With the National People's Congress elections approaching for representatives from Yangpu District in Shanghai, well-known activist Feng Zhenghu issued an open letter to his constituency calling on voters to nominate him as a candidate to the Congress. Feng’s campaign slogan is "protect the...

When Jiang Tianyong first arrived in Beijing to work as a lawyer, he was in the same firm as Li Heping and Li Chunfu. Heping and Jiang Tianyong were from the same town, and had been classmates; Heping always called Jiang, “Old Jiang.” Sometimes when they disagreed they would argue; Heping would get...

The wife of Beijing rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong says that as of early morning November 23, 2016, her husband has been missing for more than 24 hours. Jiang was due to arrive in Beijing by train at 6:30am, November 22, after a visit to Changsha to accompany the wife of lawyer Xie Yang, who was...

My friends, we have been out of touch for so long. In 2015, on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, September 27, my husband Jiang Peikun died suddenly from a heart attack at 2:53 in the afternoon. This sudden misfortune plunged me into an abyss. Jiang's funeral services were simple, in accordance...

On September 9, Suzhou activist Gu Yimin was put under “residential surveillance at a designated place” on suspicion of “subversion of state power.” In this case update written by his wife (see below), Xu Yan, Gu’s lawyer’s request to meet with him was rejected, and her own efforts to locate her...

On the morning of September 8, activist Gu Yimin from Changshu, Jiangsu Province, was taken away while bringing his son to school. In the below statement, Gu’s wife, Xu Yan, describes how a number of police officers also raided their home. The police told her that Gu was suspected of “picking...

Following her arrest on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” Foshan rights defender Su Changlan has been detained in the Foshan City’s Nanhai Detention Center for over 20 months; her case has yet to come to trial. Her lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, explains in this update (see below) that the...

Dear General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the National Security Council Xi Jinping, Greetings! As the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is being convened, we are writing this letter in full respect, in hopes of...

NOTE: The following is an English translation of an essay originally presented at “The Legacy of Mao Zedong and Contemporary China” conference held in June 2016 at the University of California at Riverside. [Translation by Human Rights in China] Mao Zedong was the predestined misfortune of the...

Rights defender Liu Jiacai, currently serving his sentence in Hanjin Prison in Hubei Province, is frequently subjected to physical punishment and is taking psychotropic drugs to ease his mental pressure, according to fellow activist Li Wei. At the request of Liu’s wife, Li has constructed an...

Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, released a statement today in Beijing saying that while China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years have been “extraordinary,” that progress has been accompanied by “very high levels of inequality...

In the first week of August 2016, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court tried and convicted one rights lawyer and three activists of “subversion of state power.” They were Zhai Yanmin ( 翟岩民) , a law firm employee; Hu Shigen ( 胡石根) , a democracy and religious freedom activist; Zhou Shifeng...

[Translation by Human Rights in China] Guo Feixiong will soon be transferred to a prison again. His sister, after visiting him, conveyed his wishes: “I demand that in prison, [I] will have books to read, won’t have to kneel down, won’t be forced to perform labor, and won’t be beaten.” He also said...

This week, Chinese authorities put on trial and convicted one rights lawyer and three activists on charges of “subversion of state power”: Zhai Yanmin ( 翟岩民) , a law firm employee; Hu Shigen ( 胡石根) , a democracy and religious freedom activist; Zhou Shifeng (周世锋 ) , a lawyer and law firm director;...

In late March 2016, Zhang Leilei, administrator of the Sina Weibo feminist account, “Feminist Activist Pie is More Delicious” (女权行动派更好吃) found that the account had been shut down for “publishing harmful messages and engaging in other rule-violating behavior.” [The Chinese character for “faction”...

Dear Mr. Xi Jinping: Hello! I am an old woman from Beijing, more than 80 years old. My name is Wang Xiuying. On the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party China (CPC), I would like to discuss the issue of the CPC’s legitimacy. As everyone knows, the CPC was established under the...

HRIC has resigned from the Global Network Initiative (GNI), the multi-stakeholder group founded in 2008 to advance freedom of expression and privacy in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. As a founding member and former board member of the GNI, HRIC has actively contributed...

Today, outside the entrance of the No. 2 branch of the Tianjin People’s Procuratorate, the wives of a number of lawyers who were arrested and disappeared in the “709 crackdown” nearly a year ago, used a “bucket show” to protest the authorities’ trampling on the law and express support for their...

Eighty-two lawyers from 18 provinces and municipalities jointly issued a public complaint about the detention of the wives of four individuals who have been in custody since the “709” crackdown on rights defense lawyers of July 2015, along with four lawyers who took a group photo with the wives...

Wang Quanxiu, elder sister of lawyer Wang Quanzhang, explains in the below account that Wang has been imprisoned for a full 11 months, on suspicion of “subversion of state power,” and that their mother spent her 70th birthday silently suffering and extremely worried about her son. Today, Wang...

In an account titled “Will Guo Feixiong Live Long Enough to Walk out of Prison?” (see HRIC translation and original Chinese account below), Guo’s sister, Yang Maoping ( 杨茂平 ) said that instead of letting her meet with Guo Feixiong ( 郭飞雄 ) (penname of Yang Maodong, ( 杨茂东 ) ) to deliver an appeal...

杨茂东，你好！ 见字如面！ 我对你的情况有大致的了解。我非常理解在这种极端的处境下你的绝食抗争，同时我也非常担心你的身体，担心你的生命安危，因此我和孩子们出外为你做了一些呼吁，见了不同的人。 有很多老师们、朋友们让我转达他们对你的问候，大家都很关心你的身体状况，对你的绝食抗议表达理解。你的要求也很合理，因为发生在你身上的人权问题，其根源还是政治制度问题。在这种制度下，政治犯的待遇最差。改善关押的所有的政治犯的待遇，这一点当局是能够做得到的事。这已经是很低的要求。 如果当局对的处境有改善，你认为最基本的必须的关押条件有改善，请你综合各种情况，考虑停止绝食，以后再根据实际情况再作其他讨论。...

The morning before the January 8 trial of Shu Xiangxin, a Jinan rights defense lawyer charged with "libel," his lawyers Cai Ying and Li Fangping visited him at the Jinan No.2 detention center. They observed Shu’s deteriorating health conditions following savage beatings that Shu reported suffering...

Hu Shigen, a Beijing activist and house church leader, went missing on July 10, 2015 just prior to attending a church gathering. His family members received an arrest notice in mid-January, 2016, half a year later, notifying them that Hu had been criminally arrested on January 8, 2016 on suspicion...

After learning that her husband, Yu Shiwen , Henan dissident and one of the “Ten Gentlemen of Zhengzhou,” was on a hunger strike to protest his prolonged pretrial detention ( two years since he was first detained in May 2014 ), Chen Wei circulated the below message online. Chen Wei wishes to tell...

He Xiaobo, Director of the Nanfeiyan Social Work Service Center—Guangdong, Foshan’s first non-profit organization providing assistance to workers—was criminally detained on December 4, 2015, by Foshan Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of “misuse of one’s official position’” (职务侵占)...

Defense lawyers and family members of the lawyers and civil society members taken into custody, unlawfully they maintain, during the “709 Incident,” sent the following joint letter of complaint to the highest levels of relevant departments and Chinese leaders. They accuse the public security...

As the June Fourth government crackdown on the 1989 Democracy Movement continues to recede into the past, and as victims’ families age and pass away, broad and more effective international actions are increasingly critical to support the families’ appeals for justice. With complete impunity for the...

At the request of the Tiananmen Mothers, Human Rights in China issues the following essay by the group in remembrance of their loved ones who were killed in June Fourth 1989. On the 27th Anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre The Tiananmen Mothers June 1, 2016 [Translation by Human Rights in China...

Wang Lihong, Beijing activist and participant in the “Save Guo Feixiong” Hunger Strike relay says in her "Hunger Strike Statement": Today I fasted for 24 hours, in a personal action that is insignificant, powerless, and even helpless . . . . [But] if we all use these seemingly insignificant acts to...

《中國人權雙周刊》網頁目前無法正常訪問，正在修復中，敬請諒解，謝謝！ 双周刊更多

After Yang Maoping (杨茂平), sister of Guo Feixiong, learned of his deteriorating physical condition during a visit with him in prison, she sent an open letter to Li Jingyan, head of the Guangdong Provincial Prison Management Bureau. In the letter, she requests that Guo be transferred to a major...

Liu Xiaoyuan, lawyer for Foshan, Guangdong rights defender Su Changlan, posted online an update about his client who was first detained in November 2014 on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” after publishing an article online in support of Hong Kong’s Occupy Movement, and later...

Ai Wu, one of the volunteers in the hunger strike campaign, reports that more than 1,000 people have signed a petition for Guo Feixiong’s release so that he may receive proper medical treatment. (To sign, email ziyoufeixiong@gmail.com . See details .) Ai reports that lawyer Sui Muqing, a volunteer...

On May 1, 2016, Lawyer Ma Lianshun visited his client, Henan dissident Yu Shiwen , in Zhengzhou No. 3 Detention Center and learned that on April 27, Yu had begun a hunger strike to protest 1) his prolonged pretrial detention— two years since he was first detained in May 2014 —with no sign of being...

Dear Lawyer Wang Yu: Hello! After July 9, 2015, when we saw that famous video of you on the Internet, our first feeling was: how were you able to point at the bailiff and reprimand him in court? We were really hoping the video would cut to where you were pointing, so that we could see exactly what...