Earlier this month Taiwan concluded a United Nations-type review of its implementation of the two principal human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It is the first time Taiwan has undergone an outside, comprehensive evaluation of its human rights record in a wide range of areas. Although this on-site review received little international or local media attention, its effects on the island’s human rights should not be underestimated.

During his recent summit meeting with President Barack Obama and his meetings with congressional leaders earlier this month, Chinese President Hu Jintao was pressed on human rights issues. CFR expertJerome A. Cohen says it’s possible that if public pressure is sufficient, Hu’s successor, Xi Jinping, will be more amenable to improving the human rights situation when he becomes president in 2012. Cohen says that despite the much improved economic situation in China, the gap between rich and poor is growing and pressure for democratic change is coming from the “uprooted.” The huge gap between rich and poor “is spreading discontent,” says Cohen. “Some leader is going to have to do more than improve objective economic and social conditions.”

There really are “two Chinas” when it comes to criminal justice — and injustice. There is the China where thousands of law reformers — scholars, lawyers, legislative draftsmen, judges, prosecutors and officials — painstakingly labor for years to produce laws, interpretations and regulations designed to bring greater fairness and accuracy to a system that has long cried out for both.

为了抗议中国政府拒绝其入境回家的决定，上海人权活动人士冯正虎露宿东京成田机场，不寻常地抗议了三个多月。在今年二月，他终于入境，从而名留史册。中国政府才刚第八次拒绝他入境，就突然让步，终结了这场举世瞩目的抗议活动，避免其继续破坏当时即将开幕的上海世博会氛围。

After camping out at Tokyo’s Narita airport for over three months in an extraordinary protest against the Chinese government’s refusal to allow him to return home, Shanghai human rights activist Feng Zhenghu made history last February. Having only recently turned him away for the eighth time, the government suddenly yielded, ending the worldwide publicity that had been poisoning the atmosphere for the impending opening of Shanghai’s World Expo.