Friday, May 30

Andrei Shukshin writes Russia, China Call for Reforms at United Nations. Guess what, it's not about Taiwan and the WHO or human rights. For example, China Rejects Tiananmen Square Appeal
Human rights groups and family member of victims have been lobbying for what they call a "reversal of verdicts'' on Tiananmen for years.
but the government refuses:
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said the communist party leadership would stand by its earlier condemnation of the protests.

"This conclusion will remain unchanged,'' Zhang said. "Stability has always remained the top priority for China.''

Meanwhile, ELISABETH ROSENTHAL reports, Four Chinese Given Long Prison Terms for Discussing Politics
The Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Wei, 28, and Jin Haike, 26, to 10 years. Yang Zilin, 32, and Zhang Honghai, 29, were sentenced to eight years, according to human-rights groups and relatives of the men.

The case has long enraged human- rights advocates, in part because the group's activities seemed to be innocuous and in part because the four men had been imprisoned for over two years without a verdict in their trial.

...many human-rights advocates and China scholars considered the harsh sentences surprising, given that many of the liberal ideas expressed by the men in the New Youth Study Group are now regularly published in academic journals here and are the fodder of discussions in university classrooms.

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