• 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.
  • Tiananmen Square. June 4th, 1989.

    President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese leaders should demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law by acknowledging the government’s responsibility for the massacre of unarmed civilians 24 years ago, and by allowing commemorations of the anniversary.

Reports

China and Tibet

  • Jun 9, 2013
    More than a dozen anti-corruption activists in Beijing and Jiangxi Province were detained between late March and late May after participating in or organizing demonstrations calling for government officials to publicly disclose their assets, China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, and Independent Chinese PEN said today. The Chinese government should release the anticorruption activists and drop all charges against them, the organizations said.
  • Jun 7, 2013
    The news at the moment is dominated by the PRISM scandal...
  • Jun 6, 2013
    U.S. President Barack Obama has been the recipient of a fair amount of practical advice about promoting human rights in China: Be clear and principled in your first meeting; raise individual cases; link human rights to other issues, such as trade, that are important to Chinese leaders; and let those officials know that human rights will come up at every summit and every high-level meeting, whether with the U.S. trade representative, the energy secretary, or the secretary of defense. Above all, he has been told, don't fall into the trap of imagining that unilateral concessions or personal relationships can move policy on issues of strategic importance in Beijing, where government remains a collective and hard-line enterprise.
  • Jun 5, 2013
    When basic human rights, like the rights to life, health, food, information, justice, participation and assembly are not respected, the global environmental movement loses a critical ally -- citizens around the world for whom the protection of rights and the environment are one and the same. In violating their rights, the marginalization of many of these people limits their ability to affect positive environmental change.
  • Jun 5, 2013
    President Obama should make human rights central in his discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the two countries’ June 7-8 summit in California.
  • Jun 4, 2013
    Chinese leaders continue to try to expunge Tiananmen from the history books.
  • May 31, 2013
    President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese leaders should demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law by acknowledging the government’s responsibility for the massacre of unarmed civilians 24 years ago, and by allowing commemorations of the anniversary.
  • May 30, 2013
    North Korea should immediately reveal the whereabouts and well-being of nine North Korean refugees who were forced back to Pyongyang from Beijing on May 28 according to media reports, Human Rights Watch said today, emphasizing that the government must ensure that they are not punished for having fled the country. Under international law, individuals have the right not to be forcibly returned to a place where they face persecution.
  • May 18, 2013
  • May 18, 2013