journalists of 64tianwang.com were in prison: Wang Jing, Zhang Jixin, Li Min, Sun Enwei, Li Chunhua, Wei Wenyuan, Xiao Jianfang, Li Zhaoxiu, Chen Mingyan and Wang Shurong. Liu Feiyue, founder of human rights website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, was detained in late 2016 and charged with “inciting subversion of state power”. His lawyer said that the charge was mostly related to opinions he had expressed publicly and posted on the website. In August, Lu Yuyu, who documented protests in China on Twitter and in a blog, was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. In September, Zhen Jianghua, executive director of online platform Human Rights Campaign in China, was criminally detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and later placed under residential surveillance at a designated location. Police confiscated numerous documents related to his website which contained reports from grassroots rights activists. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF In June, the State Council passed the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs, to come into effect on 1 February 2018. It codified farreaching state control over every aspect of religious practice, and extended power to authorities at all levels of the government to monitor, control and potentially punish religious practice. The revised law, which emphasized national security with a goal of curbing “infiltration and extremism”, could be used to further suppress the right to freedom of religion and belief, especially for Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and unrecognized churches.6 Falun Gong practitioners continued to be subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and torture and other illtreatment. Chen Huixia remained detained since 2016 for suspicion of “using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement”. In May, her trial was adjourned after her lawyer requested the court exclude evidence extracted through torture. 128 DEATH PENALTY In March, the President of the Supreme People’s Court announced that over the last 10 years, since the Court regained the authority to review and approve all death sentences, capital punishment “had been strictly controlled and applied prudently” and only applied “to an extremely small number of criminals for extremely severe offences”. However, the government continued to conceal the true extent of the use of the death penalty, despite more than four decades of requests from UN bodies and the international community for more information, and despite the Chinese authorities’ own pledges to bring about greater openness in the criminal justice system.7 TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION AND TIBETAN-POPULATED AREAS IN OTHER PROVINCES ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS In June, in his report of a 2016 visit to China, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated that while achievements towards alleviating poverty were generally “impressive”, the situation of Tibetans and Uighurs was deeply problematic, and “that most ethnic minorities in China are exposed to serious human rights challenges, including significantly higher poverty rates, ethnic discrimination and forced relocation”. Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan education advocate, remained in detention awaiting trial at the end of the year, without access to his family. He was taken away in early 2016 for giving an interview to the New York Times in which he expressed fears about the gradual extinction of the Tibetan language and culture. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Ethnic Tibetans continued to face discrimination and restrictions on their rights to freedom of religion and belief, of opinion and expression, of peaceful assembly and of association. At least six people set themselves on fire in Tibetan-populated areas during the year Amnesty International Report 2017/18