Results tagged “humanrights”

• Wow, that's a huge amount: 1.5 million people per day are getting innoculated with the swine flu vaccine. [AP]
• This year's Chinese Blogger Conference was held in an ancient cave in Lianzhou, Guangdon. Why? You'll have to watch this video to find out. [WSJ]
• A government report has said that China's Three Gorges Dam has doubled in cost and has been plagued with multiple problems. Here's a summary of them. [Al Jazeera (on Youtube)]

We've caught ourselves thinking about the difficulties of being disabled in China on many occasions: a significant amount of city spaces and public transport are simply handicapped-unfriendly. Besides the occasional beggar, you rarely see disabled people in public, which is probably thanks to the many social factors constraining handicapped people. But at a very basic level, it's more troubling to think of the difficulties a set of stairs are for someone incapable of using them and the effect it would have on both their ability to travel and their quality of life.

• China earthquake activist on trial [AFP] "A Chinese activist who was investigating whether shoddy construction caused school collapses in last year's massive Sichuan earthquake went on trial for subversion, his lawyer said. Environmental activist and writer Tan Zuoren, who was charged with "inciting subversion of state power," is accused of defaming the ruling Communist Party and the government over their handling of the Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in 1989. Mr Tan's brief trial in Chengdu, capital of southwest Sichuan province, ended without a verdict, Pu Zhiqiang, one of his two lawyers, said."
• Chinese police detain supporters of quake critic [AP] "A high-profile Chinese government critic said he and 11 others were detained by police in a hotel Wednesday to prevent them from attending the trial of an activist who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in last year's earthquake. Avant-garde artist Ai Weiwei said police in the southwestern city of Chengdu also roughed up him and one of the other supporters who had traveled to the city to try to attend the trial of Tan Zuoren, an activist charged with subversion. The charges Tan faces appear to be linked to his quake investigation as well as essays he wrote about the 1989 student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that ended in a deadly military crackdown. Beijing routinely uses the charge of subversion to imprison dissidents for years."
• Murder at the 'reboot' camps [China Daily] "Deng Senshan had never skipped school, never been diagnosed with a mental illness and, according to his family, surfed the Web only on weekends. Yet on Aug 1, the 15-year-old was admitted to a rehab camp for Internet addiction (IA), where, after being ordered to run 5 km as part of his "treatment", he was beaten to death by counselors."

• To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It [NYT] "Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved."
• Diabetes more likely to strike the young in Asia [AP] "Without strong government policy, education and good clinical care, Asia's escalating epidemic could "erase economic gains made in recent decades," said Hu, one of the authors. Trends of diabetes in the region are influenced by everything from genetic makeup and cultural differences to smoking and degrees of urbanization, the JAMA study showed. But the most startling findings — which tended to vary from country to country — related to body mass and age."
• China Said to Harass Rights Lawyers [NYT] "Many of the lawyers have taken on cases, involving issues like Tibetan political activism and police brutality, that gained national and even international attention. The advocacy groups, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, called the actions by the legal authorities part of an effort to intimidate the lawyers and their law firms into avoiding sensitive cases."

Just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of... you know... that event, China has reportedly freed the last activist that was jailed for "hooliganism" in 1989. Liu Zhihua had been jailed for life after leading a strike at a factory as part of the June demonstrations. He was accused of inciting crowds with anti-government speeches. According to the BBC, he was actually freed in January but news of his release had only now been confirmed.

• “Zhejiang University Girl” Exposed By Human Flesh Search [Chinasmack] "On the evening of April 11th, through the human flesh search of netizens, the person who concocted “Zhejiang University Girl” came forward to apologize. The netizen passing as Zhejiang University Girl is “河谷渔风” ["He Gu Yu Feng"], from Jinhua in Zhejiang province, a male, born 1976 December 17. He admitted “Zhejiang University Girl” was fabricated. Reporters contacted and interviewed “河谷渔风”. “Writing this post was simply a fenqing vent. In the beginning it was posted on Tianya, there was no intention to target Zhejiang University, and even less to point at Professor Zheng Qiang.”"
• After Olympics, national spirit soars while human rights lag [USATODAY] "Not everyone agrees the billions spent on hosting the Summer Games was worthwhile. "I hoped the Olympic Games could improve my life, but they only brought disaster," says Zhang Wei, whose home was demolished in 2006 to make way for an Olympic makeover project just south of Tiananmen Square. She applied for a permit to protest but instead was sent to detention for a month. "The police told me it was because I told the truth about the demolition of my property to journalists," she says."
• Will Ditching The9 Help World Of Warcraft Get Past Chinese Censors? [Business Insider] "Starting in June, NetEase (NTES) will get exclusive operating rights to run the game in mainland China, replacing Blizzard's longtime partner The9 (NCTY), according to reports in Chinese media. Hopefully a new partner will help Blizzard through what's been a difficult period in its relations with the Chinese government. Blizz's latest Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, still isn't on sale in China."

• Shell to Delay Alternative Energy Projects in China [WSJ] "Royal Dutch Shell PLC is delaying or dropping some alternative energy projects in China as too costly given current low oil prices, executives said Tuesday... because of the economic downturn Shell decided to postpone a joint venture Shenhua Group, China's top coal producer to turn coal into liquid fuel. Shell had conducted a feasibility study with Shenhua, China's biggest coal producer, to build a coal-to-liquid plant in the country's western Ningxia Autonomous Region."
• Chinese workers protest again over unpaid wages [AP] "Hundreds of workers at a textile factory in southern China blocked roads Tuesday, in a second day of protests over unpaid wages, an employee said. The protests come as a collapse in demand for Chinese exports has closed factories and wiped out at least 20 million jobs. Communist leaders worry that more job losses and unpaid wages could result in mass protests."
• Rare Fungi Sent Back to China [Cornell Sun] "In the 1920s, Shu Chun Teng was China’s premier expert on fungi after studying mycology at Cornell. To preserve Teng’s specimens from destruction following the 1937 Japanese invasion of China, 2,278 of the specimen packets were smuggled by ox cart to Indochina and then by sea to the United States, eventually arriving at Cornell in 1940" It is now being returned to China. Hoorah!

In lieu of Women's Day, China Crossroads is highlighting women's issues in China including: women in the workplace, migrant women, reproductive health and sex workers.

• Construction starts on rail link [Shanghai Daily] "Construction on the 29.68-billion-yuan (US$4.34 billion) Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway started yesterday at Fengjing area in Shanghai. The project, which is expected to be completed before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, will cut the journey between the two cities to 38 minutes from the current one hour or more and is part of a plan to cut travel time between any two cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region to within one hour."
• Has Western Fast Food Hit a Wall in China? [Mark's China Blog] "I can't say that I'm that surprised that Chinese people may move away from eating western fast food as much as they have been. First, western fast food joints in China aren't cheap. In America, when you eat the crap that fast food places serve up you at least don't have to spend much money. That can't be said for China."
• China: ‘Can I supersize my stimulus?’ [FT Alphaville] "Expectations are growing China could super-size its stimulus package when it votes on the budget next week, especially since the draft currently being considered already foresees a record-breaking fiscal deficit for the country in 2009 of some 950bn yuan (higher than previously expected)."

When we were growing up as super geeky elementary school kids in our hometown, we would be excited whenever the the Bookmobile, a large van equipped with tons of children's books for purchase, rolled onto our campus. We loved hopping in with our hard-earned allowance money balled up in our fists, waiting to get our grubby hands on the newest Judy Blume Encyclopedia Brown books.

Wang Chen: China Registers Historic Progress in Human Rights [Xinhua]

• Taiwan's ex-president Chen Shui Bian has gone on a hunger strike to "protest the death of his justice and the regression of democracy". He hasn't eaten since Wednesday, when he was arrested and put in detention in Taipei to await persecution on various corruption allegations.
• China gets called up by the UN to defend its human rights record, but refuses to answer questions on the alleged mistreatment of dissidents and prisoners.
• Google China promises that it, unlike Baidu, will not manipulate its search results. Still, that doesn't stop Rebecca MacKinnon, former CNN China correspondent and a few educated others from musing, "Did Google sell out in China?" China also agrees today to give foreign financial news providers better access to information.

Tibetan poet Woeser, called "the poet who forgot to be afraid," speaks out against the Chinese government's repression of human rights in this short clip by Al Jazeera English. According to Al Jazeera, during "crackdowns" on Tibetan dissidents in March, Woeser's Internet blogs were among the few sources of information from the sealed-off region. She is now prohibited from leaving the country; Chinese officials refuse to issue her a passport. She is not allowed to leave China to accept awards for her poetry because officials claim she is a threat to national security. In a rare and daring move, Woeser is taking the government to court. "The Chinese government has not kept its promises," the poet tells Al Jazeera. "In strict terms, it has kidnapped the Olympic Games because it's using the Olympics as a big platform to demonstrate its power."

A new ad campaign for Amnesty International has Chinese Netizens seeing red, according to The Wall Street Journal. The campaign, designed by TBWA Worldwide, features Chinese athletes being tortured by Chinese authorities. It reads at the bottom: "After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on." WSJ reports bloggers demanding the boycott of all TBWA ads, as well as suggesting that all Chinese employees at TBWA resign from the company. Amnesty International allowed TBWA to run the ads once so that they could be entered in the Cannes competition, where they won a bronze award. According to Blogging for China, Amnesty has now claimed no involvement with the dissemination of the ads, pointing out that its web address was incorrectly listed on the ad (it is Amnesty.org, not Amnesty.com). However, according to Blogging for China's DJ, the organization knew the wrong web address was a minor error.

It won’t just be athletes and tourists descending on Beijing for the Olympics — an estimated 25,000 foreign journalists will be coming to the city to provide coverage for the event. We’ve already mentioned some of the tools being offered to the reporters, but a new report by New York organization Human Rights Watch released yesterday makes it clear how badly those resources may be needed. The report alleges that the Chinese government has violated its promises that media would have "complete freedom to report” during the games, instead treating foreign correspondents to close observation, intimidation and even violence. Authorities, the report says, have also expanded “forbidden zones” off-limits to journalists, which include Tibet, Gansu, Yunnan, Qinghai and, at times, Sichuan, provinces. Several who have chosen to ignore the boundaries have suffered imprisonment, death threats and beatings. Censorship isn’t limited to professionals — Chinese sources have also been the subject of harassment at the hands of authorities. And netizens may be the next victims of the pre-Olympic media clean-up — the Beijing Communications Authority has issued its first set of warnings, reprinted after the jump.

After serving more than ten years of a 16-year term, U.S. entrepreneur Jude Shao was released on Wednesday from Shanghai's Qingpu Prison. Shao was arrested in 1998 and convicted of tax evasion and fraud. Following his imprisonment, Shao's former classmates from the Stanford Graduate School of Business led a campaign for his freedom (their homepage on the right), and many members of Congress and the Bush administration repeatedly called for his release. Shao's release came a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice concluded her visit to Beijing, and the LA Times reports several China specialists who noted,

with the Olympics next month, Beijing was eager to buff up its image, which recently had been tarnished by deadly riots in Tibet and other incidents in which Chinese lawyers, journalists and human rights activists had been silenced.

Photo from Brian's Tree

With the upcoming Olympics and the subsequent global attention, the government obviously wants the nation to look its best, which in China sometimes translates to quashing dissent. Two European-based human rights groups working together as the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders recently published a report declaring that the government has stepped up attempts to quiet dissidents, citing four people arrested for Olympic Games protests, including Hu Jia, who was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for criticizing the government’s human rights violations. More from the AFP article:

In a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics."

Continue reading "A pre-Olympic dissident clampdown?"

Xinhua has an interesting opinion piece about the recent unbanning on mobile phones and computers in Cuba. First, the title of the article: 从免于匮乏的自由开始 meaning "Starting with the freedom from want". The political significance of the phrase "freedom from want" comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address, and comes, as we say nowadays, bundled with three other freedoms: speech and expression, religion, and fear.

What's interesting is this: the headline says that there are at least one million female sex slaves in the US. And the first paragraph of the article goes on to say that these figures from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which estimates that anywhere from 100,000-3 million underage people are somehow involved in prostitution in the US.

From Al-Jazeera English:

The Beijing Olympics are still 5 months away but they're attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.

Continue reading "Al-Jazeera: Tibetan activists condemn Beijing Olympics"

"China's inflation likely hit a new 11-year high of 8.3 percent last month on the back of rising food prices, state media reported Sunday, triggering speculation of a modest hike in interest rates."

``The Chinese side is willing to keep contact with the U.S. in all areas,'' Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said today at the end of a Beijing press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, neither elaborating nor giving her the chance to respond. ``We're ready to resume the dialogue.''

Just three days after Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong regained his freedom, China has released yet another media man — Yu Huafeng (喻华峰), general manager and deputy editor of the Southern Metropolis News《南方都市报》, the Guangzhou-based paper that is one of China's boldest and most critical papers.

The Times of India: China is India's largest trade ally

Forbes: Taiwan president says opposition win could see island join China

So we know that scientists get paid peanuts in China, but there's hope yet: China Daily ran article about an amended national law which allows scientists to report failures.:

The law, for the first time, allows scientists to report failures during the process of innovation without harming their records in future funding applications.

Continue reading "China's scientists: Failing upwards since 2008"

What's happening around the nation as one year closes and another begins

Our recruitment page has been updated! If you have a keen interest in journalism, new media and blogging and are looking for an internship that promises to be a rewarding experience, read on!

From Reuters:

A group of lawyers and human rights campaigners are objecting to China's "re-education through labour" system which allows China citizens to be sent to prison-like camps without trial. The government calls the system a humane corrective alternative to jail. But in practice, police use it to hold tens of thousands of people including protesters, thieves and addicts.