Human Rights in CHINA: The Art of Social Advocacy

 The Art of Social Advocacy

By RON GLUCKMAN

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704624504576097932998562592.html 

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Beijing, He may not be China's most famous living artist, but Ai Weiwei's stature defies all odds: He not only delights in infuriating Chinese officials, but this soft-spoken, multitalented artist, known best for his performance and conceptual work, also eschews cocktail parties and claims to spend a mere 5% of his time thinking about or creating art.

Still, Mr. Ai, 53, is undoubtedly China's most outspoken artist. In 2008, as the rest of his country cheered on the Olympics here, the co-designer of the most iconic symbol of that year's Games—the National Stadium, also known as the "bird's nest"—stirred a tempest by insisting there was nothing to celebrate. He accused the Chinese government of putting on a charade, showcasing its modern facilities and economic might while depriving its own people of dignity and basic rights. He called it a fake coming-out party and coined an alternate slogan for Beijing's global welcome: "Pretend smile."

Mr. Ai himself doesn't smile much.

"I probably spend 30% of my time meeting with people whose wife has vanished, or son is missing or been arrested without evidence," he says when we met earlier this month in his art studio north of Beijing. "They tell me about their problems, things they should really tell officials. But nobody else is listening."

Mr. Ai spends six to eight hours each day online, largely on Twitter. His blog was blocked long ago.

"I'm totally banned in China. Nobody can talk about me or my work," he says, stroking his signature beard. Then, with a grin, he adds: "At least, not officially."

When Mr. Ai was placed under house arrest last November, news immediately spread around the world.

"The Internet is a miracle," Mr. Ai says. "It is the thing that will change China, definitely. Of that, I have no doubt."

CHINA: Hu denies forced abortions!

CHINA   Hu denies forced abortions! ______________________ AFP (21.01.2011) / HRWF (24.01.2011) - www.hrwf.net - President Hu Jintao denied Thursday that China was forcing women to submit to abortions under its controversial one-child policy, a US lawmaker said after meeting him on his state visit. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the new Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a staunch critic of China's leaders, said she handed Hu a detailed list of human rights concerns at a meeting. "Out of all of the issues I raised, the only one which received a response from Mr Hu was my statement urging the end of China's forced abortion policy," the Florida lawmaker said after the meeting. "I was astonished when he insisted that such a policy does not exist." China, under a 1980 policy designed to control its population, permits most couples to bear only one child. Blind activist Chen Guangcheng was jailed in 2006 after accusing officials in one area alone of forcing sterilizations or abortions on at least 7,000 women. Republican Representative Chris Smith, who strongly opposes abortion, has campaigned for years against China's one-child policy, which he said has "killed millions of innocent lives" and inflicted deep trauma on women. "The Chinese government's one-child-per-couple policy, with its attendant horrors of forced abortion campaigns and rampant sex-selective abortion, is, in scope and seriousness, the worst human rights abuse -- the worst gender crime -- in the world today," Smith told reporters ahead of Hu's visit. Ros-Lehtinen said she also pressed China to free dissidents including Liu Xiaobo and Gao Zhisheng, to respect the rights of the Tibetan and Uighur minorities and to "end the persecution" of underground Christians and members of the Falungong spiritual movement. Ros-Lehtinen said China was showing it was not "a responsible actor" and called for a robust US policy toward the Asian giant. "The US and China do not share values and principles, as some have claimed in recent days," she said. Hu is paying a state visit at the invitation of President Barack Obama, whose Democratic Party was trounced by the Republicans in November elections.

Stop Forced Abortion!!! - China's One Child Policy

Stop Forced Abortion -- China's One Child Policy -- Women's Rights Without Frontiers

Forced abortion is not a choice. Forced abortion of unborn children in China could be the worst human rights violation of our time. This is the violent center piece of China's One Child Policy. Please don't comment till after you've watched this video. Please join me in praying for justice for these mothers and children, and our hero Reggie Littlejohn. Thanks.

See also: 

The High Cost of China's One-Child Policy

President Obama and President Hu: China's forced abortion must be stopped!

CHINA

President Obama and President Hu: China's    

forced  abortion must be stopped!

On January 18, Reggie Littlejohn spoke at the Capitol Hill press conference on Chinese human rights called by Congressman Chris Smith.  Littlejohn urged President Obama to discuss human Rights with President Hu Jintao during his visit to DC.  Here is a transcript of her remarks.

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Women's Rights Without Frontiers (19.01.2011) / HRWF (20.01.2011) - www.hrwf.net - In 2009, Liu Dan was 21 years old and 9 months pregnant when family planning police grabbed her out of her home, dragged her pleading and crying to the local family planning office, and forcibly aborted her full term baby.  They did this even though they already knew from medical tests that she had high blood pressure and that a forced late term abortion would be dangerous for her.  After the forced abortion, she lay alone and unconscious in an operating room in the family planning center.  Sensing something was wrong, her fiancé burst into the room at 3:00 a.m. to find her bleeding from the eyes, nose, ears and mouth.  Even so, the family planning police refused to call for emergency help, until her family insisted.  Help arrived too late.  Liu Dan died, along with her full term baby.

China's One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.  It is China's war on women.  I say to President Obama, any discussion of women's rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center.  It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue.  No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.  Rather, the Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women.

The Chinese Communist Party says that the One Child Policy is none of our business - that it's their internal affair.  This argument is a smoke screen.  First, the Chinese government has signed several international treaties that protect the rights of women and families.  Forced abortion violates these treaties. 

Undercover In The Secret State North Korea

Undercover In The Secret State North Korea

Watch this video on video.google.nl

NORTH KOREA does not only have the worlds worst record on  religious freedom. Kim Jong Il is ruling his starving people with a terror regime unmatched in human history. Thanks to some brave citizens - the true heroes of our time - we can get a glimpse into the world of the suffering people of the North Korea. 

Citisens in North Korea live life in huge fear and they must pretend and even to convict themselfs that they love egomaniac president. Fear is here with reason: -Govermant sent people in gas chambers,hard work camps and even execute them if they suspect about not loyality to govermant.They have undercover agents who spy people everhywhere and people live with scary felengs.. Simple citisens like wee are,they beging for our help.

MORE INFO ABOUT NORTH KOREA: Website One Free Korea:
Holocaust Now: Looking Down Into Hell at Camp 22
http://freekorea.us/2007/02/18/holocaust-now-looking-down-into-hell-at-camp-22/