Updated on December 10, 2018, the International Human Rights Day   Prepared by Late Elliot Sperling, professor of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University  Yaxue Cao, editor of ChinaChange.org and the Ilham Tohti Initiative   Ilham Tohti is the most renowned Uyghur public intellectual in the People’s Republic of China. For over two [...] Keep reading »

By Pastor L, published: January 30, 2016 [Update at the end, January 31] About a fortnight ago, the two government-controlled Christian organizations in Hangzhou—the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Christian Council—removed the lead pastor of the Hangzhou-based mega church “Chong-yi Church” (崇一堂), acting at the behest of the gov [...] Keep reading »

By Ji Dunhuang, published: January 28, 2016   A summary of the situation After six months of “residential surveillance at a designated place” (in reality forced disappearance), the vast majority of the human rights lawyers and other activists who lost their freedom in the “July 9 incident” [16 in all] have been formally arrested by the [...] Keep reading »

By Yaqiu Wang, published: January 21, 2016   On January 15, rights activist Zhang Haitao (张海涛) was sentenced to 19 years in prison by the Urumqi Intermediate Court in the northwest Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The 44-year-old Zhang was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” and “probing and illegally supplying intelligenc [...] Keep reading »

Translation published: January 15, 2016 Ilham Tohti was an economics professor at Minzu University in Beijing and the foremost Uighur public intellectual in the People’s Republic of China. He was sentenced to life in prison in September 2014 for criticizing the government’s policies in Xinjiang and advocating basic economic, cultural, religious [...] Keep reading »

By Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (中国维权紧急援助组)   CHINA – Detention of human rights professional Peter Dahlin   Sometime after nine pm on 3 January 2016 a human rights professional, Mr Peter Dahlin, a Swedish citizen, disappeared on his way to the Beijing Capital Airport. He was scheduled to fly to Thailand via Hong [...] Keep reading »

By Eva Pils, published: January 10, 2016   Meeting people who could be disappeared anytime is a bit unnerving. You keep wondering if this is the last time you’ll see them. You want to ask what you should do in case something bad happens, but you don’t want to distress them by asking too directly. As part of my research on human rights in C [...] Keep reading »

By Guo Feixiong, published: January 8, 2016 On November 27, a year after the trial of Guo Feixiong and Sun Desheng, the Tianhe court in Guangzhou sentenced Guo Feixiong to six years in prison by adding a last-minute charge in order to procure a lengthier sentence. On January 7, 2016, Guo Feixiong filed the following criminal complaint (in Chinese) [...] Keep reading »

A 2016 New Year’s Message from China’s Labor Community   Dear fellow workers, compatriots, and friends from around the world: Happy New Year! Toward the end of 2015, the labor community in China experienced an unprecedented attack. A group of activists who have dedicated years to defending the rights and interests of workers were d [...] Keep reading »