China has failed to improve its human rights record in the run-up to next month’s Olympics, with the government intensifying its crackdown on activists in recent years, Amnesty International (AI) charged in a report to be released today.
Amnesty said that in the last year alone, thousands of petitioners, reformists and others were arrested as part of a government campaign to “clean up” Beijing before the games, which open on Aug. 8. It said many of those arrested have been sentenced to manual labor without trial.
Chinese human rights activists have been targeted elsewhere in the country as well, Amnesty said in its report.
It cited the case of Sichuan-based activist Huang Qi, who was formally arrested earlier this month on charges of possessing state secrets. The case, though, is believed to stem from his work helping the families of children killed in May’s earthquake bring a legal case against local authorities, Amnesty said.
The organization said the games, touted by Chinese and Olympic officials alike as a way to help expand freedoms in the authoritarian country, have instead led the government to muzzle critics in hopes of presenting an image of harmony and stability to the outside world.
“By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the games seven years ago,” said Roseann Rife, a deputy director in Asia for the London-based group. “The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the games.”
An after-hours duty officer at China’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the report, although the Chinese government routinely denies such allegations, saying it has promoted human rights by reforming the legal system and raising living standards of hundreds of millions of people.
In a recent shift, the government announced it was setting up special protest zones during the games.
The Amnesty report also took aim at China’s suppressive media censorship, noting that some foreign journalists have been harassed by authorities.
It also claimed the government had expanded its “re-education through labor” program under which security forces arrest people and sentence them to manual labor without trial.
Amnesty accused the International Olympic Committee of showing a “reluctance” to pressure China publicly on its human rights record.
Elsewhere in the report, the group welcomed China’s move last year to restore the Supreme People’s Court’s role in approving death sentences. But it criticized the government, which says the number of executions has declined, for withholding data on death penalty cases.
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
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
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
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
RSS