Originally published by CATO at Liberty on August 27, 2014. BEIJING—Today China’s big cities look much like urban areas anywhere in the world. There are lots of cars. What I didn’t expect was to see a Christian “fish” on an auto. Religion is “on the rise,” one U.S. diplomat told me. It (read more…)
Read more
Authorities in the Chinese capital put on trial two more members of the anti-graft New Citizens’ Movement on Thursday, a day after the trial of its founder member Xu Zhiyong, who viewed the hearing as illegal and stayed silent in protest. Veteran pro-democracy activist Zhao Changqing and another activist Hou (read more…)
Read more
(TibetanReview.net, Jan23, 2014) As China prepared to try legal scholar and accountable governance activist Mr Xu Zhiyong in Beijing on Jan 22 for allegedly “gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public place,” rights groups have called for his immediate freedom if China was serious about addressing the corruption (read more…)
Read more
Prominent human rights scholar and activist Xu Zhiyong’s trial began and concluded on Wednesday, with both Xu and his lawyer remaining silent in protest of what they said were the illegal procedures taken by the court during the trial. Both refused to talk during the trial proceedings to demonstrate their (read more…)
Read more
BEIJING — Legal scholar Xu Zhiyong missed his daughter’s birth last week. The human rights advocate is unlikely to rejoin his family for next week’s Chinese new year, nor for the next five years. Detained since July, Xu enters a Beijing courtroom Wednesday in the first of a rapid series (read more…)
Read more
Originally published by Crossmap on August 18, 2014. Zhisheng, 50, is a Christian lay leader as well as a Beijing-based lawyer. He came to prominence for defending activists and religious minorities before Chinese authorities closed down his law practice in 2005, and arrested him for ‘subversion’ a year later, a charge (read more…)
Read more
Xu Zhiyong, the founder of China’s New Citizens’ Movement, went on trial today. His supporters vow to continue their push for greater transparency among Chinese officials.
Read more
Originally published by Radio Free Asia on August 15, 2014. A group of lawyers has called for an investigation into allegations of torture under the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s internal disciplinary system, known as “shuanggui,” an overseas-based rights group said on Friday. Lawyers representing a number of former party officials in the (read more…)
Read more
The nephew of blind Chinese activist is suffering from appendicitis, but prison authorities refuse to allow his release on medical grounds, or allow surgery in the prison hospital, reported Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) in a briefing last week.
Read more
Originally published by The Irish Times on August 8, 2014. One of China’s most prominent human rights activists, Gao Zhisheng, has been released after three years in jail, activists reported yesterday, although it remained unclear whether he will be subject to restrictions on his freedom. Mr Gao is best known for his (read more…)
Read more
Just days after China’s parliament voted to abolish the controversial “re-education through labor” system, Beijing police detained and tortured a former inmate who penned an open letter about abuses she had suffered under the system, a rights group said this week.
Read more
Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are holding five activists who began a hunger strike to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square military crackdown this year, as well as a lawyer who enquired about them, according to rights groups and lawyers.
Read more