Outspoken dissident artist Ai Weiwei has launched an online campaign asking the Chinese government to publicly release the names of the victims of a fire that destroyed a Shanghai tower block on November 15. His Google Docs “Citizens...
On 24 November the South China Morning Post reported that the milk scandal activist, Zhao Lianhai, may be released just weeks after he began his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. It appears a back-room deal has resulted in Zhao's application for...
Organisers of an annual blogging conference, CNBloggercon, to be held last weekend in Shanghai were told to cancel the event because it was too “sensitive.” Convener and citizen journalist, Zhou Shuguang, told Agence France-Presse that the venue...
Wangyi09’s twitter feed stops abruptly at 7:45AM on October 28. According to human rights groups, the Chinese rights activist, whose real name is Cheng Jianping, was detained later that day for a satirical tweet she had posted on October 17 which...
David Cameron has extolled the virtues of human rights and democracy during his trade mission to Beijing but why won't he raise the case of imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo? Dinah Goodman reports David Cameron’s first stop on his first visit to Beijing...
Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known dissident artist, is called God Ai by his supporters. Ai helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and more recently his Sunflower Seeds installation created a splash at the Tate Modern; but Ai...
One of China's best-known dissidents Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday night. Liu is currently serving an 11 year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” after the former litarture professor circulated Charter 08, a...
Last month, Xie Chaoping, author of The Great Migration, was detained for 30 days on the trumped up charge of operating an illegal business. The Great Migration is about the repairing of the Sanmen dam in Weinan, Shaanxi Province and the residents...
“No one living in China is more daring than the maverick writer Yu Jie,” journalist and historian Jonathan Mirsky wrote more than five years ago. It’s even more apt today.The 36-year-old Chinese dissident and writer is about to risk his freedom by...
As the Games begin in Beijing, Index publishes a roundup of arrests, detentions and surveillance since January –-- a reminder that China has yet to meet its Olympic challenge of harmony and openness. JANUARY 24 January: Four journalists with German...