Drought has plunged water levels to the lowest in China in decades. The temperatures have also soared to record levels, and hydropower plants failed to meet the sharp rise in power demand. However, this is just a glimpse of the… Read More ›
Human Rights & Social Issues
The people of Hong Kong are being punished for once being free
The once highly respected and free nation of Hong Kong is now a different country as the free press is dead and punishing COVID mandates have killed the country’s once-great economy. In Hong Kong, the free press is a thing… Read More ›
Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai wins press freedom award
Jailed Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai, who faces charges alongside several senior editors at the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper under a draconian national security law, has won a press freedom award alongside his colleagues at the paper. Lai’s son… Read More ›
China’s birthrate just hit another record low, but the worst is yet to come
China’s birthrate in 2020 has hit another record low — and there’s no indication things are about to pick up anytime soon. There were only 8.5 births per 1,000 people in China last year, according to the latest yearbook released… Read More ›
Celebrities who disappeared in China after speaking out about the Communist Party or powerful people
Peng Shuai has not been heard from since she accused a top Chinese official of sexual assault. The 35-year-old tennis player is one of China’s biggest sports stars. In a post on November 2 on Weibo, Peng alleged the former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli… Read More ›
China’s ‘leftover women’ using their financial power to fight stigma
In China, if you are female, educated and unmarried by the age of 27, people might use a particular term – “sheng-nu” – to describe your social status. It translates simply as “leftover woman.” The label was deliberately invented to… Read More ›
Health workers in China are killing pets while their owners are in quarantine
Local health workers in some Chinese cities are breaking into people’s homes and killing their pets while the owners are in quarantine, prompting outrage online. In one case, a dog owner named Ms Fu witnessed through her home security camera… Read More ›
China urges families to keep stocks of daily necessities ahead of winter
The Chinese government has told families to keep daily necessities in stock in case of emergencies, after COVID-19 outbreaks and unusually heavy rains that caused a surge in vegetable prices raised concerns about supply shortages. The commerce ministry directive late… Read More ›
China’s propaganda machine is intensifying its ‘people’s war’ to catch American spies
“Let’s fight a ‘people’s war’ against the spies, so that they cannot move a single step and have no place to hide!” That was the rallying cry of a Chinese military newspaper on social media over the weekend, as Beijing… Read More ›
UN must condemn forced organ harvesting in China
Doctors, lawyers, and politicians from three continents called on the international community to ensure an end to China’s practice of forced organ harvesting during the first half of the World Summit on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting. Doctors Against… Read More ›
Is another Cultural Revolution underway in China?
Chinese President Xi Jinping is cracking down on several sectors of Chinese society, including technology and entertainment. This has some Beijing watchers worried a new version of Chairman Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution is underway. Here’s everything you need to know…. Read More ›
Thousands of people being ‘disappeared’ in China for criticising the Communist Party or being too rich and powerful
Thousands of people have been snatched from their homes and off the street by Chinese authorities as part of a secretive and sinister program to ‘disappear’ those who fall foul of the regime. It doesn’t matter how rich and powerful… Read More ›
China’s weak, counterproductive, hostage-taking diplomacy
Last Friday, Meng Wanzhou, 49, Huawei’s chief finance officer and the daughter of the founder, agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in which, according to the Associated Press, she “accepted responsibility for misrepresenting the… Read More ›
China plans tax crackdown on richest entertainers, including online influencers
China is set to conduct regular tax investigations into top entertainers including online influencers, promising serious punishment for offenders amid a deepening crackdown on the entertainment industry and lucrative culture of fandom. High-income celebrities who self-report offences by the end… Read More ›
Xi Jinping’s effort to return to socialism
For decades life in China had evolved around its home-grown version of let-it-rip capitalism. Despite being technically a “communist” country, the government had put its faith in trickle-down economics, believing that allowing some people to become extremely rich would benefit… Read More ›
Diaries of former Mao aide spark custody battle over unofficial history of China
Today, “Li materials” are the subject of a legal battle between Stanford University and Mr. Li’s widow in Beijing. This is a battle for custody of an unofficial history of China. In millions of handwritten Chinese characters, Mr. Li documents… Read More ›
How China hijacked the war on terror to commit genocide in Xinjiang
Two decades after the 9/11 attacks spawned the U.S. government’s self-declared “Global War on Terrorism,” the nation that responded to it with the most aggressive regulatory, policing and social policies is thousands of miles from Ground Zero. China’s ruling Chinese… Read More ›
China’s population enters ‘deep aging’ in many major cities
China is facing a population crisis of increasing urgency, with 149 cities shown in recent census figures to have 14 percent of their residents over the age of 65. A recent analysis by the state-run China Business News (CBN) found… Read More ›
As China woos the Taliban, Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear for their lives
Tuhan is one of up to 3,000 Uyghurs in Afghanistan, according to Sean Roberts, a professor at George Washington University and author of “The War on the Uyghurs,” making them a tiny minority in the country of more than 37… Read More ›
China’s plans to dilute southern Xinjiang’s Uyghur population could constitute genocide
China is pursuing a “population optimization strategy” to dilute the Uyghur majority in southern Xinjiang by raising the proportion of Han Chinese through immigration while imposing strict birth controls on the Uyghurs, says a report based on official Chinese documents… Read More ›
Freshman year student goes to university with dementia grandma
Li Haijian and her aged 91 grandma who brought her up since 3 (photo captured from SingTao Daily)
Jailed citizen journalist loses half her bodyweight in Chinese prison
Jailed Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has lost half her bodyweight since her detention in 2019, when she began an intermittent hunger strike in protest at her jailing. Zhang, 37, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by Shanghai’s Pudong District… Read More ›
China allows couples third child amid demographic crisis
China will now allow couples to legally have a third child as it seeks to hold off a demographic crisis that could threaten its hopes of increased prosperity and global influence. The ceremonial legislature on Friday amended the Population and… Read More ›
China decides to engage with Afghanistan’s Taliban to further persecute Uyghurs
With the United States withdrawing and the Taliban having swept to control of about half of Afghanistan, few observers give the Afghan government much chance of survival. September may be a decisive month, when the withdrawal is complete and American… Read More ›
Tibet and China clash over next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama
A couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked… Read More ›
China orders one member of each Tibetan family to enlist in the military to fight against India
China has been hatching several conspiracies since its defeat on the eastern Ladakh border against India last year. Considering the fact that Tibetan youth can play a vital role in fighting India in the Himalayan mountains on the borders of… Read More ›
Afghanistan: No Peace Without a Clear Vision
Peace is the absence of war, while war is the absence of peace! A negotiated peace in Afghanistan presents a number of challenges. The duration of the war over several decades has created a number of situations, that requires an… Read More ›
U.S. set to add more Chinese companies to blacklist over Xinjiang
The Biden administration is set as early as Friday to add at least 10 more Chinese companies and other entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang, two sources told Reuters. The U.S…. Read More ›
Unfavourable views regarding China on the rise across developed economies
Unfavourable view of China have been fuelled by its worsening bilateral relations with Japan over South China sea and its trade beef with Australia but US’ raising concerns over its treatment of minorities have also led to downgrading of how… Read More ›
UN experts alarmed by reports of forced organ harvesting in China
UN human rights experts* said today they were extremely alarmed by reports of alleged ‘organ harvesting’ targeting minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, in detention in China. The experts said they have received credible information that… Read More ›
How China went from celebrating ethnic diversity to suppressing it
China’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims – the largest of a religio-ethnic group since the second world war – is not the inevitable or predictable outcome of Chinese communist policies towards ethnic minorities. I’ve spent the past 20 years studying… Read More ›
G7 Meeting: Global parliamentary alliance calls for reform of supply chains over forced labour issue in China
Amid the ongoing Group of Seven (G7) summit in UK, a cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has called on G7 leaders to reform global supply chains in light of widespread forced labour abuses in Xinjiang region. Parliamentarians from Canada,… Read More ›
China’s poverty eradication bragging challenged by new research
The Chinese Communist Party’s claim to have eradicated extreme poverty has been challenged by a new study claiming that Beijing used a limited and inflexible definition of the meaning of poverty. At the end of last year, the party announced… Read More ›
Uyghur ‘people’s tribunal’ opens in London to investigate allegations of genocide, rights abuses in China
A “people’s tribunal” set up to assess whether China’s alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur people constitute genocide has opened in London, with witnesses alleging inmates at detention camps are routinely humiliated, tortured and abused. Chairman Geoffrey Nice said more than… Read More ›
June 4, 1989: The Date CCP Wants to Forget
China was going through massive changes in the 80s. The Chinese Communist Party had opened up its economy to foreign investment. Leaders like Deng Xiaoping were credited to have put China on the path of prosperity. His move raised the income… Read More ›
China must account for the Tiananmen Massacre
The Chinese government should acknowledge and take responsibility for the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in June 1989, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately allow commemorations of the occasion in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and cease… Read More ›
China Says It Will Allow Couples to Have 3 Children, Up From 2
China said on Monday that it would allow all married couples to have three children, ending a two-child policy that has failed to raise the country’s declining birthrates and avert a demographic crisis. The announcement by the ruling Communist Party… Read More ›
China takes comfort from census population rise
Key findings from China’s latest population census have painted a better demographic picture than the decline many feared, officials say. Five months after the completion of the nationwide headcount, held once in a decade, statisticians made public key population data… Read More ›
Visit to Wufang Village near Shanghai gives clues about China’s rural revitalization
Recently I paid a visit to Wufang Village, a tiny village in suburban Shanghai that has gained some fame as a weekend getaway with its beautiful peach orchards, renovated houses, and an influx of young people working and living there…. Read More ›
40% of UK Solar Panels Manufactured by Firms Linked to Chinese Slave Labour
According to the Guardian, silicon sourced from suspected slave labour in Xinjiang was used to manufacture solar panels in 40% of Britain’s solar farms. Investigation finds up to 40% of UK solar farms were built using panels from leading Chinese… Read More ›
China’s sentencing of high-level Uyghur officials to death stuns critics, who demand evidence
China’s recent sentencing of two high-level Uyghur officials to death has stunned critics who have questioned the legality of the decision given the lack of evidence against them and say the move shows that even Uyghurs loyal to the Communist… Read More ›
China threatening free speech in Europe
China’s retaliation against European and British lawmakers who sanctioned the communist regime for its treatment of the Uyghur minority is a test of free speech in Europe, contends Soeren Kern, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute. Beijing contends the… Read More ›
Council of Europe, Human Rights Instruments and Citizens
Building on the tasteful piece written recently by Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, this article will endeavour to explore further why the Tromsø Convention (Norwegian International Convention on Access to Official Documents)[1], although adopted more than a decade ago, is in fact deserving… Read More ›
Paraguay says Chinese vaccine offers tied to dumping Taiwan
Like many nations, Paraguay faces an uphill battle to procure coronavirus vaccines. But its quest is being complicated by fraught relations between China on one side, and Taiwan and the U.S. on the other. The Paraguayan government has been approached… Read More ›
Mongolians in China Face ‘Cultural Genocide’ as Language, Culture Swept Aside
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stepping up policies in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, where protests erupted last year over plans to phase out Mongolian-medium teaching in schools, targeting the region’s ethnic Mongolians with TV shows emphasising… Read More ›
Trinity for Scrutiny: Council of Europe, Human Rights instruments and Citizens
Building on the tasteful piece written recently by Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, this article will endeavour to explore further why the Tromsø Convention (Norwegian International Convention on Access to Official Documents)[1], although adopted more than a decade ago, is in fact deserving… Read More ›
China Continues Crushing Hong Kong
Since China adopted its National Security Law in June 2020, Hong Kong’s government, under Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and China have sought to extinguish all opposition to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and to eradicate Hong Kong’s core… Read More ›
No Human Rights without Right to Know
“People have the right to know what those in power are doing” Dunja Mijatovic Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights. Access to information legislation was first seen in 1766 in Sweden, with parliamentary interest to access information held by… Read More ›
Traumatized women recount alleged gang rape and ‘sadistic’ torture in China’s concentration camps
Chinese women, who allege they were inside China’s concentration camps, claim that “extremely sadistic” guards carried out gang rapes and brutal beatings. Qelbinur Sidik grew up in Xinjiang and spent 28 years teaching elementary school students age 6 to 13…. Read More ›
Criminal Law in the EU and the Right to a Fair Trial Internationally
1. Introduction Trials are the way to avoid injustices, but the fairness of criminal proceedings will depend on what is meant by the concept of justice. The roots of rights in trials are, with other principles and values, as old… Read More ›
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