By Wu Qiang, published: February 22, 2014   (The Chinese original was published a year ago.) It was unusually cold at the beginning of 2013. All of China was enveloped in smog that would not dissipate. Finally, from north to south, people eagerly began to discuss the problems of pollution and climate change. Weibo and blogs were flooded daily wit [...] Keep reading »

By Xiao Shu, published: February 16, 2014 Despite an overwhelming international outcry, the Chinese authorities have been bearing down on the New Citizens Movement. The impending appeal of Xu Zhiyong’s trial gives us no grounds for optimism, and it is expected that the first instance sentence of four years in prison will be upheld. Other importan [...] Keep reading »

Five Legal Scholars Issue Opinion on the First Instance Verdict Convicting Xu Zhiyong of the Crime of “Gathering a Crowd to Disrupt Order in a Public Place” By Gan Peizhong (甘培忠, Peking University School of Law); Peng Bing (彭冰, Peking University School of Law); Yao Huanqing (姚欢庆,  China Renmin University School of Law); Wang Yo [...] Keep reading »

By Xu Zhiyong, January 22, 2014 This is Xu Zhiyong’s closing statement on January 22, 2014, at the end of his trial. According to his lawyer, he had only been able to read “about 10 minutes of it before the presiding judge stopped him, saying it was irrelevant to the case.”   You have accused me of disrupting public order for my [...] Keep reading »

By 78 Chinese Scholars, Journalists and Lawyers, published: January 22, 2014   The National People’s Congress, Constitutional supremacy is the foundation of modern states. As the highest law of the land, it should not exist just as a text; it must be enforced in judicial practices. By the same token, for the Constitution to uphold its authority, [...] Keep reading »

By Yaxue Cao, published: January 20, 2014   Four days before Dr. Xu Zhiyong’s arrest on July 16, 2013, a Chinese businessman named Zeng Chengjie (曾成杰) was executed. He was a private entrepreneur in Hunan province who financed his business by raising money from ordinary citizens, and he was put to death for having “more debt than asse [...] Keep reading »

By Teng Biao, published: January 16, 2014     Throughout history, the death penalty has always been associated with famous people: from Socrates, Jesus, and Giordano Bruno to Joan of Arc, Madame Roland, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer; from Bi Gan (比干), Yue Fei (岳飞) to Yuan Chonghuan (袁崇焕), Tan Sitong (谭嗣同), Yu Luoke (遇罗� [...] Keep reading »

By Gao Yu, published: January 4, 2014   Up until the last day of 2013, the press inside and outside China was still anticipating an announcement about Zhou Yongkang, which would surely have been the most significant event of the year in China. During Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States in February, 2012, a Washington Times columnist reve [...] Keep reading »

By Xiao Shu, published: December 22, 2013 The first trial of the New Citizens Movement — or so it is called, that of the Xinyu Three (Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping, and Li Sihua), made headlines here and around the world as it got underway December 3. The following day saw the cases of fellow New Citizens Movement members Xu Zhiyong, Zhao Changqing [...] Keep reading »