Reporters trying to visit Chen Guangcheng, the blind activist lawyer most famous for uncovering Shandong officials forcing women to get abortions, are attacked by plainclothes thugs. The reporters were trying to confirm allegations that Chen and his wife were beaten after the online release of a video detailing abuses they suffered under house arrest. more ›

It's taken a while, considering public opinion had already turned against the practice years ago, but the Ministry of Public Security has finally issued an edict saying that police around the country are no longer allowed to publicly shame prostitutes and johns as a method of stopping the acts from happening. more ›

In the vein of police beatings, China Geeks has the sad story of nine parent petitioners in Beijing who are looking for compensation from the Ministry of Health after their children were harmed by tainted vaccines. Since they were chained together, when the police started beating them, they couldn't escape. One has suffered fractured ribs. They have been denied hospital treatment. more ›

Policemen in Hubei have actually apologized for beating "a petitioner"... because it wasn't a petitioner at all. Rather, poor Mrs. Chen Yulian, 58, was the wife of a Hubei provincial politics and law committee official who was walking to the gate of the provincial party committee's office buildings on June 23. more ›

The link's a little old, but it was just brought to my attention and I think it deserves mentioning: Zhejiang Daily recently compiled a list of "unnatural deaths" in police detention. Duihuar Journal translated it. Amongst the reasons for unnatural death include "death from sleeping in an improper position," "death by picking at acne" and "death by face-washing." Yikes, with the new rules on torture, hopefully we'll see less of these deaths in the papers... and not just because of tightening censors. more ›

Finally, after all the stories of police brutality and mysterious jail deaths, China's highest court has published details of a regulation banning confessions obtained through torture. The rules will go into effect on July 1. more ›

• Protest at China TV tower [The Straits Times] "Demonstrators gathered outside a fire-gutted tower near the new China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday, protesting against what they called forced eviction, state press said. About 30 residents accused the state-run television station of trying to get them to move from the area to make way for the massive and nearly completed construction project, Xinhua news agency said. After about an hour, police persuaded the protesters to put away their banners and leave, the report said. "
• China Backs Off Latest Rio Tinto Claims [WSJ] "Chinese officials distanced the government from allegations on a state-backed Web site that employees of mining giant Rio Tinto PLC had used years of "deceit" to obtain state secrets that cost China's steel industry more than $100 billion — spotlighting the murky and often confusing way China handles such secrecy cases. The allegations, published over the weekend, had quickly gained widespread attention, as they appeared to represent the government ratcheting up pressure over the case of four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, who were detained last month by the Shanghai State Security Bureau on vague accusations of using bribery to obtain secrets that harmed China's national interests."
• Another suspect dies in Kunming police custody [GoKunming] "A man being held in detention in Kunming died in a hospital on Saturday with no clear cause of death, according to a Xinhua report. According to a police spokesperson speaking to reporters on Sunday, 43-year-old Wang Shukun (王树坤) had been held in the Guandu District Detention Center since July 19 before being checked into a hospital by police on August 6. After undergoing emergency procedures to save his life, Wang died early Saturday, the spokesperson said."

The Chinese government is opening a five-month investigation into the 15 "unnatural" deaths of Chinese inmates that have occurred this year alone. more ›

The Ministry of Public Security has started a three-month campaign against prisoner abuse, after numerous suspicious deaths of suspects and prisoners within police custody in recent months - including the death of 19-year-old Xu Gengrong, who had been in detention for eight days on suspicion of murdering his former girlfriend. more ›

• China Daily Assails Prisoner Abuses [NYTimes.com] "Inmates in China’s 2,700 pretrial detention centers suffer bullying and torture at the hands of fellow prisoners and police officers, and some experts want a neutral body to take the centers out of police control to curb the abuses, the state-run English-language newspaper, China Daily, reported on Tuesday."
• Safer Battery Technology Gives China an Edge in Developing Affordable Electric Cars [WSJ] "China’s government is beefing up support for the development of 'new energy' cars, because it thinks China can use electric vehicle technology to leapfrog into the forefront of the global auto industry."
• China spearheads surge in state-sponsored executions [The Independent] "Executions of prisoners almost doubled last year - predominantly because of the Chinese government - according to a report by Amnesty International. Death sentences handed down by China for crimes including tax evasion and bag-snatching represented three-quarters of the 2,390 executions carried out around the world, up from 1,252 in 2007. China's resumption of its death penalty programme comes after a dip in executions during the lead up to the Beijing Olympics that were held last year."

A family in Shaanxi Province has accused police of beating their 19-year-old son to death while trying to force a murder confession out of him. The son, Xu Gengrong, was held for an eight day interrogation and died shortly afterward in a hospital. more ›

Beijing resident Yang Jia, stood trial on Tuesday at the Shanghai No 2 People's Intermediate Court for murdering six Shanghai policemen in July this year. As we told you earlier Yang was caught and interrogated by Shanghai police for riding a stolen bicycle on October 15, 2007. After he had been released Yang sued the interrogating officers for psychological damage and later returned to the police station and killed six officers. more ›