Increasing Numbers of Chinese Citizens Go Abroad to Petition

• Author: China Law Digest compiled news

On April 5, 2011, Shanghai woman Hu Yan became the first Chinese citizen to go to the United Nations (U.N.) to protest a government decision, for her home had been demolished by the Shanghai Government in order to construct the World Expo venue and she had not received any form of compensation Soon afterward, Chen Xuxing of Hubei and Yang Haihan of Changchun joined her, due to similar infringements upon their rights. They became the first group of Chinese citizens to appeal to the U.N. After attracting public attention, these three people disappeared from the appeal group one by one. Some news sources suggested that perhaps Chinese authorities had privately reached compensation agreements with the petitioners.

On April 8, former New York Times Beijing Bureau researcherZhao Yan went to the U.N. to...