Human rights defenders and activists
Severe crackdowns on human rights defenders continued. The authorities arrested and detained many human rights defenders and activists for lengthy periods under unjustifiable, broadly defined and vaguely worded charges. Without access to family and to lawyers of their choosing, as well as effective fair trial mechanisms, many human rights defenders were reportedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment while in detention. The authorities often continued to monitor, harass and intimidate individuals after their release and restrict their freedom of movement.
Six years after the unprecedented “709 crackdown” against human rights defenders and lawyers, which involved a series of coordinated raids across China, many lawyers remained in prison or under strict surveillance.
Detained since January 2018 and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in June 2020, prominent human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng was finally permitted a visit at Nanjing Prison on 9 May from his wife and son. According to his wife, he appeared to be malnourished and in deteriorating health.
Legal scholar Xu Zhiyong and former human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi were permitted to speak to their lawyers in January following lengthy incommunicado detention. Both men revealed that they had been tortured by being bound to an iron “tiger chair” with their limbs contorted for more than 10 hours per day for many days. They were indicted for “subversion of state power” in October.
Xu Zhiyong’s partner, the human rights defender Li Qiaochu, was again detained on 6 February. On 15 March, she was charged with “inciting subversion of state power” for demanding Xu Zhiyong’s release and better treatment. Her mental health deteriorated during her detention.
Formally arrested in 2017, human rights lawyer Li Yuhan, who defended other human rights lawyers, stood trial on 20 October charged with “fraud” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Former prisoner of conscience and human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was a vital voice for the vulnerable for many years, remained missing, his exact location and condition unclear since August 2017.
Human rights defender Yang Maodong (pen name Guo Feixiong) went missing on 29 January, the morning after he began a hunger strike at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport to protest against the authorities preventing him from leaving the country to visit his critically ill wife in the USA.
Human rights lawyer Chang Weiping was officially charged with “subversion of state power” on 16 April, six months after police officers detained him for publicly detailing torture he experienced when detained in January 2020. At the end of the year, he was being held incommunicado at Feng County Detention Centre.
Disgusting regime at its best doing what it does best, Russia is still miles away internally from level of insanity this psychopath regime conducts on its own citizens. No wonder that 50% of China is an utter slavery, poverty ridden s**thole with people who do this in charge. How can a country ever succeed at anything if nobody is even allowed to publicly speak their mind or defend others, as that instantly makes them a target.
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