sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
More than 100 bloggers and others have been recently arrested and detained in China. Among them are Ai Weiwei, Zhu Yufu, Ran Yunfei, Ding Mao, Chen Wei, and Yang Hengjun. Most are detained without charges.
In addition, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances warned China on April 8:
?Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. Even short-term secret detentions can qualify as enforced disappearances,? the UN expert body said. ?There can never be an excuse to disappear people, especially when those persons are peacefully expressing their dissent with the Government of their country.?
I have been experiencing a block on the internet for inquiries relating to infectious disease. Except for suspect government reports it is almost impossible to find reliable information about disease status in mainland China. For instance, a woman returned to Hong Kong from a trip to mainland China in November 2010 with a case of H5N1. Mainland China denied any cases of H5N1 in humans or poultry. At the time there were indications that there might be widespread H5N1 in poultry but there was no official announcement confirming such a situation.
Given the current government crack down on people who differ with the government, I can not assume that any of the information released about the disease status in China is accurate.
references:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...m9p7YA?docId=503b67fab73b4ba6ad60003393834b51
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/019/2011/en
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/china-prominent-blogger-missing-2011-03-29
In addition, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances warned China on April 8:
?Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. Even short-term secret detentions can qualify as enforced disappearances,? the UN expert body said. ?There can never be an excuse to disappear people, especially when those persons are peacefully expressing their dissent with the Government of their country.?
I have been experiencing a block on the internet for inquiries relating to infectious disease. Except for suspect government reports it is almost impossible to find reliable information about disease status in mainland China. For instance, a woman returned to Hong Kong from a trip to mainland China in November 2010 with a case of H5N1. Mainland China denied any cases of H5N1 in humans or poultry. At the time there were indications that there might be widespread H5N1 in poultry but there was no official announcement confirming such a situation.
Given the current government crack down on people who differ with the government, I can not assume that any of the information released about the disease status in China is accurate.
references:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...m9p7YA?docId=503b67fab73b4ba6ad60003393834b51
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/019/2011/en
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/china-prominent-blogger-missing-2011-03-29