Guo Yushan and He Zhengjun, detained former members of the influential Beijing Transition Institute (now shuttered), have been released on bail by Chinese authorities. Some analysts see the move as a symbolic concession to US concerns over Beijing’s human rights record. What might their release mean going forward? Radio Free Asia reports.
Uncivil society
A new draft law spooks foreign not-for-profit groups working in China.
Tianjin and China’s industrial calamities
This terrific opinion piece by Xiao Shu, a former columnist for China’s outspoken Southern Weekly newspaper, gets right to the point in saying the country’s “calamitous cycle of man-made disasters is the direct result of a dysfunctional government.” The answer: Give power back to the people.
China’s unspeakable consensus
“The Three Gorges Dam must be dismantled, and China’s political system must be changed,” writes veteran Chinese journalist Xiao Shu in this piece first published by the Taipei-based online news site, Storm Media. “To a great extent,” the author continues, “the Three Gorges Dam is the most apt metaphor for China’s political system.” A significant must-read.
Patricia Adams: China must free activists who championed environment and the rule of law
China must free Guo Yushan and He Zhengjun and restore confidence in their country.
Chinese authorities crack down on the country’s public interest groups and lawyers
On July 9, more than 100 lawyers in China issued an open letter on the Internet calling for an end to the shuttering of public interest groups and the detention and prosecution of individuals working for the public good.
The world’s biggest hydropower project may be causing giant landslides in China
A massive landslide this week is only the latest natural disaster critics believe the Three Gorges Dam has caused—even officials admit there have been 70% more landslides and bank collapses in the dam’s reservoir area since it was built 12 years ago. Lily Kuo for Quartz reports.
China gets back to nukes
Driven by the need for clean energy in its war on pollution and further accelerated by worldwide global warming fears, China is set to resume plans for a nuclear renaissance that has many sounding an alarm over safety concerns.
Relaxing China’s one-child policy
“No government should regulate birth, period.” Probe International Fellow and correspondent, Dai Qing, discusses China’s population-control policies over the years in this opinion piece for The New York Times.
Three Gorges Group will not stop building hydro dams in Nepal
Projects are strong enough to withstand a rare “thousand year” earthquake, say China Three Gorges Corporation officials: “no need to worry”. Experts beg to differ.
China: Scrap repressive foreign organizations law
The Chinese government should withdraw its draft law on foreign organizations, which represents “nothing more than a means to block the activities of groups Beijing doesn’t like,” Human Rights Watch said today in a submission to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Legislative Affairs Commission.
The Sword of Damocles hanging over every Chinese NGO
This terrific commentary deals with Beijing’s crackdown on NGOs and its larger ramifications if the country’s (remaining) civil society groups do not stand together against tremendous pressure to steer clear of a “political red line” that keeps moving to ensure anything, if the authorities wish, can be deemed off-limits.
Civil society’s diminishing “space to negotiate”
China Digital Times highlights Chinese writer and activist Zeng Jinyan’s post on Beijing’s crackdown on NGOs and, in particular, the independent think tank, Transition Institute. Even groups that historically have played an important role in China are finding themselves on the wrong side of the security apparatus, says Jinyan. Likewise, the space to negotiate is also closing fast for the country’s rights lawyers, reports CDT.
Pussyfooting with China
Western NGOs that operate in China stay silent to remain in the Chinese Communist Party’s good books.
Guo Yushan and the predicament of NGOs in China
Chinese writer and activist, Zeng Jinyan, discusses here in this extraordinarily nuanced piece, first published on Chinese social media, the shifting ground affecting domestic “pragmatic” NGOs and the implications for foreign NGOs with partners in China.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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