China
China holds Uighur journalist over Xinjiang unrest remarks - 30 October 2009
Hairat Niyaz has been detained since 1 October. He is thought at risk of torture and ill-treatment. Family and friends believe his detention is due to comments he made about the recent unrest.Crackdown on China's activists escalates ahead of 60th anniversary - 30 September 2009
The government's increased surveillance, harassment and imprisonment of activists is to prevent them from raising human rights concerns that challenge the authorities' image of social harmony.Secretary General of World Uighur Congress denied entry to South Korea - 17 September 2009
Dolkun Isa is being held by the South Korean authorities. If he is deported to China he would be at risk of arbitrary detention, unfair trial, torture and other ill-treatment and possibly the death penalty.
China -
The Olympic Games in Beijing brought heightened repression throughout the country as authorities tightened control over human rights defenders, religious practitioners, ethnic minorities,
China: Free Sichuan earthquake activists - 11 August 2009
On the eve of the scheduled trial of Tan Zuoren on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”, Amnesty International urges the Chinese authorities to drop the politically-motivated prosecution against him and fellow earthquake activist Huang Qi, whose “state secrets” trial was conducted last week, and to release them both immediately and unconditionally.Tan Zuoren is accused of defaming the Chinese Communist Party and the government with his online coverage of the authorities' handling of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
“Whether commenting on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown or seeking answers for the deaths during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Tan Zuoren was doing nothing more than exercising his right to freedom of expression guaranteed in China’s Constitution,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “To equate this with subversion denies not only his rights and those of the victims he is assisting and commemorating but also makes a mockery of criminal law and procedure.”
China Sichuan earthquake activists to be tried - 4 August 2009
Two activists who offered assistance to survivors of the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province, China, will be tried this month behind closed doors.More executions in Japan as other countries reject the death penalty - 31 July 2009
The recent hangings of three men brings the total number of executions carried out in Japan this year to seven, while other countries reject capital punishment.Human rights lawyers disbarred in China - 15 July 2009
Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong has had his professional license revoked by the Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality.China: Human rights lawyers disbarred - 15 July 2009
Amnesty International condemns the decision by the Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality to revoke the professional license of human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong
China: Authorities widen crackdown after Xinjiang riots - 10 July 2009
Chinese president Hu Jintao’s threats of severe punishment for those who took part in the recent unrest in Xinjiang failed to address the serious human righ