In the Press | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

Under Surveillance—And Celebrating: A dispatch from Beijing: After the Peace Prize, China’s democracy activists remain wary and watched

October 21, 2010 Comments Off

It has been a busy two weeks in China. Last week, my friend, the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” Then nearly two dozen Chinese Communist Party elders—some of them highly ranked officials or retired (read more…)

The Law On Trial In China

July 25, 2009 Comments Off

On July 17, agents of Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau raided and closed the office of the Open Constitution Initiative, a local nongovernmental organization. This center had been the primary meeting place for China’s nascent movement of “rights lawyers,” in which I have been an active participant. There are not too (read more…)

China’s Charter 08

January 16, 2009 Comments Off

A hundred years after the writing of China’s first constitution, “Charter 08” called for an end to essential features of the country’s political system, including one-party rule, and their replacement with a system based on human rights and democracy.