Featured Articles

China: Security, Public Relations and the 2008 Olympics

Tue, 05/15/2007 - 12:00

The portrait of Mao Zedong overlooking Tiananmen Square was replaced May 13, a day after a 35-year-old migrant from Xinjiang threw a flaming object at the iconic portrait. The incident raises numerous issues regarding security and public relations for China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Illusions of Progress in China

Thu, 05/10/2007 - 12:00

As China adopts the facade of a modern, legal state, it remains tethered to the omnipresent Chinese Communist Party – cruel, corrupt, and fully in control

Review of State Department's 2006 Country Reports

Wed, 05/09/2007 - 12:00

Barry F. Lowenkron, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Written Submission for the Record to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight

China Human Rights Briefing

Tue, 05/08/2007 - 12:00

China has explicitly vowed to take measures to control incidents of social unrest and crime in the run-up to the 17th Communist Party Congress in the fall and the Summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Will Europe Help the Uighurs?

Mon, 05/07/2007 - 12:00

A year ago, the EU called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. On July 1, Portugal takes over the EU’s rotating presidency and, together with its EU partners, Lisbon must insist the United States either prosecute, in accordance with internationally recognised due process standards, or release the remaining 385 detainees.

Lessons from Kashmir and Xinjiang

Fri, 05/04/2007 - 12:00

Over the past few years, first China and then India quietly celebrated the success of their efforts to improve the socio-political environment of their restive Islamic regions, namely Xinjiang and Kashmir. Neither country can feel proud about the record of human rights on this count, but it is possible that credit for the success will be assigned to the wrong sources.

Beijing spring: Democracy is in the air

Fri, 05/04/2007 - 12:00

Spring has not proved to be a hopeful season in the politics of China's past, but that could be changing. These days, there is democracy as well as pollen in the air. All this seems to pave the way for the introduction of a more democratic election system in the all-important 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this autumn.

China's Development Strategy Fails to Benefit Critical Ethnic Minorities and Masks Repression

Tue, 05/01/2007 - 12:00

China's massive economic development strategy, touted to benefit rural ethnic groups in its western regions, in practice excludes, marginalizes, and masks the increased repression of ethnic minority groups such as Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, according to a new report by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and Human Rights in China (HRIC).

"EU arms embargo must continue to protect Taiwan” New report warns of danger of war in East Asia

Fri, 04/27/2007 - 04:00

China’s rearmament is increasing the danger of war in East Asia, warns the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfBV) in its human rights report "EU arms embargo must continue to protect Taiwan . In it the GfbV calls on the EU not to ignore the growing fears among China’s neighbours of the gain in military strength of the People’s Republic.

Activists Turn Up Heat on Beijing Olympics

Thu, 04/26/2007 - 12:00

Today, the host of the 2008 Summer Games plans to reveal the route of the torch relay that will carry the Olympic flame into Beijing. But in what may be a prelude of things to come, four people were detained on Mount Everest yesterday for protesting a proposal to carry the flame up the world's tallest mountain, on the border with politically sensitive Tibet.