In Hong Kong in Revolt, labor organizer Au Loong-Yu analyzes the protests that rocked the city in 2019. The participants were pushing back against the politically motivated disqualification of pro-democracy legislators, the imprisonment of nonviolent activists on trumped-up charges, and other oppressive moves by the Hong Kong authorities, who represent local moneyed interests and take their… Read More Books reviewed: Repression in Xi’s China
Nine high-profile activists and pro-democracy figures have gone on trial in Hong Kong in one of the biggest court cases linked to the protest movement that paralysed the city for more than a year. Among the defendants are Martin Lee, considered the father of the democracy movement in Hong Kong, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan, and… Read More Helen Davidson: High profile pro-democracy figures go on trial over Hong Kong protests
China is in the midst of its darkest period for human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre, Human Rights Watch has said in its annual report. But 2020 was also the year that world governments found “safety in numbers” to push back on China’s policies of repression, with less fear of retaliation, it said. Worsening persecutions… Read More China in darkest period for human rights since Tiananmen, says rights group
SOMETIME around the first week of December, the residents of Gwadar woke up to find work taking place to build a large metal fence that would stretch from just north of the old airport and extend westward along a road known as the Balochistan Broadway Avenue. The total length of the fence would be 24… Read More Khurram Husain: What’s up in Gwadar?
An independent Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan at the height of the initial coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years by a Shanghai court, her lawyer said Monday. Zhang Zhan, 37, was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to one of her defense lawyers Zhang Keke, who attended her hearing. The… Read More Chinese journalist who documented Wuhan coronavirus outbreak jailed for 4 years
NB: This is not surprising, because the Chinese Communist Party has a long history of suppressing freedom of speech and opinion. Let us note however, the statement of the RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat: China has risen and doesn’t care what the world thinks of it. Let us also note that the CEO of Niti Aayog… Read More Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy activists in widening crackdown
