Why political prisoners matter
Today, May 12, marks the 40th anniversary of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization created to monitor the Soviet Union’s compliance with the Helsinki Accords, notes Natan… Read more »
Category: Communist regimes
Cuba: another post-Communist failed state?
There are lessons for Cuba in “Reflections on Unfinished Revolutions,” a report by the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, which examines the state of democracy in Eastern Europe 25 years after… Read more »
U.S. poised to end ban on arms sales to Vietnam, keep sanctions on Myanmar
The United States isn’t ready to fully shed sanctions in Myanmar, instead awaiting progress on issues including human rights as the government run by former opposition leader Aung San Suu… Read more »
Cuba’s ‘big change’ – China-on-a-daiquiri?
Fidel’s brother [Raul Castro] has clearly been thinking ahead in a way the aging Fidelistas in the Cuban Communist Party have not, notes Alma Guillermoprieto. He may be trying… Read more »
Cubans getting bolder in acts against government
More than a month after ordinary Cubans jubilantly welcomed President Barack Obama to Havana, the Communist government is finding it hard to dampen the afterglow, AP reports: But few people… Read more »
India denies visas to Chinese dissidents
India has declined to issue visas to two Chinese activists hoping to attend a conference on promoting democracy, days after it revoked a visa for an exiled ethnic Uighur leader… Read more »
China prompts criticism with new curbs on foreign NGOs
China took a major step on Thursday in President Xi Jinping’s movement away from Western influences and toward stronger social control, as it passed a new law aimed at limiting the work… Read more »
Uighur case highlights most sustained crackdown since Tiananmen
Patriotic chest-thumping over the weekend in India gave way to embarrassment and bitterness as the government made a very public U-turn on issuing a visa to Uighur dissident Dolkun Isa, The Washington… Read more »
Free speech ‘under siege’ in Vietnam
More than 100 Vietnamese – an unprecedented amount – tried to run in the May 22 election as independents, including activists bent on testing the party’s sincerity about fostering inclusiveness… Read more »
Beware illusions about post-Castro Cuba
Under a hegemonic party system, the emerging regime in Cuba will not rely on its revolutionary past or one man’s charisma, but on the institutionalization of a dominant political party,… Read more »