Amnesty International: The China Debate

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Welcome to Amnesty International. Visit our Chinese language page for more information on the organization's work.

China’s netizens swarm amnesty.org
Thousands of netizens in China seized the chance to check out Amnesty International’s main website after it was unblocked in China for the first time, on 1 Aug.
The Chinese cyber-police’s unprecedented move came after international journalists discovered, upon arrival in Beijing for the Olympic Games, that numerous websites - such as those of Wikipedia and BBC Chinese - were blocked inside Olympic media venues. About 30,000 reporters from around the world are expected to cover the Games.
Within the first four days, Amnesty.org received about 14,000 visitors from China — nearly 30 times the visitor count for July. To welcome the new visitors, the organization is now installing a Chinese language section.
Unblocking the sites is a monumental move for the Chinese government especially when it appeared to be tightening its control over media in recent years by banning websites and detaining journalists.
Is this a move towards greater freedom or a cosmetic change that will last as long as the Olympics?

The China Debate
Issue 1 (8 August 2008)

Never mind China’s Great Firewall
Several enterprising Chinese netizens have managed to make their opinions heard on the English and Chinese versions of The China Debate (TCD) despite "China's Great Firewall". (Find out how they did it). Still, while the English site heats up with comments that range from the constructive (“The priority should be to press the authorities to release the figures…Then we may try to reduce the crimes that led to death penalty”) to the empathetic (“It’s not something China can fix overnight”), the Chinese site remains eerily quiet in contrast.
What’s the hottest debate on TCD?

Ye Guozhu: Left out of the Olympics
Housing rights activist Ye Guozhu who was to be released on 26 July, will now remain detained until at least after 1 October, after the Olympics and Paralympic Games. According to his family, the police said that for the family’s benefit and to keep them out of trouble during the Games, the police would “take care” of Ye.
Find out more about other activists

Overwhelming response to Countdown Report
Ten days before the Games started, Amnesty International unveiled a report "Olympics Countdown: Broken Promises" that summarized Beijing's deteriorating human rights record in several key areas over the past seven years. The report was widely covered by major international media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg TV, BBC World Service Radio, AP, Reuters, AFP and New York Times.
Read the Countdown Report

Learn more
Learn more about the four campaign issues on The China Debate.
The big picture
Get an overview of our Beijng Olympics campaign on amnesty.org

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