打ち砕かれた。
　チャールズさんは中国を離れ、活動家の友人数人は今も当局に拘禁されている。
　「２０１５年以降、市民社会全体が崩壊し始め、ばらばらになってしまいました」
　中国の市民運動や新興の独立系メディア、学問の自由などはことごとく破壊された。中国共産党に対するあらゆる脅威を排除しようと、多くのＮＧＯ職員、人権派弁護士、社会運動家が脅迫を受け、当局に拘束されるか国外に追放された。
　ＬＧＢＴＱの権利向上に携わるＮＧＯの職員は、「団体の資金・運営面、あるいは個人のレベルでも、私たちはますます無力になっています」と匿名を条件にＡＦＰに語った。
　ＡＦＰは習政権下での市民社会の崩壊について、活動家や知識人にインタビューした。

■「７０９事件」と外国ＮＧＯへの規制
　２０１５年に３００人以上の弁護士や人権活動家が逮捕された弾圧は、開始された７月９日にちなんで「７０９事件」と呼ばれている。人権団体によると、今も多くの弁護士が拘束されるか監視下に置かれ、弁護士資格を剥奪された人々もいる。
　もう一つ大きな転換点となったのは、２０１６年に採択されたいわゆる海外ＮＧＯ管理法だ。同法により、中国国内で活動する外国のＮＧＯを取り締まる広範な権限が警察に与えられた。
　報復を恐れて匿名を条件に取材に応じた環境ＮＧＯの職員は、「２０１４年には横断幕を掲げて抗議活動を行ったり、科学的調査を行い、国内メディアと協力して環境汚染を暴露したりすることができた」が、「今は何をするにも警察への事前の届け出が必要です。プロジェクトは政府機関と協力しなければなりませんが、それはいわば監督委員会のようなものです」と語った。

■ゼロ・トレランス
　現在の状況は、胡錦濤前国家主席の比較的寛容な時代とは様変わりしている。
　「大学では２０１５年ごろにＬＧＢＴＱやジェンダーに関する活動グループがいくつか誕生しました」と語るのは、ＬＧＢＴＱの若者組織の一員、カールさんだ。今は「圧力が強まった」のを感じていると話す。
　２０１８年ごろには、当時芽生え始めたフェミニズム運動「＃ＭｅＴｏｏ（私も）」も当局に弾圧され、学生活動家数十人が逮捕されるなど、社会運動に対する政府の「ゼロ・トレランス（不寛容）」方針が鮮明になった。
　今年７月、北京の清華大学はレインボーフラッグを配布した学生２人を厳重注意し、インターネット上ではＬＧＢＴＱの学生団体による多数のソーシャルメディアのページが凍結された。

■敵視される「西側」の価値観
　市民社会の衰退を示すもう一つの前兆は２０１３年、習政権発足後の党内通達で、立憲民主主義や報道の自由といった「西側」の自由主義的な価値観とされる主張が禁じられたことだ。
　この通達をリークしたとして、２０１４年から２０２０年にかけて刑務所や自宅軟禁下で過ごしたジャーナリストの高瑜氏（７８）は、「１９８０年代にはこうしたイデオロギーについて議論も出版もできたが、この通達では敵視の対象になった」と指摘する。
　「正常な社会では、知識人は政府の誤りを問いただすことができる。そうでなければ…毛沢東時代と同じではないでしょうか」
　清華大学の元政治学教授で党の方針に批判的な呉強氏は「この１０年で、中国の知的領域に一種の密告文化がはびこってしまいました」と話す。
　「今や学生は議論を交わして学ぶのではなく、教授の一語一句を点検する検閲官のようです」

■「新世代の活動家の芽を摘む」
　ジェンダーの平等を目指す団体「エクイティ」の創設者フェン・ユアン氏は「おそらく今、私たちはどん底にいるのでしょう（中略）それでも人々はたゆまず声を上げ続けています」と言う。
　一方でチャールズさんの友人で、＃ＭｅＴｏｏ運動の先頭に立ったジャーナリストの黄雪琴氏や、労働運動家の王建兵氏らは、公共秩序騒乱の疑いを受け、裁判が開かれないまま１年以上勾留されている。
　当局は若い活動家の集まりを脅威と見なし、見境なく起訴しているとチャールズさんは言う。「政府が今、標的としているのは、小規模で地道な活動をしている個人です」
　「新世代の活動家の芽を摘もうとしているのです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/17-14:37）

Human rights activist Charles remembers a time when civil society was blossoming in China, and he could dedicate his time to helping improve the lives of people struggling in blue-collar jobs.
Now, 10 years into President Xi Jinping's rule, community organisations such as Charles's have been dismantled and hopes of a rebirth crushed.
Charles has fled China and several of his activist friends are in jail.
After 2015, the whole of civil society began to collapse and become fragmented, he told AFP, using a pseudonym for safety reasons.
Xi, on the brink of securing a third term at the apex of the world's most populous country, has overseen a decade in which civil society movements, an emergent independent media and academic freedoms have been all but destroyed.
As Xi sought to eliminate any threats to the Communist Party, many non-governmental organisation workers, rights lawyers and activists were threatened, jailed or exiled.
AFP interviewed eight Chinese activists and intellectuals who described the collapse of civil society under Xi, though a few remain determined to keep working despite the risks.
Some face harassment from security officers who summon them weekly for questioning, while others cannot publish under their own names.
My colleagues and I have frequently experienced interrogations lasting over 24 hours, an LGBTQ rights NGO worker told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that psychological trauma from the repeated questioning has compounded his woes.
We've become more and more incapable, regardless of whether it's from a financial or operational perspective, or on a personal level.
- '709 crackdown' -
The collapse of China's civil society has been a long process riddled with obstacles for activists.
In 2015, more than 300 lawyers and rights defenders were arrested in a sweep named the 709 crackdown after the date it was launched -- July 9.
Many lawyers remained behind bars or under surveillance for years, while others were disbarred, according to rights groups.
Another watershed moment was the adoption in 2016 of the so-called foreign NGO law, which imposed restrictions and gave police wide-ranging powers over overseas NGOs operating in the country.
In 2014, we could unfurl protest banners, conduct scientific fieldwork and collaborate with Chinese media to expose environmental abuses, an environmental NGO worker told AFP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Now we must report to the police before we do anything. Each project must be in cooperation with a government department that feels more like a supervisory committee.
- Zero-tolerance -
Today's landscape is markedly different from even a few years ago, when civil society groups were able to operate in the relatively permissive climate that started under previous president Hu Jintao.
At universities, several LGBTQ and gender-focused groups sprung up around 2015, said Carl, an LGBTQ youth group member, although he felt a tightening pressure.
By 2018, the government's zero-tolerance of activism came to a head with the authorities suppressing a budding #MeToo feminist movement and arresting dozens of student activists.
Activities quietly permitted before were banned, while ideological work like political education classes ramped up, said Carl.
In July 2022, Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University handed two students official warnings for distributing rainbow flags, while dozens of LGBTQ student groups' social media pages were blocked.
- 'Like grains of corn' -
Another harbinger of regression was a 2013 internal Party communique that banned advocating what was described as Western liberal values, such as constitutional democracy and press freedom.
It treated these ideologies as hostile, whereas in the 1980s we could discuss them and publish books about them, said Gao Yu, a Beijing-based independent journalist who was either in prison or under house arrest between 2014 and 2020 for allegedly leaking the document.
In a normal society, intellectuals can question the government's mistakes. Otherwise... isn't this the same as in the Mao era? he asked, referring to Communist China's founder Mao Zedong.
Now, 78-year-old Gao endures social media surveillance, has virtually no income and is blocked from overseas calls or gathering with friends.
We are all like grains of corn ground down by the village millstone, she said.
Replacing Gao and her peers are celebrity academics who parrot hawkish nationalist ideology, while others have been forced out of their positions or endure classroom surveillance from students.
A kind of tattle-tale culture has flourished in China's intellectual realm over the past decade, said Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua political science professor and Party critic.
Students have become censors reviewing their professor's every sentence, instead of learning through mutual discussion.
- 'Unwinnable war' -
Faced with the increasingly harsh climate, many activists have either fled China or put their work on hold.
Only a handful persevere, despite growing hostility including online bullying.
Perhaps right now we are at the bottom of a valley... but people are still tirelessly speaking out, said Feng Yuan, founder of gender rights group Equity.
For others, like the environmental organisation worker, it is an unwinnable war against nationalist trolls who claim all NGO staff are anti-China and brainwashed by the West.
It makes me feel like all my efforts have been wasted, they said.
Charles's friends, #MeToo advocate Huang Xueqin and labour activist Wang Jianbing, have been detained without trial for over a year on subversion charges.
He believes authorities viewed their gatherings of young activists as a threat -- and the threshold for prosecution is getting lower.
The government is now targeting individuals who do small-scale, subtle, low-key activism, he said.
They have made sure there is no new generation of activists.