This is the third of a five-part series of lectures and conferences at Furman regarding China’s transformations and current challenges.  The event is free and open to the public.

        The opening address will take place Monday, Apr. 10 at 4 p.m. in the Younts Conference Center.  Han Dongfang, director of the China Labor Bulletin, and Wang Dan, a former Tiananmen Square student leader and current Harvard University student, will speak on “Rule of Law and Civil Society: Effective Tools for Promoting Human Rights in China?”  A question-and-answer session will follow. 

      Lorne Craner, president of the International Republican Institute and former Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under Secretary of State Colin Powell, will deliver the keynote address on Monday at 8 p.m. in the Younts Conference Center.

      On Tuesday, Apr. 11 at 4 p.m., a panel discussion, “Promoting Human Rights in China:  What Role Can the International Community Play?,” will be led by John Kamm, founder and director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a non-profit organization working to improve human rights in China, and Nicholas Becquelin, the senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch. 

      The purpose of the “China’s Global Rise” conference is to inform Americans about China and how its transformation will affect the world.  For more information, contact the Riley Institute website at http://www.furman.edu/riley/ or call (864) 294-3253.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION FOR SPEAKERS

Han Dongfang is the founder and director of China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based group that promotes workers’ rights and independent trade unionism in China.  He broadcasts a call-in radio show for Radio Free Asia that focuses on workers’ struggles in China and reaches an estimated audience of 40 million.  A former squad leader in the People’s Liberation Army and railway maintenance worker, Han joined the government’s first independent trade union, the Beijing Workers Autonomous Federation, and became its leader before the union was banned by the government.  He spent 22 months in prison after being placed on the Chinese government’s “Most Wanted” list.  He was forcibly expelled from China in 1993 and now lives with his family in Hong Kong.

Wang Dan was placed at the top of the Chinese government’s “Most Wanted Beijing Student Leaders” list for his leadership role in the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989.  He played a key role in organizing “democracy salons” at Beijing University to discuss politically sensitive topics prior to the Tiananmen Movement.  Wang spent four years in prison before he was released in Feb. 1993.  In 1998, he was exiled to the United States.  He is currently completing a dissertation at Harvard University and remains active in working for greater human rights, democracy and rule of law for the citizens of China.

Lorne Whitney Craner has been the president of the International Republican Institute since 2004, when he completed a three-year term as Assistant Secretary of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under Secretary of State Colin Powell.  As Assistant Secretary, he initiated the first U.S. government programs to promote democracy in China and received the State Department’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 2004.  The International Republican Institute conducts programs outside the United States to promote democracy, free markets and rule of law.  Craner is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and sits on the boards of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Chairman’s Advisory Council of the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Internews Network, a nonprofit organization supporting open media worldwide.

John Kamm is the founder and director of the Dui Hua Foundation.  The non-profit foundation works to engage the Chinese government in constructive dialogue to improve human rights, secure the release and better treatment of political and religious prisoners and promote the rule of law.  He also directs the Project in Human Rights Diplomacy at Stanford University and is a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations.  Traveling to China over 70 times since 1990, Kamm has intervened on behalf of hundreds of Chinese detainees and prisoners of conscience.  He was awarded the Department of Commerce’s Best Global Practices Award by President Clinton in 1997 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by President Bush in 2001.  

Nicholas Becquelin has served as Human Rights Watch’s Hong Kong-based China researcher since January 2006.  Prior to joining HRW, he served in 2002 as Senior Researcher and from 2003-2005 as Research Director and Legal Representative for Human Rights in China.  From 1996 to 1999, he was a Research Fellow at the French Center for Research on Contemporary China. 

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