Sixty-eight organisations sign letter amid fears Lu Siwei could be deported at request of Chinese authorities
Sixty-eight human rights groups have signed an open letter calling on the Laos government to release Lu Siwei, a Chinese former human rights lawyer detained by Laotian police near Vientiane last week.
Lu was seized by police on Friday as he attempted to board a train from Laos to Thailand, where he planned to catch a flight to the US to join his wife and daughter. Nearly one week later, he appears to still be held in Laotian immigration detention, despite reportedly being told that he would be deported to China.
Activists and family members fear Lu Siwei will be deported back to China, where he could be sent to prison
A Chinese rights lawyer stripped of his licence for taking on sensitive cases has been arrested in Laos, and activists and family members are worried he will be deported back to China, where he could be jailed.
Lu Siwei was seized by Laotian police on Friday morning while boarding a train for Thailand. He was on his way to Bangkok to catch a flight to the US to join his wife and daughter.
Exclusive: China appears to have expanded use of high-security prisons as tool of repression in Tibet, researchers say
There has been a pattern of increased activity in recent years at high-security detention facilities in Tibet, according to a new study measuring night-time lighting usage, suggesting a potential rise in harsher imprisonments by Chinese authorities.
The report, by the Rand Europe research institute, said the findings added rare new clues about the Chinese government’s “stability maintenance” policies of control in the highly securitised Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which it described as an “information black hole”.
From today readers of rnz.co.nz will see a change to the home page, and a new initiative to tell the stories of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Asian community.
RNZ.co.nz has added a lineup of four sections which focus on the growing communities of Aotearoa and are placed right at the top of the home page.
Elevated links have been added to RNZ’s existing Te Ao Māori and Pacific sections.
RNZ has also launched two new sections for Chinese and Indian New Zealanders and added them at the top of the home page as well.
The sections are part of a new initiative to speak to and report on issues in the growing Asian communities of New Zealand.
The new Indian section features original stories in English by specialist reporters.
The Chinese section has stories in the simplified Chinese script. Original stories are there as well as translations of RNZ news stories of interest to the Chinese community.
NZ On Air survey
RNZ is starting with the simplified script and will then scope whether it is feasible and useful to translate using the traditional script as well.
The different approaches are a response to a NZ On Air survey which found the Indian and Chinese communities had different language needs and approaches to seeking out news.
This is one of RNZ’s first steps into daily translated news. Before the launch, RNZ put systems in place to make sure it is getting translations right. The stories are double, and triple checked.
RNZ is also asking for feedback to make sure it is getting it right on each story and will conduct regular independent audits to make sure our translations are on track. RNZ is keen for feedback.
The new Indian and Chinese sections are a result of a two-year collaboration with NZ On Air. The unit of reporters and translators is being funded for the first year through the Public Interest Journalism Fund; the second year will be funded by RNZ, with a right of renewal after that.
Stories from the Asian unit will also be made available to more than 40 media organisations across the country and the Pacific.
RNZ believes that it is vital that RNZ supplies news to many different communities within Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Asian population in New Zealand is growing fast, particularly in Auckland.
In 2018, Asian New Zealanders made up 15 percent of the New Zealand population. The two largest groups are the Chinese and Indian New Zealanders, with about 250,000 people each.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
In his first public comments since returning home, Chau thanked supporters including some kinder jail guards
Pro-democracy activist Chau Van Kham says he wasn’t afraid of dying in a Vietnamese jail and he knew supporters in Australia would never give up on him.
In his first comments since returning to Australia, Chau on Thursday thanked everyone who had advocated for him throughout his four-and-half-year ordeal.
In his first public comments since returning home, Chau thanked supporters including some kinder jail guards
Pro-democracy activist Chau Van Kham says he wasn’t afraid of dying in a Vietnamese jail and he knew supporters in Australia would never give up on him.
In his first comments since returning to Australia, Chau on Thursday thanked everyone who had advocated for him throughout his four-and-half-year ordeal.
The authorities have put a price on activists who fled abroad. They are speaking out anyway – governments must do likewise
Unless the forces of history conspire in their favour, the fate of most exiled dissidents is a slow fade into obscurity. However admirable their cause or brilliant their tactics, it is hard to maintain the world’s interest and support as time passes. Hong Kong’s exiles are conscious of this problem. But it is Hong Kong’s government which has catapulted them back into the spotlight, by placing a bounty of 1m Hong Kong dollars each – around £100,000 – on eight activists. Three of them – Nathan Law, Finn Lau and Mung Siu-tat – now live in the UK.
They were part of the massive uprising that wanted Beijing to uphold the promise it made at the handover in 1997: that Hong Kong could enjoy its way of life and freedoms until 2047. After the authorities crushed resistance there, they tried to keep alive the cause from overseas. For this, they are accused of collusion with foreign forces, incitement of secession, and subversion. Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, has said the city will pursue them “to the ends of the earth”, and that they must “live in fear” – all for peaceful political advocacy.
The trauma and torture of Australian border violence and its offshore detention centre has never left me, even though it’s been four years since I left Nauru and came to the US to start my new life here.
I became a refugee when I naively assumed that Australia was a nation that respected human rights and international law. I came seeking freedom under a democratic system, where my opinions could be expressed without fear of persecution or prosecution. I had so much faith in that ideal that I boarded a boat bound for Christmas Island. But instead, I was transferred to Nauru, a place without hope.
The last refugee has now been evacuated from Nauru. Yet the Australian-run detention centre remains ‘ready to receive and process’ any new unauthorised maritime arrivals at an annual cost of $350m.
Guardian Australia chief political correspondent Paul Karp and reporter Eden Gillespie tell Jane Lee about what refugees and asylum seekers detained for more than a decade make of the decision, and what it means for Australia’s deterrence policy
China scores better on food, health and housing, while crackdowns have worsened Hong Kong’s ratings
China has been ranked as the worst country in the world for safety from the state and the right to assembly, in a human rights report that tracks social, economic and political freedoms.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a New Zealand-based project, has been monitoring various countries’ human rights performance since 2017.
Experts point to crackdown on national security and legal system that encourages guilty pleas
Chinese courts prosecuted 8.3 million people in the five years to 2022, a 12% increase on the previous period. There was also a nearly 20% increase in the number of protests against court rulings.
The figures released by the supreme people’s procuratorate (SPP) in March give a glimpse of how China’s notoriously opaque justice system has operated in recent years, amid a tightening domestic security environment.
Peter Lam Bui posted his video after a Vietnamese official visited the celebrity chef’s London steakhouse
A Vietnam court has jailed a noodle seller who went viral for impersonating celebrity chef Salt Bae, after the restaurateur served a gold-leaf steak to a powerful official, his lawyer said.
In 2021, Peter Lam Bui posted a parody video impersonating Salt Bae – Nusret Gökçe, a Turkish chef who parlayed his meme stardom into high-end eateries – by sprinkling herbs on noodle soup and calling himself “Green Onion Bae”.
One inmate became the voice of the men locked up on Manus. Behrouz Boochani and Ben Doherty look back at the risks he took to get this story to the world
UN rights chief voices concern over sentencing of Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he is “very concerned” after China sentenced two prominent human rights lawyers to more than a decade each in jail.
Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, prominent figures advocating for improved civil rights, given lengthy jail terms in latest crackdown on dissent
A Chinese court has sentenced two prominent human rights lawyers to jail terms of more than a decade each, a relative and rights groups say, in the latest move in a years-long crackdown on civil society by President Xi Jinping.
Xu Zhiyong, 50, and Ding Jiaxi, 55, were put on trial behind closed doors in June last year on charges of state subversion at a court in Linshu county in the north-eastern province of Shandong, relatives said at the time.
French leader sees Beijing as possible ‘gamechanger’ and will also discuss European trade on three-day visit
Emmanuel Macron has arrived in China for a three-day state visit during which he hopes to dissuade Xi Jinping from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while also developing European trade ties with Beijing.
Shortly after arriving in the Chinese capital, Macron said he wanted to push back against the idea that there was an “inescapable spiral of mounting tensions” between China and the west.
Two women tell of witnessing or experiencing torture and brainwashing, as Republicans and Democrats vow to document ‘genocide’
Two women who say they experienced and escaped Chinese “re-education camps” have provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress, giving harrowing detail while imploring Americans not to look away from what the US has declared a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities.
Testifying before a special House committee at the beginning of Ramadan, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman, said that during her nearly three years in internment camps and police stations, prisoners were subjected to 11 hours of “brainwashing education” each day. It included singing patriotic songs and praising the Chinese government before and after meals.
Iwao Hakamada, 87, was convicted of four murders in 1968 but granted ‘temporary release’ in 2014 after new evidence emerged
A court in Japan has granted a retrial to a man – thought to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate – who was sentenced to hang for the murders of a family of four almost six decades ago.
The Tokyo high court ruled on Monday that Iwao Hakamada, 87, should be tried again for the crimes in a decision campaigners said was a “step towards justice”.
The Australian government has vowed to keep raising human rights concerns “at the highest levels” after Beijing’s ambassador urged the country to avoid “trying to smear China”.
After a thaw in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries, China has signalled its openness to resuming a dedicated human rights-focused dialogue for the first time in nine years.
Vacant positions mean that some prisoners spend 23 hours a day locked in their cells while others face months-long delays to parole hearings
Confined to cells for 23 hours a day; unable to see family face-to-face; problems accessing lawyers – New Zealand’s prisoners are becoming “excessively disconnected and isolated” because prison staffing shortages have hit crisis point, says the Human Rights Commission, lawyers and those working with prisoners.
As of January, the department of Corrections is down by more than 850 frontline staff across its prisons – 498 of those are vacant positions, with another 354 unable to work due to sickness, injury, leave or “some other reason”, the department says.
New York: As part of the 11th Interfaith Holiday Celebration, the South Asian Community Outreach (SACO) – a not-for-profit organization brought together South Asians under one roof in New Jersey.
SACO organized a grand ceremony in honor of the guests in a local hall, which was also graced by US officials with their presence.
The 11th Interfaith Holiday Celebration of South Asia Community Outreach started with the National Anthem of the United States of America.
After which SACO President Nilesh Dasondi and Chairman Sam Khan welcomed the guests and thanked the attendees for making the event a success.
They said that the New York Police Department’s (NYPD’s) Muslim Officers Society (MOS) paid a detailed visit to Pakistan and helped the flood victims. The local people not only appreciated this great humanitarian gesture but a short documentary film based on their tour of duty was also shown.
Guests were invited on stage to raise their hands to light the candle of unity
People belonging to different religions offered prayers according to their religious beliefs.
SACCO also conferred awards upon those who have rendered services to South Asian communities and other issues.
South Asian Community Outreach’s Interfaith Holiday Celebration also featured South Asian music. The singers danced and the expert dancers gave a great performance.
A sumptuous dinner was also given to the guests by SACO. South Asian Community Outreach has been bringing communities together every year for 11 years to convey the message that development depends on unity.
We’d like to hear from people living in or who are planning to visit Indonesia what their views are on the country’s new controversial legislation outlawing extramarital sex
The new code, which will apply to Indonesians and visiting foreigners alike and has prompted alarm from human rights campaigners, will also prohibit cohabitation between unmarried couples.
Rights groups say amended criminal code underscores shift towards fundamentalism
Indonesia’s parliament has overhauled the country’s criminal code to outlaw sex outside marriage and curtail free speech, in a dramatic setback to freedoms in the world’s third-largest democracy.
Passed with support from all political parties, the draconian legislation has shocked not only rights activists but also the country’s booming tourism sector, which relies on a stream of visitors to its tropical islands.
Auckland woman says she was banned from popular Chinese-language media forum SkyKiwi for posting political content
A woman is taking New Zealand’s biggest Chinese-language media site to a human rights review tribunal after she claims she was banned from its online message board for posting political content.
May Moncur migrated from China 20 years ago and is a permanent resident of New Zealand. The Auckland employment advocate has used the New Zealand-based media company SkyKiwi for more than 15 years, regularly posting links about migrant exploitation or offering employment advice on its most popular message board, “FML”.
Hong Kong’s immigration department withheld Timothy Owen KC’s application for an extension of his work visa on Thursday
Hong Kong has temporarily blocked a top British human rights lawyer from representing jailed pro-democracy activist JimmyLai, in a trial stymied by delays and calls for an intervention from Beijing.
Report finds stock indexes provided by MSCI include companies using forced labour or constructing surveillance state in Xinjiang
Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China, according to a new report.
The report, by UK-based group Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, found that three major stock indexes provided by MSCI include at least 13 companies that have allegedly used forced labour or been involved in the construction of the surveillance state in China’s Xinjiang region.
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad lost his parliamentary seat in general elections held on Saturday, a defeat which may result into ending of political career of one of Asia’s most enduring politicians.
He was at the fourth position with 4 thousand 566 votes, reports suggest.
Mahathir Mohamad, who was the prime minister for two decades, was defeated by Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah, the candidate of former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s electoral alliance.
After this defeat, Mahathir Mohamad’s 70-year political journey is likely to come to an end.
Mahathir told Reuters in an interview this month he would retire from politics if he lost.”I don’t see myself being active in politics until I’m 100-years-old,” he said. “The most important thing is to transfer my experience to the younger leaders of the party.”
“However, I want to transfer my experience to the youth,” he said
The results so far show that the new alliance formed under the leadership of former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will be successful in these elections, and Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition may stand at second position.
Al Jazeera reported that Mahathir came in fourth in a five-way fight in Langkawi, a resort island in Malaysia’s northwest, which he had won with a large majority in the previous poll in 2018.
It was the 97-year-old’s first electoral defeat in more than half a century. He was Malaysia’s prime minister for 22 years from 1981 until he announced his shock retirement in 2003.
He returned to active politics as the multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB unfolded, and joining forces with his former deputy turned rival Anwar Ibrahim to defeat the then ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition – a grouping they had both once been part of – to become prime minister against in 2018, just two months shy of his 93rd birthday.
Sze Ching-wee and other pro-democracy figures had just stood trial over setting up of now-disbanded 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund
The secretary of a disbanded Hong Kong humanitarian fund set up to help people involved in the 2019 anti-government protests has been arrested on national security charges, Hong Kong media has reported.
Sze Ching-wee, the secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, was seized by national security police at Hong Kong airport on Saturday on the charge of “collusion with foreign or overseas forces to endanger national security”, the public broadcaster RTHK quoted police sources as saying. The charge carries a punishment of between three and 10 years in jail, or in “serious cases” over 10 years’ imprisonment. Police said the 38-year-old was released on bail.
Cyclists joined climate activists in coordinated bicycle actions across nine countries in Asia on November 6, calling for reparations for climate debt.
There are growing concerns over Beijing’s attempts to restrict political expression overseas
Xi Jinping’s leadership of China is now indefinite. No one doubts what his third term will bring: more rigid political controls. The party demands obedience at home. It asserts itself more confidently abroad. A senior official told reporters that Chinese diplomacy would maintain its “fighting spirit”.
That remark came days after Manchester police said that they were investigating the assault of a Hong Kong activist who had been dragged into the Chinese consulate’s grounds when men from the building disrupted a protest on the street outside. Asked about footage of him pulling the man’s hair the consul general, Zheng Xiyuan, denied attacking anyone but also said it was his “duty”. Police have now said they are investigating the full circumstances, and footage shows another man, apparently from the consulate, also being assaulted. What is beyond question is that the protest was peaceful until the officials came out and tore down a poster, and that China’s chargé d’affaires in London has warned that “[providing] shelter to the Hong Kong independence elements will in the end only bring disaster to Britain”.
