Dissident Chinese Lawyer ‘Incommunicado’ After Online Anger Over Activist’s Sentence

2015-12-02

e0fc87e8-65f8-441a-9df8-5a751b378bacGao Zhisheng during an interview at his office in Beijing, in a file photo.
AFP

UPDATED at 1:50 p.m. EST on 2015-12-02

Dissident rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who remains under house arrest since his release from prison in August 2014, has ‘disappeared’ once more, his friends and family told RFA.

Gao, who is still denied any freedom of movement and access to much-needed medical treatment, lost contact with the outside world after he spoke out against the jailing of a fellow rights lawyer in the southern city of Guangzhou, Gao’s wife Geng He told RFA.

“I called Gao Zhisheng’s older brother last night but he was mumbling with Continue reading

Amid Smog Wave, an Artist Molds a Potent Symbol of Beijing’s Pollution

02chinabrick-01-articleLargeBy CHRIS BUCKLEY and ADAM WU December 2, 2015

The artist “Brother Nut” vacuuming the dust near the Beijing National Stadium on Nov. 15, Day 87 of his project to turn the city’s pollution into a tangible brick.
Dong Dalu/CFP

Beijing has been swamped for days in a beige-gray miasma of smog, bringing coughs and rasping, hospitals crowded from respiratory ailments, a midday sky so dim that it Continue reading

China Says It Has Detained 2 Dissidents Sent Back by Thailand

By CHRIS BUCKLEY November 29, 2015

BEIJING — The Chinese government confirmed that it had detained two dissidents who had been living in Thailand and had been given United Nations recognition as refugees, a state-run newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Thai police handed the two Chinese men, Jiang Yefei and Dong Guanping, to the Chinese police this month, although the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had arranged for their resettlement to another country, human rights groups said last week.

Until Thursday, the Chinese government had been muted about the case, Continue reading

Chinese Rights Advocate Known as Guo Feixiong Convicted of Unexpected New Charge

By CHRIS BUCKLEY NOV. 27, 2015
28china-master180Yang Maodong, a veteran protester better known by his pen name, Guo Feixiong. Credit Zhang Qing

BEIJING — Yang Maodong, a hardened veteran of political protest in southern China, knew he had virtually no hope of winning his freedom on Friday when he was brought into a courtroom to face a judge’s verdict on charges that he had disturbed public order.

Chinese judges, after all, convict and imprison indicted dissidents with metronomic consistency, reflecting the ruling Communist Party’s control of the courts.

Still, Mr. Yang — a human rights campaigner better Continue reading

Guo Baosheng: Is Death Through Maltreatment Becoming Routine for Chinese Political Prisoners?

Published: November 17, 2015

China claims that it doesn’t have any political prisoners, but in a broad sense all of those who have been jailed or imprisoned for challenging the Chinese Communist Party on behalf of human rights or political justice ought to be considered China’s political prisoners. Before the policy of “reform and opening up” in 1979, counterrevolutionaries and other political prisoners were put under strict guard and treated worse than other criminals, and it was common in those days Continue reading

Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China

By EDWARD WONG NOV. 28, 2015

YUSHU, China — When officials forced an informal school run by monks near here to stop offering language classes for laypeople, Tashi Wangchuk looked for a place where his two teenage nieces could continue studying Tibetan.

To his surprise, he could not find one, even though nearly everyone living in this market town on the Tibetan plateau here is Tibetan.

Officials had also ordered other monasteries and a private school in the area not to teach the language to laypeople. And public schools had dropped true bilingual education Continue reading

China Releases 71-Year-Old Journalist from Prison

9E5FE6DB-A6F2-4C6E-8117-803461CBF1BB_w640_r1_sFILE – Pictures of jailed veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu are displayed by protesters outside Chinese central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong.

November 26, 2015 1:50 AM

Chinese authorities have released on medical leave a 71-year-old journalist imprisoned on charges of leaking state secrets.

State media reported the development Continue reading

China: Conviction of veteran journalist Gao Yu upheld on appeal

26 November 2015                                                                                         

Update #3 to RAN 09/14

Gao-YuPEN International is deeply disappointed by the Beijing high court’s decision of 26 November 2015 not to overturn veteran journalist Gao Yu’s conviction for ‘leaking state secrets abroad’. Following a closed hearing held on 24 November, the court ruled to reduce her sentence to five years. PEN continues to condemn her conviction and sentence, and calls for her immediate and unconditional release. Nonetheless, PEN welcomes reports that Gao Yu is due to serve the remainder of her sentence under house arrest due to concerns for her deteriorating health and strongly urges the Chinese authorities to ensure that Gao Yu is afforded adequate medical care. Continue reading