Category Archives: Headlines

Panama Papers Hit Great Firewall of China

William IdeJoyce Huang

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei gestures during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, April 5, 2016.

BEIJING—China has moved quickly to silence any discussion about the Panama Papers and information about the use of tax havens by the families of at least eight current and former top leaders, including the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping. Continue reading

Chinese Media Ignore Win of Film About Hong Kong’s Future

Ten Years

Hong Kong movie producer Andrew Choi, right, and director Ng Ka-leung pose after winning the Best Film award for their movie “Ten Years” during the Hong Kong Film Awards in Hong Kong, Sunday, April 3, 2016.

Associated Press

BEIJING—Mainland Chinese media ignored a film festival award by “Ten Years,” a collection of five shorts that depict a gloomy future for Beijing-ruled Hong Kong, where freedom of speech has all but disappeared. Continue reading

‘Today, I Must Break My Silence’: Veteran Journalist Gao Yu

Gao Yu1

Journalist Gao Yu was sent on a forced “vacation” in southwestern China to remove her from Beijing when China’s parliament convened in March 2016.

Veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu on Friday defied an official ban on giving media interviews to speak out in anger at the demolition of her garden by local urban management officers, known in China as “chengguan.” Continue reading

China Charity Law Hits Rights Groups Right in Their Sources of Funding

Charities Law

China’s restrictive Charities Law was adopted by the National People’s Congress on March 16, and will take effect on Sept. 1.

China’s new law regulating charities is a further blow to its rights activists, and could restrict any non-government group from raising funds to help some of the country’s most vulnerable people, an overseas-based rights group said. Continue reading

Plainclothes Police Destroy Gao Yu’s Garden and Beat Up Her Son

Gao Yu

Gao Yu talks to reporters in her Beijing home after plainclothes police ransacked her garden and beat her son, March 31, 2016.

Plainclothes police raided the Beijing home of veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu on Thursday, sending the 72-year-old heart patient to the hospital while roughing up and detaining her son and destroying her garden in what supporters said was a bid to intimidate her. Continue reading

Law Scholar Calls for Youth League Transparency

In recent weeks, a number of individuals have forcefully spoken out against the tightening climate for journalists, activists, lawyers, and others whose work may challenge authorities. Prominent journalists and bloggers have criticized increasing controls over the media and political demands for ideological conformity. An open letter, signed only by “loyal Communist Party members,” called on Xi to step down and threatened his physical safety, and has unleashed an official investigation that has led to the detention of family members of dissidents and writers. These increasingly audacious public challenges to Xi Jinping’s governing style have raised questions over the stability of the current government and Xi’s ability to effectively rule China. Continue reading

Chinese Editor Resigns Amid Growing Pressure to Toe the Party Line

余少镭

A screenshot of Yu Xiaolei’s resignation letter to the Southern Metropolis Daily says: “I can’t take the surname of the Communist Party any more.”

A top editor at a cutting-edge newspaper in the southern Chinese Guangdong province resigned after the ruling Chinese Communist Party imposed new media controls, the journalist announced on social media. Continue reading

China Launches All-Out Probe Into Letter Calling on President to Resign

Chang Ping giving a speech in Hong Kong

Exiled Chinese journalist Chang Ping (L) shown giving a speech in Hong Kong, October 2014.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has launched a crackdown on the families of overseas dissidents as part of a nationwide probe into an open letter calling on him to resign. Continue reading