Editor’s note: Xu Zhiyong , a key advocate of the New Citizens Movement, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on January 26 for “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.” Xu was originally detained in July 2013 after being subjected to four months of house arrest in connection...

Like layers of haze and smog, Mao Zedong's ghost continues to linger over China today. Agnes Smedley (1892-1950), [1] Mao’s Western confidante, using her feminine intuition, noticed that there was a door of Mao's that was never open to anyone. As a matter of fact, Mao had more than one door. Let us...

Three witnesses scheduled to testify at the trial of rights defender Zhang Lin ( 张林 ) were held by police at different guesthouses and were prevented from going to the trial, according to Zhang’s mother, Mrs. Duan RuiHua (段瑞华) . The three witnesses were Li Wenge ( 李文革 ) , Qian Jin ( 钱进 ) , and Wang...

Danny Yung on Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Advocacy Arts A well-known expression from the 1950s, tian tian xiang shang — making progress every day