China, Tibet: Interview with Grace Wang

A Chinese student at Duke University in North Carolina who wrote “Free Tibet” on the back of an anti-Chinese protester during an attempt to mediate a campus dispute over Tibet is now hated by former classmates and teachers alike, a former teacher said.

China: Petitioner belief prompts pre-Olympic rush on capital

There is a saying among petitioners that if your problem cannot be solved before the Olympics, it will be even harder after the Games.

– Petitioner Liu Feiyue

The strength of this belief reminds me of the mythologies and stories told by other groups in a state of severe disempowerment, like street children. These stories are used like maps in a hostile terrain in which recognisable, ‘normal’ human meaning systems  (eg: children will be cared for; the judicial system will mostly apply the law) have completely broken down. I suppose I think this because from where I’m sitting, petitioners look equally unlikely to get what they are looking for on either side of the Olympics. The following is a digest of recent reporting on petitioners and blogger activists by RFA’s Mandarin service, translated by Chen Ping:

China: “Help us, journalists!”

From RFA’s Mandarin service (in Chinese): In recent days around 1,200 petitioners have penned an open letter to China’s parliament calling for greater recognition of the rights violations they say they suffered at the hands of officials.

Several hundred petitioners marched towards Gongyi East overpass Thursday hoping to meet with foreign journalists, but the group was intercepted and broken up by police. Some were detained and taken to the unofficial detention center at Majialou to await forcible removal to their hometowns.

Qingdao: Eviction on National Day holiday?

This rather shaky video was taken on Danxian Road, and appears to show the authorities removing banners attached to the roof of the apartment building.

More than 200 residents of an apartment block in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao have begun a protest after being ordered to vacate their homes, RFA’s Cantonese service reports.