Invisible Tibet

Tibetan blogger Woeser, New Statesman, July 31: Then there are the thousands of Tibetans in Beijing. Tibetan college students have been told to go home this summer, while students at Tibetan schools are not allowed to leave the school premises. The Tibetan Studies Centre has given its staff a rare long holiday: even those we…

Confusion through the Beijing smog

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Western critics of Beijing should be careful what they wish for during the Games, writes Antony Loewenstein Amnesty International’s latest report on China’s human rights record makes for depressing reading. “We’ve seen a deterioration in human rights because of…

The Beijing countdown continues

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: It is time for Western human rights activists to pressure China in new ways, writes Antony Loewenstein With less than one month until the start of the Games, Beijing is trying to make itself more beautiful. Pollution is still…

Rise of human rights consciousness

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: We don’t need American, mainstream journalists telling us that something is wrong in China, writes Antony Loewenstein Chinese dissidents will continue to push for democratic change. This is certain in an Olympic year, but these voices are undoubtedly stronger…

The dangers of blogging for democracy

My following article appeared in yesterday’s edition of Crikey: 64 people have been arrested for blogging their views since 2003, according to… a recent… University of Washington report. Three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues in 2007 than the year before. More than half of all the arrests since 2003 were made…

Democracy is not a foreign word

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: We ignore the diversity of China’s web community at our peril, writes Antony Loewenstein Is the West afraid of Chinese patriotism? Some Chinese bloggers think it is but remain aware of the ways in which such sentiments could be…

Dissent with a Chinese face

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The Olympic Games will show the world a different kind of China, writes Antony Loewenstein During last weekend’s Chinese Internet Research Conference in Hong Kong, Hu Yong, Associate Professor at Peking University, said that after the Sichuan earthquake, many…

Free speech, Beijing-style

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: One-party rule is here to stay, but cracks are starting to appear, writes Antony Loewenstein. For anybody thinking of attending the Beijing Games, China this week announced, in Chinese, the rules of the game. Religious or political banners are…

Trouble in the Communist “paradise”

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The suffering of earthquake victims should not mask the authoritarian tendencies of the ruling elite, writes Antony Loewenstein. The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe after the Sichuan earthquake has revealed a side of China that is rarely glimpsed. After months of…

Growth + power = abuse?

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: China’s rapid growth is often forgotten when analysing the country’s human rights record, but these issues should not be ignored in the rush for super-power status, writes Antony Loewenstein. Amidst all the current stories about China and the Beijing…

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