On 9 July 2015 the Chinese authorities began an extensive crackdown on human rights defenders (HRDs) and their friends and family members. Dubbed the ‘709 Crackdown’ after the date on which it began, the campaign saw over 300 lawyers, activists and their associates detained, interrogated or imprisoned.
In Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, (also referred to by many Uyghurs as East Turkestan), such technology is widely used by the Chinese authorities to identify and restrict the movements of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups as part of the authorities’ extensive crackdown on these groups, in which between one and three million individuals are believed to have been detained in so-called ‘political re-education camps.’
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s highest legislative body, has passed a new national security law for Hong Kong amid grave human rights concerns raised by activists and residents. Religious communities in the city, as well as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, have also expressed concerns about the potential threat to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).
CSW has welcomed a joint statement signed by 50 United Nations (UN) Independent Experts calling on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to take urgent action to monitor human rights violations in China. In the statement, issued on 26 June, the experts claim “it is time for renewed attention on the human rights situation in …
Uyghur groups have welcomed the signing into law of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 by US President Donald Trump on 17 June. The Act authorises sanctions against Chinese officials deemed responsible for the mass arbitrary detention of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Xiamen city authorities destroyed property and parts of a building belonging to Xingguang Church on 11 June in the second raid on the church in just over a month, according to an open statement by a Chinese pastor on social media. Authorities had previously shut down a Sunday service at the church on 3 May, injuring several church members and damaging property during the process.
In a video statement to mark the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China on 4 June 2020, CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas says: “CSW, together with organisations and individuals around the world, will be remembering this event and standing in solidarity with family members of victims who are still waiting for justice.”
On 4 June 1989 Chinese army troops brutally supressed peaceful protests for freedom and democracy, killing and wounding thousands of people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in what has become one of the most infamous days in China’s history. 31 years on, the current human rights situation is itself a tragedy. The Chinese Communist Party …
Authorities in China’s Xiamen shut down a Sunday service at Xingguang Church on 3 May, injuring several church members and damaging property during the process. Witnesses report that police violently dispersed church members, removing those who resisted by force. One church member sustained several significant injuries, including two fractured ribs. Police also confiscated members’ mobile …
Church members injured, property damaged during police raid on church in Xiamen READ MORE
Academic and terrorism researcher David Tucker once wrote: “Above the gates of hell is the warning that all that enter should abandon hope. Less dire but to the same effect is the warning given to those who try to define terrorism.”[1] Today, his words still aptly describe the continuing search by states and international bodies …
