Amnesty International report sites cases of torture in China

BEIJING - To force a young woman to admit to prostitution, Chinese police officers stuffed a sock in her mouth and sexually assaulted her. In an east China labor camp, a prisoner died after beatings ordered by a guard.

These cases were among dozens Amnesty International cited in a report yesterday that said torture and ill treatment of prisoners and detainees "is widespread and systemic" in China. The London-based rights group said the government is not doing enough to combat the problem.

Those perpetrating abuses include not only police and prison officers, but also those outside the criminal justice system: business security guards who tortured and killed complaining customers, tax collectors, family planners, neighborhood watch groups and even park attendants who beat a man with an electric baton for walking on the grass, Amnesty said.

In southern China, birth control officials tortured 30-year-old farmer Zhou Jianxiong to death in 1998, beating and burning him and ripping off his genitals, to extract the whereabouts of his wife, whom they suspected of having an unauthorized pregnancy, Amnesty said.

China's government says it opposes torture and is working to curb it. China's state-run media have in recent years been allowed a freer hand to report on police and official abuses of people not accused of political crimes, helping in some cases to bring perpetrators to justice.