Prominent HIV/AIDS activist and Sakharov Prize winner Hu Jia (胡佳) may have been freed from a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for state subversion, but he continues to remain technically under house arrest, with security guards following him wherever he goes. 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 ›

Just days after Ai Weiwei's release from prison, prominent activist Hu Jia and the four individuals who'd been taken away on account of their relationships to the artist Ai Weiwei have been released. Hu was released after completing a three and half year sentence for state subversion. His wife, Zeng Jinyan confirmed that he arrived home at 2:40am today through her Twitter account. more ›

Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), wife of jailed AIDS activist Hu Jia (胡佳), has reemerged after a one-day disappearance that took the local AIDS activist community by surprise. more ›

Chinese dissident and activist Hu Jia (胡佳), who was rumored to be in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize several years ago, will be released on June 26th according to a tweet posted by Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan. Imprisoned since April of 2008, Hu was active in the Chinese democracy movement, and also worked with environmental and HIV/AIDS issues. Hu was also the director of the June Fourth Heritage & Culture Association. [via Twitter] more ›

While China has made strides in the fight against AIDS and AIDS patient rights (most recently in a country-wide campaign starring Yao Ming), there is still a lot they could do better - especially, when it comes to their treatment of AIDS NGOs and charities. Joe Amon of the LA Times argues that too many international bodies look at China's handling too uncritically, praising its response on paper while ignoring how it harasses and even jails AIDS activists. more ›

• Earlier, the South China Morning Post accidentally put the Chinese name for Hu Jia, human rights activist (currently under arrest and recently denied medical leave), in a story about Hu Jintao. ESWN garnered reactions from the press. [ESWN]
• We've mentioned tongqi - the wives of gay men - and their troubles before. But, not that anyone needed reminding, life isn't easy for the other half either. Here's a good piece on why gays decide to marry, even when they're absolutely sure of their sexual orientation [Christian Science Monitor]
• "All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation?" [The Atlantic]

• Huang Hung talks about what the Chinese public knows about Hu Jintao - namely nothing, thanks to the leader's intense want of privacy. [The Daily Beast]
• China has committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy by 40 to 45% by 2020, but how will it do it? East Asia Forum has some suggestions. [East Asia Forum]
• Two Chinese singers, Fang Ziyuan and Yin Youcan, have been fined 50,000 RMB, after being caught miming at a concert in Chengdu. [BBC]

There are a record 237 candidates in the running for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, amongst them: the internet (god, that's lame). Even more interesting than the inclusion of an inanimate intangible thing though, at least for us China news hounds, is the amount of Chinese dissidents on the list. more ›

He may not have won the Nobel Peace Prize that he was tipped to win, but Chinese dissident Hu Jia has just been awarded the Sakharov Prize, the top human rights award given out by the European Parliament. China had lobbied hard for Hu Jia to be passed over for the award, as it did during the Nobel selection, with Song Zhe, the Chinese ambassador to the EU delivering a stern warning that this "would inevitably hurt the Chinese people once again and bring serious damage to China-EU relations". For all the work he's done, Hu Jia remains relatively unknown in China today, although he is a favourite posterboy for Chinese dissidents among EU lawmakers because he once addressed the European Parliament via webcam while he was under house arrest. Next week's EU-China summit in Beijing will be a fun one to watch. more ›

With the upcoming Olympics and the subsequent global attention, the government obviously wants the nation to look its best, which in China sometimes translates to quashing dissent. Two European-based human rights groups working together as the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders recently published a report declaring that the government has stepped up attempts to quiet dissidents, citing four people arrested for Olympic Games protests, including Hu Jia, who was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for criticizing the government’s human rights violations. More from the AFP article:

In a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics." more ›

Chinese HIV/AIDS and human rights activist Hu Jia (胡佳) has been found guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" and jailed three and a half years (see BBC video report here) in a trial at Beijing's Number One Intermediate People's Court. No reporters and diplomats were allowed into the courtroom. more ›

"China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest Internet market by number of users, a research firm said on Thursday." more ›

Just three days after Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong regained his freedom, China has released yet another media man — Yu Huafeng (喻华峰), general manager and deputy editor of the Southern Metropolis News《南方都市报》, the Guangzhou-based paper that is one of China's boldest and most critical papers. more ›

We did not think it would happen, but it has. Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong (程翔), chief China correspondent of the Singapore-based Straits Times has been released. This totally unexpected release has come about 3 weeks after his 1000th day of imprisonment. Ching Cheong was said to have been lured into the Guangdong Province while researching former Premier Zhao Ziyang (赵紫阳) and subsequently charged with spying for Taiwan. With Ching Cheong's release, all eyes are now on Hu Jia's trial. more ›

Since Hu Jia (胡嘉) is currently being charged for inciting subversion behind closed doors, we figured there is no better time than now to show you Prisoners in Freedom City 《自由城的囚徒》, a documentary made by him and his wife, Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), while under a seven-month house arrest from August 2006 to March 2007. As ironic as it may sound, Freedom City is the name of the compound that houses the couple's apartment. This is not your typical arthouse documentary because it was made by Hu and Zeng with their little digital video camera, but what it lacks for in polish it makes up for with its power to send chills down your spine. more ›

People who made the news this week more ›

What's happening around the nation as one year closes and another begins more ›

This World AIDS Day, we witnessed an extraordinarily well-coordinated effort by Chinese media to raise AIDS awareness among the populace and to communicate the resolve of the central government to win the battle against the disease. This small sampling of stories that appeared in state-run English-language media is enough to give you an idea of what went out on Chinese news: President Hu: HIV/AIDS not scary President Hu tells HIV carriers, communities not to be... more ›

Fresh off the press: A video of the secret police who watched over AIDS, environmental and democracy activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) day and night while they were under house arrest from July last year to March this year has just been released (h/t to CDT). more ›

Shanghaiist found this report from Human Rights in China (to state the obvious, not accessible within China) about hunger strikers in Shanghai. Here are the first few paragraphs: more ›