Japan PM calls for release of Chinese Nobel laureate - The China Post

Japan PM calls for release of Chinese Nobel laureate - The China Post

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Thursday for the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last week.

"From the viewpoint that universal human rights should be protected across national borders, it is desirable" that Liu be released, Kan told parliament.

"Japan-China relations are getting back to the basics of a mutually beneficial strategic partnership which I confirmed with President Hu Jintao in June" when Kan took office, he added.

Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in December to 11 years in jail on subversion charges but international calls for his release have mounted since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, triggering Chinese fury.

Kan's comments came as Japan and China are seeking to put their relationship back on track after the worst diplomatic row in years between the Asian economic giants.

China broke off all high-level contact with Tokyo last month after Japan detained a Chinese fishing boat captain whose vessel collided with Japanese coastguard patrol ships in waters claimed by both sides in the East China Sea.

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The China Post is Taiwan's leading English language newspaper.

John H. Armwood

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Turmoil Outside Of Home Of Jailed Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo's Home After Being Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

If China wants to be respected in the community of nations it must grant its citizens the basi freedoms enjoyed in almost all developed countries. Freedom of speech and expression, as well as basic human rights, are restricted in this totalitarian country. China should not be fully accepted into the world community until democratic reforms are implemented there. The Chinese people deserve nothing less.
John H. Armwood

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Malaysia 1st women Islamic judges get equal powers - The China Post

Malaysia 1st women Islamic judges get equal powers - The China Post

Updated Wednesday, August 11, 2010 3:20 pm TWN, By Julia Zappei, AP

Malaysia 1st women Islamic judges get equal powers

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's first women Islamic court judges are starting to hear cases this month after Shariah legal authorities empowered them with the same authority as their male colleagues, an official said Wednesday.

The two female judges were appointed in May to combat perceptions that Islamic courts unfairly favor men. But one senior judge said Shariah law provisions in this Muslim-majority country barred them from presiding over cases involving divorce and matters involving morality crimes, such as drinking and gambling.

However, a panel of top Malaysian Islamic judges subsequently decided the two women would have the same jurisdiction as male judges "in light of Shariah principles" to uphold justice, said Mohamad Na'im Mokhtar, an official in Malaysia's government-run department for the Islamic judiciary.

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Secret Jails Used To Enforce China's 'Hidden Rules' : NPR

Secret Jails Used To Enforce China's 'Hidden Rules' : NPR

If you consider that as recently as a generation ago, China did not have any trial lawyers or a criminal law, the country has come a long way in establishing a legal system.

But there are many instances in which the laws on the books don't have much effect, and society runs according to a completely different set of unwritten rules. Some Chinese call these "hidden rules."

An example of how these hidden rules work can be found just a couple minutes' walk from one of Beijing's busiest downtown intersections.

There sits a small hotel run by the government of South China's Guangxi province. Provincial officials occasionally use the hotel to secretly detain people who come to the capital to complain about local government abuses. They are kept under a sort of house arrest until they can be shipped home.

China has denied the existence of "black jails" to the United Nations' human rights commission, but almost anyone petitioning the government can show you one.

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