You might think it gets easier to stomach news of a good friend or terrific individual ”disappearing” in China, given the rate at which it has been happening. But Yang Hengjun vanishing from Guangzhou’s Baiyun Airport hits deeper into the abdomen and rises further up the throat, I think, because it comes with an added feeling that the ground for everyone in China is shifting fast beneath our feet.
Nobody has heard from ”Henry” Yang since Sunday when the Sydney writer phoned a colleague to say he was being followed by three men. Australian diplomats, already struggling to cope with the growing list of detained ethnic Chinese Australians, say they are urgently trying to find him. Yesterday Yang’s legions of online followers voiced hope that this increasingly brutal system would not be so irrational as to ”disappear” him, rather than simply warn him that the censor’s red line was closing in. More
(The Australian) CANBERRA has been kept in the dark on the whereabouts of Australian Yang Hengjun, who has been caught up in the biggest crackdown against democracy activists by Chinese authorities since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Dr Yang, an author and internet activist, was detained at Guangzhou airport in southern China on Sunday, according to friends who spoke to The Australian.
He was on his way to a pro-democracy conference in Beijing where he was planning to speak. More
BEIJING — Controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Tuesday he plans to set up a studio in Germany to showcase his work after facing huge hurdles in exhibiting art in his home country.
Ai, who is also a prominent political activist, told AFP he planned to establish the studio in Berlin and use it for publicity and exhibitions, although he will still use Beijing as his production and design base. More
(AFP) BEIJING — China has formally arrested two activists on charges of “inciting subversion” amid a widening crackdown on dissent linked to calls for “Jasmine” protests, rights groups said Tuesday.
Ding Mao and Ran Yunfei were both detained in the southwestern province of Sichuan in February and have been formally accused of “inciting subversion of state power” amid calls for protests emulating those sweeping the Arab world.
According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the family of Ding, who was once jailed for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, was formally notified of the charges Monday. More
The Chinese government has denounced the Western-led military action against the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, with it』s state-run media plying the line that Libyan citizens are opposing Western intervention.
However, Libyan protestors later flashed a banner in Chinese that read: “Muammar Gaddafi is a liar.”
After the Western air strike in Libya, China』s attitude changed from 『acceptance』 to 『in favor of Gaddafi』, and accused the West of interfering with other countries』 internal affairs, causing civilian deaths. More
(VOA News) China has charged well-known pro-democracy writer and editor Ran Yunfei with subversion for his alleged role in calling for popular uprisings in China similar to those gripping the Middle East and North Africa.
Ran’s wife told VOA’s Mandarin service she received a copy of the formal charging documents Monday, and says they were dated last Friday. She said she will move quickly to hire a lawyer to defend her spouse, and expects formal court proceedings within two months. More
(The freedom Now) Washington, D.C.: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called on the government “to proceed to an immediate release of Mr. Zhisheng Gao and provide for reparation of the harm caused” by his illegal detention. The Chinese government began targeting Gao after he began representing religious minorities in politically sensitive cases. In retaliation for this work, the government revoked his law license, shuttered his law firm, and placed his family under intense surveillance. More
By GENG HE, wife of a human rights lawyer (Gao Zhisheng) missing in China -
WITH the world’s attention on the uprisings in the Middle East, repressive regimes elsewhere are taking the opportunity to tighten their grip on power. In China, human rights activists have been disappearing since a call went out last month for a Tunisian-style “Jasmine Revolution.” I know what their families are going through. Almost a year ago, the Chinese government seized my husband and since then, we have had no news of him. I don’t know where he is, or even if he is alive.
In 2001, the Ministry of Justice listed my husband, Gao Zhisheng, as one of the top 10 lawyers in China. But when he began representing members of religious groups persecuted by the government, he became a target himself. His law license was revoked, and our family placed under constant surveillance. In 2006, he was convicted of inciting subversion based on a confession he made after his interrogators threatened our two children. He received a suspended sentence, but was briefly detained again a year later for writing an open letter to the United States Congress documenting human rights abuses in China. More
Peking University, often viewed as the Oxford or Harvard equivalent in China, plans to screen students for “radical thoughts.” A statement from the university announces that the program will target students for “consultations” who “frequently fail exams or encounter difficulties in their studies.”
However, categories of students that will be targeted for consultations, in areas other than academic preparedness, has prompted Chinese academics to raise concerns over academic freedom and to draw comparisons with the Cultural Revolution. The university would also screen “students with radical thoughts, psychological fragility, poverty, registration changes, eccentricity, Internet addiction, job difficulties, serious illnesses, and discipline violations.” More
(New York Times) BEIJING — A United Nations human rights agency has demanded that the Chinese government immediately release a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who has been detained for nearly a year, according to a statement released on Monday by an advocacy group. The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, had said he was tortured during previous rounds of detention.
The agency, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, also said in a written statement that the Chinese government should “provide for reparation of the harm caused” to the lawyer, Gao Zhisheng. A feisty Christian who has been repeatedly detained — and tortured, by his account — Mr. Gao has defended practitioners of Falun Gong, the banned spiritual group that came under a brutal crackdown by Chinese security forces. More
(Reuters) – China’s best known rights lawyer, missing for nearly a year, is being detained in violation of international law, a United Nations human rights body said in a statement made public on Monday, and it called for his immediate release. More
DUBLIN—“The dance is very elegant and very athletic, very skilled … it’s a pleasure to watch,” said Mr. John McColgan, who attended the final of three Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company performances at The Convention Centre in Dublin on Sunday, March 27.
Mr. McColgan is a founding director of Tyrone Productions, an independent television production company, and chairman of Today FM radio station. He is perhaps best known for his key role in the evolution of Riverdance. In recognition of his services to the arts and entertainment industry, Mr. McColgan received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the National University of Ireland in 2003. More
BEIJING — In a country where most media are controlled by the state, information is heavily censored and free-flowing opinions are sharply constricted, Chinese have turned to a new platform to openly exchange unfettered news and views: microblogs, similar to Twitter.
Microblogs — called “weibo” — seem to be one step ahead of China’s notoriously efficient censors, with a dozen microblogging sites, more than 120 million users and a million posts every hour. Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China. Sensitive broadcasts on BBC and CNN are blacked out. Even text messages with words such as “jasmine” and “revolution” may be bounced back as undeliverable. More
Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng was named the winner of the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award at tonight’s Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression awards, sponsored by SAGE.
Gao Zhisheng was unable to attend and his wife, Geng He, accepted the award on his behalf, via video.
The Chinese Communist Party is sending fake emails to Western government officials as part of its persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice. That’s according to a New York-based rights group, the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Erping Zhang is the Center’s spokesperson. A U.S. Senator’s office contacted him last month saying they’d received a strange email through their “Contact Us” webpage. The email appeared to be from him — a Falun Gong practitioner — but Zhang says he knew nothing about it. More
In a trial lasting less than two hours and marked with procedural irregularities, a Sichuan court sentenced Liu Xianbin (刘贤斌), a signer of Charter 08 and long-time advocate of democratic reform in China, to ten years in prison and two years and four months of deprivation of political rights.
Liu’s wife, Chen Mingxian (陈明先), who attended the trial and saw her husband for the first time since he was detained in June 2010, said, “The judge interrupted Liu many times and did not give him a chance to read his prepared statement. The judge also kept cutting off Liu’s lawyer when was presenting the defense statement.” She added that after the verdict was announced, Liu declared: “I’m innocent. I protest!” More
The Phoenix Weekly (issue 5, 2011) reported that the Beijing National Administration Training Centre for Hong Kong and Macau civil servants will be opened during the first half of the year. It cost 200 million yuan ($A30.4 million) to build this training centre, which is fully supported and sponsored by the central government of the PRC.
A statement by the Civil Service Bureau of Hong Kong indicates that the Hong Kong government will send more officers for training to Beijing.
Beijing worries about Hong Kong officials being “out of control”More
Chinese security personnel and hired thugs attacked and beat a group of peasant petitioners in Fuzhou, capital of China’s southeastern province of Fujian, on Monday, witnesses said.
About 300 peasants from Gulou, Jingan, and other districts of Fuzhou had gathered outside the Provincial Office of Letters and Visits to voice complaints about forced relocations and land-grabs, but were violently dispersed, the witnesses said.
“More than 10 villagers have been beaten up. Two of them fell on the ground,” said Lin Xuguang, a peasant from Liuqiao village in Jingan district. More
Google accused the Chinese authorities today of being behind problems with its email service, Gmail. Since the end of February, Chinese users have reported difficulties gaining access to Gmail’s home page and sending e-mails. Google’s instant messaging service is also said to have been having problems.
A Google spokesperson contacted by Reporters Without Borders ruled out technical problems as the source of the problem, blaming instead “a government blockage designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.”
Google reported on its blog on 11 March: “We’ve noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against our users. We believe activists may have been a specific target.” More
New York – A 42-year-old owner of a dumpling restaurant in Northeast China died in his home at the end of February, unable to recover from one and half years of physical and mental torture in a Re-education Through Labor (RTL) camp, the Falun Dafa Information Center has learned. His is one of over 400 documented Falun Gong deaths in Liaoning province since 1999.
Mr. Shi Hongbo (史红波), who owned a restaurant in Jinzhou district of Dalian in Liaoning province, was abducted outside of his home on October 14, 2008 while en route to work. Three weeks later he was sentenced to the Dalian RTL Camp for one and a half years. Camp personnel subjected him to numerous rounds of torture, including shocking him simultaneously with multiple electric batons and tying him down for several days at a time with all four limbs stretched out. As a result, Shi developed heart problems and high blood pressure. In September 2009, Shi was transferred to Weiningying Re-education Through Labor (RTL) Camp. More
Authorities in central China detained three officials and launched a probe into hundreds of pig farms on Friday after animals there tested positive for a banned chemical that can be dangerous to humans.
The latest food safety scandal in China emerged as the official Xinhua news agency said it had found that 52 out of about 1,500 pigs in nine farms in Henan province had tested positive for clenbuterol, a drug used by farmers to bulk up livestock.
The report prompted supermarkets to pull from the shelves Shineway brand meat products belonging to the country’s largest meat processor, Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co. More
Breaking into the Chinese market is riddled with challenges like in no other market. U.S. businesses are flocking to China in pursuit of rising earnings, only thinking that it is one of the largest markets worldwide.
“However, time after time, local entrepreneurs, either with or without the tacit support of the Chinese government, have found ways to fleece American companies bare,” according to an article on the VentureBeat website.
Apple was fleeced when a factory manager in China stole the blueprint to its latest iPhone model a few years ago, produced it, though not quite in the format as the Apple iPhone, and put it on the market before Apple introduced its latest model. More
(Reuters) – Shares of several Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges fell on Tuesday as investors became more wary of accounting shenanigans following two high-profile auditor departures.
China-based companies’ shares have been under pressure for months amid scrutiny of their books and a spate of shareholder lawsuits alleging accounting fraud.
Jitters intensified this week after one Chinese company said its auditor had resigned and another said an auditor was dismissed. More
2. Large wave of resignation from the Chinese Communist Party is happening
More than 100 million Chinese have quit the CCP till Oct. 2011, people are continue quitting at a rate of 50,000 to 70,000 per day.
- The Tuidang Movement Milestone: 100 Million Chinese Hearts Changed
10.Videos: Tiananmen Square Massacre - June. 4, 1989
Thousands of students shot to death by tanks and soldiers on Tiananmen square in capital city Beijing in 1989
Reporters Without Borders said in it’s 2005 special report titled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency”, that “Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party”, “particularly during the SARS epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.”
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