Ah Man*, 28, was forced to leave Hong Kong at the end of 2020 after being arrested at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when millions took to the streets in defiance of the growing influence of Beijing. But the UK has felt anything but a safe haven for the former Hongkonger after a string of incidents involving Chinese activists. In 2021, pro-democracy campaigners were reportedly attacked in Chinatown, central London; again in 2022 outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester; and once more this summer in Southampton. “Of course there…
Tag: Global development
‘My time in the UK has been a disaster’: Hongkongers fear deportation after years left in limbo
In March 2021, less than one month after his 18th birthday, Lawson* made a decision that would change the course of his life for ever. The previous year had been tumultuous in Hong Kong. Lawson, like millions of other Hongkongers, had taken to the streets to participate in pro-democracy protests against the influence of the Chinese Communist party, which was seeking to tighten its grip on the territory. He had been forced by police to kneel on the ground as he choked on teargas at the siege of Hong Kong…
‘It’s not like chicken farming’: why manta rays are chopped up in Sri Lanka
Every morning, starting at 3am, Lakshan hacks up manta rays. A wholesale buyer who plies his trade at Sri Lanka’s largest fish market, in the city of Negombo, just north of Colombo, he jostles with fishers offloading their catches. His business is primarily to find fresh tuna but he also buys 700kg (1,540lb) of manta and devil rays every day. He doesn’t want the ray’s meat, which most Sri Lankans don’t eat. Instead, he’s after the gill plates: cartilage that helps manta and devil rays filter out microorganisms in ocean…
How one man went from China’s Communist party golden child to enemy of the state
Xu Zhiyong’s dream is for China to become a democratic country that is “beautiful, free, fair and happy.” It is a simple wish, yet in the eyes of the authorities, his vision is dangerous and subversive. The 50-year-old human rights lawyer and champion of social equality was sentenced to 14 years in jail earlier this month, along with fellow activist and lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who was jailed for 12 years. Both were convicted of the crime of “subversion of state power.” The Communist party-controlled court has accused Xu of intending…
China’s 26-storey pig skyscraper ready to slaughter 1 million pigs a year
On the southern outskirts of Ezhou, a city in central China’s Hubei province, a giant apartment-style building overlooks the main road. But it is not for office workers or families. At 26 storeys it is by far the biggest single-building pig farm in the world, with a capacity to slaughter 1.2 million pigs a year. This is China’s answer to its insatiable demand for pork, the most popular animal protein in the country. The new skyscraper-sized farm began production at the start of October when the company behind the facility…
Jude Howell obituary
My friend and colleague Jude Howell, who has died of cancer aged 67, was a scholar of international development and a specialist on civil society and labour relations in China. Her books on China included China Opens its Doors (1993, with Gordon White and Shang Xiaoyuan), which looked at the modernisation of China’s economy, In Search of Civil Society (1996), which studied market reform and social change in the country, and NGOs and Accountability in China (2018, which she wrote with Shang Xiaoyuan and Karen Fisher). Jude was born in…
Our global food supply is at risk when high gas prices limit the creation of fertiliser | Andrew Whitelaw
If water is the source of life, fertiliser is the source of scaleable food production. The increasing cost of fertiliser is one of the largest contributors to a “cost-price” squeeze affecting the farmers of major agricultural products in Australia and globally. The cost of food is increasing in step with the cost of producing that food and, in the past quarter in Australia, we have seen food inflation increase by 2.8% – the fourth-highest quarter since the turn of the century. The price of wheat, the main staple for much…
Hospitals under fire and hard-won abortion rights: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
Rama, a 16-year-old Syrian refugee, holds a smiley face as she sits in the office of an organisation that cares for girls who have been forced into early marriage in Saadnayel, Lebanon. Rama was married at 14, divorced a year later and is a mother to an 18-month-old baby. Photograph: Marwan Naamani/DPA The Guardian
Video of woman chained to wall in shack causes outcry in China
A video of a woman apparently locked against her will in a filthy shack has gone viral in China, prompting an investigation as well as a conversation about the country’s treatment of people with mental illness. The footage, taken on 26 January, was posted to the video-sharing site Douyin the following day by a man who was shocked to find the woman locked in the rubbish-filled building in a village in Jiangsu province in the east of the country. Standing in freezing conditions, the woman appeared to be chained by…
Increased repression and violence a sign of weakness, says Human Rights Watch
Increasingly repressive and violent acts against civilian protests by autocratic leaders and military regimes around the world are signs of their desperation and weakening grip on power, Human Rights Watch says in its annual assessment of human rights across the globe. In its world report 2022, the human rights organisation said autocratic leaders faced a significant backlash in 2021, with millions of people risking their lives to take to the streets to challenge regimes’ authority and demand democracy. Human Rights Watch also said the emergence of opposition parties willing to…