VINCENT PORCHER ETHNOPHOTOGRAPHY

China, No Rights Land

Between technology and human rights, it is a two-speed race that takes place in the first state of the cyberworld. Internet information muzzled by the power in place, the Chinese population evolves under the bell, in the microcosm of social networks censored and exclusively national (1).  - A certain feeling of emptiness in the imperial palace. Omnipresence of the police and omerta for the population. Nobody disputes the power in place (2). - Scenes of desolation in downtown Zhangjiajie. The poor neighborhoods are razed after expelling its inhabitants, who will not be relocated. The state hunts the poor in the name of health and safety. The demolition landscapes will soon be replaced by expensive real estate complexes that will welcome the new rich. This scene is more and more common in China, it first touched Beijing, but it is found today in all major cities like here in Zhangjiajie in Hunan. To dislodge by the police are several thousand people who are pushed to the exodus. The administrative procedures to relocate, tedious and not always conclusive lead these Mingongs "migrants from within" to rural areas (3). - Homeless person resulting from the state's expulsions to eradicate the working poor of the big cities (4-9).

 

Behind the avatar scenery of Wulingyuan National Park, a biodiversity hotspot endangered by the consumption of rare species (5). - Where human rights are violated, we are no longer respecting species at risk. The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) red list seems to serve as a menu in China (6).

 

Surveillance, the pillar of totalitarianism. Tiananmen Square, the must-see tourist spot has high-security neighbourhoods for the Chinese people. Since the protests of the April 1989 opposition that ended in massacre, the government has removed any right of assembly. Today, it is impossible to penetrate the emblematic place of the capital without going under the yoke of the omnipresent cameras with facial recognition and police checkpoints with a metal detector (7). - Standard equipment of the police. Telescopic lance with a taser to control a man at the neck. China, the world's leading economic powerhouse and also the world's largest exporter of torture and law enforcement tools (8).

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