Yaqiu Wang
Human Rights Watch
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Past articles by Yaqiu:
Indonesia Shamelessly Abandons Uyghurs
When my Human Rights Watch colleagues visited Indonesia in 2019, they sought meetings with government officials and opinion leaders to encourage them to speak up against the discrimination and abuses suffered by Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, China. They encountered a wall of silence. Now this disregard for the Uyghurs has gone from bad to worse. → Read More
Beijing Eats Bitter Fruit of its Own Propaganda
“F***, she got off the plane!” a man in China yells, as he smashes chairs in a video posted on the popular Chinese microblog platform Weibo. “She” refers to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of United States House of Representatives. The man is upset that the Chinese government allowed her plane to land in Taiwan instead of shooting it down. → Read More
Beijing's Green Fist
The climate crisis is a human rights crisis on a colossal scale, and to help mitigate it, the world needs the Chinese government to take urgent action. But is Beijing capable of reducing environmental harm without committing further human rights violations? There’s reason to worry. → Read More
‘Everything Has to Make Way for the Winter Olympics’
When the 2022 Winter Olympics officially kick off in Beijing on February 4, the city will become the first to host both the summer and winter games. The Chinese government propaganda machine has gone into overdrive to emphasize this historic moment and ensure it goes smoothly – often to the detriment of Beijing’s inhabitants. → Read More
Chinese Authorities’ ‘Inhumane Cruelty’ Again on Display
“Never could I imagine the Chinese authorities were capable of such inhumane cruelty – to keep him locked up when my life is coming to an end,” said Zhang Qing, wife of the prominent Chinese human rights activist Guo Feixiong. Zhang passed away on January 10 in a hospital in the United States. → Read More
No Other Way to Live: Why Ai Weiwei Left China
Xi Jinping’s tenure has been marked by harsh crackdowns on human rights activism. → Read More
No Other Way to Live: Why Ai Weiwei Left China
Aside from a few brief exchanges, I don’t know Ai Weiwei. I’m just one of the many Chinese netizens who have followed his art, activism, and online streams of consciousness—Ai tweets relentlessly—since the early 2000s. But reading his book, I found myself in numerous pages. → Read More
Women’s Tennis Association shows global business how to deal with Beijing
The WTA’s firm stance placing rights over profits is striking. For too long, too many in the business world have gone to extremes to avoid criticism of Beijing’s human rights record, lest the authorities or their proxies lash out and deny companies access to the lucrative Chinese market. The question is: will the WTA’s courageous act be a turning point for the international sports world and for… → Read More
IOC Doubles Down on Losing China Strategy
For the IOC to participate in the Chinese government’s long-running scheme is simply outrageous. It had prompted tennis legend Martina Navratilova to quip, “The IOC sucks, and you can quote me on that.” Now it has doubled down. If the IOC wants any human rights credibility, it should stop collaborating with the authorities responsible for denying Peng her rights and act publicly on her behalf. → Read More
Beijing to Reduce ‘Non-Medically Necessary’ Abortions
Given the government's history of restricting women’s right to reproductive choice and bodily autonomy through abusive, and sometimes violent, means, this development is a grave cause for concern. → Read More
Chinese Cyber Legend Vanishes, Raising Concerns
Some fear Program-Think will one day resurface on Chinese state TV “confessing” to crimes, like many other activists and bloggers have been forced to do. → Read More
Beijing wants more children, but only a certain kind
On 1 June, I woke up to the news that the Chinese government had announced that it will allow all couples in the country to have three children, an increase from two. I joked to myself, “Finally, I’m legal!” → Read More
Beijing wants more children, but only a certain kind
One-child, two-child or three-child policy – fundamentally all are infringements on women’s reproductive rights. → Read More
And the Oscar for Censorship Goes to Xi Jinping
When celebrated Chinese writers, artists, and athletes decide not to follow the CCP’s script of “China’s story” but instead speak their minds on the global stage, they are often censored. → Read More
People in China Left Wondering, ‘What Happened in Xinjiang?’
This week, Chinese authorities opened the floodgates for people to slam the Swedish clothing brand H&M over its September 2020 pledge to stop using cotton sourced from Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China. → Read More
China’s Dangerous Game Around Covid-19 Vaccines
One year after the Covid-19 virus was first identified in Wuhan, China has gone from being the world’s epicenter of the pandemic to one of the countries with the lowest reported infection rates. But alongside this transformation is the Chinese government’s lack of transparency, and its reliance on censorship and propaganda. → Read More
From Covid to blackface on TV, China's racism problem runs deep
China’s anti-Black racism shows in its media and its treatment of Africans during the pandemic. → Read More
A Brief but Marvelous Moment of Free Expression in China
On Monday night, Clubhouse, the red-hot app where people can create chatrooms that disappear after use, became inaccessible in China, presumably blocked by the authorities. Many had expected this, but some were still surprised by how fast the government acted. → Read More
China's Covid success story is also a human rights tragedy
China's official Covid rates are down. But has that come at the cost of human rights? → Read More
How Zoom Violated its Own Terms of Service for Access to China's Market
On Dec. 18, prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department charged a China-based Zoom executive with conspiring to terminate Zoom meetings this year that commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre at the Chinese government’s behest. → Read More