Results tagged “rights”

Nine people were executed yesterday for their involvement in the Xinjiang riots earlier this summer. Among the nine, two were ethnically Han, and the other seven were of Uighur descent. The exiled World Uighur Congress denounced the executions as unfair and unjust, claiming that the government had denied the prisoners a final visit from their families. In addition, twenty more people were indicted in relation to eighteen deaths during the riots.

Today's post by Andrew Sullivan on his blog over at the Atlantic discusses the specter of racism within China, and the implications it could have on both the social and economic future of the country. As the ratio of retirees to workers is set to double within the next fifteen years, questions surrounding the economic sustenance will begin to necessitate an influx of emigrants to keep the economy growing.

We've caught ourselves thinking about the difficulties of being disabled in China on many occasions: a significant amount of city spaces and public transport are simply handicapped-unfriendly. Besides the occasional beggar, you rarely see disabled people in public, which is probably thanks to the many social factors constraining handicapped people. But at a very basic level, it's more troubling to think of the difficulties a set of stairs are for someone incapable of using them and the effect it would have on both their ability to travel and their quality of life.

Beijing News reports a weird measure taken in a company in southern China. According to aujourdhuilachine.com, a company that makes loudspeakers has demanded that its employees keep quiet during work hours — otherwise they'll be asked to wear a protection mask for 3 days! The company explained the decision (taken in May) that they want to preserve the production's quality standards:

"If our employees talk, they are bound to splutter and it will do harm to the equipment parts."

An anonymous employee reported the tightening up of controls in the workshops. The newspapers asked lawyers about the matter and they say that this "silence rule" goes against the Chinese laws protecting the workers' rights and that this company's employees could file a complaint. Let's see if they do.

From Boxun.com (you need a proxy) we discovered that there was a maglev-related protest on January 6th. It first started around 11am, around the Xinzhuang/Minhang area, and was dispersed, only to form again sometime around 3pm, this time in the busy Xujiahui CBD. It managed to, in some form, last until 11pm. Protesters carried signs saying "out for a walk" (散步), while other chanted slogans about protecting their homes. The proposed maglev was to link the city's two airports as well as Shanghai to Hangzhou. However, recent protests brought public attention to the health effects of the maglev, leading, according to some, to the recent government decision to reroute the maglev so as to minimize the noise, radiation, and collateral damage. These proposed changes are part of the reason why the price estimates of the maglev have increased from 200 million per km to about 500 million per kilometer.