News | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

CHRD launches “Zero Tolerance for Human Rights Defenders in the Year of “Zero COVID”

March 7, 2022 Comments Off

CHRD launches our annual human rights report – “Zero Tolerance for Human Rights Defenders in the Year of “Zero COVID” – that lays out the key human rights trends in 2021 and beyond.

Zero Tolerance for Human Rights Defenders in the Year of “Zero COVID”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2021)

March 7, 2022 Comments Off

Throughout 2021, the Chinese state continued to tighten control over nearly all facets of society, often under the pretense of controlling the spread of COVID-19 and protecting national security. As in consecutive years past, government authorities took harsh reprisal measures against human rights defenders in China, Hong Kong, the Xinjiang (read more…)

China’s Insistence on ‘Zero COVID’ in Hong Kong Has a Deeper Meaning

February 18, 2022 Comments Off

Beijing’s attack on Hong Kong’s elite may have consequences that outlast the pandemic. A massive spike, followed by a severe drop off: this seems to be how the highly infectious, but relatively less deadly, Omicron variant of COVID-19 has played out in many countries and regions around the world.

Beijing Olympics Begin Amid Atrocity Crimes

January 28, 2022 Comments Off

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will open amid atrocity crimes and other grave human rights violations by the Chinese government, 243 nongovernmental organizations from around the world said today. The groups urged governments to join a diplomatic boycott of the Games, slated to begin February 4, 2022, and for athletes and sponsors not (read more…)

#BeijingWinterOlympics: Your Quick Guide to China’s Human Rights Crisis

January 19, 2022 Comments Off

Ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 4 in Beijing, CHRD created this list of the top human rights concerns in China for spectators, journalists, commercial sponsors, government delegations, and athletes. #1. Crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have committed systematic human (read more…)

On the Tragic Day of the Death of Zhang Qing, Wife of Guo Feixiong, CHRD Urges the Chinese Government to Free the Human Rights Intellectual, End Family Separations

January 10, 2022 Comments Off

After the death on January 10 of Zhang Qing, the wife of prominent Chinese dissident intellectual Guo Feixiong, CHRD calls for Chinese authorities to release Guo and to finally end the cruel and inhumane practice of using family separation to intimidate and punish dissidents and human rights defenders, as well (read more…)

Holiday repression signals dire year for human rights in China in 2022

January 6, 2022 Comments Off

In a series of calculated moves, taking advantage of a lull in international attention during the holiday period between Christmas and New Year, the Chinese authorities rushed through a number of acts in violation of human rights in the areas of freedom of expression, press freedom, and religious freedom. In (read more…)

Chinese Authorities May Put Prominent Activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi On Trial Around End-of-Year Holidays, PEN America and China Human Rights Defenders Warn

December 20, 2021 Comments Off

Chinese authorities may use the lull around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to subject prominent human rights defenders to unfair trials while much of the international community is distracted, PEN America and China Human Rights Defenders warned today in a joint statement.

New Wave of Persecution Against Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Must Sound the Alarm

December 6, 2021 Comments Off

CHRD calls for urgent international attention to recent developments in persecuting and clamping down on human rights lawyers in China, with criminal trials against three Chinese human rights lawyers – Li Yuhan, Qin Yongpei, and Hao Jingsong — and revocation of the licenses of two veteran lawyers – Liang Xiaojun, (read more…)

The world cannot rely on Chinese state media to know if Peng Shuai is free

November 17, 2021 Comments Off

“Peng Shuai’s latest statement – released through state media – should not be taken at face value. The Chinese government has a long history of arbitrarily detaining people involved in controversial cases, controlling their ability to speak freely, and making them give forced statements. Until Peng Shuai is free, the (read more…)

Journalism Becomes a Victim of China’s New Nationalism

October 27, 2021 Comments Off

After a half a century, very few Chinese people have reconsidered the correctness of this war, just like back then the company of soldiers didn’t doubt the ‘wise policy decisions’ of their superiors.”

Urgent Actions Needed to Stop Cultural Rights Violations Against Uyghurs

October 5, 2021 Comments Off

The mass detention of peaceful Uyghur intellectuals demonstrates the hidden human rights atrocity beneath the Chinese government’s absurd narrative that its suppression is necessary for “fighting terrorism”. The international community must speak out and take strong actions with a renewed sense of urgency