In just a few hours after leaving the US embassy and being reunited with his family, blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has turned around to say he wants to leave China. In contrast to earlier reports by both Chinese and US officials that he left the embassy of his own volition, Chen added that he chose to leave because he was told that his wife and children would be sent back to Shandong. more ›

Just days after blind lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng miraculously escaped from house arrest; the Beijing police have held his friend and fellow government critic Hu Jia for questioning. more ›

The so-called National Organisation for Marriage (NOM), an anti-gay activist group based in the United States, has declared war on Starbucks for supporting a gay marriage bill in its home state of Washington. When support for its "Dump Starbucks" campaign proved to be all too disappointing, the group decided to expand the boycott to countries that it thought would support its anti-gay message -- namely Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Turkey and those in the Middle East, and China. more ›

I don't like the website Utopia (Editor's note: an ultra-leftist website), but I hope they can continue to make their voice heard. I don't like what Liu (Xiaobo) stands for, but I wish he did not have to sit in prison, and that he would have his place in Chinese society like other "dissidents" do. Nevertheless, the tolerance level in Chinese politics is never as high as we wish it to be. Do what you must but be mindful of the measure. Once you break past a certain threshold, the constructiveness of the diversity you're trying to create will turn into destructiveness, and the backlash will happen. This is the real China. more ›

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles marched through parts of New Delhi to mark the anniversaries of the unsuccessful 1959 revolt and anti-Beijing riots which left many dead in the capital, Lhasa, in 2008. [Euronews] more ›

Pro-democracy activist Qin Yongmin, who was freed from prison in November 2010 after serving a 12-year term for subversion, was recently taken in by state security over his plans to launch a "peaceful transition" website. His story as told to Radio Free Asia: more ›

Guizhentang, the bear bile company that has hogged headlines all week for its second attempt at a public listing has started a public relations campaign to pacify the chorus of condemnation from animal lovers, celebrities and the general public of its alleged animal abuse activities. more ›

Animal rights groups and over 70 Chinese celebrities are protesting the decision by a company specializing in the extraction of bile from Asiatic black bears raised on their private farm to seek a public listing. The Fujian-based Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Co. is making a second bid to list publicly, after their first attempt was thwarted last year by public criticism last year. more ›

Three men were handed jail sentences for up to a decade in a secret trial last year for "inciting subversion of state power" through their criticisms of former president Jiang Zemin. The details of the trial have only now emerged through a Hong Kong-based rights organisation, writes Will Clem of the South China Morning Post: more ›

Seeing Red in China has translated a most fascinating account written by Ge Xun (葛洵), a Chinese man who migrated to the United States in 1986. He was back in Beijing recently to take care of funeral arrangements for his mother who had just died at the age of 83. After he was done with family matters, Ge planned to pay a visit to famed "Tiananmen Mother" Ding Zilin (丁子霖), a retired professor whose son was killed in the June 4 crackdown in 1989, and who now leads a group of women like herself to press the government to uncover the truth. more ›

In order to dive into the world of rural sex workers so as to better understand and to speak up for them, Liumang Yan decided to become a prostitute for a day last week. To be more exact, she didn't exactly prostitute herself -- she offered sexual services free of charge to migrant workers. Along the way, she posted updates on Sina and Tencent Weibo, telling her followers about the hardships faced by the women she met, and the men she served. more ›

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Yesterday afternoon, two People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) members staged a mini-protest on Shanghai's most famous pedestrian shopping street -- East Nanjing Road. more ›

Online donations are still pouring in from all corners of China and around the world as supporters of the dissident-artist Ai Weiwei chip in to help him out with the RMB15 million fine for tax evasion that he's been given 15 days to cough up. It's a spontaneous, collective middle finger that they've thrusted at the powers that be for the injustice they see in the 81-day detention that Ai was put through last year as authorities scrambled to prevent the Jasmine Revolution from spreading to China. more ›

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Dozens of Tibetan activists attempted to enter the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Sunday but were stopped and taken away by Indian police. more ›

It's that time of the year again -- Norway's Nobel Committee has met to decide who should be the winner of its peace prize this year. Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland says the choice has "not been particularly difficult" this time round while pundits are placing their bets on representatives of the Arab Spring revolution which swept across the Middle East earlier this year. Among the top contenders are Google executive Wael Ghonim from Egypt, and Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni. Jagland also took the opportunity to defend the decision to award last year's prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, even though that immediately led to frozen Sino-Norwegian ties and possibly made life more difficult for Liu:

"The reactions (from China) were as expected. They were not more extreme than what we expected," he said. more ›

Animal activists have scored an unusually swift victory in an online campaign to stop the Zhejiang Jinhua Dog Meat Festival 《浙江金华狗肉节》from happening on October 18. more ›

Gays and lesbians across China were left pleasantly stunned last evening by an unexpected report from national broadcaster CCTV which not only slammed award-winning actress Lü Liping (吕丽萍) for stoking homophobia, but also assured members of the LGBT community of their place in society. more ›

Joshua Rosenzweig, the excellent blogger behind www.siweiluozi.net (on Twitter at @siweiluozi), talks with Al Jazeera about the release of Hu Jia, Ai Weiwei, and the complexity of understanding whether or not international pressure can have an impact on human rights in China: more ›

Gay groups have called for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in China to boycott movies by award-winning actress Lü Liping (吕丽萍) and her husband, director Sun Haiying (孙海英), after the former kicked up a maelstrom of debate on Sina Weibo for expressing support for the homophobic sentiments of a Chinese pastor in Rochester, New York decrying the legalisation of same-sex marriage by the New York State Senate. more ›

The 5th Beijing Queer Film Festival, China's first full-fledged LGBT film festival founded 10 years ago, has concluded but not before demands by officials to shut down the event sparked off yet another round of cat-and-mouse which gay community organisers in China are by now so used to. more ›

The rescue of more than 500 dogs on their way to slaughter last week continues to cause controversy as experts estimate that caring for the many injured and diseased animals could exceed 10RMB million in the coming five years. That's on top of the 115,000RMB an animal protection organization paid to have the dogs freed last week. Leaving out medical costs for illness and injury afflicting almost every animal, vaccines alone cost 150RMB per head, not to mention spaying and neutering range from 250-500RMB. Thousands gathered online and in person to support the rescue last week, and many saw it as a step forward for animals rights in China. The important question now is whether there will be the necessary follow through, or will these animals simply end up dying at the pound instead of at the butcher? more ›

Hey look! Somebody finally got freed in China last week. On Friday, April 15, a truckload of 520 dogs was stopped and the animals were rescued by the coming together of activists online, with an outpouring of support from thousands! When word of the truck spread on Sina Weibo, hundreds arrived at the scene with mineral water and food, jamming traffic and refusing to let the truck leave.15 hours later, a pet company and an environmental organization gathered the necessary funds (115,000RMB!!) to buy the dogs. more ›

Yes, this one has been out and around the internets for a few months now. But just in case you missed it, as we did, take a look at BBC's latest profile of China's most famous artist-turned-dissident. more ›

Two days ago, on Valentine's Day, ballsy gay and lesbian couples in Beijing decided to gatecrash a kissing competition held by the New World Shopping Mall (北京新世界百货) to raise the visibility of China's LGBT community and to drum up support for same-sex marriage. more ›

Ai Weiwei has announced in a post on Twitter (see his English feed here) that he will be holding a 'River Crab Fest' on November 7 in ironic celebration of the planned demolition of his studio in Shanghai. Which made us ask: what studio in Shanghai?? more ›

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia and to commemorate this day, over a hundred people -- gay, straight, bisexual and transgender -- gathered on a rooftop overlooking the Bund yesterday evening for a kiss-in flash mob to celebrate love and equality for all people. Shanghai was the only Asian city out of about 60 cities around the world to take part in the Great Global Kiss-in. more ›

Wan Yanhai (万延海), founder of the Beijing-based Aizhixing Institute and one of the most outspoken HIV/AIDS activists in China has arrived in Philadelphia with his wife and daughter after hiding out in Hong Kong and Guangzhou for two weeks. more ›