Attorney Zhang Keke, January 1, 2021 A website run by China’s Supreme Court (中国庭审公开网) live streams thousands of court hearings on any given work day, but almost never broadcasts trials of political prisoners — with the exception of occasional “show trials.” Zhang Zhan’s lawyers made a request for live streami [...] Keep reading »

The China Human Rights Lawyers Group, January 1, 2021 The year of 2020 has seen a coronavirus pandemic rage across the globe, infecting 78 million and causing 1.75 million deaths by year’s end. The pandemic, spawned in Wuhan, is in fact an inevitable consequence of the long-running deterioration of human rights in China. The harsher suppression o [...] Keep reading »

Ai Xiaoming, December 27, 2020 Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around the world. In the three months she stayed in the city, she made 122 posts on YouTube. It was not a coi [...] Keep reading »

Wang Jiangsong, November 24, 2020 Sun Dawu (孙大午) is a name many of our readers might be familiar or have heard of. A famed agricultural enterpreneur in Hebei province, China, his story and success is perhaps one of the most inspiring examples of China’s era of Reform and Opening Up. Over more than three decades, his business has grown from [...] Keep reading »

Liao Yiwu, October 6, 2020  As of today, poet Wang Zang (王藏) has been incarcerated for 130 days and his wife (王丽芹) for 112 days. It’s unclear who is taking care of their four children. It appears that all news about them has been cut off. — The Editors In the middle of the night on May 30, 2020, more than fifty armed police s [...] Keep reading »

For the first time, China Change has made a brief promotional video to appeal for support from Chinese-Americans who have immigrated from mainland China . Of equal importance is to breach a topic from which this vast community has chosen to stay away, intentionally or otherwise. It’s about time. — The Editors [...] Keep reading »

Chen Chunyi, September 24, 2020 Due to the arrest of the 12 Hong Kong residents who were brought to Shenzhen to face charges, the phenomenon of “government-designated lawyers” (官派律师, i.e. those approved by the Chinese authorities to represent defendants in politically sensitive cases) has attracted widespread attention from the [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, September 4, 2020 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin [on September 1], marking a successful end to the former’s multi-country visit to Europe. However, the way the visit was concluded was not determined by Wang Yi, nor the Chinese government he represents, but in line with the human [...] Keep reading »

Terence C. Halliday and Eva Pils, July 8, 2020 In the early hours of the morning on 9 July 2015, China’s security apparatus launched the first strike of its worst ever campaign against practicing lawyers in China.  The forced disappearance of woman lawyer Wang Yu by unidentified black-garbed, masked men signaled the beginnings of a nationwid [...] Keep reading »