News of the passing on December 18, 2011, of Vaclav Havel, the distinguished playwright and moving force behind “Charter 77,” brought shock and pain to Chinese citizens who three years earlier had signed Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democracy and human rights.
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Guizhou Activist Chen Xi Jailed for Ten Years for “Inciting Subversion” Another Heavy Sentence as Government Intensifies Crackdown on Dissent (Chinese Human Rights Defenders, December 26, 2011) – Today, the day after Christmas, Chinese authorities sent another activist, Chen Xi (陈西), to prison for 10 years, with an additional (read more…)
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Veteran Democracy Activist Chen Wei Gets 9 Years for Speech Crime (Chinese Human Rights Defenders, December 23, 2011) – Earlier today, the Suining Intermediate People’s Court in Sichuan Province heard the case against veteran activist Chen Wei (陈卫) for “inciting subversion of state power.” At the conclusion of the (read more…)
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China Human Rights Briefing December 14-20, 2011 To download this week’s CHRB as a .pdf file, please click here. Highlights Veteran activist and “Jasmine Crackdown” detainee Chen Wei will be tried for “inciting subversion” on December 23, following the footsteps of prominent activists including Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo, (read more…)
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Communiqué on behalf of Wang Lihong, citizen of People’s Republic of China, Alleging Arbitrary Arrest or Detention and Persecution of Human Rights Defenders and Violation of Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly I. IDENTITY 1. Family name: WANG (王) 2. First name: Lihong (荔蕻) 3. Sex: Female 4. Birth date (read more…)
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Disappeared Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Ordered “Back to Prison” Highlights Law’s Arbitrariness in China (Chinese Human Rights Defenders, December 16, 2011) – The human rights lawyer and activist Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), who has been missing for the past 20 months, reportedly has been put “back in jail,” according to a (read more…)
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China Human Rights Briefing December 7-13, 2011 To download this week’s CHRB as a .pdf file, please click here. Highlights Guizhou Activist Arrested As Rights Forum Declared “Illegal”: Guizhou activist Chen Xi (陈西) was recently arrested for “inciting subversion,” just days before authorities strongly moved to ban the Guizhou (read more…)
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Human Rights Day 2011: A Dismal Year for Human Rights Defenders in China Chinese Government Must Honor Its International Human Rights Obligations (Chinese Human Rights Defenders, December 9, 2011) As the world observes Human Rights Day on December 10, CHRD notes that 2011 was one of the worst years in (read more…)
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Liu Xiaobo’s 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was for the first time in history awarded to a Chinese living inside China, or more precisely, in a jail cell in the northeastern province of Jilin. One year later, the writer and celebrated dissident remains in prison without regular family visits.
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When human rights organizations press international actors to exert greater pressure on the Chinese government, we are often told that quiet diplomacy might be better. After all, the Chinese government has a thin skin, and pushing topics so publicly might result in the opposite of the intended effect.
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China Human Rights Briefing November 8-14, 2011 To download this week’s CHRB as a .pdf file, please click here. Contents Arbitrary Detention Sichuan Land Rights Activist Liu Zhengyou Released from Prison Shanghai Activist Sentenced to Three Years and Six Months in Prison Sichuan Activist Zuo Xiaohuan Released after 18 Months (read more…)
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Let there be light, let there be sincerity: the illegal house arrest of Chen Guangcheng and the unprecedented grassroots campaign to end it Chinese Human Rights Defenders November 11, 2011 Chinese citizens have launched an impressive campaign to challenge the unlawful house arrest of blind human rights activist and (read more…)
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