Citizens' Square

Qin, an activist based in Wuhan, was detained by the Wuhan authorities on May 13, 2011, for ten days and fined 200 yuan for raising funds for Li Wangyang, a Tiananmen activist who was paralyzed after being beaten in prison. While Qin was detained, police searched his home and deleted all of the information on his computer and USB drive. Since being released from prison six months ago after serving a 12-year sentence for “subversion of state power,” Qin has been subject to police actions seven times. Qin has filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Council, requesting that they set up a special working group on Chinese human rights issues.

[Fuqing Bombing Case] In this article, Xin Chen, who attended the court proceedings, recounts what happened in court as well as the case history.

After being released from prison in November 2010, Qin Yongmin, longtime democracy and human rights activist and chairman of the China Human Rights Watch, has been continuously harassed by police. On May 5, 2011, the police went to his home again and announced that every month, Qin must write a "thought report" and submit it to the local judicial office, participate in 12 hours of community service, and call the local judicial office once a week. Qin refused these demands. He calls on the authorities to stop manufacturing these baseless excuses to persecute him, and instead protect, in accordance with law, the fundamental rights that belong to him and all the people of China, so as not to drive the Chinese people into desperate action.

[Beihai Baihutou Land Eviction Case] On April 29, 2011, the elected village chief, Xu Kun, was sentenced by the Yinhai District People’s Court to four years in prison and was fined 200,000 yuan (approximately US$30,800) on the charge of “illegal business activity.” Xu Kun appealed the sentence, maintaining his innocence.

Author Salman Rushdie responds to Liao Yiwu’s recent open letter.

Poem by the wife of the rights defense legal scholar on the 60th day of his disappearance.

In a letter to the Beijing Public Security Bureau after Ai Weiwei has been in custody for more than 96 hours, Ai’s wife Lu Qing asks the authorities to follow the law, which requires them to notify the family with official documents of the detainee’s whereabouts and the reason for detention.

Information regarding rights defense activists in Hubei and Shanxi who were detained, summoned or put under house arrest.

This is the twelfth time since 1995 that Ding and members of the Tiananmen Mothers have written to the NPC and CPPCC asking for a solution to the “June Fourth” problem. The open letter states that 22 years have passed and the NPC, the most powerful institution, continues to not discuss or examine the massacre. However, the group says, “Historical debts must still be paid; what this generation does not pay the next one must. This is an unmovable principle.” The open letter reiterates the appeal over all these years – truth, compensation, and accountability – and requests that the NPC use legislative and judicial means to solve the “June Fourth” problem. In conclusion, the open letter asks: “Ten years have gone by, twenty years have gone by, do we need to wait thirty, fifty years …?”

In one of the first Jasmine Revolution rallies in China, people came out to "stroll, surround, and watch." A large number of uniform and plainclothes police was present. Organizers have called for rallies every Sunday, with the next one scheduled for 2:00 p.m., February 27.

On January 10, 2011, Shen Guodong (沈果东), a petitioner from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, was released after a 10-month detention for “obstructing official business.” Shen had petitioned on behalf of his family and others against forced demolition of their homes. Nearly a hundred people came in a dozen or so vehicles to greet him. They presented him with flowers, released a dove of peace in front of the Wuxi Municipal Detention Center where he was held, and pinned a big red paper flower on him to honor him.