By Wang Mo, published: November 22, 2015 On October 3, 2014, Chinese activists Xie Wenfei (谢文飞, a.k.a. Xie Fengxia 谢丰夏), and Wang Mo (王默, real name Zhang Shengyu 张圣雨) held banners in the streets of Guangzhou, expressing support for the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. They were arrested the same evening and indicted on May 12, [...] Keep reading »

By Yang Jianli and Han Lianchao, published: September 26, 2015   26 years ago, after the bloody massacre in Beijing in 1989, we came to Washington to urge the U.S. government to link China’s most-favored-nation (MFN) status to China’s respect for human rights. Without such a linkage, we argued, continuing normal trade with China would be l [...] Keep reading »

By Mo Zhixu, published: July 23, 2015 This commentary was written and published in March 2014 in connection with the Jiansanjiang incident (建三江事件) in which four rights lawyers went to Heilongjiang province to free Falun Gong practitioners from a black jail. The lawyers were tortured and temporarily detained. Dissident intellectual Mo Zhix [...] Keep reading »

By Chang Ping, published: June 9, 2015 Xin Jinping: “We encourage Chinese students studying abroad to either return to China to work, or serve the country in various other ways.”     The famous American Sinologist, Perry Link, once said that, in the 1980’s he often warned the Chinese students who had newly arrived in the United Stat [...] Keep reading »

By Wang Yaqiu, published: June 4, 2015   Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) In the spring of 1989, Dr. Liu Xiaobo left Columbia University where he was a visiting scholar and went back to Beijing to take part in the democracy movement.  In Tiananmen Square, he became a leader and a mentor, drafting open letters, giving speeches and leading a hunger strike. L [...] Keep reading »

By Hu Ping, translated by Matthew Robertson, June 2, 2015 “What we need to grasp is that the existence of a political system that is so perverse in its reason, and so unfair and unjust to its subjects, is an open taunt to the conscience and sense of justice of humanity. The international rise of that system, too, is perforce a threat to free [...] Keep reading »

By Kong Tsung Gan, published: May 31, 2015 (an abbreviated version of the original)   “The brazen cynicism and lack of courage of the governments of democratic countries have been deeply disheartening – whether they know it or not, they live in the shadow of June 4, their actions and decisions trapped in the dialectic events that day s [...] Keep reading »

By a group of overseas Chinese students, letter penned by Gu Yi, published: May 27, 2015 This letter, written in Chinese, has been circulating through email groups and on social media since May 20. Yesterday the Chinese Communist Party-run Global Times gave it a free publicity push – double strength (here and here). – The Editor   [...] Keep reading »

By Lu Chai, published: May 21, 2015 “[F]ew options remain. You can turn your back on groups that are targeted and in trouble, and continue to advertise your own abstention from all things political. Or you can face up, with honesty, to the reality that civil society has little space to work in, muster your courage, and raise objections.” &nbs [...] Keep reading »