Reposting Occupy Central news Su Changlan accused of “subverting state”

Posted on 2014-11-19 by wrchina

Women’s Rights in China 19 Nov, 2014

On 27 October, 2014, Miss Su Changlan was taken away by the Nanhai Public Security Bureau in the name of the crime of “provocation”. Her whereabouts or even life and death has been unknown since then. Extremely anxious, her husband Chen Dequan has been asking around about her wife, but the police and law enforcement departments all denied that they locked up or detained Su Changlan. On 11 November, 2014, Chen Dequan, accompanied by human rights defender Tian Li (Chen Qitang), went to Foshan City Nanhai District Detention Center for the fourth time to find Su Changlan, yet their reply was again “we don’t know”; Chen still couldn’t obtain any information about Su Changlan. After the case in March 2014 in which Miss Cao Shunli was “disappeared” and died after being detained, with her living body “eliminated” by the relevant departments of the Chinese Communist Party, Women’s Rights in China (WRIC) is very worried about the safety of Miss Su Changlan. On 19 November, 2014, lawyers found out that Su Changlan has indeed been detained by the Ministry of Public Security, and has been charged with the “crime” of “inciting subversion of state power”.

Miss Su Changlan is an experienced volunteer of WRIC. All these years, she has been fighting for justice for civilians and vulnerable groups at the grassroot level, and protesting for human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience tortured in prison. The cases of human rights violations she participated in include the illegal grants of land use in Sanshan Island, Nanhai; The incident of the three netizens in Fujian; activities concerning missing children in many provinces; reporting and protesting against forced abortions cases, and helping trafficked child brides in Putian, Fujian, to search for their birth parents and introducing their painful stories to the media from Germany and Switzerland, etc. to raise international awareness. Although Su was interrogated and disturbed by the police many times, and even had a CCTV installed by the police near the door of her house, she was never fearful, demonstrating great courage. She is a well-respected human rights defender. After the peaceful protests in Hong Kong to Occupy Central began, the Chinese media under control of the government twisted the truth and blackened the names of Hong Kong students and civilians who organized peaceful activities to Occupy Central in demand of universal suffrage. Su, like more than 100 netizens in mainland China, reposted truthful news about Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution through channels like “breaking down government firewalls” to enable the public in mainland China to understand the facts behind Occupy Central protests.

WRIC calls on the international community, the media and congress members to not only support the protests of Hong Kong students and civilians, but also be concerned about Su Changlan and other human rights defenders that are detained because of caring about Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong. Your voices can reach China, urging the government to instantly cease all mafia-type methods to attack political dissidents such as abduction and disappearance, demanding the immediate release of all human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, so people like Su Changlan can regain freedom and reunite with their families as soon as possible.

The Cao Ruyi case, which attracted widespread concern: under the assistance of WRIC, Cao Ruyi, who was almost forced to abort, hid in a safe place and gave birth to her first child after marriage. WRIC volunteer Su Changlan visited the Cao family again in 2012.（photo by WRIC）

In 2011, Su Changlan disseminated information on the streets about missing children cases for WRIC.

（photo by WRIC）

In January, 2014, Su Changlan helped another human rights defender Ma Shengfen draft a letter of accusation. （photo by WRIC）

Hong Kong must have the universal rights to vote and to stand for election.

Posted on 2014-11-09 by wrchina

Petition by Visual Artists Guild

https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-hong-kong-must-have-the-universal-rights-to-vote-and-to-stand-for-election

Dear President Obama,

As you embark on your trip to Beijing for the APEC economic conference, do follow the recommendations by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China that “Hong Kong issues should be raised in meetings in Beijing with central government officials.”

The argument by China that Hong Kong is China’s internal issue is not valid as the following points show:

* The UN Human Rights Committee stated on October 23 that the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty which Hong Kong has ratified and agreed upon by China compels Hong Kong to respect the right to free election. The Committee has given China two months to respond.

* Hong Kong is a member of APEC since 1991 and reaffirmed by Beijing in 1997; therefore Hong Kong’s future is of paramount importance to APEC discussion.

* As the eighth largest economy in the world, Hong Kong is an essential factor on global economy and for APEC.

* Consistently at the top economic freedom index in the world, Hong Kong’s rule of law (as opposed to China’s rule by law), independent judiciary (as opposed to China’s Party controlled judiciary), freedom of the press (as opposed to China’s information censorship) and low corruption have all helped Hong Kong maintain its position.

* The current attacks on Hong Kong’s journalists ( 27 violent attacks since September 28 as documented by IFJ, International Federation of Journalists) will greatly affect the climate of doing business in Hong Kong in the future. The physical attack on Apple Daily, an independent newspaper in Hong Kong and the cyber attack on its web sites should be of great concern in Hong Kong press freedom as well.

* HSBC’s removal of its advertisement from Apple Daily and HSBC Director’s comment that Hong Kong pro-democracy activists should wait to get the right to vote like slaves in the United States had to do, is an insult not only to Hong Kong people but to China’s rulers as well.

* Dubbed the most civil of civil disobedience, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, as the protest is now called, has been most peaceful in all respects; no one car overturned and no one store window broken. The dire warnings by the Big Four accounting firms, EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC never materialize.

* Despite President Xi Jinping’s meeting with the tycoons in Hong Kong prior to the protests and despite the Xinhua news agency’s editorial last week to pressure the tycoons, no tycoon has made any statements against the students. Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man merely stated that he understood the students’ passion, that they have made their point and asked them to go home.

* There have been claims of a silent majority opposing the protesters. However, if it were true, why would there be needs of paid agitators against the protesters and why would the triads, the criminal elements in Hong Kong be involved as even the Hong Kong police has acknowledged. Bringing in criminal elements would certainly affect the business atmosphere in Hong Kong in the future.

The outcome of the current protests in Hong Kong will be an indicator of what will happen in the next 33 years. Your meeting with China’s President Xi must provide hope for the young people of Hong Kong that the world do stand on their side in their struggle for their rights.

Yours truly,

Visual Artists Guild

Customer Reviews from Amazon

Posted on 2014-11-08 by wrchina

Frankly speaking, I think this book(The Orphans of Shao) is qualified to be considered as a candidate for the Nobel Prize. The book is bold and candid exposure of the despicable corruption, unlawfulness, cold-bloodedness, cruelty to the underprivileged people, the insatiable greed for money, especially in the remote small cities and villages. The book tells how so many middle and low level Communist officials think “they are the law”, and they can do whatsoever they like to get profits from their illegal enforcement of the “One-child Policy” because the top officials in the central government agencies in Beijing have always been busy with their own businesses and preoccupied with efforts that may help them climb the political ladder. The central government officials simply ignored the cries and appeals of the underpreviliged poor people who are usually less educated and less informed. When the author, a young investigative reporter, first heard stories of infants or small children being seized by officials and sent to the government-run orphanaged. He did not start digging up the truth. As he heard more and more stories about similar stories told by the victims, he set out to dig up and verifiy the truth of the stories. The author even built up contacts with foreigners who provided many useful leads enabling the author to find out the systematic tricks used by the Communist officials to sell orphans to foreign adopters. According to this book, selling Chinese orphans to foreign adopters, by the Communist officials, is “big lucrative business”. The book even cited many news reports made by international newspapers such as the New York Times about the doubtful adoption of “Chinese orphans”. According to the book, many of the “orphans” were not orphans. Instead, these orphans had been robbed away from their parents on the accusation that the orphans were born against the “One-child Policy”. Many parents of these orphans have been trying very hard to get back their children, but in vain. Because these orphans had been adopted by foreign pare1nts. A father had been trying for many years to get back his daughter only found out that his daughter was adopted by an American family. The photograph of his daughter, clad in very beautiful silk Chinese style dress, was published on the New York Times. If you want to know the real China, the book is for you.

WRIC Published “The Orphans of Shao” Oct 24, 2014

Posted on 2014-11-07 by wrchina

“The Orphans of Shao” consists of case studies that exemplify more than 35-year long-lasting policy in China, the One-Child Policy. Due to the effect that the National Law has created, Mr. Pang exposed the corrupted adoption system in China. The farmers in many villages are forced to fines that they cannot afford to pay so the officials take their children away. The officials then sell the children for a low price to government orphanages. The orphanages then put these children up for international adoptions and collect the high prices fees for these adoptions. The international adoptions are usually in Europe and in the United States. These families that adopted these children truly believe that the children are orphans. After their children were kidnapped by the officials, the parents embarked on a long and draining odyssey to recover them. After searching fruitlessly for many years, the heartbroken and desperate parents were on the verge of losing all hope. At that time an investigative reporter discovered new leads for them. The reporter published an exclusive report exposing the kidnapping of their children by the Family Planning officials.

Zeng Youdong has one twin daughter in the East and one in the West. The older daughter was taken and kidnapped. Now she has been adopted by an American family. Pictured in the photo is the older twin sister after years of living in the United States.

A family portrait of Yang Libing, his wife Cao Zhimei and their daughter before his elder daughter was snatched away by the Family Planning Office. Like other local peasants, Yang Libing hadn’t gone through the registration procedures on time after he got married and had children.

Women's Rights in China (NGO organization) is very fortunate to gain Mr. Pang's copyrights to publish his book in the United States in English. Mr. Pang has suffered many murderous threats due to his work on this book. It is our hope that we can bring one journalist's hard work into fruition as well as the whole truth behind how the government implements the One-Child Policy in China. The product of this book is the result of many volunteers' hard work. Publish Date: 10/24/2014 Also you can order the book in the below link on WRIC's website, wrchina.org/. https://crchina.live-website.com/?page_id=6858.

Microsoft CEO: Women don’t need to ask for raise

Posted on 2014-11-03 by wrchina

NEW YORK (AP) – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says women don’t need to ask for a raise. They should just trust the system – one that at technology companies is overwhelmingly male.

Nadella spoke Thursday at an event for women in computing held in Phoenix. He was asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise.

“It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along,” he answered. Not asking for raise, he added, is “good karma” that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.

His interviewer, Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, told him she disagrees, drawing cheers from the audience. She suggested women do their homework on salary information and first practice asking with people they trust.

After getting blasted on Twitter for his remarks, Nadella tweeted, “Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias.”

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 20: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attends the launch of the Microsoft Pro 3 Surface Tablet at Skylight Clarkson Sq on May 20, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Sands/Getty Images)

But his comments at the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, underscored why many see technology companies as workplaces that are difficult to navigate or even unfriendly for women and minorities. Tech companies, particularly the engineering ranks, are overwhelmingly male, white and Asian.

Criticized for their lack of diversity, major companies say they are trying to address the problem with programs such as employee training sessions and by participating in initiatives meant to introduce girls to coding.

Twenty-nine percent of Microsoft’s employees are women, according to figures the Redmond, Washington-based company released earlier this month. Its technical and engineering staff and its management are just 17 percent female.

That’s roughly comparable to diversity data released by other big tech companies this year.