China: court upholds earthquake activist conviction

A Chinese appeals court upheld the conviction of earthquake activist Tan Zuoren who was sentenced in February to five years in prison on subversion charges.

Korean peninsula tensions undercut Okinawa anti-bases movement

As tensions mount with North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama reversed himself and accepted Washington’s demands that he honor a 2006 agreement to keep US Marines on Okinawa.

China: activists demand search for missing detained rights advocate

Rights groups are calling on Beijing police to conduct a search for missing activist attorney Gao Zhisheng, who has apparently disappeared within the Chinese prison system.

China: rights activist sentenced to 11 years for “subversion”

Chinese rights activist Liu Xiabo, who for 20 years has called for an investigation into the Tiananmen Square massacre, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on subversion charges.

China: rights activist Huang Qi gets three years in prison

A Chinese court sentenced human rights activist Huang Qi, a critic of the government’s handling of the Sichuan earthquake, to three years in prison for illegally holding state secrets.

Anti-nuclear protesters greet Obama in Japan

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tokyo despite a heavy police presence during Barack Obama’s visit to demand an end to US bases under the banner “Break up the Japan-US summit.”

China: Chongqing corruption trial reveals brutality of new oligarchy

Reading past the headlines in the notorious the Chongqing corruption trial reveals that the crime machine served as local enforcers for post-socialist China’s new landed oligarchy.

China: five dead as coal company goons attack peasants

Five are dead after club-wielding thugs attacked residents of Baijiamao village in China’s Shanxi province who were occupying a coal mine they claim was illegally privatized.

China: villagers storm smelting plant to protest lead poisoning

Protesters broke into a smelting works in China’s Shaanxi province, smashing trucks and tearing down fences, following a government report documenting lead poisoning in hundreds of local children.

China: artist Ai Weiwei arrested for attempting to attend “subversion” trial

Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei says he was roughed up and detained by police when he tried to attend the trial of rights advocate Tan Zuoren, who has been charged with subversion.

China detains prominent human rights lawyer

Chinese human rights group Gongmeng announced that its co-founder, prominent attorney Xu Zhiyong, was arrested at his home four days ago and has not been heard from since.

Beijing deploys chopper in anti-opium op

A helicopter was used for the first time to help local police hunt poppy plantations in suburban Beijing. The chopper was deployed around mountainous areas in Yanqing district.