Citizens' Square

First Instance Verdict against Li Dawei

Gansu activist and former policeman Li Dawei (李大伟) was sentenced in 2002 to 11-years in prison after being convicted for “inciting subversion of state power.” Li appealed the judgement but was unsuccessful. He was released in April 2012. HRIC has translated into English the second instance (appeal...

July 13, 2012

Citizens' Square

Dissidents

Li Dawei

Detained Disabled Petitioner On Hunger Strike

[Shang Zhaoshu] Shang, a paraplegic since childhood as a result of a reaction to a vaccine, is a petitioner in Hegang City of Heilongjiang Province. Because of his petitioning activities, he was made to spend a year in Reeducation-Through-Labor and another year in detention. In June 2012, while...

July 19, 2012

Citizens' Square

Protests And Petitions

Protest at Ministry of Supervision Against Corruption and Human Rights Abuses

[Protest] More than 200 petitioners staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Supervision in Beijing. This account points out that the protest focused not on the individual cases of the petitioners, but on systemic issues including corruption and human rights abuses.

July 17, 2012

Citizens' Square

Corruption

Lawyer Xiao Guozhen’s Urgent Notice Regarding Imminent Detention and Censored Article

Xiao Guozhen, a Beijing lawyer, was summoned for a police interrogation, which she thought might be because of her lead role in forming a group of attorneys to investigate the purported suicide of activist Li Wangyang. She issued an emergency notice stating that she might be taken away and...

July 5, 2012

Citizens' Square

Lawyers

Shanghai rights activists’ public appeal: “Remember June Fourth” (Chinese only with pictures)

[Remember June Fourth] On the 23rd anniversary of the crackdown of the 1989 Democracy Movement, four Shanghai petitioners publicly commemorated the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre by holding placards on People’s Square in the center of Shanghai.

June 4, 2012

Citizens' Square

June Fourth

Ryszard Kapuściński Award Acceptance Speech: Writing for Others' Freedom

In accepting the 2012 Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literature in Warsaw, Poland, Liao Yiwu spoke exclusively about Li Bifeng. Li isa poet, a character in one of Liao’s books, and Liao’s former prison mate who was imprisoned twice following the 1989 June Fourth crackdown on the Democracy Movement...

May 11, 2012

Citizens' Square

Rights Defenders

Liao Yiwu

Mourning Li Wangyang

In his poem (Chinese only), Guo Yongfeng, a Shenzhen-based rights defender—who considers himself a “new fighter for democracy”—expresses his admiration for a veteran who devoted his entire life to the cause of democracy in China as well has his anger towards the authorities which had brutally...

June 6, 2012

Citizens' Square

Rights Defenders

Statement on Forming a Committee to Investigate Li Wangyang’s Death (Chinese Only)

The Statement, drafted by Zhou Zhirong, a veteran democracy activist from Hunan, raises the question whether the police designation of Li Wangyong’s death as suicide is a cover up. The statement calls upon both the international community and civil society groups to form a committee to investigate...

June 6, 2012

Citizens' Square

Jiangxi independent candidates detained, beaten, and tortured (Chinese Only)

Liu Ping, one of the three independent candidates running for the local people’s congress of Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, details the abuses and brutalities she and her two fellow candidates, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua, have suffered since they began their campaigns. The brutalities include...

June 3, 2012

Citizens' Square

Police Brutality

Dissident Couple Issues Strong Protest to Government over Violations of Their Rights

In this letter of complaint (Chinese only) to the government of Qingshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, Qin Yongmin (秦永敏), a Wuhan-based dissident, and his fiancé, Wang Xifeng (王喜凤), recount how the public security bureaus in both Qingshan District and Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province, where Wang...

May 25, 2012

Citizens' Square