Alessandra Colarizi

editorial director of China Files

Articles

The state of press freedom in China

15 September 2022

"The People's Republic of China is the world's largest prison for journalists, and its regime conducts a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information globally:" is Reporters Sans Frontières' (RSF) unforgiving opinion of the state of press freedom in China. A right recognized by Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution, but very limited a few lines below with reference to the need to restrict its exercise to protect "national sovereignty" and the "public interest." In China, freedom of the press also takes on "Chinese characteristics."

UN report on human rights violations in Xinjiang against islamic minorities

8 September 2022

“As I read the entire report I could hardly keep from crying." Rayhan Asat is an Uyghur lawyer living in Washington. In 2020 his brother, Ekpar, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Xinjiang, the region on the border between China and Central Asia where Islamic minorities have been reporting various forms of abuse for years. For Asat, it is a victory to know that his brother's tragedy has received international recognition.

The violent side of Chinese colonialism in Africa

28 June 2022

A Rwandan court sentenced a Chinese citizen to 20 years in prison for tortures, after the man appeared in a video beating a former African employee tied to a tree. The incident, which took place in the Rutsiro district, Rwanda, is the latest episode of violence involving Chinese mines in Africa. According to a report by the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, 181 human rights abuses related to Chinese investments in Africa were recorded between 2013 and 2020. By Alessandra Colarizi, China Files

Xinjiang Police Files: hacking of thousands of documents on the "re-education" of Uyghurs

6 June 2022

Stacks of classified speeches, confidential documents and thousands of images of Uyghur detainees. These are Xinjiang Police Files, the latest leaks attesting to the extent of the so-called mass “re-education”, the system of extrajudicial detentions to which ethnic Islamic minorities in the Chinese autonomous region of the same name on the border with Central Asian states have been subjected. The material - authenticated over several months - was hacked from local police servers.