Uyghurs Can’t Phone Home

WASHINGTON—Six Uyghur ex-detainees from Guantanamo Bay and now living on a  remote Pacific island are upset they cannot phone their families in China.
In an interview with RFA the men said the Chinese Government has cut off most communication with their home in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang. It has been the site of recent unrest.
“We haven’t been [...]

Yahoo! pledge to be a good Netizen

It’s about time: Yahoo! new chief executive Carol Bartz says that human rights trump doing business. Bartz’s remarks on May 5 opened a Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Summit at which she acknowledged that the US Internet pioneer made some mistakes in foreign markets. “It is really going to take all of us working together [...]

Popular social media tool blocked in China

Plurk, a technology which is similar to twitter and is quite popular in China is blocked. Read about it tomorrow on the RFA Cantonese service.
As the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen events approaches the Chinese government may be taking action against social media tools during this sensitive period. Chinese people have recently been quite successful [...]

National Guard Families Seek Compensation

The families of 58 national guards plan to lobby the central Chinese government in Beijing for greater compensation after their relatives were killed in a May earthquake, RFA’s Cantonese service reports.

Milk Scandal: Focus on Lhasa

Thanks to Danwei for this link.
First clip (woman): “As the child’s step-mother, you are going to need Sanlu milk powder. It is guaranteed to contain kidney stones. I know I can rely on it!”
Second clip (boy and mother): “We have never tasted milk like this before. The kidney stones really make [...]

China’s Empty Protest Zones

Chinese authorities set aside portions of three Beijing parks as “protest zones” to allow local residents to voice their grievances alongside the now-concluded Olympic Games. But protests, well, not so much. Instead, reports of intimidation, detentions, and disappearances have leaked out from those who trekked to the Public Security Bureau to apply for protest permits.

Bao Tong: Fortune-telling for the Beijing Olympics

鲍彤：金牌
一定很多，不可乐而忘忧
替北京奥运算命之一
Fortune-telling for the Olympics
I see many gold medals but no carefree atmosphere…
Bao Tong
北京快办奥运，结局将会如何？
What kind of a Games can we expect in Beijing?
我不想预测中国奖牌的总数。奥运属于地球村。在某些国家里，国家的价值和作用，常常被无限放大。但奥运是和平，是友谊，是人与人互相学习的学校，不是国家与国家 “较劲”的舞台。把金牌数目，当作“国家崛起”的筹码，是幼稚的。 “国家至上”可以和慈禧太后或者义和团之类相匹配，不能体现奥运精神。尤其是主办国，一旦掉进“我国至上”的泥潭，就会在道义上丧失东道主的资格。我国的运动员和教练员，勤劳辛苦，这次奥运会，一定会得很多金牌银牌铜牌，但奖牌再多，不应该成为乐而亡忧的理由。

Bao Tong: Guizhou and the grandfather ghosts

So who has the power to “deploy police force” whenever they want to? It certainly isn’t ordinary Chinese people, nor is it a democratically elected government. It is a pack of bureaucrats nominated by the Communist Party, whose names have been picked out of a mechanical “election” process, who have been given a franchise on [...]

The Tibetans you’ve never heard of

Who hasn’t heard of Tibet? And who outside of Asia can even pronounce “Uyghur”?
Millions of Uyghurs (pronounced “WEE-ger”) live in China’s northwesternmost province, Xinjiang. They, like the Tibetans, are a religious as well as an ethnic minority; they have chafed under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule for the last six decades; and Chinese authorities have faced persistent [...]

China, Tibet: Tibetans cut off by quake

From Mandarin service reporter Qiao Long:
The Tibetan government-in-exile completely lost contact with Tibetans living in Ngaba, Gansu (in Chinese, Aba) after the earthquake, without any news emerging about the situation in local monasteries and nunneries. Ge Sang, an officer with the exiled government said: “We completely lost contact with them. As communications have been paralyzed, [...]