China has been criticized by the international community because of a crackdown on human rights. The Chinese government has been cracking down on dissidents who support the Jasmine revolution after the middle of February. Jasmine demonstrations were planned three times in some major cities on February 20th and the 27th and March 6th. The Jasmine revolution is a pro-democracy movement which started in Tunisia. Sharing information through the social network services played an important role in the fall of Ben Ali’s regime and in making the revolution successful. The revolution has spread throughout other countries such as Egypt and Libya. China was also affected by the Jasmine revolution, and some university students and artists planned the revolution online. However, the demonstration was not huge because the Chinese government cracked down in advance.

China imprisoned and detained a number of dissidents. Dissidents, lawyers and bloggers such as Ai Weiwei, who is a famous artist, and Ran Yunfei, who is a writer, have been arrested or placed under house arrest. They wrote some comments about supporting the revolution on their blogs. According to Human Rights Watch, more than two-hundred people have been threatened with imprisonment or arrest in China since the middle of February.

The crackdown in China has been criticized by the international community and the human rights organizations. Hillary Clinton, who is the U.S. Secretary of State, said that human rights situation in China is getting worse. She emphasized that China should release the dissidents and guarantee their freedom. Amnesty International expressed a concern, “They harshly cracked down on some dissidents even though they are world famous artists. We worried about how they would handle unknown protesters.” William Hague, who is the England foreign minister, said, “The Chinese government has to reveal about Ai Weiwei’s situation. We hope he will be released.” Guido Westerwelle, who is the German foreign minister, urged that Ai Weiwei should be released. Franch government said through the statement of the Franch foreign ministry, “We are concerned about Ai Weiwei and his family’s situation.”

However, China has resisted these criticisms arguing (because) they interfere in internal affairs. In the past, when the international community criticized China, they used to make an effort to silence these criticisms by releasing some dissidents. Today, however, they respond strongly against these criticisms. The South China Morning Post analyzed this situation on April 6th by saying that keeping silent regarding the demands of the international community was an ominous signal that China will repress the dissidents continuously.