Word: bequelin
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...remains unclear. Chinese citizens have a legal right to protest, but they must first apply for permission from their local Public Security Bureau. Such requests are rarely granted, and most demonstrations in China don't have official sanction. The zones were met with skepticism from human rights advocates. Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with the NGO Human Rights Watch, called it "a protest pen" meant to segregate demonstrators. "It's a system that has been set in place to deflect criticism about the lack of freedom to protest, the lack of freedom of assembly and demonstration in China," he says...
...Olympics Terrorist Threat? The problem, according to Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher with New York City-based Human Rights Watch, is that the twin forces of repressive policies and rising Han immigration can create a fear in minority populations "that can lead people to do almost anything." It is precisely that kind of fear and bitterness that led to the ugly racial violence in Lhasa by Tibetans against Han Chinese that left more than a dozen Chinese immigrants dead and scores wounded...
However, that opinion is not shared by all. Nicholas Bequelin, Chinese researcher for the New-York-based Human Rights Watch, says it is "too soon to tell the nature" of the groups condemned by the authorities at the press conference. "Claims of terrorist catastrophe of course need to be taken seriously, but the government also needs to have hard evidence for the charges they are making. China has had a poor record there...
...previous terrorists attacks in Xinjiang have left many confused, and details of such terrorist attempts are always vague. "It's hard for me to imagine China manufacturing fake evidence for non-existent terrorist attacks from scratch, but I do not exclude the possibility of the facts being overblown," said Bequelin, "China has deliberately confused terrorists with ordinary criminals, political organizations, and dissidents before, and has used it as an excuse for repression...
...life and property of the people, as well as the coming Olympics," Wu Heping concluded at the ministry's press conference. But that promise alone would not do for an event under such international scrutiny. "This sounds like a typical PR line by the Ministry of Public Security," said Bequelin, "I think China doesn't need to reassure the international community with this. What they need to do is to be more precise, objective, and factual in disclosing and presenting criminal evidence for the claimed terrorist attacks...