Dissidents and civil rights campaigners yesterday said the government is watching them more closely after the death of deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (
Qi Zhiyong (
PHOTO: AP
"I found police outside my front door after I came home from the acupuncture clinic," he said.
Qi said he has been sending messages through his mobile phone to urge friends to go to Zhao's home or attend any memorial services that might be arranged -- but there is one problem.
"We call on those people who have a conscience to wear a white ribbon and black armband, to get out there," Qi said.
"But some people have been placed under surveillance and I can't really go out myself either," he said.
Zhao, China's premier and head of the Communist Party for much of the 1980s, was ousted from power for opposing the military crackdown on the 1989 protests. Hundreds if not thousands of unarmed protesters and citizens were killed when tanks and troops moved into central Beijing.
AIDS activist Hu Jia (
"My friends are telling me not to come back to Beijing. But I must return. The first thing I need to do is to buy a wreath and find out where a memorial is being held," he said. "If there is no way to find out, we'll go to Tiananmen Square."
Ding Zilin (
Ding, who has been campaigning for an official vindication of the 1989 protests with a group called the Tiananmen Mothers, said plainclothes police were outside her home yesterday.
She said she was also followed when she went out in a taxi.
She declined to say whether she and others were planning to organize activities to commemorate Zhao.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS