Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese dissident outspoken on Tibet and other sensitive topics was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Thursday, a conviction likely to become a focus of international rights campaigns ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

A Beijing court found human rights activist Hu Jia, 34, guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" for criticizing the ruling Communist Party. Hu had initially pleaded not guilty.

A blind activist who exposed a campaign by Chinese officials to force women to have abortions was jailed for more than four years yesterday in one of the country's most controversial human rights cases since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

On July 13th Li Yuanlong was sentenced to two years in prison for posting an essy on the Internet outlining his dissatisfaction with China's current regime. His biting words, dubbed as "inciting subversion" by the CCP controlled courts, have been translated by ESWN blog for all to read.

CHINA'S crackdown on critics is reaching a climax, with blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng being jailed for four years and three months for organising fellow villagers to disrupt traffic, and researcher for The New York Times Zhao Yan sentenced to three years on a bizarre fraud charge.

"We pray that a Chinese Martin Luther King will arise from the church in China," say Christian leaders of the new Human Rights Protection Movement (HRPM).

These lawyers, pastors, journalists, and human rights leaders across China are trying out the strategies of the historic American civil rights movement, using litigation, media publicity, and nonviolent protests.

The Telegraph: I report on a statement released by a group of Chinese human rights defenders on those people still imprisoned following 6-4 - as the massacre on June 4 1989 is commonly known...

The government has vehemently denied that China has any political prisoners in its jails today and has dismissed any reports that it still jails people for participating in the 1989 movement as fabricated lies.

A Hong Kong journalist has been jailed for five years in mainland China, after being convicted of spying.

by AFP | Khaleeij Times Online
July 13, 2007

GENEVA - Two human rights groups on Friday sharply criticised a senior Olympic official who warned social activists not to use the Beijing 2008 Games to highlight their concerns.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) said the remarks by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) chief Beijing organiser, Hein Verbruggen, repudiated the Olympic movement’s own ideal and its Code of Ethics.

A new study of Internet users aged 16 to 25 from both the US and China shows that China is far ahead of the US in Internet "addiction".

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese Internet users are more likely to depend on their online experiences, and see the Web as a key to socializing and sharing opinions, than their U.S. counterparts, according to a study released on Friday.