Features
06.17.24
“The Police’s Strength Is Limited, but the People’s Strength Is Boundless”
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...
Viewpoint
07.21.22
From My Anguished Heart—A Letter to My Daughter
In early July 2020, Xu Zhangrun was detained for supposedly having “solicited prostitutes” during a trip with friends to Sichuan in late 2019. He was being persecuted for his unsparing critiques of Xi Jinping, starting in July 2018. The following...
Features
05.03.21
New Data Show Hong Kong’s National Security Arrests Follow a Pattern
In the nine months since the Hong Kong National Security Law was passed, more than 90 people have been arrested under the new legislation. Though they have been charged with various breaches of national security ranging from inciting secession to...
Features
10.30.20
State of Surveillance
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...
Viewpoint
03.18.20
‘This Is Not Forensic Genetics Anymore. This Is Surveillance.’
Yves Moreau, a professor specializing in human clinical genomics, had been emailing with Promega since 2016, warning its communications department first about how Promega’s products might be used in a proposed DNA databasing project in Kuwait, and...
Features
02.19.20
American Company Sold DNA Analysis Equipment to Security Officials in Xinjiang, Documents Show
In 2015, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau announced it planned to purchase equipment from the U.S.-based biotechnology company Promega for the purpose of analyzing DNA and adding it to a national database,...
Conversation
11.20.18
Has the World Lost Sight of Tibet?
Since the incarceration of roughly a million Uighurs in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang over the last year, the situation in Tibet has gotten relatively less coverage in Western media. What is the current situation for human rights,...
Media
09.21.18
Reporting from Xinjiang
On September 20, 2018, ChinaFile and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) co-hosted a discussion with BuzzFeed reporter Megha Rajagopalan on her reporting on state-sponsored ethnic and religious repression in Xinjiang and, in particular, on...
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08.08.18A Demonstration of Power: China Derails Protests before They Even Begin
Globe and Mail
It was after midnight and the slow train from Chengdu was nearing the end of its 30-hour journey when Ms. Yang decided to make a run for it. She was headed to Beijing to join a protest, but it was becoming clear that the authorities were closing in...
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07.31.18China Set to Leapfrog US in the AI Race
It’s only been a year since TNW reported China’s announcement it was shifting its national strategy to claim the artificial intelligence crown. In that time China has advanced its agenda to a startling degree, at least according to the experts.
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07.26.18Lone Suspect Wounded in Blast near U.S. Embassy in China
Reuters
The explosion happened on the street outside the southeast corner of the embassy compound. Beijing police said the suspect, a 26-year-old man from China’s Inner Mongolia region, had injured his hand and been taken to the hospital. Police did not...
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07.25.18One in Five Arrests Take Place in ‘Police State’ Xinjiang
Guardian
Analysing publicly available government data, the advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), found 21% of all arrests in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang
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07.11.18Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras
New York Times
In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a police officer wearing facial recognition glasses spotted a heroin smuggler at a train station.
Features
05.11.18
Central and Regional Leadership for Xinjiang Policy in Xi’s Second Term
from China Leadership Monitor
After the 19th Party Congress last fall and the recent “two meetings” in March, the Party-state has now completed its quinquennial leadership turnover and announced a major restructuring of a number of Party and state entities. This institutional...
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04.13.18Chinese Man Caught by Facial Recognition at Pop Concert
BBC
Chinese police have used facial recognition technology to locate and arrest a man who was among a crowd of 60,000 concert goers.
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02.15.18China’s All-Seeing Social Control Network Brings an End to Fugitives’ Festive Fun
South China Morning Post
With most of China getting into the swing of the Lunar New Year holiday, two crime suspects in the southern city of Guangzhou could have been forgiven for thinking the local police force was taking a break too.
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11.29.17China Child Abuse Scandal: Police Accuse Parents of Making Claims Up
CNN
A child abuse scandal that has rocked China took a shocking turn Tuesday, as police accused two parents for fabricating tales of their children being drugged and molested at a Beijing kindergarten.
Excerpts
10.06.17
Nearly Dead on Arrival
I was a six-foot-two-inch rake whose strongest muscle was my mouth: at college I once talked down a mugger pressing a knife against my gut, and twice lost fistfights after telling off racists. I never felt big, but in China my size usually made me...
Viewpoint
08.28.17
China Is Risking the Lives of Political Prisoners by Denying Them Medical Care
Dissident activist Chen Xi entered Xingyi Prison in Guangxi in January 2012 to serve a 10-year sentence. The previous month, he had been convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” for writing articles about human rights and democracy. This...
Viewpoint
08.03.17
China’s ‘New Achievements’ in Legal Reform Exist More in Policy than in Practice
It is no coincidence that two days after Liu Xiaobo’s death, Xinhua published an article praising China’s “new achievements in judicial protection of human rights.” The judicial reforms the article mentions have not yet been fully implemented and...
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07.26.17Anger at Plan to Let Chinese Police Patrol in Hong Kong
Guardian
A Hong Kong government plan to lease part of a new high-speed rail station to China and allow Chinese police to enforce mainland laws has sparked new fears the city is losing its autonomy.
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07.23.17American Student Arrested in China Has Been Freed
Associated Press
Chinese authorities have dropped charges against Guthrie McLean, an American college student who was arrested and detained in the Asian nation a week ago after reportedly injuring a taxi driver who was roughing up his mother in a fare dispute, a U.S...
06.06.17
Possible Foreign NGO Law-Related Detentions: What We Know, and What We Don’t
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...
Viewpoint
04.20.17
A Taiwanese Man’s Detention in Guangdong Threatens a Key Pillar of Cross-Straits Relations
Update: On March 26, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced that Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che had been formally arrested on charges of “subverting state power.” Jerome Cohen has added a new comment to this essay. To skip to that...
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03.28.17China Calls for Explanation After Paris Police Shoot Dead Chinese Man
Reuters
French police said on Tuesday they opened an inquiry after a Chinese man was shot dead by police at his Paris home, triggering rioting in the French capital by members of the Chinese community and a sharp reaction from Beijing.
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03.02.17Forget the Great Firewall... China Is Beefing up Its Ability to Police All Cyberspace
South China Morning Post
China plans to bolster its defenses in cyberspace while keeping a close eye on the U.S. government’s review of its own strengths, a ­senior foreign ministry official said on Thursday.
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12.28.16Chinese Middle Class in Uproar Over Alleged Police Brutality
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
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12.16.16China Police Confirm Detention of Human Rights Lawyer Jiang Tianyong
Guardian
The activist’s family are still waiting to hear from him despite officials saying he was released more than two weeks ago
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12.12.16China Riot Police Seal Off City Center After Smog Protestors Put Masks on Statues
Guardian
Clampdown in Chengdu after protesters place masks on statues in anger at air pollution choking the city
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11.10.16New Interpol Head is Chinese Former Deputy Head of Paramilitary Police
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...
Viewpoint
07.26.16
Sex Workers and Condoms
China has long taken a punitive approach to sex work, but sex workers in China have recently experienced the harshest crackdown in a decade. The “strike hard” campaigns which began in Beijing and Dongguan in 2010 and 2014 respectively, ultimately...
Media
06.22.16
‘Wukan,’ Once a Byword For Chinese Democracy, Now Censored
A fishing village in southern Guangdong province, once a standard-bearer for small-time democracy in China, has now become a political disaster—and the most-censored term on Chinese social media.In September 2011, amid protests over land sales in...
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05.18.16Family of Activist Who Died in Police Custody Files Complaint Alleging Abuse
South China Morning Post
Lei Yang was arrested on a charge of soliciting a prostitute in early May; less than an hour later he was dead.
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05.05.16Meet China's RoboCop: The Robot Police Officer Who Doesn't Tire—or Second-Guess Commands
South China Morning Post
Defence researchers have developed AnBot, a robot that can seize suspects and deliver shocks.
Caixin Media
02.29.16
Former Energy Official Says Police Tortured Him into Confessing
A former deputy director of National Energy Administration (NEA) on trial for taking bribes has pleaded not guilty because he says the charges are based on a false confession that was extracted via torture and intimidation, according to a person who...
Conversation
01.20.16
Beijing’s Televised Confessions
Recent days have seen two more in a long string of televised “confessions” on China Central Television, that of Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin and Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai. Did these gentlemen break any Chinese laws? What do these...
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08.13.15Military Sends Chemical Specialists to Blast Site, Death Toll Rises to 50
Xinhua
So far more than 1,000 firefighters, 151 fire engines and a drone have been dispatched to the blast site.
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07.22.15China Probes Senior Xinjiang Security Official For Graft
Reuters
A deputy regional security chief and former head of the prison system, Xie Hui, in Xinjiang has been put under investigation for suspected corruption.
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07.22.15Chinese Police Seize Ashes of Tibetan Monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche
New York Times
Chinese police forcibly seized the ashes of a prominent Tibetan monk whose death in prison set off public demonstrations.
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06.02.15Ship Sinks in China’s Yangtze River with 458 Aboard
CNN
The captain and chief engineers were among the only 15 survivors and five bodies recovered as of Tuesday night.
Features
05.06.15
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
On the morning of March 16, 48-year-old Huang Shunfang went to her local hospital located in Fanghu Township in the central Chinese province of Henan. Her doctor diagnosed her with gastritis, gave her a dose of antacids through an IV, and sent her...
Media
05.06.15
Online Reaction to Baltimore Protests Reveals Much About Chinese Tension with African Immigrants
Several days ago, a Chinese friend and I were discussing the protests in Baltimore that erupted in response to the death of resident Freddie Gray in connection with his April 12 arrest by city police officers, who have since been charged with crimes...
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04.28.15Forced Disappearances, Brutality, and Communist China’s Politics of Fear
Vice News
Low-ranking officials are in a state of continual fear as their colleagues vanish around them.
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02.26.15Civic Groups’ Freedom, and Followers, Are Vanishing
New York Times
Accepted activities are narrowing, sparking fear that openness in the political landscape may disappear.
Caixin Media
02.17.15
Prosperity, International Cooperation, Civil Rights Key to Defeating Terror
The global fight against terrorism has entered a new stage with the emergence of the Islamic State (IS), and the battle lines have never been so clearly drawn all over the world.On February 18, Washington will host the Summit on Countering Violent...
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01.30.15China Expels Top Police Official from Communist Party
Reuters
Cai Guangliao, a major general in the paramilitary armed police, accepted bribes, illegally engaging in business activities and accepting gifts.
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10.29.14China to Ban Extralegal Administration with Power List
Xinhua
The new policy hopes to curb problems in administration and law enforcement such as failure in strictly observing or enforcing the law, putting their power above law, bending law for personal gains and power-for-money trades, Xi Jinping said.
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09.28.14Police Unleash Tear Gas in Hong Kong Protests
New York Times
In a significant escalation of their efforts to suppress protests calling for democracy, the authorities in Hong Kong unleashed tear gas and mobilized riot police with long-barreled guns Sunday to disperse crowds that have besieged the city...
Viewpoint
09.19.14
“Daddy’s ‘Friends’ Are Actually Plainclothes Cops”
[Updated March 18, 2015] The essay that follows was written by Zeng Jinyan, whose former partner, Hu Jia, has been prominently involved in activism around environmental issues, AIDS, and human rights in China over the past decade and a half and is a...
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06.21.1413 ‘Thugs’ Die in Attack on China Police Station
USA Today
Chinese police shot dead 13 people who attacked a police station in the restive northwest region of Xinjiang Saturday morning, according to a report on the local government website and the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Viewpoint
06.13.14
Arrested Chinese Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Speaks from Prison
“They bring me in for questioning practically every day. Sometimes the sessions last as long as ten hours. My legs are getting swollen, probably from sitting on a bench without moving for so long.” He said of these grueling interrogation sessions, “...
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04.02.14China Maoming Environmental Protest Violence Condemned
BBC
Authorities have condemned an environmental protest in southern China that turned violent, calling it "serious criminal behavior.”
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01.28.14Who is Xu Zhiyong?
Telegraph
Four people whose lives were change by Xu Zhiyong describe how he helped them.
The NYRB China Archive
11.07.13
How to Deal with the Chinese Police
from New York Review of Books
A casual visitor to China today does not get the impression of a police state. Life bustles along as people pursue work, fashion, sports, romance, amusement, and so on, without any sign of being under coercion. But the government spends tens of...
Caixin Media
11.04.13
China’s Chilling Effect for Investor Research
Shanghai investor Wang Weihua’s final microblog post October 12 was brief and ominous: “The police are coming.”Three days later, Wang’s family said he’d been taken into custody by police officers who traveled more than 3,600 kilometers to Wang’s...
Caixin Media
10.28.13
How Police Got It So Wrong Arresting a Journalist
The arrest of a journalist for allegedly damaging the reputation of an equipment manufacturer has spurred debate in both the media and legal circles. The discussions revolve around the rights of the press, interpretation of the law, and possible...
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10.08.13Chinese Police Shoot Dead Seven Uighurs in Kashgar
Radio Free Asia
Four died after police in Yarkand county, which is administered by the Silk Road city of Kashgar, opened fire on a group of Uighurs in a private residence on October 3 after suspecting them of “illegal assembly,” the Munich-based World Uyghur...
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07.23.13Why Do Chinese Netizens Think Beijing’s Airport Bomber Is A Hero?
Offbeat China
Ji Zhongxing, who suffered police brutality when his illegal motorcycle taxi service was shut down, detonated a bomb in the Beijing International Airport, but the act seemed to be more of a demonstration than an act of violence.
Media
06.25.13China’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...