In the Press | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

Chinese dissidents: Peng Lifa, Beijing’s banner man sentenced to nine years in prison

July 9, 2025 Comments Off

According to anonymous sources, the dissident who publicly challenged “dictator Xi Jinping” in October 2022 and inspired the “blank paper” protest against the zero-COVID policy has been tried and convicted. Human rights groups are calling on Beijing to disclose his whereabouts and provide details about his trial. The case comes (read more…)

China’s human rights lawyers speak out, 10 years after crackdown

July 7, 2025 Comments Off

In 2015, a nationwide campaign rounded up hundreds of rights advocates. Since then, suppression has become more systematic and less visible, lawyers say

China tightens internet controls with new centralized form of virtual ID

June 20, 2025 Comments Off

Hong Kong (CNN) — China has mastered the craft of policing the internet, operating one of the world’s most extensive online censorship and surveillance regimes. With mandatory identity checks on every online platform, it has become almost impossible for users to stay anonymous.

How Beijing’s 1995 Disappearance of the Panchen Lama Enabled Crimes Against Humanity

May 17, 2025 Comments Off

Thirty years ago today, Chinese authorities disappeared a six-year-old Tibetan boy and his family. They haven’t been heard from since – but the impunity enjoyed by the Chinese government continues to fuel threats to religious freedom, collective punishment, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention.

Opinion: Canada should take chance to lead the way on China

May 15, 2025 Comments Off

Prime Minister Mark Carney faces a host of urgent and challenging policy issues. The first is trade with the United States, and support for sectors of the Canadian economy affected by tariffs. But the prime minister is also a person of empathy and values, and those are expected to be (read more…)

Hong Kong: 87 Groups Condemn Arrests of Activist’s Relatives

May 8, 2025 Comments Off

(New York) – Hong Kong authorities’ unjust arrests of the father and brother of the prominent US-based activist Anna Kwok is an escalation of the Chinese government’s use of cross-border repression, 87 international and diaspora rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said today in two joint statements.

At the U.N., China is deploying a growing army of puppet organizations to monitor and intimidate human rights activists

April 28, 2025 Comments Off

Beijing-backed “GONGOs” have transformed the Palais des Nations into a hostile environment for critics of President Xi Jinping. In the “capital of peace,” the palatial grounds of the United Nations Office at Geneva were meant to embody the 20th-century ideal of a postwar world — when countries might seek to (read more…)

Communicating International Security

April 11, 2025 Comments Off

🧠🎙️ Every face here brought insight, knowledge, expertise, and perspective. 📌Here’s a look at the brilliant minds who joined Communicating International Security over the past year — professionals, thinkers, and storytellers who helped us navigate a fast-changing world.

China’s System of Mass Arbitrary Detention

March 12, 2025 Comments Off

“Sitting in a prison cell waiting for daybreak”: this is how Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong described the prospect of enduring a 14-year prison sentence, handed down by a Shandong court in 2023. Xu’s “crime”? Advocating for civil liberties.

报告：中港良心犯1545人规模之大可成危害人类罪香港颠覆罪犯竟比中国多17%

March 6, 2025 Comments Off

人权组织「中国人权捍卫者」(China Human Rights Defenders，简称CHRD)根据本身和其他组织的资料整理後，在昨(5日)天发表名为《牢房中等待黎明：中国的任意羁押可能构成危害人类罪》的报告，指中国以任意拘留来压制批评者和惩罚人权捍卫者的范围和规模在领导人习近平治下扩大了，由2019至去年底的六年内，中国内地以不符合人权标准的罪名拘留了数千人，并将当中1422名因和平表达意见或行使人权的政治犯判处入狱；而当政治良心犯的代价亦十分高，一般良心犯的平均刑期是六年，涉及国家安全罪名的，平均刑期则增至七年，当中48人被判囚十年或以上；另有五人被判死刑或终身监禁。

CHRD发布中国羁押人权捍卫者报告：六年内超一千人入狱，平均刑期6年

March 6, 2025 Comments Off

非政府组织“中国人权捍卫者（CHRD）”3月5日发布关于中国任意羁押人权捍卫者的报告，题为《牢房中等待黎明：中国的任意羁押可能构成危害人类罪》。报告综合CHRD政治犯数据库和对话基金会等其他五个关于人权捍卫者的数据库，以及对家属亲友的采访，统计并分析了2019年至2024年间在中国被判刑的人权捍卫者。据统计，六年内至少1545位人权捍卫者被羁押， 1422人被判刑，平均刑期长达6年。

China’s conviction of 1,500 prisoners of conscience a ‘crime against humanity’

March 6, 2025 Comments Off

China arbitrarily detained thousands and convicted 1,545 “prisoners of conscience” in the last six years in what could constitute “crimes against humanity”, a rights group alleged. The prisoners were jailed for “peacefully exercising or advocating for human rights”, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a report on Wednesday.