In the Press | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

Chinese Human Rights Defenders: “None of us is safe, and any one of us could be next”

October 15, 2013 Comments Off

Originally published by Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders (blog) on October 4, 2013 Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are continuing to hold human rights lawyer Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong, without criminal activists said on 3 October. He was criminally detained on 8 August on charges of “incitement to disturb public (read more…)

Dubious shrinks, political prisoners inside China’s mental health care system

May 13, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by CNN on May 6, 2014 Editor’s note: Johan Nylander is a freelance journalist who has lived in Hong Kong since 2011. He reports mainly on the politics, business, and culture of China. (CNN) — Wu Yuanhong, a man suffering from schizophrenia in China’s southeastern Jiangxi Province, was forced by (read more…)

Calls Grow For Chinese Lawyer’s Release As Crackdown Continues

October 15, 2013 Comments Off

Originally published by Radio Free Asia on October 3, 2013 Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are continuing to hold a top human rights lawyer with no announcement of criminal charges against him, in spite of a vocal campaign for his release, activists said Thursday. Yang Maodong, better known as (read more…)

China Detains Rights Lawyer

May 13, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by Wall Street Journal on May 6, 2014 By Josh CHINE BEIJING—Chinese authorities have detained a prominent rights lawyer on charges of creating a disturbance, according to lawyers and his family, in a sign of increased government scrutiny of activists ahead of the 25th anniversary of the crackdown (read more…)

Ales Byalyatski wins Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize

October 15, 2013 Comments Off

Originally published by Charter97 on September 30, 2013 Imprisoned human rights defender Ales Byalyatski has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize. “In his daily struggle against violations of human rights, injustice, arbitrariness and authoritarianism, Ales Bialiatski [Byalyatski] has worked ceaselessly so that the citizens of Belarus may one day aspire (read more…)

How China is using criminal detention in place of re-education through labour

May 13, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by SCMP on April 21, 2014 Keen to learn about the United Nations’ review of human rights in China, Cao Shunli planned to travel to Geneva last September. She never made her flight. Beijing police barred her from boarding her plane on September 14. Then the human rights (read more…)

China is refusing to give a dozen political prisoners life-saving medical treatment

June 29, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by Quartz on June 26, 2014 Chinese activist Liu Ping, connected with the loosely organized New Citizens Movement, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison last week. Human rights groups and Liu’s lawyer argue she should be given medical parole: They claim that over the course of the past year she has (read more…)

China Sentences Activists On Disturbing Public Order Charge

May 13, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by Bloombergon April 18, 2014 China sentenced four activists linked to a movement that sought to promote citizens’ rights to jail for disturbing the public order, a court in Beijing said. Ding Jiaxi was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, the longest sentence of the group, a (read more…)

China jails four more New Citizens Movement activists

May 12, 2014 Comments Off

Originally published by The Guardian on April 18, 2014 A Chinese court sentenced four anti-corruption activists to prison on Friday, closing another chapter in a protracted crackdown on dissent. The four belonged to the New Citizens Movement, a loose-knit grassroots organisation known for holding small dinner parties to discuss political (read more…)

How Big Is China’s Hidden Economy?

September 30, 2013 Comments Off

Originally published by Radio Free Asia on September 26, 2013 China’s hidden household income—otherwise known as its “gray economy”—has topped 6.2 trillion yuan (U.S.$1 trillion) or about 12 percent of the world’s most populous nation’s economic output, a new report says, indicating a widening wealth gap fueled by corruption. The state-backed China Reform (read more…)

Jiangxi Child Abuse Victims’ Parents in Bid For Compensation

September 30, 2013 Comments Off

Originally published byRadio Free Asia on September 25, 2013 The parents of seven schoolgirls abused by a teacher in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi have called for a meeting with the Ministry of Education to discuss compensation. Speaking on a trip to petition the ministry in Beijing, one of the parents (read more…)

The Party Line

December 1, 2013 Comments Off

China’s Communist party leadership concluded an important agenda-setting meeting in Beijing on November 12. At this point much remains unclear about the decisions made at the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party Central Committee conclave, including changes to the One China policy, market reforms, and the abolition of the (read more…)