China’s pattern of human rights abuse continues

FORUM Staff

Zhang Jialong, an anti-censorship activist and former journalist, faced trial in China in May 2020 after criticizing the Chinese government on Twitter, becoming one of the latest victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) continued detention of reporters, lawyers and human rights activists in its ongoing pattern of human rights abuse and censorship.

Chinese authorities reportedly charged Zhang with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China has called for Zhang’s immediate release and an end to the CCP’s “increasingly draconian restrictions” on press freedom and the freedom of expression. The commission was created by the U.S. Congress to monitor human rights and rule of law in China.

The CCP maintains tight control over media outlets and propaganda. In 2019, the Chinese government jailed more journalists than any other country.

One citizen journalist, Huang Qi, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 for exposing government corruption on his website, 64 Tianwang. (Pictured: A placard in support of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, right, and Huang Qi, China’s first “cyber dissident” and founder of human rights website 64 Tianwang, is seen during a protest attended by local pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on January 29, 2019.)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently condemned the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for denying Huang Qi’s 86-year-old mother the ability to see her son, who is very sick.

“We urge the PRC to release Huang, facilitate their reunion, and end its repression of free speech,” Pompeo said in a May 3, 2020, tweet.

For years, the Chinese government has targeted human rights lawyers. In 2015, for example, the PRC rounded up more than 300 human rights lawyers and legal associates, according to the latest U.S. State Department Human Rights Report.

The United States calls for the release of “Chinese citizens who are in detention simply for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms in pursuit of a more equitable and just society,” the State Department said in April 2020.

A version of this article was published on ShareAmerica at https://share.america.gov/chinas-pattern-of-human-rights-abuse-continues/.