According to Wang Feng, a Chinese population expert at the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing, the recent merger of the agency regulating population control with the Ministry of Health indicates that the central government might be taking steps to phase out the one-child policy.
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Ren Jianyu, a 25-year-old civil servant who spent over a year in a forced labor camp, is trying to rally opposition to China's laojiao system of forced labor prisons. Although Ren's specific offense is unclear, he thinks that disgraced politician Bo Xilai ordered his incarceration in response to comments he made comparing Bo's official campaigns to Maoist political purges.
An extensive study conducted by researchers at Rice University sheds light on how the Chinese government is able to censor 100 million tweets per day. The study also reveals which sensitive words and topics are most likely to draw the attention of censors.
Despite touting a commitment to open communication and transparency, Microsoft’s Chinese version of Skype censors messages exchanged between users. Moreover, such censorship is not limited to users physically located in China. Rather, everyone who downloads the Chinese language version of Skype, regardless of their location, is subject to censorship by Chinese authorities.
Although Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of the Communist Party's Political and Legal Affairs Commission, announced in January that the Chinese government would end its forced labor prison system, subsequent official statements indicate that the Party will merely “reform” the laojiao system.
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo urging them to implement laws strengthening human rights protections at the upcoming National People’s Congress.
More than 120 prominent Chinese journalists and scholars signed a petition urging the Chinese government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) during the upcoming National People’s Congress. Although China signed the ICCPR in 1998, the government has not agreed to implement the provisions of the human rights treaty.
According to Global Voices Advocacy, the Zambian government has reportedly engaged Chinese experts to help them monitor domestic Internet activity.