China and East Asia

China | Japan | Mongolia | North Korea | South Korea | Taiwan

Serious human rights violations are committed in China. Each year, more people are executed in the country than anywhere else. Prisoners are tortured, protestors are beaten with excessive force and free speech is repressed. Asylum seekers are forced to return to the country they have fled, without their claim being properly assessed. Despite all of this, foreign governments continue to fail in challenging China's disastrous human rights record.
 
There are also continuing serious human rights abuses across the East Asia region more widely. Freedom of expression is significantly limited in South Korea. In North Korea the government fails to uphold its population's basic right to food and health care. Most East Asian governments, including Japan, continue to apply the death penalty.

Read more about the countries in this region in our 2013 Annual Report

Support Gao Zhishseng For nearly a decade Gao Zhisheng was one of China's top lawyer. He won awards and was respected by the people and government alike. But he became increasingly outspoken about human rights abuses in the country. And for this he has been severely punished.    He was imprisoned without his family knowing where he was. He was brutally tortured. And he and his family were put under illegal house arrest. In 2009 he disappeared and again his family didn't know where he was. In 2011 it was revealed that he was in prison, where he remains to this day. Please show your support for Gao today: Call for Gao's immediate release