Advocacy and Outreach

Executive Director John Kamm went on the road in May and June to continue advocacy and outreach efforts. In the lead-up to the Sunnylands Summit, he traveled to Washington, DC, to brief governmental bodies, advocacy groups, and think tanks on US-China relations with a focus on the meeting between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping.

Following the conclusion of the summit, Kamm traveled to Beijing and Hong Kong. In Beijing, he met with representatives from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Supreme People’s Procuratorate. He also met with ambassadors and senior diplomats from the EU mission and the embassies of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

During his trip, Kamm continued to secure support for Dui Hua’s international symposium on women in prison. He met with symposium partners at Renmin University in Beijing and the University of Hong Kong, which will host the February event. Thus far, Dui Hua has confirmed presenters representing the United Nations and nearly a dozen countries including China, Argentina, Norway, and the Philippines. Fundraising efforts are underway and we welcome your support!

Hu Zhicheng told Dui Hua that raising the profile of his case improved his treatment during detention. Photo Credit: AP

In July, American citizen Hu Zhicheng (胡志成) visited Dui Hua’s San Francisco office with his family to express their gratitude for assisting with his case. Hu was detained in China over a commercial dispute in 2008. Although the charges were dropped in 2010, Hu was prohibited from leaving the country for another three years. He told Dui Hua that raising the profile of his case in the media and with the US and Chinese governments improved his treatment during detention.

This summer, Kamm sat on two distinct panels. At the University of Notre Dame’s China Forum, he addressed country experts from academia, the press, and other fields. At the 1990 Institute in San Mateo, he spoke to local high school teachers interested in adding China content to their curriculums.

Staff Updates

After serving two and a half years as Manager and Senior Manager of Development & Programs, Daisy Yau is leaving Dui Hua in September. Yau was instrumental in the successful implementation of Dui Hua’s 2012 juvenile justice exchange and the launch of Dui Hua’s new logo and expanded mission in 2011. She intends to return to legal practice. We wish her the best of luck with her new endeavors!

With Yau’s departure, former Publications & Communications Officer Megan Ko has been promoted to Programs & Publications Manager and Research Officer Luke Wong has been promoted to Research Manager. In the coming months, Ko’s principal focus will be the women in prison symposium. She is assisted by Rene Kamm, who joined Dui Hua’s San Francisco office as Programs & Publications Associate in July.

As part of the reorganization, Irene Kamm is now Senior Manager of Finance & Development, and Kevin Li, Dui Hua’s longest-serving employee, has been promoted to Senior Manager of Operations & Technology.

The Economist: Dui Hua Execution Stats the “Best”

Dui Hua’s decade-long tally of executions in China was called the “best figures available” in the August 3rd edition of The Economist. The article, entitled “Strike Less Hard,” uses the data to examine the drastic decline in the number of executions in China, which Dui Hua estimates fell from 12,000 per year in 2002 to 3,000 per year in 2012—the country is still believed to be the world’s largest executioner. Although the Communist Party guards execution statistics as a state secret, Dui Hua’s estimates have become widely accepted. The Economist quotes Executive Director John Kamm as calling the decline “the most significant positive development in the human rights situation in China in recent decades.”