Maya Wang

The trial of one of China's most high profile human rights lawyers, on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and provoking trouble, lasted just three hours today, with police blocking diplomats, foreign reporters and protesters from the Beijing court.

China passed a wide-ranging new national security law Wednesday, expanding its legal reach over the Internet and even outer space as concerns grow about ever-tighter limits on rights.

A Chinese court on Friday acquitted a death-row inmate convicted of double murder, in a high-profile case that observers say may be a rare exception in a court system riddled with wrongful convictions.

Activists, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, professors - China's new leaders have taken aim at civil society in what analysts call an effort to muffle dissent that is proving powerfully effective.

The trial of one of China's most high profile human rights lawyers, on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and provoking trouble, lasted just three hours today, with police blocking diplomats, foreign reporters and protesters from the Beijing court.

China passed a wide-ranging new national security law Wednesday, expanding its legal reach over the Internet and even outer space as concerns grow about ever-tighter limits on rights.

A Chinese court on Friday acquitted a death-row inmate convicted of double murder, in a high-profile case that observers say may be a rare exception in a court system riddled with wrongful convictions.

Activists, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, professors - China's new leaders have taken aim at civil society in what analysts call an effort to muffle dissent that is proving powerfully effective.