People’s Square, in the middle of Shanghai, is not like Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Shanghai’s square is huge — but green. It feels in April a bit like Central Park.

A few months ago something extraordinary—for China—happened here. Thousands of people marched into People’s Square to protest the extension of a high-speed Maglev train line through their neighborhood — and the protest worked. The project was dropped. In China, that’s news. Almost amazing. Because most dissenters in China face a much grimmer outcome… Harassment. Beatings. Jail. Worse.

The Chinese government doesn’t like to talk about it. But we will, with people who know the problem well. This hour, from Shanghai: Dissent in China.

This show was pre-recorded in Shanghai, and we’ll have the full audio here on this page later today, but you can join the conversation right now. Post a comment below, and tell us what you think. -Tom Ashbrook

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Guests:

Our panel of guests for this important hour are people who know the often hidden world of dissent and punishment well.

Joining us in Shanghai is Jerome Cohen, one of the world’s top authorities on China’s legal system. He is a professor at New York University School of Law, a partner in the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and a senior fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He’s been following the law and dissent in China for more than 30 years.

Joining us from New York is Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, a group that promotes democratic reform in China. She is a professor of law emerita at City University of New York School of Law and a board member of Human Rights Watch/Asia.

And with us from Boston is journalist Leu Siew Ying. She worked for the South China Morning Post from 2002 to 2007 in the southern province of Guangdong, and covered local protests there. (See her prize-winning article “From Village Protest to National Flashpoint” [pdf].) She is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, studying grassroots democracy in China.

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Recent protests:

The video below documents the successful Shanghai protest against the extension of a Maglev train line on January 12, 2008:

Taishi Protests Against Corruption in 2005 (Washington Post)
The Washington Post summarizes the story of the protests in Taishi that our guest Leu Siew Ying witnessed and reported from the ground. Her article for the South China Morning Post, “From Village Protest to National Flashpoint,” (pdf) won the Lorenzo Natali Prize, the European Union’s annual journalism award.

Protests against Chemical Pollution in the Village of Huaxi
In 2005, tens of thousands of peasants took to the streets to protest contamination of their water and soil by local chemical plants. An Australian blogger living in Hong Kong has aggregated many news reports on the protests.

Tibet:

Twelve Suggestions for Dealing With the Tibetan Situation
On March 22, a group of 30 Chinese intellectuals signed their names to a document titled “Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibetan Situation.” (See The Washington Post’s story.) Here’s suggestion number four, which was read on the air in this hour:

4. In our opinion, such Cultural-Revolution-like language as “the Dalai Lama is a jackal in Buddhist monk’s robes and an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast” used by the Chinese Communist Party leadership in the Tibet Autonomous Region is of no help in easing the situation, nor is it beneficial to the Chinese government’s image. As the Chinese government is committed to integrating into the international community, we maintain that it should display a style of governing that conforms to the standards of modern civilization.

Australian Tourist Video of the Riots
An Australian tourist was caught in Lhasa when the riots broke out. He videotaped what he saw and told his story.

Swedish Tourist Interviewed by Government Run TV
Swedish tourist in Lhasa during the outbreak of the riots is interviewed by CCTV about what he witnessed.

The Opposite End of China – Right and Wrong
An American living in Xinjiang province in western China blogged about the recent protests, including some graphic pictures of the injured and dead. His post elicited a heated debate with comments both from inside China and abroad.

New Museum Offers the Official Line on Tibet
Jim Yardley of The New York Times reports on the opening of Beijing’s first museum devoted to Tibet, and the official version of Tibetan history: “Across China, schoolchildren are taught that Tibet is an inalienable part of the country. Tour guides in Lhasa must follow approved versions of history. Dissenting scholars have been marginalized, censored and, in a handful of cases, imprisoned. Questioning official history can expose scholars to accusations of separatism. A Tibetan scholar, Dolma Kyab, has been jailed since 2005 after writing an unapproved history of Tibet.”

Imprisoned dissident Hu Jia:

Hujia & Jinyan’s spirit
A blog aggregating English-langauge news on Hu Jia, including a collection of links to reports on his imprisonment in early April.

Video: Prisoner in Freedom City
Imprisoned under strict house arrest, human rights activist Hu Jia filmed a sad and nuanced video documentary about his captivity from his window.

Tiananmen Square: June 4, 1989

Background on the 1989 Democracy Movement (HRIC)
Human Rights in China compiles resources on the crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests on June 4th, 1989, including a chronology of the events leading up to the crackdown, a memorial archive, information on the Tiananmen Mothers, and other multimedia resources.

Remembering Tiananmen in Hong Kong (MSNBC)
On June 4th each year tens of thousands of people gather in Hong Kong for a candle light vigil to remember the crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen in 1989. MSNBC tells a picture story of the 2007 vigil.