Features

06.17.24

“The Police’s Strength Is Limited, but the People’s Strength Is Boundless”

Jessica Batke
In some ways, “vigilantes” are the opposite of what their name suggests: rather than rogue agents meting out street justice, they are individuals deemed trustworthy by authorities, working under the guidance of local police forces, deputized to...

Features

10.30.20

State of Surveillance

Jessica Batke & Mareike Ohlberg
Across China, in its most crowded cities and tiniest hamlets, government officials are on an unprecedented surveillance shopping spree. The coordination of the resulting millions of cameras and other snooping technology spread across the country...

Conversation

09.13.19

Why Is the FBI Investigating Americans Who Study in China?

Rosie Levine, Johanna M. Costigan & more
Over the last two years, the FBI has questioned at least five U.S. citizens who have studied at Yenching Academy, a Master’s degree program hosted by Peking University. The purpose of the interviews, according to NPR, is to “ascertain whether they...
06.10.19

What Happens if a Foreign NGO Violates the Law?

Articles 45 and 46 of the Foreign NGO Law list the sanctions that can be applied to foreign NGOs that are not compliant with the Law. These include the suspension of activities, the confiscation of illegal assets, and the withdrawal of registration...

Chinese Internet Users Employ the Blockchain to Share a Censored News Article

Shannon Liao
Verge
Chinese netizens have turned to blockchain to share a censored news story about faulty vaccines given to small babies. Their efforts to repost an investigative piece about a large vaccine maker were largely thwarted by Internet monitors, but by...

Viewpoint

11.09.17

Protecting the Rights of the Accused in U.S.-China Relations

Margaret Lewis
As President Donald Trump visits China, the Chinese government wishes that billionaire fugitive Guo Wengui would follow suit and board a plane to Beijing. For months, he has regaled the world from his luxury apartment in Manhattan with stories of...

China Shames Jaywalkers Through Facial Recognition

AFP
Agence France-Presse
Chinese cities are cracking down on jaywalkers by installing facial recognition kits at intersections to identify and shame them by posting their photo on public screens.
06.06.17

Possible Foreign NGO Law-Related Detentions: What We Know, and What We Don’t

Jessica Batke
Three labor activists affiliated with the New York-based China Labor Watch (CLW) were detained in China last week. Reports suggest that they were detained for investigating labor practices at factories in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. This comes...

What Happened at Mar-a-Lago?

Paul Haenle & Zha Daojiong from Carnegie China
One week before their first in-person meeting, President Trump told the world on Twitter that he expected the dialogue with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to be “a very difficult one” unless China was prepared to make major concessions on issues...

As Attitudes Change, Chinese Lawmakers Seek Better Protection for Rhinos and Other Endangered Animals

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
Slowly but surely, Chinese attitudes toward wildlife conservation are changing.

Chinese Middle Class in Uproar Over Alleged Police Brutality

Associated Press
New York Times
Thousands are signing online petitions to protest the dropping of a police brutality case, representing a rare display of white-collar outrage with Beijing

China’s Notorious City Management Officers in Legal Limbo Despite Expanding Role

Zhou Qijun, Sun Liangzi and Li Rongde
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has been charged with regulating the force that earlier was under the sole purview of local governments

China Police Confirm Detention of Human Rights Lawyer Jiang Tianyong

Benjamin Haas
Guardian
The activist’s family are still waiting to hear from him despite officials saying he was released more than two weeks ago

U.S. Won’t Tolerate Pressure from China on Fugitive Families

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
China has upset Western countries by sending undercover agents to try and get suspects back, although it says it has changed tactics after complaints

New Interpol Head is Chinese Former Deputy Head of Paramilitary Police

Benjamin Haas
Guardian
Vice-minister Meng Hongwei’s election has sparked concerns his position may be used to boost China’s campaign to pursue dissidents around the globe

Reports

07.26.16

The Condom Quandary

Asia Catalyst
Sex work is illegal in China, and law enforcement practices that focus on condoms as evidence of prostitution are having a negative impact on HIV prevention among sex workers. When Lanlan, who runs a community-based organization (CBO) and support...

Sinica Podcast

09.27.14

In Conversation with Mara Hvistendahl

Kaiser Kuo & Jeremy Goldkorn from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser and Jeremy are joined this week by Mara Hvistendahl, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and long-standing resident of Shanghai, to discuss her two main works. Along with discussing the twists and turns of her murder novel, And the City Swallowed...

Environment

04.30.14

China’s Environmental Law Good on Paper

from chinadialogue
China’s environmental protection law, which stirred great controversy during its amendment process, has finally been passed. The updated law makes significant progress in the area of public interest litigation and strengthens the legislative tools...

China Gives Teeth, Finally, to Beijing’s New ‘War on Pollution’

Christina Larson
Businessweek
The new environmental protection law—approved April 24 by China’s National People’s Congress—differs significantly from the previous one, especially on enforcement.

Media

10.11.13

How Social Media Complicates the Role of China’s Rights Lawyers

Xia Junfeng was once unknown, but his 2009 arrest for the murder of security officers—who, he alleged, had savagely beaten him—made him a symbolic figure in a national debate about human rights and reform in China. Yet many wonder whether this...

Chinese Court Rules Against J&J in Monopoly Suit

Joe McDonald
Associated Press
Health care giant Johnson & Johnson has become the latest global company accused of misconduct in China after a court ordered it to pay damages to a distributor in a lawsuit brought under an anti-monopoly law.

Media

06.25.13

China’s “Urban Enforcers” Caught in a Vicious Cycle

Last week, another anecdote about chengguan— China’s urban enforcers whose main tasks include enforcing urban beautification ordinances and cracking down on unlicensed street vendors— caught the public’s attention. On June 15, a web user called @岔巴子...

Beijing Police Seek ‘Large and Vicious’ Suspects (With Wet Noses)

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
Police in Beijing are enforcing a longstanding ban on dogs taller than 13.7 inches in the districts that make up the heart of the capital. Officials note that rabies last year killed 13 people in Beijing, more than double the number in 2011. Big...

Media

05.10.13

Unrest in Beijing Over Mysterious Death of Young Woman

A rare protest in Beijing involving hundreds of people was documented by photos posted on China’s social media (scroll down to see a sample photo). The cause of the protest was the death of a twenty-two-year-old migrant worker, who fell several...

China Polices Its Police

Unattributed
Economist
In the run-up to this autumn’s Communist Party Congress, at which China will change its most senior leaders for the first time in ten years, provincial- and lower-level party committees have already been revamped. In the process, provincial chiefs...

Caixin Media

05.25.12

Policeman Burned for Dealing With the Devil

On March 17, the Chenzhou Public Security Bureau announced Huang Bailian had been removed as head of the police department’s drug squad.Huang offered a simple explanation for his sacking: “This is retaliation.”Three years earlier Huang, who is forty...