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European, US and Australian lawyers call for China to end rights crackdown
BEIJING – Leading human rights lawyers from Europe, North America and Australia have called on Chinese president Xi Jinping to end an unprecedented crackdown by his security forces that has seen hundreds of attorneys and their relatives intimidated, interrogated, detained and forcibly disappeared. A government offensive against China’s “weiquan” or read more →
Tsai Ing-wen elected Taiwan’s first female president
BBC, 17 January 2016 Tsai Ing-wen has been elected Taiwan’s first female president. Ms Tsai, 59, leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that wants independence from China. In her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan’s democracy and both read more →
After vote, China tells Taiwan to abandon independence ‘hallucination’
BY JAMES POMFRET, MATTHEW MILLER AND BEN BLANCHARD, Reuters, 17 January 2016 TAIPEI/BEIJING – Taiwan should abandon its “hallucinations” about pushing for independence, as any moves toward it would be a “poison”, Chinese state-run media said after a landslide victory for the island’s independence-leaning opposition. Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic read more →
US Under Secretary arrives at Dharamshala; purpose of visit undisclosed
US Under Secretary Sarah Sewall at the Kangra airport along with Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and other delegates on Friday. (Shyam Sharma/HT Photo) United States (US) Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewall arrived at Dharamshala on Friday. As a US special coordinator for Tibetan issues, Sewall read more →
Canada ‘like heaven’ for Tibetan refugee
Tsering Yangzom, a graduate of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, is a Tibetan refugee who has made Canada home. By: Debra Black Immigration Reporter, The Sta, Published on Sun Jan 10 2016 Somewhere, the Dalai Lama is smiling. He couldn’t help but be pleased read more →
China income inequality among world’s worst
By Gabriel Wildau and Tom Mitchell, Financial Times, 14 January 2016. Communist China has one of the world’s highest levels of income inequality, with the richest 1 per cent of households owning a third of the country’s wealth, a report from Peking University has found. The poorest 25 per cent of Chinese read more →
China’s pursuit of rights lawyers signals aggressive push against ‘subversion’
By Tom Phillips, The Guardian, 14 January 2016. Decision to charge human rights advocates with a crime that could lead to life in prison is a major escalation in war on Communist party’s perceived foes. That some of China’s most revered human rights lawyers have spent the last six months read more →
The emperor’s mighty brother
Caterpillar fungus The emperor’s mighty brother Demand for an aphrodisiac has brought unprecedented wealth to rural Tibet—and trouble in its wake The Economist / Dec 19th 2015 | YUSHU, QINGHAI PROVINCE | From the print edition BY THE middle of May, the snowline in Yushu prefecture has retreated to the peaks read more →
Connectivity Wars – Weaponising Interdependence
by Mark Leonard, ECFR.EU When Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in November 2015, the image of the falling plane went viral. Calls for revenge exploded across the Russian media and internet. Protesters hurled stones and eggs at the Turkish embassy in Moscow. And the high-profile host of Russia’s read more →
Trouble in Tibet
A group of young Tibetan monks huddles on a degraded pasture on the Tibetan Plateau. Kevin Frayer/Getty By Jane Qiu, 13 January 2016, Nature.Com In the northern reaches of the Tibetan Plateau, dozens of yaks graze on grasslands that look like a threadbare carpet. The pasture has been munched down read more →
Why Are Tibetans Setting Themselves on Fire?
By Tsering Woeser, NYR Daily, 11 January 2016 February 27, 2009, was the third day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. It was also the day that self-immolation came to Tibet. The authorities had just cancelled a Great Prayer Festival (Monlam) that was supposed to commemorate the victims of the read more →
Why Are Tibetans Setting Themselves on Fire?
Tsering Woeser Liu Yi’s portraits of Tibetans who have self-immolated, Songzhuang art village in Tongzhou, on the outskirt of Beijing, December 25, 2012 February 27, 2009, was the third day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. It was also the day that self-immolation came to Tibet. The authorities had just read more →
8 reasons China and its president are off to a rocky 2016
BEIJING (AP) — Barely more than a week into 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping is having a rough time of it, with challenges ranging from a plummeting stock market to new provocations from obstreperous ally North Korea. While none pose an existential threat to his administration, the world will be read more →
Son of Chinese Revolutionary to Xi Jinping: Redress Injustices First Step to Democracy
By Larry Ong, Epoch Times, January 10, 2016 If Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping wishes to set China on the path of democratic reform while in office, he must earn the support and trust of the Chinese people, urges Xi’s childhood friend. The first step Xi should take on this read more →
Harmony existing in India for over 1,000 years: Dalai Lama
Business Standard, IANS, 4 January 2016 The traditional and religious harmony in India has been existing for over 1,000 years, the 14th Dalai Lama said here on Monday during the belated celebration of his 80th birthday. Various dignitaries, including senior politicians, activists, artists and religious personalities, gathered here to pay read more →