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 ›

"If only Hong Kongers knew this: that if the mainland does not have democracy, Hong Kong will not have democracy, and there will be no changes in its circumstances. If Hong Kong does not have democracy, then there will be no security for Hong Kong's liberty and rule of law, and there will be no change in its circumstances. If Hong Kongers took their dissatisfaction and anger, and used it to push for democracy in Hong Kong and the mainland, then Hong Kong would stand to gain from it, and so would the mainland." more ›

Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where demonstrations are a normal thing. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where marches don’t end in disaster. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) roots out the dirt. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where the government isn’t in bed with business. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where refuge is provided for exiles [from the Tiananmen Protests]. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where June 4 is not forgotten. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where magazines are free. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where you don’t have to scale the [Internet] wall. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where the sense of human rights is strong. Thank goodness there is Hong Kong, where there are prospects for democracy. Thank goodness there is Taiwan and Hong Kong, when the mainland’s back bristles with thorns and no one dares step too far out of bounds! more ›

Gordon Chang, the China skeptic famed for his apocalyptic pronouncements on the People's Republic, begins his latest essay, "China's Unstoppable Billion", with the following anecdote: more ›

BBC's Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticas is back from a week in Taiwan covering the recent elections. He reflects: more ›

Guangdong's Wukan village will re-elect new village leaders after a wave of massive protests which lasted for around 3 months captured nationwide attention. Lin Zulian (林祖恋), the protest leader as well as the chief of a committee running the village after protesters gained control, has been appointed as the village's Party Chief and is to organize the upcoming village election. more ›

"This is how a free and democratic New China will be. All governments at various levels all the way to the central government will be elected through popular, fair and anonymous voting. They will be responsible to the people that elected them. It will be a fulfillment of Sun Yat-Sen's Three Principles of the People, of Lincoln's idea of government of the people, by the people, for the people; and Roosevelt's Four Freedoms. This will guarantee the independence, solidarity and unity of the nation, as well as its cooperation with the democratic nations of the world." more ›

Two days after Ma Ying-jeou's successful re-election, Chinese internet users still can't stop talking about Taiwan's 2012 presidential election. On Sina Weibo, China's largest microblogging platform, the election has remained the top trending topic as Chinese netizens look across the Taiwan straits and ponder over their own democratic future. Here is a selection of some of the most viral posts on Sina Weibo on the Taiwan election: more ›

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou speaking to international reporters in English yesterday morning in Taipei. Another video after the jump... more ›

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'Tis the season for exceptionally harsh prison sentences. China seems to have made a habit of convicting its political activists at Christmas time, and this year is no exception. In the last week, two Chinese democracy advocates, Chen Wei and Chen Xi, have been sentenced to prison terms of 9 and 10 years, respectively. And today, a couple goes on trial for campaigning against forced evictions. more ›

Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party has released a new music video urging voters to show up at the polls to vote for Taiwan's future.Lyrics after the jump... more ›

Protesters in Wukan, the village that captivated China watchers around the world during their bold stand-off with the Chinese government, have packed up shop and gone home after government concessions. more ›

"For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt." So begins Telegraph correspondent Malcolm Moore's report of what he has personally witnessed in the fishing village of Wukan, Guangdong over the past few days. Enraged over government land grabs, villagers have now overrun local authorities and driven police out. They remain barricaded within their village, roadblocks set up by both police and villagers preventing food and water from entering. Here's a roundup of what's happening. more ›

“I want to see your elections with campaign flags flying all over the place. Taiwan and China are one country. How can you arrest me for illegal entry?” more ›

It looks like Michelle Bachmann isn't the only person who thinks America should be more like China. Former president of the Service Employees International Union Andy Stern thinks so too. In a recent op-ed on the Wall Street Journal, he waxes lyrical over China's "superior economic model" which he witnessed first-hand during a recent trip here. Stern argues that the ability to plan -- something he thinks America has lost -- is what makes China tick: more ›

In response to the recent overcrowded school van accident that took the lives of 19 children and two adults in Gansu on November 16th, Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to allocate central and local government funds to resolve China's bus safety issue within the space of one month. more ›

Al-Jazeera's Melissa Chan checks out the local election in a small village in Shandong province, where there is only one candidate on the ballot sheet. The situation is repeated in many other villages throughout China. more ›

"My definition of the 'status quo' would be 'Taiwan is the ROC [Republic of China], the ROC is Taiwan, and Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country.'" more ›

"He's an artist and should have the freedom to express his artistic views... This is also the core value of Taiwan." more ›

Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top party leaders went to the polls on November 8 to elect the people's representatives for their respective districts. As usual, state broadcaster CCTV's news bulletin Xinwen Lianbo was on hand to dutifully cover the president's every step. This time, however, it probably gave a little too much, or rather, too little away. more ›

After Hang's sister Hang Yuexiang refused to sign the slip that declared her abstention from voting, the four men began attacking her, kicking her to the ground and scratching at her hair. Hang then came to his sister's rescue, only for the men's focus to turn towards him, while fighting off any of Hang's neighbors who tried to help. more ›

After three fruitful years of political involvement, Bai Yitong, China's youngest village chief and the leader of Gaojie village in Shanxii, could possibly resign before the upcoming 2012 election. This move would mark a surprising turning point in the saga of such a promising politician who at just 18 years old in 2009, carved out her niche in the male-dominated world of Chinese politics, becoming an inspiration not only for her villagers, but for Chinese women everywhere. more ›

"Our ability to question and criticise the party and the government was not made possible by the powers-that-be, but by technological advancement. They are unable to completely control new media. If they were to shut down the internet and shut down Weibo, this would make international news and point to a complete reversal, as well as failure, of the reform and opening up of the CCP -- no one would be willing to take this step. As much as the Agitprop is frustrated by the current situation, the party isn't made of steel." 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 ›

CNN's Eunice Yoon reports on the wave of independent candidates looking to participate in China's local elections this year. Popular author and social critic Li Chengpeng is one of them.
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"When are we going to respect the choice of the Chinese people?" more ›

The suggestion has often been made that China is growing a lot faster than India because the Chinese government can often bulldoze its policies through while India, the world's largest democracy, is bogged down by its political system. This view is too simplistic, says Huang Yasheng, professor in international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In this TED talk, Huang argues that there is an economic case to be made for democracy, and that if China doesn't hasten its pace of political reform, it is going to face some substantial challenges. more ›

"CHINA said yesterday it respects the choices of the people of Libya after the country's opposition forces announced they had taken control of the capital. 'We have noticed recent changes in the Libyan situation and we respect the Libyan people's choice,' said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu when responding to a question on the civil war. China is ready to play an active role in Libya's reconstruction, he said on the ministry's website. After fighting erupted in Libya in February, China evacuated 35,000 of its citizens working there." [Shanghai Daily] more ›