Category Archives: Headlines

Mo Zhixu: Fear of Losing Control: Why China Is Implementing an Internet Security Law

Published: October 4, 2015

“[T]he existence of a relatively free, relaxed, and anonymous Internet for the regime is ‘the root of all evil.’”

August 5 was the last day that opinions were solicited by the government for its new Internet Security Law, meaning that in the near future the legislation will be formally unveiled. In draft form, many of its clauses have already attracted scrutiny: for example, Continue reading

A Year On, Mixed Views on What Hong Kong Protests Achieved

October 07, 2015 8:23 AM

HONG KONG —A year ago, Hong Kong’s famously busy streets were shut down by pro-democracy protesters in the so-called “Umbrella Movement”, a moniker that came Continue reading

Five Years On, Liu Xiaobo’s Wife Stays Silent, Under House Arrest

2015-10-08
8b30938e-3adb-4318-98d6-1d2c10166680Liu Xia (r) and rights lawyer Mo Shaoping (l) arrive at her brother Liu Hui’s trial in Beijing on April 23, 2013.
AFP
Five years after being awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, activists are calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to release his wife Liu Xia, Continue reading

Chinese Lawyers Call For The Abolition of Their Professional Body

image (45)015-10-07

Rights lawyers like Pu Zhiqiang (front right, in May 3, 2014 photo) are an endangered species in China.
Photo courtesy of China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD).

Dozens of Chinese lawyers have written to the country’s parliament calling for an end to legal requirements that they join their professional association, amid an ongoing crackdown on the embattled legal profession.

The letter calls for the repeal of Clause 15 of China’s Continue reading

‘Chinese Lawyers Live in Constant Fear’: Former Chinese Judge

2015-10-02

Zhong Jinhua (R) and a colleague in Shenzhen in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of image (21)
Zhong Jinhua, a former judge at the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang who became a lawyer to escape political interference, arrived last month in the United States along with his family.

His arrival on Sept. 4 coincided with a nationwide police operation targeting human Continue reading

Ai Weiwei finds ‘listening devices’ hidden in Beijing studio

Dissident artist posts images of suspected bugs on Instagram after returning to China following first overseas trip in four years
2954

Ai Weiwei during his visit to London. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex

Sunday 4 October 2015 06.45 EDT Last modified on Sunday 4 October 2015 19.01 EDT

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has returned to China after his first overseas trip in four years and discovered what appear to be listening devices hidden in his studio.

In a series of Instagram and Twitter posts on Sunday, the pop artist Continue reading

Q. and A.: Johannes Chan on Academic Freedom in Hong Kong

By MICHAEL FORSYTHE OCTOBER 2, 2015 11:40 AM October 2, 2015 11:40 am

03Sino-Chan-tmagArticleJohannes Chan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, was rejected this week for a promotion, raising fears over Beijing’s influence.Credit Fai Lo/The Initium Media
The governing council of the University of Hong Kong rejected this week the nomination of Johannes Chan, a professor and former dean at the university’s law school, as one of five pro-vice chancellors, a post with influence over how Hong Kong’s most prestigious academic institution attracts and hires talent.

For almost a year, Mr. Chan’s candidacy for the post had been under attack by local newspapers sympathetic to China’s central government. It drew considerable attention Continue reading

China Tightens Censorship on Guangxi Blasts

ECE639C0-A898-4DCA-ADA5-A85A7D442935_w640_r1_s_cx0_cy10_cw0A damaged room in a residential building is seen after several locations were targeted with parcel bombs in the southwestern city of Liuzhou, Guangxi province, Sept. 30, 2015.

October 02, 2015 5:40 AM

Authorities in China have imposed censorship controls on domestic media reporting on this week’s deadly bomb blasts in Guangxi Province, which claimed seven lives and caused more than Continue reading