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The China Challenge for Olaf Scholz

China presents one of the most difficult foreign policy challenges for Germany’s relatively new chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Yet judging by his comments at this year’s Munich Security Conference, which took place in February, he has yet to…
A Uighur woman picking up school children rides past a picture showing China's President Xi Jinping joining hands with a group of Uighur elders at the Unity New Village in Hotan, in western China's Xinjiang region.
News

Beijing's Hand-Picked Leader in Hong Kong Has An Abusive Past

Hong Kong's one-man election drives home Beijing's broken promises to the territory

After weeks of speculation, on April 8 the Chinese government unveiled its pick of Hong Kong’s next leader—John Lee, a former senior police official. Hong Kong used to be the only territory under Chinese sovereignty with semi-democratic elections.…
John Lee announces his manifesto during the 2022 chief executive electoral campaign in Hong Kong.
News

Why China's 'diplomatic assurances' are not to be trusted

Chinese authorities executed Akhmal Shaikh​, a United Kingdom citizen, without giving him access to UK diplomats or doctors, in December 2009. The following year, Chinese officials indicated to the Philippines that, if its diplomats stayed away…
The Supreme Court of New Zealand in downtown Wellington, November 28, 2017.
News

Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North Africa

Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia Should Ensure Access to Legal Gender Recognition

Transgender people, whose assigned gender at birth does not match their gender identity, face a grim reality in much of the Middle East and North Africa region, including daunting obstacles to legal gender recognition. To get a better sense of…
The transgender pride flag.
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US Assistance to Saudi-Led Coalition Risks Complicity in War Crimes

The protracted conflict in Yemen has killed almost a quarter of a million people directly or indirectly due to inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. It has included unlawful attack after unlawful attack, with homes, hospitals, schools, and…
People inspect a damaged building in Sanaa, Yemen.
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Beijing's Green Fist

How Environmental Policy Became a Tool of State Control

The climate crisis is a human rights crisis on a colossal scale, and to help mitigate it, the world needs the Chinese government to take urgent action. But is Beijing capable of reducing environmental harm without committing further human rights…
The Palace Museum shrouded in a thick haze of air pollution in Beijing, China, November 5, 2021.
News

Pandemic strikes new, authoritarian Hong Kong

Under Beijing’s control, the densely populated city is struggling to respond to a new COVID-19 wave.

After evading major COVID-19 spikes for nearly two years, Hong Kong – one of the world’s most densely populated cities – is experiencing a frightening wave, with one of the world’s worst COVID death rates. It is apparent that the city’s pandemic…
Healthcare workers walk along the makeshift Covid-19 isolation facilities in the San Tin area of Hong Kong, March 11, 2022. 
News

The Forest Behind the Trees: Exploring Family Violence in Tunisia

A notable achievement since Tunisia’s adoption of Law No. 58 on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2017 is that it has broken the taboo on speaking about domestic violence. Yet, while spousal violence has received significant attention, it…
A woman walking on the street in Zarziss, Tunisia.
News

The UN Shouldn’t Let the Olympics’ Celebration of Uyghur Repression Go Unchallenged

Where is the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report detailing human rights violations against Uyghurs?

The honor of carrying the Olympic flame and lighting the cauldron at the Games’ opening ceremonies is typically reserved for people hosts wish to hold up as embodiments of excellence. But the Chinese government and the organizers of the 2022 Winter…
China Olympics screenshot
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Videos: Human Rights and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

In the run up to the start of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4, 2022, Human Rights Watch has released five videos that cover what's at stake for human rights as the Chinese government seeks to use the games to "sportswash" its abysmal human…
Badiucao illustration of athlete with tape across her mouth
News

The Olympics Return to Beijing

A ChinaFile Conversation

In 2008, when China first hosted the Olympics, the event was often described as a “coming out party” for the country. It was an awkward fit for a country nearing 60 which had been “opening up” for the past three decades. Besides, Beijing was hosting…
Olympic workers in protective gear walk through the Beijing Capital International Airport to assist passengers ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, January 31, 2022. 
News

No Other Way to Live: Why Ai Weiwei Left China

Xi Jinping’s tenure has been marked by harsh crackdowns on human rights activism.

“I refuse to accept the idea that the state’s authority can’t be opposed, challenged, or interrogated. In the face of power, I would always be at a disadvantage, I knew, but I was a born contrarian, and there’s no other way for me to live except by…
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News

Video Whitewashes Egyptian Prison Abuses

On October 28, Egypt’s Interior Ministry released a slick, heavily produced video showcasing a new state-of-the-art prison mega-complex. The Wadi El Natrun Correctional and Rehabilitation Center complex is supposed to replace 12 prisons that currently…
A satellite photograph of Scorpion Prison taken in September 2016. Inmates suffer abuses in secret and are denied most access to the outside world. Satellite imagery
News

Women’s Tennis Association shows global business how to deal with Beijing

By suspending tournaments in China over treatment of Peng Shuai, the WTA placed rights over profits. How will the International Olympic Committee react?

“None of this is acceptable, nor can it become acceptable,” said Steve Simon, CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), in a statement announcing the suspension of its tournaments in China, earlier this month. That decision was made in…
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News

Xi is Bending Chinese Law to His Will

How a Public Good Became a Tool of Personal Power

(New York) – The Chinese Communist Party does not usually air its dirty laundry in public. So it was an ominous sign last month when official Chinese media reported startling allegations against a disgraced senior police official: Sun Lijun, a former…
Macao Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, left, reads his oath of office in front of Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the inauguration ceremony in Macao, December 20, 2019.
News

Mass Surveillance Fuels Oppression of Uyghurs and Palestinians

Israel, Like China, Has Weaponized Surveillance Technology to Suppress Peaceful Dissent

Tech-enabled control of a persecuted population. Abusive facial recognition. Severe restrictions on movement. Branding peaceful dissent as “terrorism”. For many readers, the scenario brings to mind China’s mass human rights violations against…
A display shows surveillance technology capable of analyzing body motion for specific actions like fighting, theft or fall during Security China 2018 in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.

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