Amnesty International has launched a new Chinese-language website containing research reports, articles and blog entries on the organization’s research and activism around the world. While the site is currently blocked by China’s state censors it will be an important source of human rights information for Chinese speakers internationally. “The importance of distributing more human rights information in the Chinese language reflects China’s growing global influence,” said Amnesty International’s East Asia head Roseann Rife, after the website launched. “This is a benchmark in the organization’s ongoing efforts to engage Chinese-speaking human rights activists and supporters around the world.” In the world’s most populous country, accessing information on human rights can be a challenging and sometimes dangerous undertaking: activists who take to social media are harassed, threatened and even jailed by the authorities.Amnesty International celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011 and has been documenting human rights violations in China for nearly four decades.Its recent work on China has included the detention of prominent photojournalist Du Bin, accounts of torture and other ill-treatment in China’s re-education through labour camps, and the harassment of human rights activists and their relatives – including family members of the dissident activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled to the USA in 2012.
