China Change : News and commentaries for a free and just China

Reports

Announcing the 6th China Human Rights Lawyers Day
June 16, 2022 The sixth annual China Human Rights Lawyers Day will be held virtually on July 9, 2022, at 9 a.m. EST (U.S.). In 2017, human rights organizations in the U.S., Taiwan, and Hong Kong established July 9th as the China Human Rights Lawyers day to commemorate the mass arrests, detention, and torture of human rights lawyers in mainland …
Call on China to immediately release lawyer Tang Jitian, who has been extralegally detained since December 2021
June 12, 2022 Chinese human rights lawyer Tang Jitian (唐吉田) has been detained extralegally since December 10, 2021 by Beijing and Jilin state security under the pretext of “maintaining stability,” while his only daughter, Tang Zhengqi, is in a coma in Japan. We understand that Mr. Tang has recently made repeated requests to the head of the State Security Bureau …
Shanghai Spring
Shanghai Spring is a sequel to "LOCKDOWN Shanghai 2022" that was posted on China Change YouTube channel on April 9. The sequel is a compilation of 200 select video clips and stills from Shanghai, taken between April 10 and May 10. In ten segments, it offers a comprehensive view of the Shanghai lockdown, an event that is bound to have …
Where is Peng Shuai, and Where Will the Hologic WTA Tour Go in October in Place of China?
Andréa Worden, March 29, 2022 In sharp contrast with the beginning of the 2022 tennis season, we haven’t heard much from players or fans with respect to Peng Shuai’s plight. The “Where is Peng Shuai?” t-shirt campaign at the Australian Open in January, which drew global attention to Peng Shuai’s silencing and disappearance by Chinese authorities, has not been repeated …

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Analysis and Opinions

The Citizens Movement
By Xu Zhiyong, translated by Andréa Worden, June 21, 2022 After being released from prison in July 2017, Xu Zhiyong devoted a year to writing “A Beautiful China” that was posted on his blog. This is Chapter 13 of the book. Xu’s career as a civil rights leader has spanned two decades since the early 2000s. He was imprisoned from …
Lawyers’ Struggles for Freedoms in China and the World – A Conversation With Professor Terence Halliday of The American Bar Foundation
February 11, 2022 This wide-ranging, fascinating conversation was initially conducted on The American Bar Foundation’s Rule of Law: World Tour podcast on December 21, 2021. Professor Halliday has since expanded it to include more details of his study of China’s lawyers since 2005, how the work of Chinese lawyers is part of a bigger struggle for basic legal freedoms and …
Testimony on Peng Shuai Before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Chair Merkley, Co-Chair McGovern, Members of the Commission, thank you for holding this hearing and for asking me to share my thoughts on the case of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. Indeed, Peng Shuai has become a special kind of political prisoner. Meanwhile, the Women’s Tennis Association’s decision to suspend all tournaments in China has raised a moral question …
The Gaslit Games: Xi Jinping, Thomas Bach, and António Guterres are Driving the Olympic Movement Toward a Shared Authoritarian Future
Andréa Worden, February 2, 2022 “The Olympics and Paralympics send a fantastic message of ‘peace and of mutual respect between people of all cultures, all civilizations and all ethnicities,’ said Guterres, days before his trip to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. …… It is necessary to shine a light on the Olympic spirit, which …

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Interviews and profiles

The Defenders — 20 Years of Human Rights Lawyers in China / 辩护人: 中国人权律师二十年
"Rights defense lawyers" emerged at the beginning of the 21st century. From their appearance, to the notorious 709 mass arrests in 2015, to today, the Chinese Communist government has subjected them to intimidation, disappearance, torture, imprisonment, and disbarment, ignoring the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. This 68-minute documentary film reviews the twenty-year journey of human rights lawyers …
IN MEMORY OF ZHANG QING
This mini-documentary, filmed and edited by Ai Xiaoming and re-edited and subtitled by China Change, depicts Zhang Qing's first visit to her husband Guo Feixiong in Meizhou Prison. It is also a snapshot of the life of Zhang Qing and her two children in 2007 and 2008 in Guangzhou. Zhang Qing died on January 10, 2022, in Germantown, Maryland.
An End-of-Year Reflection on My Disbarment
Liang Xiaojun, January 6, 2022 Liang Xiaojun has practiced law in Beijing for twenty years, devoting the last twelve years of his career to human rights cases. He is the director of Beijing Daoheng Law Firm. On December 16, 2021, the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau issued an administrative penalty decision to permanently revoke his license, citing his expressions on Twitter …
Sun Dawu: A Chinese Agricultural Entrepreneur’s 36-year Dream in the Era of Reform and Opening Up (Part Two)
Yaxue Cao, April 2, 2021 (Continued from Part One) Arrest; from ‘Grain Banks’ to community financing In April 2003, about a month after Sun Dawu’s speeches at Peking University and China Agricultural University, he was called to Zhongnanhai once more. This time it was to South Zhongnanhai, housing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), where several officials …

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