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Activism on human and civil rights might still land you in hot water in China, but the assertion of consumer rights is a different matter. In Shanghai, the local government recently announced that it will open consumer advice bureaus for prisoners in eleven of its jails.
Even with all the openess in China over the past few years, theres no knowing how and when you might land in trouble. In recent days an AIDS activist was jailed for proposing a vigil to remember the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen uprising. This week, news came out that a Catholic Bishop has been detained, for the second time in a month. But there are some signs that people are able to fight back through the legal system.
Although many current newspaper headlines are focusing on the threat of bird flu in China, a health problem of a different kind is starting to get attention from Chinese authorities. Death by suicide is now the number 1 killer of Chinese people aged 15 to 34.
Iraqi insurgents have kidnapped three Japanese civilians and threatened to burn them alive unless Japan agrees to withdraw its troops from Iraq. The government of prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said it will refuse to accept such a demand. On the same day, Koizumi himself announced he would not seek re-election, according to the rules of his party. Meanwhile, a Japanese court ruled that Koizumis visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo are illegal.
Last year, the United States issued 6,000 visas for adoptions of children from China - the most of any foreign nation. As more and more Jewish families adopt children from China, there are more advice books and Chinese language classes, and the look of Hebrew schools is beginning to change, too.
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