Chinese Internet authorities have ordered websites—including a Chinese language environmental NGO site operated by China Development Brief (www.greengo.org.cn)—to remove an open letter from twelve organisations calling for a fair trial for jailed environmental activist, Wu Lihong (吴立红).
Anomalously, the move came after China’s official media had already reported on the contents of the letter, which argued that “in order to support public confidence in the rule of law and build a harmonious society” Wu’s trial should be open to the public and based on lawfully obtained......
Senior Chinese officials vowed to act on an international NGO and trade union report alleging abusive practices in four Pearl Delta factories contracted to produce goods for the 2008 Olympics, even as the report was overshadowed by shocking revelations of forced child labour in brick kilns in the provinces of Henan and......
China is introducing new transparency rules for government—in part, it seems, to curb corruption. But, reports Chang Tianle (常天乐), some progressive localities are ahead of the central government on this issue, and the national rules remain ambiguous as to how much the public has a right to know.
China’s first national regulations on public disclosure of government information have been cautiously welcomed by scholars and NGOs, but most say that China still has a long way to go to achieve transparent government.
The Regulations on Government Disclosure of Information (政府信息公开条例) were approved by the State Council on January 17, 2007 and take effect on May 1, 2008. Article 1 states that they aim to “ensure that citizens, legal persons and other organisations...
Discrimination against students with medical conditions is rife in Chinese colleges and universities despite being formally prohibited by China’s Constitution and various related laws, according to a report published by three NGOs.
A 2006 China Civic Health Condition and Education Rights Report (中国公民健康状况与受教育权2006年年度报告), compiled by the Civic Health Status and Education Rights Working Group (公民健康状况与受教育权工作组), was jointly published on April 9 by the Working Group, the Beijing Aizhixing Research Institute (北京爱知行研究所) and Beijing Yirenping Centre......
Rather than treating child trafficking as an isolated issue, the government of China should respond by creating comprehensive and integrated child protection mechanisms, Save the Children’s Kate Wedgwood, He Ye (何叶) and Sun Tiezheng (孙铁铮) argue in the following excerpts from a recent presentation to the Foreign Correspondents Club in......
Citizen “petitioners” seeking justice in Beijing have come under increased pressure and abuse from authorities in their areas of origin following the introduction of new regulations on petitioning, according to a recent survey by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) researchers.
The 2005 Regulations on Letters and Visits (信访条例) were partly intended to reduce the number of petitioners coming to Beijing during the 2008 Olympics by ordering local governments to resolve their complaints. However, researchers suggest that the capital city is unlikely to avoid large numbers of petitioners during the Olympics because sub-national governments have not yet shown sufficient willingness or capacity to deal with their......
Rural migrants to Chinese cities are having a very tough time, according to a report issued on March 1 by Amnesty International. True enough. But hardly news to anyone at all familiar with the subject. Any well-informed broadsheet newspaper reader in the West knows this already, and so of course do all Chinese people who have been out of their village. So what was the......
A non-government Legal Aid Station for Migrant Workers (农民工法律援助工作站) in Beijing will help 15 provinces establish similar “stations” in a USD 500,000 programme funded by the government of Belgium and brokered by UNDP and its Chinese government counterpart agencies, it was announced last......
Musapir, a native of Kelamayi (克拉马依) in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, is a police cadet in the Peoples’ Public Security University of China. In July 2006 he posted the following story on a website devoted to Uighur affairs.
During this summer vacation the school arranged for us to go to Shenzhen on a two month internship. The people and events in this story are all real, but for their security and for other reasons some names have been changed.
The danwei where I did my internship was a local police station (派出所) in Shenzhen city’s Bao’an (宝安) district. Around midday the day before yesterday we received a call saying some of our people on the beat (巡防人员) had arrested a thief in front of a commercial plaza. After taking the call, a police officer and...
Driven barking mad by information requests from foreign correspondents and researchers keen to investigate environmental or labour rights activism as a manifestation of China’s civil society, China Development Brief thought there must be a better litmus of state-society relations, grounded in the hopes and deeds of ordinary people. Like, say, dog owners. Chang Tianle (常天乐) sniffs out the story....
NGOs in China have long strived to improve their relationship with government and influence policy-making in various ways, writes Chang Tianle. Now, as elections for local People’s Congresses are being held, a few NGO leaders have seen this as an opportunity to mainstream themselves.
Li Dan (李丹), 28-year-old leader of the China Orchid AIDS Project (东珍纳兰文化传播中心), which focuses on welfare of AIDS orphans and affected families in Henan Province, is one of......
Village doctor Zhang Changjian (张长建) has just had his clinic closed by local authorities. His offence? A decade of activism, trying to draw government and media attention to a wave of illness that, he claims, is caused by a local chemical plant. Tina Qian (钱霄峰) listened to his......
Village doctor Zhang Chanjian (张长建) has just had his clinic closed by local authorities. His offence? A decade of activism, trying to draw government and media attention to a wave of illness that, he claims, is caused by a local chemical plant. Tina Qian (钱霄峰) listened to his......
The Centre for Women’s Law and Legal Services at Beijing University, which this week marked ten years of pioneering work to protect and strengthen women’s rights, received a CNY 130,000 birthday gift from the China Legal Aid Foundation established by the Ministry of Justice in......
Shanghai police broke up a small press conference organised on April 20 by 37 haemophiliacs and their family members who contracted the HIV or Hepatitis C viruses via unsafe blood......
Aibai Culture and Education Centre, a Beijing-based group serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, launched a Chinese language website (www.aibai.cn) at the end of March to replace a similar site that was blocked last......
Family and friends of Chinese NGO activist, Hu Jia (胡嘉), who went missing on February 16 while under house arrest and close surveillance by officers of the Public Security Bureau’s National Security (国家保卫) Department, have appealed to the authorities to investigate the case, which is also being taken up by international human rights organisations and......
Growing up in urban China is not what it used to be. Today’s youngsters are experiencing new family structures, new social realities, new kinds of play and new temptations—and more of them are getting into trouble with the law. Nick Young reports here on a scheme to divert young people from jail and into community support. Based in Yunnan’s capital city, Kunming, the project has shown real potential to affect national policy and practice in a criminal justice system that itself has not yet come of......
Growing up in urban China is not what it used to be. Today’s youngsters are experiencing new family structures, new social realities, new kinds of play and new temptations—and more of them are getting into trouble with the law. Nick Young reports here on a scheme to divert young people from jail and into community support. Based in Yunnan’s capital city, Kunming, the project has shown real potential to affect national policy and practice in a criminal justice system that itself has not yet come of......
A ‘Legal Aid Station for Migrant Workers’ in Beijing is the first beneficiary of a new Fund established in by the China Legal Aid Foundation and the China Bar......
Beijing police shut down a Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival, planned for December 16-18 at a former factory complex that has become an artists’ colony in the northeast of the city, and then ordered the closure of a bar to which a smaller gathering had......