By Yaxue Cao Published: July 2, 2013   “If a lawyer doesn’t interact with petitioners, he or she would not really know how sick the society is.” – Tweet from lawyer Tang Jitian (@tjitian)   Her name is Ma Yongtian (马永田), a slender, brisk-mannered middle-aged woman. She is a Chinese petitioner. That’s right, one of those poor souls [...] Keep reading »

  Published: June 20, 2013 Wednesday afternoon, Beijing time, June 19, lawyers from Guangzhou and Changsha met with Huang Wenxun (黄文勋) and Yuan Fengchu (袁奉初) in a detention center in Chibi, Hubei (湖北赤壁). They found out that the two were criminally detained on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” However, wh [...] Keep reading »

  Mr. President Xi Jinping, I’m Liu Xia, citizen of the People’s Republic of China. I have been placed under house arrest in my own home since October, 2010. That deprives me of my personal freedom. However, no one has told me why I have been subjected to house arrest. Thinking about it over and over again, I conclude that, in this country [...] Keep reading »

  According to sources close to him, Du Bin (杜斌), an independent writer, film maker, and formerly a photographer for the New York Times, was confirmed on Sunday to have been criminally detained on May 31 by state security police in Beijing. He was charged with “printing illegal publications” and detained in the detention center of Feng [...] Keep reading »

  Citizen (公民), formerly known as Gong Meng or Open Constitution Initiative, and founded by some of China’s preeminent rights lawyers, is a NGO based in Beijing that provides legal assistance to the disempowered and promotes the New Cititzens’ Movement. Read the original here.  From what we know and have learned, we believe that Yuan [...] Keep reading »

On the morning of May 13, while visiting a black jail in Ziyang, Sichuan province (四川资阳), seven rights lawyers from Beijing and Chengdu were intercepted, beaten and kidnapped by unidentified men. After that their cellphones ceased to answer. Upon learning the news of their colleagues’ encounter, four more lawyers went to Ziyang to help. T [...] Keep reading »

Following earlier detentions in Guangdong and Beijing, on April 27, another ten activists in Xinyu, Jiangxi (江西新余) were taken into police custody for demanding that government officials disclose their assets. Since then, seven of them have been released but Liu Ping (刘萍), Wei Zhongping (魏忠平) and Li Sihua (李思华) are still been [...] Keep reading »

By Xu Zhiyong, Xiao Shu, Teng Biao, et al. April 18, 2013 As of noon today (April 18, Beijing Time), at least seven citizens in Beijing have been criminally detained for demanding asset disclosure by government officials. Around noon today, the family of Mr. Zhao Changqing (赵常青) received a notice that he had been criminally detained. Around e [...] Keep reading »

By Ai Xiaoming, translated by Yaxue Cao Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明) is a professor of Chinese modern literature at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. In recent years she’s best known for her participation in social movements and documentary making. Her work includes Three Days in Wukan (乌坎三日), The Central Plains (中原纪事, about th [...] Keep reading »