(October 19, 2011) Local governments in China typically fund themselves by land sales and property taxes. This article, from Economic Observer, surveys how the economies of Beijing, Shaanxi, Tianjin and Hubei fared over the past year. Notably, Beijing’s economy slowed due to restrictions on real estate and vehicle purchasing – major parts of local consumption and tax revenue.
Dam postponement seen as rebuke to Beijing
Myanmar’s announced cancellation of the Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River has brought long-standing tensions with China into the open – including setting off conflicts with the Kachin Independence Organization in the north of the country. “It may be that the Myanmar government sees Chinese investment, in particular the Myitsone dam, as a destabilising force,” said Patricia Adams.
Chinese activists protest secret arrest law
The wife of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, whose detention sparked an international outcry, has urged lawmakers to reject draft legislation that would cement in law police powers to hold dissidents in secret locations without telling their families. And Hu Jia, recently released from imprisonment on charges of subversion, has called for the “KGB secret police-style Red Terror methods” to be rejected.
Liu Zhi: “Chaos reigns in China’s river valleys”
(September 29, 2011) Liu Zhi from the Beijing-based Transition Institute looks at China’s costly and chaotic dam-building spree, and the legal and economic reasons behind the bad investments.
Ai Weiwei ‘speaks out’ – in writing
Even a gag order can’t silence dissident artist Ai Weiwei on the dark subject of human rights in China.
China human rights and Canadian companies
(July 4, 2011) Probe International’s Patricia Adams joined a Business News Network (BNN) panel to discuss the dangers of corporations wishing to do business in China given its poor human rights record.
Hu Jia released
(June 28, 2011) China releases human rights activist Hu Jia from prison, subject to ‘supervision’.
China votes … on the Internet
(June 15, 2011) How microblogs are becoming a platform for independent election campagins.
The persecution of Ni Yulan
(June 8, 2011) “We believe that until the day the rule of law is established in China, what happened to Ni Yulan today could happen to each one of us.”
Prominent Three Gorges critic Lu Qinkan passes away at 97
(April 21, 2011) Chinese hydrologist Lu Qinkan passed away April 11 in Beijing at the age of 97. Lu was known to the west as one of the most vocal critics of the Three Gorges Dam.
Memo to Chinese government: no one believes you
(April 15, 2011) Patricia Adams writes: Chinese authorities will invent crimes, if need be, to silence dissidents for exercising their right to freedom of speech. However, renewed efforts to curb criticism and protest reveal an entrenched public distrust towards the government: the people of China, and the world, are done listening.
Ai Weiwei: The Sunflower Revolutionary
(April 14, 2011) Three decades after China’s “opening,” the country’s oppressive style of leadership continues. Fearing a public uprising, the government has begun silencing critical elements – the high profile artist Ai Weiwei detained on a trumped up charge in early April has not been heard from since. Independent thinkers, such as Probe International Fellow and outspoken journalist Dai Qing, may be targeted next. Renowned Chinese fiction author Ma Jian writes about the significance of the Ai Weiwei arrest.
Zeng Jinyan: Salt panic highlights a crisis of confidence in China
(April 12, 2011) In this first in a series, Voices From China, Chinese blogger Zeng Jinyan writes that the panicked response of Chinese citizens to the Japanese nuclear crisis betrays a fundamental distrust of the Chinese Government and official media.
Canadian journalist detained in China
(April 11, 2011) Toronto Star journalist Bill Schiller was detained and questioned today by Chinese officials for documenting the persecution of Chinese Christians.
China makes a mockery of the rule of law
(June 30, 2011) The Chinese Government may have released artist Ai Weiwei from his nearly three months in detention, but the terms of his bail gag him.
Probe International 