Yaxue Cao, editor-in-chief of the U.S.-based website China Change, has been tracking human rights issues in China for years. With the help of human rights attorneys in China, dissident artist Ai Weiwei, professor and film-maker Ai Xiaoming and overseas-based rights activist, she recently released an hour-long film about the crucial role played by Chinese lawyers in defending people’s basic rights. The documentary, titled “The Defenders — 20 Years of Human Rights Lawyers in China,” offers rarely-seen footage of top rights attorneys including Li Heping, Jiang Tianyong and Pu Zhiqiang to an overseas audience. Cao spoke to RFA’s Mandarin Service about the project
The harassment by Chinese students of a New Zealand Uyghur Fulbright scholar who spoke about her brother’s detention in China during an event at Cornell University is the latest in a series of alleged incidents involving efforts to intimidate criticms of Chinese policies on American campuses
A national-level Uyghur volleyball coach is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “befriending bearded men,” under a deepening crackdown on Islamic practices and culture, a Uyghur living in exile and a local police officer told RFA
A Uyghur farmer jailed for moving his pregnant wife from their hometown in Xinjiang to prevent authorities from forcing her to have an abortion died in 2020 while serving an eight-year prison sentence, a Uyghur with knowledge of the situation and local police officials confirmed to RFA this month
Authorities in Hong Kong have revoked bail for former healthcare union chief and democracy activist Winnie Yu, putting her back behind bars on International Women’s Day
The U.N. human rights chief must issue an overdue report on serious rights violations by Chinese authorities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang, some 200 human rights groups said in an appeal on Wednesday, a day after she announced that she would visit China and the turbulent region in May
Uyghur professor and translator has been serving a 10-year sentence in a prison in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region for separatism and promoting Western culture, a former Uyghur classmate of the man and a village official confirmed to RFA this month, more than four years after his detention
Nearly 800 Uyghurs are being held in a detention camp in Manas county in northwestern China’s Xinjiang, said an official from the area who previously worked at the facility
One year after dozens of opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were put behind bars for “subversion” after taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020, Hongkongers in exile say the mass arrests, which were widely condemned by the international community, struck a “devastating blow” to the city
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday again called on China to allow outside officials to visit Xinjiang to observe how the government is treating Uyghur Muslims there