• China’s new leadership assumed power in November, ending the decade-long reign of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. China’s citizens had no say in the selection of their new leaders, highlighting that, despite the country’s rapid modernization, the government remains an authoritarian one-party system. The government curbs freedom of expression, association, and religion, and controls all judicial institutions. It censors the press and enforces highly repressive policies in ethnic minority areas in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. At the same time, citizens are increasingly prepared to challenge authorities over issues such as land seizures, forced evictions, abuses of power by corrupt cadres, discrimination, and economic inequalities.
  • National flags of US and China wave in front of a hotel in Beijing on February 4, 2010.

    US Secretary of State John Kerry should publicly deliver a strong message in defense of human rights to China’s new leadership when he visits the country later this week.

Reports

China and Tibet

  • Apr 9, 2013
    US Secretary of State John Kerry should publicly deliver a strong message in defense of human rights to China’s new leadership when he visits the country later this week.
  • Apr 9, 2013
  • Apr 3, 2013
    The Chinese government should immediately release four activists detained after calling for requiring government officials to disclose their assets publicly.
  • Mar 30, 2013
    The Chinese call it jin zhuan, or golden brick. The Russians have suggested calling it briuki, an acronym meaning trousers in Russian. And what about the ambiguous S? It originally was just a plural for the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, places where a Goldman Sachs analyst was urging greater investment. Now it stands for South Africa, which joined in 2010 despite having an economy roughly on the order of China’s sixth-largest province.
  • Mar 26, 2013
    The BRICS countries should call for an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian-populated areas in Syria, and insist that cluster munitions and incendiary weapons should not be used. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are meeting in Durban for the annual BRICS summit on March 26 and 27, 2013.
  • Mar 25, 2013
    How badly does the Chinese government really want to stop Tibetan self-immolations? A campaigner suggests that the rhetoric from Beijing does not match the reality of draconian policy programmes.
  • Mar 22, 2013
    Brics should call for the Syrian government to permit the delivery of humanitarian aid across its borders, including from Turkey
  • Mar 20, 2013
    The Chinese government’s announcement that it will expand a pervasive new security system throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) despite an already heavy security presence and little evidence of violent threats to the state raises grave concerns about threats to human rights of this intrusive monitoring across the region, Human Rights Watch said today. Officials announced the system’s expansion in the annual TAR work report, which was released on February 7, 2013.
  • Mar 3, 2013
    A United Nations report about torture and other abuses in healthcare settings points to the need for donors to withdraw funds to compulsory drug detention centers, Human Rights Watch and Harm Reduction International said today.
  • Feb 28, 2013
    China’s National People’s Congress should follow through on official statements by putting forward laws to strengthen human rights protections.