China's ruling Communist Party kept up a "stranglehold" on dissidents and rights activists last year, subjecting thousands to arbitrary detention in labor camps and unofficial "black jails," while the rate of self-immolations among Tibetans continued to rise amid continuing cultural repression, a new human rights report said.

London-based rights group Amnesty International hit out at the growing number of self-immolations among Tibetans, which it said came amid continuing repression of Tibetans’ right to enjoy and promote their own culture as well as their rights to freedom of religion, expression, peaceful association and assembly.

"During the year, at least 83 ethnic Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people set themselves on fire, bringing the total number of self-immolations in Tibetan populated areas in China to at least 95 since February 2009," the group said in its 2013 annual report.

Beijing-based Tibetan writer Woeser said the number of self-immolations during the whole of 2012 stood at 85, however.

Two monks burned themselves in protest in April this year, bringing to 118 the number of Tibetan self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009.

"There are self-immolations every month," she said, in reaction to the report. "What we are seeing is the use of self-immolation as a form of protest, and this was particularly so last year."

"That they choose such a means of protest, that they use their own lives in protest, shows the terrible situation in Tibetan areas," Woeser said.

Authorities in Tibet also kept up a series of “patriotic” and “legal education” campaigns to force Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International said, adding that officials stepped up interference in Buddhist monasteries.

Critics criminalized

Across the rest of China, the government continued to use the criminal justice system to punish its critics, the report said.

"Hundreds of individuals and groups were sentenced to long prison terms or sent to Re-education Through Labour (RTL) camps for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of belief," it said.

Many of those handed lengthy jail terms for “endangering state security,” “inciting subversion of state power” and “leaking state secrets,” had simply made online posts, or communicated information overseas that was deemed sensitive, the report said.

Online activist Wu Bin, known by his nickname "Xiucai Jianghu," said the state had definitely stepped up its security activities targeting those who spoke out online.

"I definitely felt that," Wu said. "I was subjected to plenty of persecution."

"My online accounts were blocked and I was hounded in various aspects of my life," he said. "Sometimes they confiscated my cell phone; at other times they took my computer and ID card."

"Things are getting more and more intense."

Targeted for punishment

He said China's army of petitioners—many of whom pursue complaints against the government over forced evictions, wrongful detention, physical attacks and deaths in custody—were increasingly targeted by police and officials for punishment.

"You are supposed to be allowed to oppose the Party and the government, and yet if you go and complain, they detain you and bring you home or throw you in a black jail," Wu said.

"A lot of petitioners have told me that their human rights have been violated, with illegal detentions and horrific treatment inside them," he added.

The authorities earmarked 701 billion yuan (U.S. $112 billion) in funding for "stability maintenance," an increase of over 30 billion from 2011, the Amnesty International report said.

While criminal laws had been revised to strengthen protection of minors and the mentally ill, police had also been authorized to detain people in secret for up to six months for some crimes, which include "endangering state security," it said.

Such detentions could be carried out without notifying the suspect’s family of the location or reasons for detention, potentially legalizing enforced disappearance, the report said.

Reported by Hai Nan and Wei Ling for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Xin Lin for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET on 2013-05-23

Dozens of high-school students in China's  troubled western Xinjiang region took to the streets in a rare protest over the right of Uyghur girls to wear traditional head-coverings in school, local residents said on Thursday.

Nearly 100 students from the Kizilsu (in Chinese, Kezhou) No. 1 High School in Xinjiang's Atush (in Chinese, Atushi) city marched out of the gates and onto the streets in anger on Wednesday after the school tried to enforce a ban on headscarves, they said.

"It was at 8:30 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. that they came out," a Uyghur restaurant owner in the same neighborhood as the school said.

"It was [because the school banned headscarves]," he added, when asked to confirm online reports.

He said had seen around 70 students take part in the demonstration, but no police had been visible at the scene.

Photos of the protest posted online showed a large group of young people wearing headscarves and traditional Uyghur embroidered caps gathered outside school gates.

Ban reversed

"Sophomore high-school students from Kezhou High had a successful demonstration today over the issue of headscarves for girls," a tweet on the popular Baidu microblogging service said.

A second tweet said the school authorities had reacted by handing out a new, replacement headscarf to all female students.

"[They] said they would respect our customs," the tweet said.

An official who answered the phone at the school declined to comment.

"I don't know anything about this," the official said, before hanging up the phone.

A second Uyghur restaurant owner in the neighborhood said he had heard about the protest but did not see it himself.

"Most of the girls in that school wear a headscarf, while some of them do not," he said, adding that many students from Kezhou High School ate at his restaurant.

Fears of repercussion

Dilxat Raxit, Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), welcomed the school's response to the protest, but warned that repercussions could follow for those who took part.

"I think that the students' courage is laudable, but I am worried that the authorities will retaliate after the event," Dilxat Raxit said. "This sort of thing has happened in the past."

He called on the Chinese authorities to behave with unconditional respect towards the customs and cultural values of Muslim Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group that chafes under Beijing's rule.

"The Chinese government continually suppresses and provokes Uyghurs with these attacks on their mode of dress and their religious beliefs," Dilxat Raxit said.

"This has made the students extremely angry."

Hotan protest

Earlier this month, students at a high school near Hotan, in the south of the region, walked out of class in protest at the lack of Uyghur-language signage on school premises.

They returned to class after the school authorities promised to install some.

Raxit said the southern part of Xinjiang was still under tight security following last month's violence that left 21 people dead in Maralbeshi (in Chinese, Bachu) county in Kashgar prefecture.

Police have stepped up spot-checks and raids in the wake of the violence, which Beijing has blamed on "terrorists," but which the WUC has said was triggered by such raids in the first place.

Tarim University students

Meanwhile in northwestern Xinjang's Aksu prefecture, authorities at Tarim University are preparing to try three of its students in secret after detaining around 12 of them in early May, the Uyghur Online website (Uyghurbiz.net) reported this week.

The website named the three men as Alimjan, Dilshat, and Ablimit, adding that at least two of those detained but not charged had since been released.

Repeated calls to the offices of Tarim University went unanswered during office hours this week.

However, a teacher at the school said he wasn't free to talk about the students' situation.

"All I can say is that they probably got involved in something, but right now we have no freedom of speech," he said.

A student at the college commented: "Basically, we don't talk about [sensitive topics]," he said. "It's not that we aren't allowed; it's that everyone avoids sensitive topics."

He said the university sometimes surveyed students' mood by issuing questionnaires or calling them in "for a chat."

Tarim University was built in 1958 by the army-backed Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, also known as the "bingtuan."

The People's Liberation Army production companies, or bingtuan, are units of command that enable Beijing to maintain key areas and exploit rich resources in the largely Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang, according to exile groups.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness, blaming the problems partly on the influx of Han Chinese into the region.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service and Gulchehre Keyum for the Uyghur Service. Translated by Luisetta Mudie and Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

On the heels of the long-range rocket launch  in December last year and a nuclear test in February this year, North Korea fired multiple short-range missiles this week, raising tensions with the United States, South Korea, and the rest of the international community. Six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization have been stalled for nearly four years, and efforts by the Obama administration to engage North Korea in meaningful dialogue have been countered with defiant provocations, including the recent missile launches, nuclear test, and threats of war.  Changsop Pyon of RFA’s Korean Service interviews Gary Samore—former White House Coordinator for Arms Control and the Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism and current director of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs—on the current situation on the Korean peninsula and possibilities for a breakthrough in the stalled nuclear talks.

Q: North Korea conducted several short-range missile launches from May 18 to 20. What do you make of their motivation behind such a belligerent action at this time?

A: The short-range missile tests are a way for Pyongyang to show that it is not submissive and weak even if it does not test longer-range missiles.

Q: Some say Pyongyang fired the missiles to draw attention from the United States. Do you agree?

A: No, I don’t think the short-range missile launches get much attention in Washington because they are so routine.

Q: I don’t think the missile launch would have happened without North Korean leader Kim Jung Un’s orders. As you know, it’s been almost a year and a half since Kim Jong Un assumed the supreme leadership of North Korea. There were some expectations that the new young leader might take a different course from his late father Kim Jong Il in dealing with the outside world. However, we still see the same pattern of North Korea’s belligerent behavior as evidenced by its long-range rocket launch last December and nuclear test in February. What do you make of Kim Jong Un, compared with his late father? Is he a more dangerous leader?

A: I don’t think we know yet. I think one of the big question marks about Kim Jong Un’s policy is whether he will follow the pattern his father established, which was basically a cycle of provocation and tension followed by a cycle of diplomacy, and whether Kim Jong Un is prepared to take more chances and engage in additional provocations and even limited attacks against South Korea. My guess is Kim Jong Un will be restrained by a combination of factors including China, the United States, and the ROK [South Korea].  So, my best guess is that when the U.S. and ROK exercises wind down, we’ll see that North Korea will indicate a willingness to return to the bargaining table, and then the question will shift to what are the conditions and preconditions for resumption of the negotiations. So, my guess is in the coming weeks and months the North Koreans will stake out their conditions and the U.S., ROK, and Japan will stake out their preconditions. And then the issue will be whether or not the two sides can come to an agreement on the conditions for resuming the negotiations.

Q: Let me turn to North Korea’s nuclear issue, our main topic for this interview.  There are many explanations as to why North Korea has chosen to take the road to nuclear development.  Some say it’s for their own security, while others say it’s for some sort of deterrent against the U.S. What’s your take?

Fear.  I think North Korea is afraid of all of its neighbors: China, ROK, Japan, the United States. And I think North Koreans have always seen nuclear development primarily as a means to deter external pressure and attack.  Secondarily, they have tried to use their nuclear program as a bargaining chip to extract foreign assistance from their neighbors.  But I think the primary motivation has been to create deterrent, deterrent not just against the United States. I don’t think North Korea trusts anybody. They don’t trust Chinese, they don’t trust South Koreans, they don’t trust Japanese, and to the extent North Koreans can hold the threat of using military force to create conflict and instability on the Korean peninsula, they can blackmail China to leave them alone, to give them special treatment. They can deter the United States and South Korea.  So, for all of these reasons I think Pyongyang has seen the development of nuclear weapons as an important part of their foreign policy and their defense policy.

Q: What’s the price that North Korea had to pay for continuing its nuclear program?

A: Well, it’s come with a very heavy price.  If you look at North Korea, you see a really desperately poor, isolated, backward dictatorship. And that has basically been the price of North Korea’s nuclear program. So, somewhere along the way whether it was Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il, North Korea had a choice to make: do we go down the path of nuclear development or do we decide to accept limits on our nuclear program in exchange for better relations with the United States and the rest of the world.  And they made the wrong choice.

Q: I guess the North Korean leadership might have known a better alternative without going nuclear. In other words, without nuclear development, North Korea could have developed a successful economy with the necessary foreign assistance and economic aid, in addition to better political relations with the United States and the rest of the world. Why do you think North Korea has given up such a golden opportunity to build a better nation without nuclear weapons?

A: Very good question. I don’t know how much of it was the personality of the leaders; I don’t know how much of it was the system in North Korea that has a very suspicious and paranoid view of the outside world.  It’s very difficult for me to explain their decisions because we don’t have good understanding. All I can say is that they were faced with their critical choice, you know, back in the 1990s, and they made the wrong choice.  And I think the result of this is that North Korea has nuclear weapons and not much else. And ultimately I think it’ll mean the end of the system.  I’m not sure when that will happen. Ultimately I think North Korea’s strategic choice will result in the collapse of the country, of the government.

Q: It seems Pyongyang thinks it can still expect better relations with the U.S. while keeping its nuclear program. As a former U.S. government official directly involved in North Korea policy, what do you make of that?

A: I don’t think it’s true that North Korea can have it both ways. North Korea can’t keep its nuclear programs and expect good relations with the United States. The two objectives are completely incompatible.  So, Kim Jong Un has to make a choice.  If he wants to have good relations with the United States, including the benefits that would come from economic and political opening with the United States and the rest of the world, including the big international institutions, the North Koreans have to be willing to limit and ultimately give up their nuclear weapons.

Q: As you know, North Korea has demanded that the United States recognize it as a nuclear power. Is there any possibility for the current or future U.S. administration to do so?

A: I don’t think so.  If the United States did that, it would put tremendous pressure on Korea and Japan to leave NPT and build nuclear weapons.  And I don’t think the United States wants to see further proliferations of nuclear weapons in East Asia.  So, the U.S. has very strong national security interests in opposing, not accepting the North as a nuclear power.  And in doing everything we can to limit North Korea’s nuclear capacity, (a) it doesn’t threaten the United States with long-range missiles, and (b) so it doesn’t threaten our allies, Korea and Japan, and put pressure on them to build their own nuclear forces.

Q: Do you think the U.S. can respond at all to the North Koreans’ demands for nuclear reduction talks instead of denuclearization?

A: I don’t think so.  The U.S. will insist on the talks being about denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. I think that Pyongyang will very likely agree to that, even though they are not sincere, that they’ll say they accept the talks are about denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Q: You served as the White House czar on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and terror during the Obama administration’s first term.  What were your biggest headaches while serving that position?

A: Well, I would say that the biggest headaches were the limits on America’s ability to persuade or put pressure on North Korea to give up or to significantly limit their missile and nuclear activities.  The U.S. has limited options.  The use of military forces is very unattractive because it’s likely to trigger a broader conflict on the Korean peninsula that would be very costly in terms of human lives and in terms of economic costs. And sanctions are very difficult to be very effective because China has not been willing to fully support the kind of economic pressure that could jeopardize the stability of the North Korean regime. And diplomacy is very limited as a tool because the North Koreans lie and cheat. So, at the end of the day, the U.S. has very limited capacity to affect the nuclear and missile program.

Q: Hearing what you say, I feel it seems impossible for the United States to make a breakthrough in the stalled nuclear talks.

A: I don’t think it’s possible to have a breakthrough. I think we can limit the nuclear and missile program, but ultimately the only solution is when the North Korean government changes.

Q: You just said, “when the North Korean government changes.” By that do you mean the end of the current North Korean regime?

A: Yes, but I don’t know when that’s going to happen. I do think it will happen. Obviously I can’t predict with any accuracy when that might take place.

Counterfeit Chinese yuan bills are spreading fast in North Korea, flooding local marketplaces and causing headaches for traders and merchants who have no way to get the fakes out of circulation, sources in the country said this week.

The fake bills have been changing hands at local markets near the border with China in recent weeks, posing problems for North Koreans who are barred from using the foreign currency in the first place.

Despite being illegal, the Chinese yuan is widely accepted alongside North Korea’s unstable won both in official marketplaces and on the black market in the isolated country, which has a thriving cross-border trade with China.

In the northwestern city of Sinuiju, across the border from China’s Dandong city, one resident said the fake bills have become so common that traders like him have begun to take precautions when accepting payments in yuan.

“Since fake Chinese yuan bills are widespread, when someone pays with a high-denomination bill, I take down the bill’s serial number and the signature of the person paying in case the bills turn out to be forged,” he told RFA’s Korean Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said the extra steps annoy people making purchases but are necessary to ensure he can recoup any losses from fake bills.

Another man in Sinuiju who conducts trade with Dandong said he has started taking similar measures.

“I copy down all the 100 yuan bills I receive from North Korean traders and then ask the messenger to sign,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If there were only a few fake bills, I wouldn’t have to do this anymore,” he said.

'Fake bill nations'

In the northeast, one resident in Yanggang province said fake 100-yuan notes are circulating there as well.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he had heard the notes had entered the country “via Chinese drug smugglers,” while other rumors going around suggested that the bills had been spread by South Korea as a strategic ploy to undermine the North’s economy.

Counterfeit currency is not new to North Korea’s marketplaces—which have earned the local nickname of “fake bill nations”—but sources said that recently the notes have been spreading fast and complained there is no way to get them out of circulation.

North Korea, which has in the past been accused by the U.S. of running its own counterfeiting operation, has no government bureau to collect phony currency.

Whereas in other countries banks detect counterfeit currency in cash that is deposited with them, North Koreans do not deposit Chinese currency in the bank, leaving the fake notes in circulation.

Those who realize they have received fake Chinese yuan bills are passing them off to others pretending they do not notice the fakes, the sources said.

In the mid-2000s, the U.S. accused the North Korean government of conducting one of the most sophisticated counterfeiting operations in the world by using a multimillion-dollar printing press to print U.S. $100 bills that were nearly indistinguishable from real ones.

North Korea rejected the claims.

Reported by Joon Ho Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Goeun Yu. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A prominent blogger and her two colleagues were briefly detained this week by authorities in southern Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa province after distributing leaflets and balloons promoting international human rights standards.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh—who blogs as Me Nam, meaning “Mother Mushroom”—said in an interview after her release that she and her friends Pham Thanh Hai and Nguyen Tien Nam, also known as Binh Nhi, were handing out copies of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Tuesday in Nha Trang city when they were detained.

“I went to April 2 Avenue to distribute the declaration of human rights while some friends gave kids balloons that said our human rights should be respected,” Quynh told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“Police came and told me to go to the Loc Tho commune police station” along with Pham Thanh Hai and Nguyen Tien Nam at around 5:00 p.m., she said.

Quynh was released late on Tuesday night, while Hai and Nam were held for 24 hours.

Their detention followed a move earlier this month by authorities to shut down “human rights picnics” in Nha Trang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City, where bloggers and activists gathered in public parks to discuss the declaration and other rights issues but ended up beaten, interrogated, or arrested.

Quynh said that she had distributed copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—which Vietnam has ratified—to inform the Vietnamese people of what Vietnam agreed to when it became a member of the United Nations in 1977.

“When I was arguing with the police … many people crowded around and demanded that I be allowed to show them the declaration. They wanted to read it to understand for themselves that it wasn’t a ‘horrible’ document.”

After she was taken to the local police station, authorities told her that she did not have permission to distribute the rights declaration.

“They confiscated all the leaflets and wrote a report, all while filming me as if I were a criminal,” she said.

“After that they took me to the provincial police office for additional interrogation until midnight.”

Under questioning

Quynh said that her interrogators were “very intimidating and tense,” but said that she remained calm, asking them to explain to her exactly why she had been detained.

“They only said that what I did wasn’t wrong, but that it was ‘not right’ either,” she said, adding that they were unable to give her a clear answer of how she had violated the law.

“It was strange that many policemen refused to touch the declaration. They looked at it like it was some kind of poisonous document.”

When Quynh was given permission to leave the police station, she told her interrogators that she wanted to wait until Hai and Nam were also released, but authorities made her return home.

“They said that my daughter needed my help to prepare for a school exam and reminded me that my young son was sick, so I should go home and they would let my friends out later…. I decided to go home and return the next morning,” she said.

She returned to the Khanh Hoa provincial police station Wednesday and waited there until her friends were released.

Bloggers targeted

Quynh has been held by authorities several times in the past for “abuse of democratic freedoms and infringing on the national benefit” after writing damning blog posts concerning China's intervention in Vietnam.

Her writings have largely focused on Beijing's financing of a controversial bauxite mine in the Central Highlands and its claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Police surveillance and harassment is a common experience for dissident bloggers in Vietnam, which is listed by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders as an “Enemy of the Internet.”

Vietnamese authorities have jailed and harassed dozens of bloggers, citizen journalists, and activists over their online writings since stepping up a crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years.

Many have been jailed under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code for “conducting propaganda against the state,” and international rights groups and press freedom watchdogs have accused Hanoi of using the vaguely worded provision to silence dissent.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Chinese police in the southern city of Guangzhou have questioned and threatened three political activists who applied to hold a demonstration marking the 24th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on the student-led democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.

Xu Xiangrong, Li Weiguo, and Li Wensheng were threatened by officers at the city's Yuexiu district police station after they went to apply for a demonstration permit to mark the June 4 anniversary on Wednesday, Xu told RFA.

"[We] all went together to the Yuexiu district police department to apply for a permit to hold a memorial event marking the 24th anniversary of the June 4 [massacre]," Xu said.

He said police had said they would reply within two working days.

"After we had submitted the application, we were subjected to questioning by the police in the department and were given warnings ... there was quite a bit of pressure," Xu said.

"It's like this every year," he added.

Fellow activist Li Weiguo said the three activists had lodged their application in Yuexiu district for a permit to hold a public gathering.

"Not long after we had submitted the application, there came a call from that district's state security police, saying that we would have to take responsibility for our own actions," Li said.

"They didn't say anything else: they just hung up the phone."

Messages blocked

Meanwhile, fellow Guangzhou activists said they had been unable to send text messages of support to Xu on Wednesday.

"Everyone wanted to send text messages to their cell phones in support [of the plan], but they were unable to send them," said fellow Guangzhou activist Xu Lin.

"Sometimes we can call them, sometimes not," he said. "I think it's probably because [the police] have cut off the text messaging service to their phones."

Chinese authorities keep relatives of those who died in the 1989 military crackdown around Tiananmen Square under house arrest and close surveillance as the politically sensitive anniversary approaches each year, beginning ahead of the traditional Chinese grave-sweeping festival in April.

Political activists have also been prevented from holding any kind of public memorial to mark the crackdown on unarmed protesters and hunger-striking students by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), using machine guns and tanks.

'Festival of patriotism'

Hunan-based rights activist Yi Wei said he is planning to mark the anniversary with a number of activities, including contacting the relatives of victims.

"June 4 is like a festival of patriotism, so we'll get together and have a group photo, and write an inscription 'In Patriotic Mourning for June 4'," Yi said.

"Then we'll put it on the microblog sites in memory of the students, and we will send condolences to the families of victims," he added.

The number of people killed when People's Liberation Army (PLA) tanks and troops entered Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989 remains a mystery.

Beijing authorities once put the death toll at "nearly 300," but the central government, which labelled the six weeks of pro-democracy protests a “counterrevolutionary uprising,” has not issued an official toll or list of names.

The crackdown, which officials said at the time was necessary to suppress a "counterrevolutionary rebellion," sparked a wave of international condemnation, and for several years China was treated as a near-pariah, as Western governments offered asylum to student leaders fleeing into exile.

Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Bereaved parents from across China are stepping up pressure on the government for a change in the country's draconian one-child policy, which has left more than a million people with scant financial support in their old age, activists said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of elderly people gathered outside the Ministry for Health and Family Planning in Beijing this week to protest at the lack of state support for couples who complied with the one-child policy out of a sense of public responsibility.

According to one tweet from the scene, the demonstration wasn't well received.

"A bereaved parent from Tianjin was having a heart attack, and a bereaved parent from Jiangsu knocked on the window of a police vehicle to ask for help from the police officers inside," wrote one Sina Weibo user.

"Not only did the police not give her medical assistance, but one young officer launched into a tirade at the bereaved parents, cursing at them," the tweet said.

"This prompted strong criticism from the bereaved parents."

Numbers grow steadily

Hunan-based activist Zhu Qingguo, who runs a home for elderly people whose only child has died, said the number of people over 50 who have lost an only child has grown steadily over three decades of the one-child policy.

"The main issues are about who supports the elderly, and their medical care," Zhu said. "The family planning and civil affairs bureaus give some social assistance, but it's woefully inadequate."

"It varies from place to place, but overall, it's about 200 yuan (U.S.$32) a month."

He said he has become a carer for more than 20 elderly couples.

"But many people can't manage elder adoptions for material and psychological reasons," Zhu said. "Too much care is involved, and only a small proportion really form strong attachments with each other."

"Family is still family, and outsiders will never be as good as one's own children."

Hu Liying, a bereaved parent from Anhui, said she had heard about the protest.

"It's seven years exactly since my son went," she said. "Every day, life is painful to me."

"I am sick and old, but I am still mobile. I just take one day at a time," Hu said.

Quotas 'brutally enforced'

Government figures estimate that elderly people who have lost their only children now number more than a million, a number that is currently growing by about 76,000 each year.

China collects 28 billion yuan (U.S. $4.4 billion) a year in fines and charges from enforcing the one-child policy, as population controls have spread around the country.

Only 15 percent of families had only one child in the late 1970s, compared with around 60 percent of families today. The huge increase will likely mean a huge increase in the number of elderly bereaved parents in the next few years.

Activists and rural communities say family planning quotas are often brutally enforced at local level.

While many of China's political and financial elite can afford to pay the fines necessary to have more than one child, people without money or connections are routinely forced to terminate even very late-term pregnancies.

However, authorities in the eastern city of Wuxi said this month that they are investigating top film director Zhang Yimou, amid online allegations that he has fathered seven children.

Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

A veteran Chinese democracy campaigner and founding member of a banned opposition party has warned the new administration of president Xi Jinping that it risks a brutal end to its hold on power in the absence of political reform.

Wuhan-based activist Qin Yongmin, who served a lengthy jail term for subversion after he helped found the banned China Democracy Party (CDP), called on the new generation of leaders under Xi to enter into "peaceful dialogue" with Chinese citizens, or risk the fall of the regime in a manner similar to that of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.

"As the last dictatorial regime, if China is unwilling to learn lessons from the rest of the world, and persists in taking its own path, then those in power will pay an extremely cruel price for it," Qin said in an interview on Tuesday.

"They should learn a lesson from the mistakes made by Romania, Libya, and Syria," he said.

Qin said China's human rights situation is in a state of "unprecedented brutality," with reports of violent, forced evictions emerging around the country every day.

"Taking as our starting point the need for constitutional government in China, we must stand up and demand that [the leadership] begin a process of dialogue [with the people]," he said.

"Only then will it be able to guarantee a peaceful transition of power ... or a violent transformation may ensue," said Qin who was released from prison on Nov. 29, 2010 after serving a 12-year term for "incitement to subvert state power."

'Universal values'

Hainan-based rights activist Liu Xinglian agreed with Qin's assessment.

"We should think about all the conflict that is going on in Chinese society at the moment ... we are trying to ensure that our basic rights are respected," Liu said.

"The international momentum is towards universal values at the moment, and such a world view requires the leadership to realize that ... huge social upheaval will result from the intensification of conflicts [we see currently]," he said.

"This should encourage the leadership to sit down with the people and enter into a peaceful dialogue to address the issue," Liu added.

Veteran dissident

The 57-year-old Qin is a veteran dissident who was initially sentenced to eight years in prison for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and subversion" in the wake of the Democracy Wall movement in 1981.

A contemporary of exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, Qin served a further two years' "re-education through labor" in 1993 after he penned a controversial document titled "Peace Charter."

By 1998, Qin was the editor of the China Human Rights Observer newsletter, and one of a number of political activists who attempted to register the China Democracy Party (CDP).

Aside from Qin, Hangzhou-based CDP founder Wang Youcai and Beijing-based Xu Wenli received 11-year and 13-year jail terms respectively for being linked to the opposition party. Both were later exiled to the United States on medical parole.

The warnings from democracy campaigners come ahead of a state visit to the United States by President Xi Jinping, who will meet President Barack Obama for two days of bilateral talks in early June, the first between the two leaders since Xi took over as China's president in March.

Aggressive rhetoric and missile launches from North Korea, concerns over China-based cyberattacks on U.S. companies and agencies, and  appreciation of China's currency the yuan are likely to be on the table, analysts said. Washington may also raise the issue of tensions in the South China Sea.

Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Disabled people from across China have hit out at stringent health check standards they say bar people with many disabilities from getting work as teachers, highlighting rampant employment discrimination by governments around the country, activists said on Tuesday.

The campaigners penned an open letter to the ruling Chinese Communist Party calling for an end to rampant workplace discrimination, citing medical assessments for teachers working in Guangdong province, which it said rule out applicants who are perfectly capable of teaching in a classroom.

New health check standards issued by the Guangdong provincial authorities had removed only mandatory HIV testing from health checks for teachers, while checks for  eyesight, hearing, and musculoskeletal fitness had remained unchanged, according to activist Yang Renliang, who was among the letter's signatories.

Yang, who suffers from albinism, said there were many items on the mandatory recurrent health checks for in-service teachers that would exclude him from finding work.

"These health checks put great psychological pressure on people with disabilities, even if we have no other issues and are perfectly capable of being good teachers," he said.

"This really could mean that we miss out on good opportunities in life," Yang added. "Personally, I am entirely capable of teaching class."

Campaigning for equal rights

Lu Jun, who heads the Beijing-based health advocacy group Aizhixing, said disabled activists had been campaigning for many years against similar practices in many areas of employment.

"Disabled people have been working very hard to achieve their goal of equal rights," Lu said.

"There have been more and more lawsuits brought by people with disabilities in the past two or three years."

Government departments 'leaders' in discrimination

He said activists had put pressure on governments across China through public information requests, open letters, and investigative reports on discrimination.

"The leaders in discriminatory employment practices targeting disabled people are government departments at all levels," Lu said.

He said government guidelines mandating that 1.5 percent of government jobs be filled by people with disabilities had largely been ignored.

"To this date, not a single government agency has managed to achieve this proportion," Lu said.

He said a parliamentary investigation carried out last year had found that government departments across China had employed a total of 92 people with disabilities since 2007.

National Day of Disabled Assistance

The open letter was written to mark China's National Day of Disabled Assistance on Sunday, a public activity day which began in 1991.

It targeted regulations governing the hiring of teachers—who in China are civil servants eligible for a slew of government benefits—in Guangdong as a way of illustrating problems faced around the country.

The letter was addressed to governments in 30 cities and provinces, Yang said, and hit out at the 2013 revised version of the "Guangdong Province Health Check Standards For Applicants for Teaching Status."

The China Disabled Persons' Federation estimates that at least 83 million people in China have some form of disability, and many obstacles remain for people with disabilities wishing to progress to higher education.

Beijing's prestigious Renmin University recently set up a disability law clinic and is working in conjunction with the Harvard Project on Disability to improve access to education, international rights groups say.

Currently, China only boasts a handful of special education institutions, many of which offer limited study options, such as massage training for the blind.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Religious freedom continued to decline in China this year, while Vietnam showed slight signs of improvement despite ongoing abuses, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report to American lawmakers.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, also known as Burma, violations of religious freedoms continued unchanged in spite of progress made in political reforms, the report said.

In China, the State Department’s 2012 Religious Freedom Report said, “the government’s respect for religious freedom declined during the year, particularly in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic.”

In general, China’s government emphasized state control over religion, the report said, adding that the religious activities of religious adherents were restricted “when these were perceived, even potentially, to threaten state or Chinese Communist Party interests, including the Party’s concept of social stability.”

Protestants and Catholics practicing outside of state-controlled churches came in for particular scrutiny, said the report, as did members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and smaller groups called “evil cults” by China’s government.

“Government repression, including crackdowns at monasteries and nunneries, resulted in the loss of life, arbitrary detentions, and torture,” said the report.

The U.S. Secretary of State has designated China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 1999, with the designation most recently renewed in August 2011.

Countries of Particular Concern

Countries of Particular Concern are countries “that are considered to commit ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ and whose records call for the U.S. government to take certain actions under the terms of the [International Religious Freedom] Act,” said the report.

Burma, or Myanmar, also designated a CPC since 1999 with that status renewed in 2011, saw “considerable” movement in political reform during 2012, “but the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department report said.

The report noted especially that local officials in the country’s Rakhine state took part in ethnic violence targeting Rakhine’s Muslim community last year.

Overall, Myanmar authorities “subjected religious activities and organizations to restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly,” the report said, adding that the government  promoted Theravada Buddhism over other religions, “particularly among certain ethnic minority populations.”

In Vietnam, though abuses of religious freedom—involving arrests, detentions, and convictions—were  reported during the year, “the government also showed signs of progress,” said the report.

“It registered new congregations, permitted the expansion of charitable activities, and allowed large-scale worship services with more than 100,000 participants.”

Problems remain

“Other problems remained, [though], especially at the provincial and village levels, including slow or denied approval of registration for some groups. Some Christian groups also reported harassment or administrative obstacles when they tried to hold Christmas services,” the report said.

The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.

“The Vietnamese government is still using vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhists, Protestants, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities,” USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett told RFA in April.

“And they are definitely working to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, instances of violence, and repeated episodes of forced renunciations of faith.”

“It’s still a very concerning situation, and one that we believe does merit CPC designation,” Swett said.

Lax enforcement

In Laos, “the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department’s report said.

“Officials respected the constitutional rights of members of most religious groups to worship, albeit within constraints imposed by the government.”

But local officials were sometimes lax in their enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom, said the report.

“District and local authorities in some of the country’s 17 provinces continued to be suspicious of non-Buddhist religious groups and occasionally displayed intolerance for minority religious groups.”

This was especially true in the case of Protestant congregations, “whether or not officially recognized,” the report said.

Contrasting cases

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, “there were few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice,” though Buddhism is the country’s state religion, said the report.

“[Cambodia’s] constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom and, in practice, the government generally respected religious freedom.”

By contrast, the government of North Korea “severely restricted religious activity, except for some officially recognized groups it tightly supervised,” according to the State Department report.

“Reports by refugees, defectors, missionaries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) indicated that the authorities arrested and subjected to harsh penalties persons engaged in religious proselytizing and those in unauthorized contact with foreigners or missionaries.”

Reports of arrests and punishments  during 2012 were difficult to verify, though, “[D]ue to the country’s inaccessibility and the inability of foreigners to gain timely information,” the report said.