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» Call To End Media Censorship - 07-October-2011
Burma’s censorship czar wants press controls abolished. AFP A Burmese man reads a newspaper by the roadside in downtown Rangoon, Aug. 30, 2010. The head of Burma’s powerful state censorship body called Friday for press freedom in the country, saying his own department should be closed down as part of reforms being pursued by the new nominally civilian government. “Press censorship is non-existent in most other countries as well as among our neighbors and as it is not in harmony with democratic practices, press censorship should be abolished in the near future,” Tint Swe, director of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department told RFA in an interview. But, he said, newspaper and other publications should accept press freedom with “responsibilities.” Tint Swe’s department, set up more than four decades ago when the military took over the country, has eased restrictions on certain media coverage since the new government of President Thein Sein took power early this year after election

» Two Tibetan Youths Self-Immolate - 07-October-2011
So far, seven Tibetans have set themselves alight this year in a desperate attempt to highlight rights abuses. AFP Tibetan monks from Kirti monastery in exile in India gather before embarking on a protest march to New Delhi calling for an end to the Kirti crisis, April 26, 2011. Two youths in a Tibetan region of southwestern Sichuan province set fire to themselves on Friday in the latest in a string of self-immolation protests against Chinese rule, sources with links to the region said.At least one of the monks is believed to have died. So far, seven Tibetans have set themselves alight this year in a bid to highlight Tibetan human rights abuses. "On Oct. 7 around 11.30 a.m. two more Tibetans burnt themselves in the streets of Ngaba county town and protested against Chinese rule," said Dharamsala-based monk Kanyak Tsering, who is in close contact with Ngaba's Kirti monastery.The monastery has seen a huge security crackdown and a number of self-immolation protests in recent months. Hundr

» Shedding Light on Political Prisoners - 07-October-2011
As the fate of Burma's political prisoners hangs in the balance, a film documenting their stories is making the rounds. AFP A family member of a prisoner waits outside the Insein prison in Rangoon, May 17, 2011. Many of Burma's political prisoners are locked up inside. The Saffron Revolution that shook Burma’s military dictatorship in 2007 resulted in a rapid jump in the number of political prisoners. Some rights groups say there are about 2,000 at present but the new nominally civilian government insists it’s much less, without citing any figure.The political prisoners come from the most respected levels of Burmese society—monks, students, teachers, doctor, lawyers, journalists, and members of parliament; as well as many women and ethnic minorities—and commonly, rights groups say, have been subjected to torture and long prison terms. Writing a political poem or song or distributing one political pamphlet can bring years at hard labor, they say. Many activists have been sentenced from

» Elite Marks Gang of Four Fall - 07-October-2011
Some call for another Cultural Revolution in a bid to wipe out corruption but their idea finds scant support. AFP Jiang Qing, wife of Mao Zedong, during the trial in Beijing of the "Gang of Four," Jan. 25, 1981. China's political elite convened unofficially this week to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Gang of Four, which led to the rise of Deng Xiaoping and his economic reforms, amid calls by some for another Cultural Revolution, sources said."If we hadn't smashed the Gang of Four, none of what came later would have happened," said Wang Guixiu, referring to the political force within the ruling Party that was headed by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao until its arrest on Oct. 6, 1976."If they had carried on with all that left-wing stuff, there would have been no progress," said Wang, a professor at the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School."If the Gang of Four hadn't fallen, there would have been no third plenum of the 11t

» Chinese Netizens Mourn Jobs - 06-October-2011
The passing of a technology visionary prompts an outpouring of emotion from China's Internet users. AFP A Chinese man places flowers beside a photo of Steve Jobs outside an Apple store in Beijing, Oct. 6, 2011. Tens of thousands of Chinese Internet users paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on Thursday, setting up online shrines and gathering outside the Apple store in Beijing to lay wreaths."The entrance of the Apple store in Sanlitun looks like the entrance to Jokhang temple," wrote prominent blogger Hecaitou on Twitter, apparently from the scene. He said large numbers of people had also gathered to shoot video and pictures of the store and its floral tributes to Jobs, who died at the age of 56 on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer."There aren't so many people laying flowers, but there are a lot of people taking photos and video and posting them to microblog sites," he added.On the massively popular Sina Weibo microblog service, the home page was decorated with a black

» Monks Nursing Burns At Hospitals - 06-October-2011
One Tibetan monk has a serious head injury from beatings by security forces. AFP Exiled Tibetan monks take part in a candle-light vigil in Dharamsala, India on April 22, 2011 to protest a Chinese crackdown on the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. Three Tibetan monks nursing burns after their failed self-immolation attempts in China’s southwestern Sichuan province are recovering under tight Chinese security in hospitals, a source said Thursday. One of them, Kalsang Wangchuk, did not suffer serious burns but had a "major" head injury following beatings he received at the hands of Chinese security forces, who had quickly extinguished the flames when he set himself on fire in Ngaba town on Monday.The three monks were from Kirti monastery in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture and their suicide attempts led to a security crackdown on the monastery and the removal of hundreds of monks from the institution. They were among five monks who had set themselves alight this year to protest agains

» Chen Campaigners Detained - 06-October-2011
Chinese authorities detain supporters of a rights lawyer under house arrest. RFA Screen grab of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng from a video showing his life under house arrest. Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong on Thursday detained a group of rights campaigners who tried to visit blind activist Chen Guangcheng, as prominent dissidents spoke out in their support.The group set off on Wednesday from the eastern city of Xuzhou in an attempt to visit Chen, who has been held with his wife and small daughter at the family home in Shandong's Yinan county for more than a year since his release from prison.According to fellow activist Wang Xuezhen, police banged on the door of activist and Buddhist nun Miao Jue's Xuzhou hotel room at 1:00 a.m. on Thursday."She wouldn't open it, and then they said they'd break it down if she didn't, so she eventually opened it," said Wang. "They wanted to take her away but she wouldn't go, because everyone's stuff was there.""Then they wre

» Broader Concerns Over Chinese Dams - 06-October-2011
Burma’s decision to halt a massive China-backed dam project opens a floodgate of scrutiny and criticism on planned Chinese dams in Southeast Asia. Photo courtesy of International Rivers. A villager from an island that will likely be flooded if Cambodia's Sambor Dam is built. The Burmese government's stunning suspension of a massive Beijing-backed dam project has thrown the spotlight on China's dam building blitz in Southeast Asia and what environmental groups fear will be its adverse impacts on the region.The halting of the Myitsone Dam project on the headwaters of Burma's key Irrawaddy River also highlights the growing might of non-governmental organizations scrutinizing infrastructure development projects, even in a Burma that has just emerged from five decades of iron-fisted military rule.Risking legal action by key ally China, Burmese President Thein Sein decided last week to suspend the project, which had been assailed by green groups and opposition parties over its environmental

» Power Struggle Delays Prisoner Release - 05-October-2011
The release of political prisoners is delayed due to opposition from hardliners led by former junta strongman Than Shwe. AFP Burma's junta chief Than Shwe reviews an honor guard in Naypyidaw, March 27, 2009. Burmese politics have always been a cat and mouse affair. Those in power seeking change have always had to tread lightly. And nothing has changed under the new political system. If anything, things have got worse, as the power is more diffuse than under the naked military rule of the past. But the new regime must show its true colors soon. It is no use shouting to the world that things have changed if there are no concrete changes to support that call. Of course the government’s priorities will always be different—and they will never want to be seen bowing to international pressure. But the country’s own parliament has called for the prisoners’ release, and this move has an important champion within the establishment in the speaker Thura Shwe Mann. Also, it is widely known that Aun

» Officials Block Parents' Questions - 05-October-2011
Chinese authorities duck questions on lead-poisoned children. Photo appears courtesy of concerned parents A woman from Shanghai's Pudong district holds her daughter who she says is suffering from lead poisoning. Parents in the Shanghai district of Pudong who are campaigning for an investigation into high lead levels in their children's blood tests say they are being stonewalled by local officials.Last month, the Shanghai authorities ordered a number of factories, particularly those making batteries, to close after more than 700 children were found with higher-than-normal levels of lead in their blood, official media reported.But officials have maintained that the closures are due to lead quotas, rather than any direct link to the poisoning of children, many of whom live in and around Kangqiao township in Pudong.Parents now say officials are stonewalling their attempts to get clearer answers about which companies are responsible, and have refused to meet with them in spite of repeated p

» 'Chased With Guns' on Chen Visit - 05-October-2011
Chinese authorities thwart a second attempt by supporters to visit a rights lawyer under house arrest. Gongmin Weiquan Wang (www.gmwq.org) Human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, shown in an undated photo. Rights campaigners making another attempt to visit blind Shandong activist Chen Guangcheng said some of their number went incommunicado, presumed detained, on Wednesday, with one activist reporting being chased by armed guards before losing telephone contact.The group, led by Henan-based activist Liu Shasha, set off from the eastern city of Xuzhou in an attempt to visit Chen, who has been held with his wife and small daughter at the family home in Shandong's Yinan county for more than a year since his release from prison."We used Xuzhou as our starting point," said fellow activist Miao Jue, who remained behind in the group's guest house to take care of their valuables. "There was Liu Shasha and [activists] from Shanghai, Hunan, and Zhengzhou: nine people altogether.""They are very lik

» 'Cultural Reforms' to Target Media - 04-October-2011
China's upcoming Party plenum will debate how to better control the flow of information. IMAGINECHINA A woman walks past a newsstand in Beijing, Aug. 7, 2010. China's top levels of leadership look set to further tighten their control over media and the Internet at a forthcoming Party plenum, Hong Kong media and analysts said.The territory's Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper said that a key theme of this year's sixth plenary session of the 17th Party Congress would be "cultural reforms," a phrase analysts took to mean closer controls on freedom of expression.During the plenum, which will run from Oct. 15-18 in Beijing, delegates would debate a motion on the "socialist development and reform of the cultural system," said the article.Xie Xuanjun, a Chinese studies expert in New York, said the motion was unlikely to concern itself with the relaxation of controls on the media, in spite of repeated promises by incumbent premier Wen Jiabao that the government will begin political reforms."D

» Tibetan Monk Detained Again - 04-October-2011
Chinese authorities refuse to say why he has been locked up. Photo courtesy of an RFA listener. An undated photo of Jigme Gyatso. Chinese authorities in Gansu province have detained a Tibetan monk for the fourth time in the last five years—and again without filing formal charges against him, according to his brother.Jigme Gyatso, a monk at Labrang monastery in the Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture was picked up on Aug. 20 and is being held in the Kanlho Public Security Bureau detention center, the man’s brother, named Sonam, told RFA.“After he had been missing for several weeks, the Kanlho Public Security Bureau confirmed that they are holding him,” Sonam said.“They wouldn’t say why he is detained, but they told our family that he could face a term in jail if he doesn’t abide by state law.”Calls seeking comment from Kanlho officials last week rang unanswered.Chinese authorities first detained Jigme Gyatso, also called Jigme Goril, in 2006 following his return to

» Nobel Laureate Granted Family Visits - 04-October-2011
Chinese authorities lift a ban on prison visits by a prominent dissident’s family members. AFP The empty chair with a diploma and medal that should have been awarded to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (portrait L) at the Oslo City Hall, Dec. 10, 2010. Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been permitted a monthly family visit, according to his lawyer, one year after the Nobel Peace Prize committee angered Beijing by granting him the award for his work on human rights. The decision to allow visitation rights came as Liu’s brothers met with him last month at his prison in Jinzhou, in northeastern Liaoning province. It was the first time the brothers had seen each other since shortly after Liu was awarded the Nobel Prize on Oct. 8, 2010. Phone calls to two of Liu Xiaobo’s lawyers and his brothers went unanswered Tuesday, with China in the midst of a week-long National Day holiday. But a third lawyer, Ding Xikui, confirmed the monthly visits. “Monthly visits to a jailed family member

» Self-Immolation a 'Worrying' Trend - 04-October-2011
Tibetan monks take desperate action to highlight what rights groups say are Chinese human rights abuses. AFP Tibetan monks from Kirti monastery in exile in India gather before embarking on a protest march to New Delhi calling for an end to the Kirti crisis, April 26, 2011. Recent self-immolations by desperate Tibetan monks from a monastery under siege signal an alarming trend and highlight unrelenting Chinese actions to curb religious rights, according to human rights groups and experts. "This is an extremely worrying and absolutely unprecedented trend that we hope will end," London-based Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said after Monday's incident in which a fifth Tibetan monk set himself on fire this year.The monk, identified as Kalsang Wangchuk, 17 or 18 years old and from Kirti Monastery in southwestern Sichuan province's Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture, set fire to himself near the vegetable market in Ngaba town.His upper body was seen to be badly burned and security

» Defiant Activists Plan Chen Visit - 03-October-2011
Several rights campaigners who tried to make the first visit were beaten by security agents. RFA Screen grab of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng from a video showing his life under house arrest in early 2011. A group of netizens and rights activists plan to make another attempt this week to visit blind rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who is under house arrest, despite the risk of being beaten by government security agents outside his home.Chen has been confined to his tightly guarded house in Dongshigu village at Linyi city with his wife and child for almost a year, totally cut off from the outside world after his release from a four-year jail term.All three roads to the village are watched around the clock by security personnel, according to recent microblog posts.About 10 days ago, Beijing-based activist Liu Shasha and several others traveled to Dongshigu village in the hope of visiting Chen and his family but were pounced on and beaten by around a dozen men guarding the main intersec

» Another Self-Immolation Protest - 03-October-2011
Tensions rise in Tibetan areas amid deteriorating rights situation. Photo sent by a listener in Tibet Kirti Monastery in an undated photo. A young Tibetan monk from a monastery under restriction by Chinese security forces in southwestern Sichuan province set himself alight on Monday, the third such protest in a week. The self-immolation came as protests flared at the weekend in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the same province after a photo of the Dalai Lama and a huge Tibetan flag were removed from a building and thrown in the street.The monk, identified as Kalsang Wangchuk, 17 or 18 years old and from Kirti Monastery in the mountainous Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture, set fire to himself near the vegetable market in Ngaba town, exile Tibetan sources said, citing contacts in the area."He was carrying a photograph of the Dalai Lama and shouted slogans, though bystanders could not hear these clearly," said Tenpa Dhargye, a former political prisoner now

» Burma Eyes Indonesia-Style Reforms - 03-October-2011
Negotiations that resulted in peace in the once restive Aceh province may be emulated in Burma. AFP A family member of a prisoner waits outside the Insein prison in Rangoon, May 17, 2011. Many of Burma's political prisoners are locked up inside. Burma wants to emulate once military-ruled Indonesia's transition to democracy, including the process that ended a long-standing insurgency in the northern Indonesian province of Aceh, Burmese President Thein Sein's political adviser said Monday.But Nay Zin Latt, who led a team of officials on a recent visit to Indonesia, said the Burmese government will try to avoid some of the "mistakes" that were made during the transition from Indonesian dictator Suharto's ouster in 1998 after bloody pro-democracy protests. In Burma, several ethnic militias have battled government troops for decades to preserve the de facto autonomy of groups like the Shan, Wa, Kachin, Karen, and Mon.Thein Sein's nominally civilian government has invited armed ethnic groups

» Coal Clogs Roads - 03-October-2011
Bottlenecks tighten as China's transport woes grow. AFP Smoke and steam are emitted from a coal-fired power plant in Shaanxi province, Jan. 23, 2011. More than a year since a massive tie-up stopped traffic on a main highway for over a week, China's coal supplies have stalled on another key road.A long line of trucks has backed up on a 60-kilometer (37 mile) road from a major coal center in Shenmu county of northwest Shaanxi province, according to photos from the official English-language China Daily on Sept. 26. Drivers have been sleeping in their cabs and eating meals outside their paralyzed rigs while loaded trucks stretch into the distance as far as the eye can see.The paper blamed the traffic jam on the limited capacity of the highway, which carries 160 million tons of coal a year from Shenmu county. Trips take three days to a week from end to end, it says, suggesting speeds as slow as one-third of a kilometer per hour.The size of the road may be an issue, but so is the volume of c

» Campaign Against Secret Detentions - 03-October-2011
The Chinese government aims to authorize detentions without informing family members. AFP Women hold pictures of their loved ones, alleged victims of injustices, outside the court trial of a rights activist in Beijing, Aug. 12, 2011. Chinese lawyers, rights activists, and legal experts are mounting an online campaign against proposals to legalize secret detention currently being debated by the country's lawmakers.China's parliamentary body, the National People's Congress (NPC), is currently debating amendments to the criminal law which could remove a current requirement to inform a person's relatives of their detention.Rights activist Hu Jia and his wife and fellow activist Zeng Jinyan have already criticized the move in open letters and online opinions, while prominent rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan has sent a detailed critique of the proposed amendments to the NPC.In a letter to a parliamentary committee considering the legal change, Hu said holding suspects in a secret location is a "pa