NEWS

The Chinese authorities are expanding their long-term control over private outbound travel for citizens. Last year, the restrictions were applied not only for low-level civil servants and employees of state-run enterprises but also to teachers and health-care workers. To prevent people from traveling abroad, everyone is required to hand over their passports. ...

Religious belief is common among China’s rural population, representing the most significant base of believers. In an effort to attack religion at its core, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been mobilizing the masses to monitor and report each other using a variety of means. The latest tool is the revival of Cultural Revolution-era tip-off measures. ...

Another Chinese cultural icon is nothing but rubble after government officials in Pingshan county, under the jurisdiction of Shijiazhuang city in northern Hebei Province, detonated and destroyed a standing Guanyin statue, which was carved out of a cliff and measured 57.9 meters in height on February 2, 2019. ...

In August 2014, Li Xiangyang and many other bystanders in Ningbo city in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province witnessed a brutal police assault on demonstrators. Many people took out their cellphones and filmed the violence, but the police shouted at them to stop recording and confiscated their phones. Mr. Li managed to take a few photos and later posted them, as well as videos taken by others, on WeChat and other online platforms. ...