Tag: Human Rights and Human Rights Violations

China Frees Pastor Detained in Crackdown on Religion After Trump’s Urging

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The pastor of a prominent underground church in China who was detained last year as part of a crackdown on religious activity was released on Friday, his daughter said, less than two months after President Trump raised his case with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The pastor, Jin Mingri, who also goes by the name Ezra, was freed after more than 250 days in custody and allowed to leave for the United States. Mr. Jin, the pastor and founder of Zion Church, was detained in October and later charged with “illegally…

Tibetan Man Dies After Self-Immolation Protest in New York

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A Tibetan activist lit himself on fire and outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday to protest China’s control over his homeland, declaring in a video before his self-immolation that Beijing’s policies were “destroying the Tibetan people.” He later died. Friends of the activist identified him as Lobsang Palden, known as Lobga Rangzen, a 52-year-old resident of Queens. Originally from eastern Tibet, Lobga Rangzen had been an advocate of Tibetan independence for more than a decade. The police said that around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday they…

Imprisoned Chinese Journalist Seeks Medical Parole for Lung Tumor

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A prominent Chinese journalist, who was imprisoned on spying charges that he denies, is caught in a deadlock with the authorities in Beijing after they rebuffed his request for medical parole to remove a potentially cancerous lung tumor, his son said on Thursday. The journalist, Dong Yuyu, 64, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024. He was an editor for a Chinese Communist Party-run newspaper, Guangming Daily, but in past years wrote essays that called for political liberalization. He mixed with foreign journalists and…

He Become China’s Largest Critic in Exile. Then The Threats Followed Him.

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One afternoon in October 2024, Li Ying was lying in bed, scrolling through X, when he got a notification on his phone from the peephole security camera on his apartment door in Turin, Italy. Two men were lingering in the hallway. He got up quietly, went to the door and watched them through the camera feed on his phone. For two years, ever since he turned his X account into one of the most influential Chinese-language sources for uncensored news and dissent, Mr. Li had received threats of physical harm.…

A Quiet Pacific Village Becomes China’s Security Testing Ground

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The first sign that something unusual was unfolding in the Solomon Islands was when the Chinese police showed up at Fighter One, a quiet village ringed with banana trees. The Chinese officers gathered villagers on a grassy patch and proposed a system they said would help keep them safe. They suggested that the residents fill out cards providing the names, addresses and dates of birth for each household member. They recommended collecting fingerprints and palm prints — both highly unusual and legally dubious in a country lacking laws governing personal…

A Dissident Escapes China by Rubber Boat and Lands in South Korea

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A Chinese critic of his country’s ruling Communist Party had already escaped to Thailand and Vietnam and tried swimming to Taiwan — only to be sent back to mainland China each time. He was jailed, prohibited from working and barred from leaving, despite international calls to let him seek asylum elsewhere. Now the dissident, Dong Guangping, 68, is in custody in South Korea after escaping China by sea, two of his friends and his lawyer told The New York Times. They said he arrived in a rubber boat late Monday.…

Rubio, Once a China Hawk, Strikes Softer Tone to Align With Trump

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Before he shook hands with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing this past week, Marco Rubio was an official enemy of the Chinese state. As a senator representing Florida, Mr. Rubio was among Mr. Xi’s harshest critics in Washington. He accused the Chinese leader of “crimes against humanity” and of plotting to weaken the United States. Fed up, Mr. Xi’s government placed sanctions on Mr. Rubio in 2020 and banned him from entering the country. So Mr. Rubio, now President Trump’s secretary of state and national security adviser, posed…

Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Falun Gong Lawsuit Against Cisco

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A majority of the Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of a lawsuit by Falun Gong members who claim that an American tech company helped the Chinese government to target them for torture. The lawsuit asserts that Cisco Systems Inc. helped the Chinese government create an internet censorship program, known as the Golden Shield, that enabled the government to surveil and harm members of the spiritual movement, which is banned in China. At issue before the Supreme Court is whether American courts can judge such disputes. During oral arguments on…

China Has Thousands of Navalnys, Hidden From the Public

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After watching “Navalny,” the documentary about the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, a Chinese businesswoman messaged me, “Ren Zhiqiang is China’s Navalny.” She was talking about the retired real estate tycoon who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for criticizing China’s leader, Xi Jinping. After Mr. Navalny’s tragic death this month, a young dissident living in Berlin posted on X, “Teacher Li is closest to the Chinese version of Navalny.” He was referring to the rebel influencer known as Teacher Li, who used social media to share information…

Émigrés Are Creating an Alternative China, One Bookstore at a Time

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On a rainy Saturday afternoon in central Tokyo, 50 or so Chinese people packed into a gray, nondescript office that doubles as a bookstore. They came for a seminar about Qiu Jin, a Chinese feminist poet and revolutionary who was beheaded more than a century ago for conspiring to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Like them, Ms. Qiu had lived as an immigrant in Japan. The lecture’s title, “Rebuilding China in Tokyo,” said as much about the aspirations of the people in the room as it did about Ms. Qiu’s life.…