Article evaluation on Human Rights

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notes

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  • Human rights are what you are essentially born with.
  • Basic principles of human rights are the right to speech, religion, freedom.
  • Based on moral principles.
  • Everyone has human rights no matter what sex, race, or religion they are.
  • Human rights sparked controversy amongst the entire world.
  • A lot of blood has been spilled which has possibly brought upon many arguments on human rights.
  1. Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Much is relevant to the article topic. Had many facts and details. Nothing really distracted me.
  2. Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? The article was completely informational and non-biased.I did not feel as if the article talked from only one point of view because the article was only giving facts.
  3. Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? No
  4. Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? Yes all of the citations that I have checked are all currently working and supports the claims that were made in the article.
  5.  Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?  Yes, each information has came from articles, books, online. The sources that I have seen are all neutral.
  6. Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? no
  7.  Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? There are no current conversations on this article.
  8. How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? This article is rated C-class and yes it is a part of a wikiproject.
  9. How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? The article discusses human rights compared to class is that it goes into detail with origins, the past, how the idea of it came about.  

Topic Selection, Sources, and Justification: Human Rights in China

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In the country of China, it is argued that rights of citizens have sparked much controversy. Although some parts of the world have somewhat “rights” it is said by human rights activist that they are being restricted by the corrupt government. They have been trying to defend every individual's rights at their own risks. Consequently, it is unacceptable to go against the governments words and if so, she or he would have to pay consequences such as confinement or torture. For example, a human rights activist named Huang Yan was restricted from taking any medications to help with her Ovarian cancer and diabetes. These restrictions were consequences due to her being a human rights activist. When she was released, she sought for medical attention because her medications being confiscated, the cancer had spread throughout her entire body.  The government even went as far as threatening the hospital where she was supposed to get surgery at. But unfortunately, the hospital denied giving her treatment.[1] What has me interested in this topic is not only because I have some Chinese roots, but I would like to learn more about the country itself during the process of my assignments. Although I am majority Vietnamese, it would be nice to learn more about my Chinese blood.

            What Huang Yan has gone through, is one of many injustices that has occurred in China. The people have no say or right to fight for their rights. The citizens are done as they are told and their only right is to obey[2]. As many human rights activists suffer harsh consequences, it only discourages the others who want to fight for what they believe in. This causes them to become fearful of ever speaking about the government. The ones who are fearful can only think about what defenders of human rights have been through being put in jail, tortured, or abused. [3]The questions about human rights in China being restricted are always occurring. Many articles have argued and stated that the rights for citizens in China aren't necessarily provided. Even though their rights should be sacred and inalienable, they have grown to believe that their only right is to obey.

Bibliography for Topic Selection

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  1. "Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right." Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right | Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.cecc.gov/freedom-of-expression-in-china-a-privilege-not-a-right.
  2. Phillips, Tom. “'Your only right is to obey': lawyer describes torture in China's secret jails.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Jan. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/lawyer-torture-china-secret-jails-xie-yang.
  3. "World Report 2015: China." Human Rights Watch. January 25, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.
  4. "China." Human Rights Watch. January 27, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.
  5. Hornby, Lucy, Luna Lin, and Christian Shepherd. 2016. "China police round up protesting coal miners." The Financial Times, 2016. Business Insights: Essentials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).
  6.  York, Geoffrey. 2005. "Death-penalty debate grips China after wrongful execution." Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada), 2005. Biography in Context, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).

GAN Integrity. "China Corruption Report." GANBACP. Accessed October 10, 2017. http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/china.

Main argument: The Chinese government has violated many rules and many have claimed that that it is very corrupted.

Main ideas

  • Corruption, bribery, abuse of power
  • Companies have said that the justice system is not just, the judges decisions are not well thought out but are chosen when they are bribed by the government (this means unfair trials)
  • The law enforcement abuse their power
  • In China it is hard to rely on policemen according to the article , "police services are unreliable in protecting them from crime and enforcing the law"[4]
  • Bribes are often being made in China, "Companies are likely to experience bribery, political interference or facilitation payments when acquiring public services and dealing with the judicial system."[5]
  • In civil society every bit if social media is monitored by the government
  • Journalists are often being handcuffed because of their content that they expose of the governments stated in the article, "The charges on which journalists were detained were apparently trumped-up to mask the government’s efforts to cracked down on critical reporting"[6]
  • Chinese officials do things their own way and sometimes do not do things according to rule

Contribution Outline

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Wikipedia Entry: Human Rights in China

Summary of the article: The rights in China is a topic spoken upon with much controversy. The government of China denies that there is no restriction of natural rights, corruption or any other claims which harms the nation's reputation. However, the people of China and activists have argued against the government that it is indeed true as to where they are facing these real world problems. The freedom of speech is restricted to an extent, the use of social media is heavily monitored by the government, and any movements are restricted in China (movements for example in the States, "Black Lives Matter" would would not be allowed in China). It is also said in the article that people who have argued against are confined, abused physically and mentally, and ultimately tortured. Only the people of China experience these problems and it is said that the world has not seen the true sides of the Chinese government just yet.

Things I would like to contribute: First I would like to add some type of story about someone to the "Torture" section of the article to give the readers an example of someone who has experienced it. I would like to add a lot of details that I would like to also further go into detail into freedom of speech and the media and how people are restricted of their inalienable right. I would like to add some evidence and details in the things that the rest of the world has not seen of China.

Citations:

"Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right." Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right | Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.cecc.gov/freedom-of-expression-in-china-a-privilege-not-a-right.

Phillips, Tom. “'Your only right is to obey': lawyer describes torture in China's secret jails.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Jan. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/lawyer-torture-china-secret-jails-xie-yang.

"World Report 2015: China." Human Rights Watch. January 25, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.

"China." Human Rights Watch. January 27, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.

Creating New Article or Improving?

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Entry That I Will Be Improving: Human rights in China

Sources being used:

"Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right." Freedom of Expression in China: A Privilege, Not a Right | Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.cecc.gov/freedom-of-expression-in-china-a-privilege-not-a-right.

Phillips, Tom. “'Your only right is to obey': lawyer describes torture in China's secret jails.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Jan. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/lawyer-torture-china-secret-jails-xie-yang.

"World Report 2015: China." Human Rights Watch. January 25, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.

"China." Human Rights Watch. January 27, 2016. Accessed October 17, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/china-and-tibet.

 Hornby, Lucy, Luna Lin, and Christian Shepherd. 2016. "China police round up protesting coal miners." The Financial Times, 2016. Business Insights: Essentials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).

 York, Geoffrey. 2005. "Death-penalty debate grips China after wrongful execution." Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada), 2005. Biography in Context, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).

Whats Missing and what I will contribute to: Details and further explaining in "torture section". Some areas are too vague for example in "wrongfully executions" area. What about it? Whats the story behind it? How does that correlate to human rights? Furthermore information about media, freedom of speech, inalienable rights. There should be a paragraph about China's government corruption. Wages, salaries, and employment of workers.

Contribution Drafts:

Note: That the *words in stars* are the sections I will be contributing in the current article

*Torture Section* Some strategies of torture inside jail cells include deprivation of sleep, food, and medication. The strategies are all quite inhumane conditions. A case such as Huang Yan's, included the deprivation of medication. She had diabetes and ovarian cancer which required her to take medication in order to maintain order. Tests have shown that the ovarian cancer have spread througbout her body.[7]

*Rural Workers* It is also found that rural workers have been paid under minimum wage to nothing at all. A group of coal miners in Shuangyashan were being paid little to nothing. With the families and people whom they had to care for, each and everyone of the workers protested for the money that they deserved.[8]

*Political activists and protests* Human rights activists continuously fight for the rights of the Chinese people. But, it is questioned if any of these protests have made any impacts in society. They do whatever they can by protesting, slandering the governments names on social media, and go as far as getting law suits involved. People such as Xie Xang has done all of this. He ended up suffering the consequence do to his actions.[9]

*Wrongful Executions* An estimate of 5,000 to 12,000 people are executed every year in China. Most of these executions are due to crimes that are seen as intolerable to China's society. There are some cases that have been held wrongly. An instance of Nie Shubin indicated that he was an innocent man just a decade after his execution. He was accused of rape and murder of a women. Later on, the actual murderer confessed to the police that Nie Shubin had not done a single thing but it was he himself, the murderer, who was responsible for the action.[10]

*Torture Techniques* In China's prisons, a variety of different techniques are used on prisoners that causes extreme pain. [11]

These include:

  • Whippings with cables
  • Punches and kicks
  • Beatings to buttocks
  • Blows given with pointy or prickly plants
  • Beatings with nail embedded clubs
  • Twisting of limbs
  • Being forced to remain in painful positions for amounts of time
  • Hanging by the hands
  • Electric shock to the body
  • Forced feeding
  • Sleep or nutrition deprivation
  • Dislocation of joints
  • Suffocation
  • Refusal of sufficient medical care

Main Points:

  • The government in China guarantees the freedom of speech however, activists have proven otherwise
  • Types of Consequences that are acted upon people
  • Whether or not protesting is efficient
  • Rural workers wages and how they are treated differently than the upperclass.
  • Police brutality and how they act upon certain peoples.
  • Government Corruption
  • How the Chinese government abuses their power
  • Confinement over nonviolent crimes and how they lead to execution
  • Execution system and how it affects the innocent
  • Types of torture techniques that are used

Audience must be able to read and tell that it is not biased, must not have weasel words, stay relevant to topic, do not use the words "I" "You" or "Me."

Why is this topic important? Well this topic relates to the history of human rights because the people of China are experiencing the things currently that has happened in the past. Essentially history is somewhat repeating itself in China. The fact that men and women are given consequences for what they are saying, which they "have the freedom of speech" to, is ironic because of the fact that their natural rights are not being followed through. The government abuses its power, people are being tortured and treated inhumanely, and there are claims that the upperclass of society such as the rich and government, are treating the lower class as if they are non human. Wages, speech, morality, and right to protest have all been altered with.

  1. ^ Haas, Benjamin (2017-02-16). "China 'eliminating civil society' by targeting human rights activists – report". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  2. ^ Phillips, Tom (2017-01-23). "'Your only right is to obey': lawyer describes torture in China's secret jails". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  3. ^ "World Report 2015: China". Human Rights Watch. 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2017-09-27.
  4. ^ GAN. "China Corruption Report". Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  5. ^ GAN. "China Corruption Report". Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  6. ^ GAN. "China Corruption Report". Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  7. ^ Haas, Benjamin (2017-02-16). "China 'eliminating civil society' by targeting human rights activists – report". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  8. ^ Hornby, Lucy, Luna Lin, and Christian Shepherd. 2016. "China police round up protesting coal miners." The Financial Times, 2016. Business Insights: Essentials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).
  9. ^ Phillips, Tom (2017-01-23). "'Your only right is to obey': lawyer describes torture in China's secret jails". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  10. ^ York, Geoffrey. 2005. "Death-penalty debate grips China after wrongful execution." Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada), 2005. Biography in Context, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2017).
  11. ^ (ISHR), International Society for Human Rights. "Overview of the most common methods of torture and abuse in the People's Republic of China". igfm.eu (in German). Retrieved 2017-10-24.