Chinese authorities seized dozens of newsletters from a nonprofit group that fights discrimination against people with hepatitis B, a campaigner said yesterday, calling the move retribution for the group’s advocacy work.
Two officials from the Beijing Cultural Law Enforcement Agency, in charge of campaigns against printed and DVD pornography and piracy, on Wednesday confiscated about 90 copies of a legal guide to fighting discrimination for people with hepatitis B.
A spokeswoman for the agency, Li Fei, confirmed the group was being investigated for publishing material without a required license. She would not comment further.
The 40-page guides, published by non-governmental organization (NGO) Yirenping, include information about Chinese law, a practical guide to reporting violations and filing lawsuits, as well as details of successful anti-discrimination cases, said Lu Jun (陸軍), the group’s founder. He denied doing anything illegal.
“It’s part of our job to put out material like this, to educate people,” he said, adding that many other Chinese NGOs have similar types of publications.
The raid appeared aimed at reining in the group’s legal advocacy and comes fast on the heels of a clampdown on activist lawyers in the capital.
Earlier this month, a legal research center in Beijing was shut down and the licenses of more than 50 lawyers — many known for their politically sensitive human rights work — were revoked. China is also preparing for the communist state’s 60th anniversary on Oct. 1, a particularly sensitive period when dissent is not tolerated.
The New York-based rights group Human Rights in China said in a statement yesterday that the raid on Yirenping showed the “increasingly restrictive legal environment under which China’s civil society organizations must operate.”
Lu and his organization campaign for awareness about the hepatitis B, which infects the liver and is endemic in China, with an estimated 120 million sufferers. They often face discrimination and are sometimes denied jobs, even though the disease cannot be transmitted by casual contact.
Yirenping has assisted individuals in more than 40 lawsuits since it was founded in 2006, information posted on its Web site said.
Lu said he thought the seizure of the newsletters was punishment for legal activism.
“I think we offended some people and they wanted to get back at us,” Lu said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition