- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Mar 3, 2024
- Event Description
Authorities have transferred a Tibetan Buddhist monastery administrator and a village official – both arrested last month on suspicion of leading protests against the construction of a dam – to a large detention center in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, two sources with knowledge of the situation told Radio Free Asia.
Tenzin, the senior administrator of Wonto Monastery in Wangbuding township, and a village official named Tamdrin, were transferred from where they were previously detained to the larger Dege County Detention Center Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on March 3, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by Chinese officials.
The men, who both go by just one name, were among the more than 1,000 Tibetan monks and residents of Dege County who were arrested on Feb. 23 for peacefully appealing to halt the construction of the dam on the Drichu River (Jinsha, in Chinese).
Some of these detainees, including Tenzin and Tamdrin, were severely beaten.
The dam construction is expected to cause the forced resettlement of at least two major villages, Wonto and Shipa, and the destruction of several monasteries with religious and historical significance, including the Wonto and Yena monasteries.
On Feb. 27, Chinese police released around 40 Tibetans, even as they forbade them from communicating with outsiders and imposed strict restrictions on the movement of people to and from the various monasteries and villages on both sides of the river.
Checking social media feeds
Sources, however, told RFA on Thursday that Chinese authorities are continuing to arrest more people and have cracked down on the people who posted videos of the arrests and protests that took place in February.
“The police are regularly checking people’s WeChat and TikTok accounts for any evidence of them having shared the videos and for communication with the outside world,” the first source said. “There’s severe restrictions on movement on either side of the river and no internet connection.”
The authorities are carrying out widespread, daily search and interrogations to find the people who posted the videos of black-clad Chinese police restraining the monks, who could be seen kneeling and crying out.
“People who send information out and videos like this face imprisonment and torture,” Maya Wang, interim China director of Human Rights Watch told RFA last month in the wake of the first round of arrests of more than 100 Tibetans that took place on Feb. 22. “Even calling families in the diaspora are reasons for imprisonment.”
“What we do see now are actually … typical scenes of repression in Tibet, but we don’t often get to see [what] repression looks like in Tibet anymore,” Wang said.
‘Open prison’ in Dege
The police are monitoring the monks and locals very closely, and the situation is like an “open prison as they are exercising extreme control,” said the second source.
“The monks and local people are very angry that they were arrested and subjected to beatings and torture for making peaceful appeals,” he added. “They say that if the government really forces them to move, there may be violent protests.”
Chinese officials have, however, made clear that the Gangtuo Dam project will continue, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation told RFA earlier this month.
The Gangtuo Dam is part of a plan that China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced in 2012 to build a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu. It would be located at Wontok (Gangtuo, in Chinese) in Dege county, northwest of Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The total planned capacity of the 13 hydropower stations is 13,920 megawatts.
Over the past two weeks, Tibetans in exile have been holding solidarity rallies in cities in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia and India.
Global leaders and Tibetan advocacy groups have condemned China’s actions, calling for the immediate release of those detained.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Land rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 17, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 24, 2024
- Event Description
Chinese police on Saturday began wide-scale, rigorous interrogations of Tibetans arrested for protesting a dam project, beating some of them so badly that they required medical attention, three sources told Radio Free Asia.
On Friday, RFA reported exclusively that police had arrested more than a 1,000 Tibetans — both Buddhist monks and local residents — of Wangbuding township in Dege county of Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, in central China.
The detainees were “slapped and beaten severely each time they refused to answer important questions,” one source told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity for personal safety. “Many had to be taken to the hospital.”
Since Feb. 14, monks and residents had been peacefully protesting the planned construction of the Gangtuo hydropower dam on the Drichu River, known as Jinsha River in Chinese.
The dam will force two major communities to be relocated and submerge several monasteries, including the Wonto Monastery, famous for ancient murals dating back to the 13th century.
“One of the monks from Wonto Monastery was among those who had to be immediately rushed to the hospital because he had been beaten so badly that he could not even speak," the first source said. "He also had many severe bruises on his body."
Detainees not given food
Many of those arrested were being held in a police station in Upper Wonto while many others were being held in an old prison in Dege county, sources told RFA.
The detainees are being held in various other places throughout Dege county as the police do not have a place to detain more than 1,000 individuals in a single location.
“In these detention centers, the arrested Tibetans were not given any food, save for some hot water, and many passed out because of the lack of food amid the freezing temperatures,” the second source told RFA.
On Friday, RFA learned that the arrested Tibetans were told to bring their own bedding and tsampa – a Tibetan staple – which sources said were an indication that the detainees would not be released anytime soon.
China has also imposed COVID 19-like restrictions in Dege county and deployed a large number of police to the areas where Tibetans have been detained, including in Upper Wonto, to bring the situation under control, the sources told RFA.
“Each of the police units brought in from outside Dege have been tasked with controlling a community each and for carrying out strict surveillance and suppression of the people there,” a third source told RFA.
“In the communities of Wonto and Yena, people have been restricted from leaving their homes and the restrictions are so severe that it is similar to what happened during the Covid-19 outbreak when the entire place was under lockdown,” said the same source.
Police began arresting the protesters on Thursday, Feb. 22. Citizen videos shared exclusively with RFA showed Chinese officials dressed in black forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out to stop the dam construction.
Reactions
A Canadian foreign ministry spokesperson told RFA the government is closely monitoring the situation in Dege and said the detention of Tibetans was a matter of “grave concern.”
“Canada remains deeply concerned about the human rights situation affecting Tibetans, including restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief, and the protection of linguistic and cultural rights,” said Geneviève Tremblay, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.
“We urge Chinese authorities to immediately release all those (Tibetans) detained for exercising their rights to freedom of speech and of assembly,” she said.
Citing RFA’s report of the mass arrests, leaders of the Tibetan government-in-exile along with representatives of Tibet support groups from more than 42 countries issued a statement on Saturday expressing alarm.
“The crackdown on non-violent protests in Dege is beyond condemnation. The Chinese authorities’ disregard for the rights of Tibetans is unacceptable by any measure,” said Penpa Tsering, Sikyong or the President of the Central Tibetan Administration.
“The punitive acts demonstrate China’s prioritization of its ideology and interests over human rights,” he said. “We call on the Chinese government to release all those detained and to respect the rights and aspirations of the Tibetan people.”
Tibetans around the world continued to hold demonstrations in solidarity with the protesters, including in Dharamsala, India, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Over the past week, Tibetans have demonstrated in front of Chinese Consulates in New York, Toronto and Zurich.
“I want to underscore how rare (it is that) we are able to have a little window into the situation in Tibet given the escalating control of information the Chinese government has imposed on Tibetan areas,” Maya Wang, interim China director of Human Rights Watch, told RFA by phone.
“People who send information out and videos like this face imprisonment and torture.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Land rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 13, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 23, 2024
- Event Description
Police on Friday arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks from at least two local monasteries, in southwestern China’s Sichuan province after they protested the construction of a dam expected to destroy six monasteries and force the relocation of two villages, two sources from inside Tibet told Radio Free Asia.
The arrested individuals – both monks and local residents – are being held in various places throughout Dege county in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture because the police do not have a single place to detain them, said the sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
Those arrested have been forced to bring their own bedding and tsampa – a staple food for Tibetans that can be used to sustain themselves for long periods of time, the sources said.
“That police are asking Tibetans to bring their own tsampa and bedding is a sign that they will not be released anytime soon,” one of the sources said.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, Chinese authorities deployed specially trained armed police in Kardze’s Upper Wonto village region to arrest more than 100 Tibetan monks from Wonto and Yena monasteries along with local residents, many of whom were beaten and injured, and later admitted to Dege County Hospital for medical treatment, sources said.
Citizen videos from Thursday, shared exclusively with RFA, show Chinese officials in black uniforms forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out to stop the dam construction.
Following news of the mass arrests, many Tibetans from Upper Wonto village who work in other parts of the country returned to their hometown and visited the detention centers to call for the release of the arrested Tibetans, sources said. They, too, were arrested.
The Dege County Hospital did not immediately return RFA’s requests for comment.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn’t commented on the arrests other than in a statement issued Thursday that said the country respects the rule of law.
“China protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in accordance with the law," the statement said.
Massive dam project
The arrests followed days of protests and appeals by local Tibetans since Feb. 14 for China to stop the construction of the Gangtuo hydropower station.
RFA reported on Feb. 14 that at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside Dege County Town Hall to protest the building of the Gangtuo Dam, which is part of a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu River with a total planned capacity 13,920 megawatts.
The dam project is on the Drichu River, called Jinsha in Chinese, which is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, one of China’s most important waterways.
Local Tibetans have been particularly distraught that the construction of the hydropower station will result in the forced resettlement of two villages – Upper Wonto and Shipa villages – and six key monasteries in the area – Yena, Wonto, and Khardho in Wangbuding township in Dege county, and Rabten, Gonsar and Tashi in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, sources told RFA.
Sources on Friday also confirmed that some of the arrested monks with poor health conditions were allowed to return to their monasteries.
However, the monasteries – which include Wonto Monastery, known for its ancient murals dating back to the 13th century – remained desolate on the eve of Chotrul Duchen, or the Day of Miracles, which is commemorated on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan New Year, or Losar, and marks the celebration of a series of miracles performed by the Buddha.
“In the past, monks of Wonto Monastery would traditionally preside over large prayer gatherings and carry out all the religious activities,” said one of the sources. “This time, the monasteries are quiet and empty. … It’s very sad to see such monasteries of historical importance being prepared for destruction. The situation is the same at Yena Monastery.”
Protests elsewhere
Tibetans in exile have been holding mass demonstrations in various parts of the world, including in Dharamsala, India, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
In the past week, Tibetans have demonstrated before the Chinese embassies, including those in New York and Switzerland, with more such protests and solidarity campaigns planned in Canada and other countries.
“The events in Derge [Dege] are an example of Beijing’s destructive policies in Tibet,” said Kai Müller, managing director of the International Campaign for Tibet, in a statement on Friday. “The Chinese regime tramples on the rights of Tibetans and ruthlessly and irretrievably destroys valuable Tibetan cultural assets.”
“Beijing’s development and infrastructure projects are not only a threat to Tibetans, but also to regional security, especially when it comes to water supplies to affected Asian countries,” he added.
Human Rights Watch told RFA that it is monitoring the development but that information from inside Tibet is extremely rare given China’s tight surveillance and restrictions imposed on information flow.
“People who send information out and videos like this face imprisonment and torture,” said Maya Wang, the group’s interim China director.
“Even calling families in the diaspora are reasons for imprisonment,” she said. “What we do see now are actually … typical scenes of repression in Tibet, but we don’t often get to see [what] repression looks like in Tibet anymore.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Land rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 13, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2024
- Event Description
Chinese officials arrested more than 100 Tibetan monks and other ethnic Tibetans in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Thursday to quell protests against a massive dam project that would destroy six Buddhist monasteries and force the relocation of two villages, three sources told Radio Free Asia.
In a rare act of defiance, residents have taken to the streets of Wangbuding township in Dege County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture since Feb. 14 to oppose the plan to build the 1,110-megawatt Gangtuo hydropower station on the Drichu River (Jinsha in Chinese), which is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, one of China’s most important waterways.
Residents were particularly distraught that construction of the hydroelectric dam would destroy six monasteries, including the Wonto Monastery, which includes ancient murals that date to the 13th century, the sources said.
Citizen videos exclusively shared with RFA show Chinese officials dressed in black forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out against the dam.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he was not aware of the arrests. "China is a country under the rule of law," he said in an emailed statement. "China protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in accordance with the law."
The detentions reportedly occurred in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, an area with a large population of ethnic Tibetans. Some of the arrested protesters required hospitalization due to rough treatment, sources said.
Local sources who spoke with RFA despite the Chinese government’s effort to restrict communication from the area said police officers used water cannons, pepper spray and tasers to subdue the protesters. The videos shared with RFA do not show those tactics, however.
Rising opposition
The protests started on Feb. 14, when at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside the Dege County Townhall to protest the dam. Such protests are rare in China, particularly among Tibetans, due to strict controls on public gatherings and extensive surveillance by authorities.
The construction of the Gangtuo hydropower dam will force the resettlement of the Upper Wonto and Shipa villages and the Yena, Wonto and Khardho monasteries in Dege county, and the Rabten, Gonsar and Tashi monasteries in Chamdo township, sources told RFA.
The Wonto and Yena monasteries, which are located closest to the site of the planned project, together have about 300 monks and hold significant cultural and religious importance to locals.
The Wonto Monastery was severely damaged during China’s Cultural Revolution. Locals preserved its ancient murals, however, and began rebuilding the monastery in 1983
The number of monks who live and worship at the four other monasteries slated for destruction is not known.
About 2,000 people live in the two villages and would be forced to relocate due to the dam project, sources told RFA.
The Gangtuo dam is part of a plan that China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced in 2012 to build a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu. It would be located at Wontok (or Gangtuo in Chinese), Dege county, northwest of the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.
The planned capacity of the 13 hydropower stations is 13,920 megawatts.
Chinese authorities closed all the main roads and imposed strict restrictions, including on digital access, on the villages and monasteries in the Wangbuding township following the Feb. 14 protests.
On Feb 20, as authorities inspected Yena and Wonto monasteries in preparation for their demolition, video footage obtained by RFA showed monks prostrating themselves before the visiting Chinese officials to plead with them to halt the construction of the dam.
The appeals continued today. But by then Chinese officials apparently had had enough, and the arrests began. Officials also reportedly confiscated the mobile phones of protesters. Some locals though avoided arrest and were able to record elements of the crackdown.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Land rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 13, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 18, 2024
- Event Description
Chinese activist filmmaker Chen Pinlin has been formally charged in Shanghai with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to human rights NGOs and media sources in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based NGO, said on Thursday that on Jan. 5 police in Shanghai arrested Chen, who produced and released a film called “Not the Foreign Force” in English and “Urumqi Road” in Chinese, in November. Chen, who also uses the name Plato, has been held at the Baoshan Detention Center ever since and was charged on Feb. 18.
The offence of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” is a broadly defined crime often used against activists, lawyers and media workers.
Chen’s film was about the protest movement that became known as white paper movement and was released on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) on the first anniversary of the movement’s emergence.
The protests began in November 2022 after an apartment building in Xinjiang caught fire and killed at least ten people. There were questions whether China’s strict anti-COVID lockdown measures prevented the victims from escaping or the rescue workers accessing the property.
The protests were calculated to be the largest public demonstrations in many years in mainland China. But, even though many protestors were careful to only hold up sheets of blank paper and avoided directly criticizing the central or provincial governments, their acts were construed as criticism of the state and its censorship system. Many people were reported to have been arrested in Shanghai, but the exact number is not known.
Attention to the White Paper Movement is believed to be partly responsible for charges against another filmmaker late last year. Chinese authorities banned artist and film director Guo Zhenming from traveling to Singapore for the world premiere of his documentary film “Tedious Days and Nights.”
The film was scheduled to play at the Singapore International Film Festival on Dec. 4 in the festival’s Standpoint strand. The screening went ahead without him.
Details of Chen’s charges have not been confirmed by mainland Chinese authorities. But they have been reported from media outside the mainland including the Hong Kong Free Press and Chinese-language human rights news websites Minsheng Guancha and Weiquanwang.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Artist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 13, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 27, 2024
- Event Description
Hong Kong activists on Tuesday staged a rare public protest against government plans for a new national security law, saying it lacked democratic oversight and human rights safeguards.
Public demonstrations have all but vanished in the Chinese finance hub since Beijing quelled huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 and imposed a sweeping national security law.
Hong Kong officials now say a further homegrown security law is needed to plug “loopholes”, with chief justice Paul Lam earlier saying he heard no objections during a month of public consultations that ends Wednesday.
But activist Yu Wai-pan, from the League of Social Democrats (LSD), told AFP on Tuesday that “many Hongkongers are quite concerned”.
“I don’t understand why the secretary for justice said he heard no objection or worry,” said Yu.
The LSD is one of the last remaining opposition groups in Hong Kong and its members have faced multiple prosecutions for their shows of dissent.
Yu and two other activists were surrounded by press and more than a dozen police officers as they chanted slogans outside the Hong Kong government headquarters Tuesday.
“National security is important to the people, but it must be based on democracy, freedom and rule of law,” said activist Chan Po-ying.
The government referenced examples in the US and Britain in defending the proposed legislation, but Chan said that comparison was misleading, as Hong Kong was not a democracy.
The month-long public consultation for the new security law, known as Basic Law Article 23, was largely limited to pro-Beijing voices, she added.
Xia Baolong, China’s top official overseeing Hong Kong, arrived in the former British colony last week in a tightly choreographed tour to meet with leaders in business and politics.
Xia discussed the security law proposal with two local lawyers’ groups in a closed-door meeting and engaged in “candid exchanges”, the head of the Hong Kong Bar Association earlier told reporters.
Separately on Tuesday, Hong Kong convicted Joseph John — also known as Wong Kin-chung — of “conspiracy to incite secession”, the first such case involving a dual national.
The Portuguese citizen, 41, pleaded guilty to the national security offence, admitting that he was chair of the UK-based Hong Kong Independence Party and an administrator of its six online platforms.
A diplomatic source told AFP that the Portuguese consulate has been unable to visit John since he was arrested and detained in November 2022.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 13, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 1, 2024
- Event Description
A Hong Kong court has found four people guilty of rioting over the storming of the city’s legislative council building that marked a major escalation of pro-democracy protests more than four years ago.
Hundreds of protesters stormed the building on July 1, 2019, after a massive protest march against a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed authorities to send people to mainland China for trial.
After forcing their way inside, they ripped portraits of officials from walls and spray-painted slogans calling for the release of arrested demonstrators. An old colonial-era flag was draped over the speaker’s chair and a plaque bearing the symbol of Hong Kong was blacked out with spray paint.
On Thursday, District Court Judge Li Chi-ho found Ho Chun-yin, actor Gregory Wong, Ng Chi-yung and Lam Kam-kwan guilty of rioting.
Student journalist Wong Ka-ho and Ma Kai-chung, a reporter with Passion Times, who were on trial alongside the four, were acquitted of the rioting charge but found guilty of unlawful entry.
During the trial, Gregory Wong told the court he had entered the building solely to deliver two chargers to reporters who were covering the break-in by protesters.
Video evidence played by the prosecution showed Wong left the chamber immediately after delivering the chargers to a reporter in a yellow vest.
Another defendant, Lam Kam-kwan, told the court he was detained in China a month after the storming of Legco and forced to write a repentance letter.
Police officers denied his claims during a cross-examination by the defence.
Last May, seven others including the former president of the University of Hong Kong’s student union, Althea Suen, and pro-democracy activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow, pleaded guilty to rioting and will deliver their mitigation statements later on Thursday.
They face a maximum of seven years in prison.
While the government eventually withdrew the extradition bill, the protests, which drew more than a million people onto the streets, had already gathered momentum and the demands had widened to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.
The protests were the biggest challenge to the Hong Kong government since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997 and led Beijing to impose a sweeping national security law in 2020 that has seen many of the city’s leading opposition politicians and activists arrested, silenced or in exile.
More than 10,200 people were arrested in connection to the protests for various crimes, such as rioting and participating in an unauthorised assembly.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Student
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 12, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Mar 2, 2024
- Event Description
Calls are growing for authorities in Hong Kong to release Lai Ke, a transgender activist from China who now faces repatriation after being jailed while transiting the city en route to Canada, her supporters and a rights group said in online statements.
Lai, who is also known as Xiran, was hauled in for questioning while transiting Hong Kong International Airport en route from Shanghai to Toronto in May 2023, and later handed a 15-month jail term for "forging" her travel documents at a secret trial with no lawyer present, according to her supporters.
As is Hong Kong's policy for trans inmates, she served her sentence at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, a psychiatric detention center, and was released early for good behavior on March 2.
But instead of being released, Lai was immediately transferred to the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Detention Centre, sparking fears among her supporters and rights groups that she will be sent back to China, according to the X account @FreeLaiKe.
If she is forcibly repatriated, Lai will be "at grave risk of persecution," Amnesty International has warned.
"The Hong Kong authorities must urgently clarify Lai Ke’s pending immigration status," Amnesty International's China Director Sarah Brooks said in a statement dated March 1. "As she is due to be released after serving her sentence, authorities must free her without conditions and allow her to travel onwards to a destination feasible for her."
"In any event, the authorities must allow Lai Ke to legally challenge any deportation order following her release after serving her sentence," Brooks said.
Mistreated in detention
Lai’s supporters say that she had been a vocal advocate for trans rights back in China alongside her partner Cai Xia, who was detained by the Chinese authorities in June 2023 in connection with her activism and her transgender identity, and accused of "organizing obscene activities."
The Lai Ke (Xiran) Global Concern Group, which has been actively posting about her situation on Twitter and Instagram, said Lai had also been mistreated while in detention in Hong Kong, saying guards deprived her of her hormone medication, put her in solitary for a week calling her an "alien," and forced her to cut her hair short.
The group said Lai had suffered physically and psychologically after being deprived of her hormone replacement therapy for two months, despite having the medication in her luggage.
"Throughout her detention, Lai Ke repeatedly requested access to hormone medication, only to have these requests denied on various pretexts," it said in a statement dated Feb. 27.
"As a result, Lai Ke was forced to cease hormone replacement therapy medication for nearly two months, leading to severe physical and psychological repercussions, including instances of self-harm," it said.
Her parents weren't informed of her whereabouts until July 19, 2023, and the authorities initially claimed that there was no record of Lai having entered Hong Kong, the group claimed in the statement, which RFA was unable to verify independently.
It accused the Hong Kong authorities of "complicity" in the Chinese government's persecution of trans people.
The group also posted a letter handwritten by Lai in classical Chinese, an archaic form of the written language used by premodern writers, in which she complains about her treatment.
It said earlier attempts by Lai to write about her experiences in the detention center were censored by detention center authorities.
'Time is of the essence'
According to Amnesty International, Lai is vulnerable to repatriation under Hong Kong immigration law, because she isn't a resident of the city.
“Time is of the essence to prevent Lai Ke from being unlawfully deported to mainland China, where she would be at grave risk of serious human rights violations – including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and even torture and other ill-treatment – due to both her transgender identity and her activism,” Brooks said.
“To return her given these risks would be an abandonment of Hong Kong’s obligations under international law," she said.
Amnesty International said it has documented systematic oppression and discrimination of transgender people in China, as well as large-scale censorship in recent years leading to the closure of online lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex groups and social media accounts.
It said police in China have repeatedly arrested, detained and imprisoned human rights defenders of all kinds using "unjustified, broadly defined and vaguely worded charges."
Hong Kong Catholic priest and rights activist Franco Mella said that trans inmates are typically held in Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, but that the final decision over whether to continue hormone treatment lies with the center's doctor.
"Any medications need to be discussed with the doctor -- who can approve them but can also not approve them," Mella said. "It's the doctor's decision."
He said it was unclear how long Lai might be held at the Castle Peak detention center.
"Once you go in there, there's no way of knowing when you'll be released," he said.
Crackdowns on LGBTQ+ community
LGBTQ+ activism is all but extinct in China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping has cracked down on anyone displaying the rainbow flag in public, members of China's LGBTQ+ community told Radio Free Asia in interviews in January.
In August 2023, Chinese officials removed an LGBTQ+ anthem titled "Rainbow" by Taiwanese pop star A-Mei from her set list from a concert earlier this month in Beijing, while security guards forced fans turning up for the gig to remove clothing and other paraphernalia bearing the rainbow symbol before going in, according to media reports.
A month after that crackdown, authorities in the central Chinese city of Changsha removed the song "Womxnly" – which commemorates a Taiwanese teenager who was found dead in a school toilet after being bullied by classmates for his "feminine" appearance – from the set list of Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai, after it became an anthem for the island's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning community.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- LGBTQ+/ Non-Binary
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- SOGI rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 12, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- May 2, 2023
- Event Description
On May 2, 2023, LAI Ke, a Chinese citizen also known as Xiran, embarked on Hong Kong Airlines flight HX239 from Shanghai to Hong Kong, carrying both a Chinese passport and a Canadian visa, with plans to connect to Cathay Pacific flight CX828 bound for Toronto, Canada, the following morning. Communication with LAI Ke ceased around 6:30 a.m. on May 3, 2023, after her last message confirming transit procedures at the Cathay Pacific counter. Concerns arose among family and friends when LAI Ke failed to board the scheduled flight to Toronto, prompting them to report a potential disappearance to the Hong Kong police in early June 2023. Initially, authorities claimed no record of LAI Ke entering Hong Kong, dismissing the concerns. However, on July 18, 2023, over two months later, LAI Ke's parents received notification of her arrest by the Hong Kong police and subsequent detention at Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre. Following this, on July 19, 2023, LAI Ke's parents were formally informed by the Sichuan Public Security Bureau of LAI Ke's arrest by Hong Kong law enforcement in early May. Despite efforts by a lawyer to clarify the situation during a visit to Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre on July 20, 2023, it was revealed that LAI Ke had been convicted of three immigration offences during the period of disappearance and sentenced to 15 months in prison. Throughout this period, from May 3, 2023, when LAI Ke was initially apprehended, until July 18, 2023, LAI Ke repeatedly sought to communicate with family and engage legal representation, all requests were consistently denied. On December 28, 2023, family and friends were notified by the Correctional Services Department that LAI Ke had exhibited exemplary behaviour during her time in prison and would be granted early release on March 2, 2024. However, to their dismay, in February 2024, merely a month prior to the anticipated release, another notification arrived, informing them of LAI Ke's impending transfer to the Immigration Department's detention facility in Castle Peak on March 2, 2024, with no explanation provided for the indefinite detention. LAI Ke and her partner, Cai Xia, both identify as transgender women and are actively involved in advocating for transgender rights and providing support to the transgender community in Shanghai. However, their efforts have been met with severe repression by the authorities. On November 6, 2022, Cai Xia was forcibly taken from her home in Shanghai by the police and has been unlawfully detained ever since. It wasn't until March 2023 that Cai Xia was formally arrested by the Shanghai police. Initially charged with drug abuse and child abduction, the accusations were later changed to involvement in organizing obscene activities. Following an egregiously unfair trial, Cai Xia was sentenced to imprisonment on June 19, 2023. This case unequivocally represents the Chinese government's systematic persecution of gender minority groups. (For more details on Cai Xia's case, please see The Guardian report: https://www.theguardian.com/globaldevelopment/2024/jan/15/its-difficult-to-survive-chinas-lgbtq-advocates-facejail-and-forced-confession). Due to LAI Ke’s involvement in the case, she had been harassed and followed up by the Chinese police. She was then intercepted by the Hong Kong law enforcement body while on her way to Canada, illustrating how the Chinese government's suppression and persecution of gender minorities have now extended to Hong Kong, employing every tactic to prevent affected individuals from leaving the country. Furthermore, when LAI Ke was apprehended and disclosed her transgender identity, she was denied access to hormone medication contained in her luggage. Throughout her detention, LAI Ke repeatedly requested access to hormone medication, only to have these requests denied on various pretexts. As a result, LAI Ke was forced to cease HRT medication for nearly two months, leading to severe physical and psychological repercussions, including instances of self-harm. Additionally, prison officers insisted that LAI Ke cut her hair. When authorities discovered that LAI Ke had voiced her grievances to her lawyer regarding the prison conditions, she was promptly placed in solitary confinement for a week under the absurd pretext of "alien invasion of Earth." Subsequently, LAI Ke faced intimidation aimed at dissuading her from further complaints. Just a month prior to her scheduled release date, the Hong Kong government abruptly extended her detention indefinitely. This egregious action not only constitutes a flagrant violation of justice but also strongly suggests that LAI Ke's prolonged detention is politically motivated, orchestrated under the directives of the Chinese government.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- LGBTQ+/ Non-Binary
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- SOGI rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 12, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 4, 2024
- Event Description
On 4 February 2024, the Linyi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Shandong province convicted woman human rights defender Li Qiaochu for “inciting subversion of State power” and sentenced her to three years and eight months in prison, to be followed by two years of “deprivation of political rights”.
Li Qiaochu (李翘楚) is a feminist, researcher, and human rights defender who has advocated for the rights for workers, migrants, women, and human rights defenders detained in China. In December 2022, she was honoured with the Embassy Tulip award from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing.
In the verdict, the court said Li Qiaochu had helped fellow human rights defender and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong to set up and maintain a blog to which articles and essays on topics such as human rights, democratic reforms, and social justice movements were uploaded. The court ruled that these writings were aimed at “subverting State power”. In April 2023, another court in Linyi convicted Xu Zhiyong for “subversion of State power” and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
The court also defended its decision to close the trial to the public and said it did so in order to protect evidence and other information classified by the police as “State secrets”. The court also rejected Li Qiaochu’s argument that testimonies obtained while she was detained under “residential surveillance at a designated location” should be deemed inadmissible because they were provided under duress.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the conviction and sentencing of woman human rights defender Li Qiaochu as it believes it is solely in retaliation against her peaceful and legitimate human rights work. We call on the relevant authorities in China to promptly quash the conviction and sentence against the woman human rights defender and immediately release her. Pending her release, the authorities should ensure she has regular and timely access to adequate medical care to address on-going health issues she has been facing since her arbitrary detention began in February 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: WHRD formally indicted after months of detention (Update), China: WHRD's trial suspended following court harassment against her defence lawyers
- Date added
- Mar 6, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jan 25, 2024
- Event Description
On 25 January 2024, the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong’s top court, overturned the December 2022 ruling by the High Court acquitting woman human rights defender Chow Hang-tung of “inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly” in the 2021 vigil to commemorate the victims of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989. The woman human rights defender was sentenced to 15 months in prison earlier in January 2022.
The Court of Final Appeal ruled that Chow Hang-tung could not challenge the legality of a police ban on public assembly as a defense in criminal proceedings. It also rejected the High Court’s ruling that the police did not act lawfully and proportionately when it completely banned the 2021 Tiananmen Vigil on COVID prevention grounds.
The woman human rights defender remains in detention pending trial in another case in which she and other leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, which had organised previous Tiananmen vigils and campaigned for democratic reforms in mainland China, face the charge of “inciting subversion of State power” under the 2020 National Security Law for Hong Kong.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 6, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Feb 16, 2024
- Event Description
A Hong Kong activist with terminal cancer was jailed today for attempted sedition over plans to protest against China’s political clampdown with a prop coffin.
Koo Sze-yiu, 78, is among the handful of outspoken government critics still remaining in the city after Beijing crushed Hong Kong’s huge and sometimes violent democracy protests nearly five years ago.
Chief magistrate Victor So today sentenced Koo to nine months in prison for “attempted sedition” – the second time the veteran activist was hit with the charge.
Koo was planning to stage a demonstration last December opposing local elections, which excluded pro-democracy candidates, prosecutors earlier told the court.
Chief magistrate Victor So today sentenced Koo to nine months in prison for “attempted sedition” – the second time the veteran activist was hit with the charge.
Koo was planning to stage a demonstration last December opposing local elections, which excluded pro-democracy candidates, prosecutors earlier told the court.
National security police arrested him on Dec 8, hours before the protest was scheduled to take place.
The magistrate ruled on Friday that a prop coffin made for the event by Koo “symbolised death … (and) overthrowing the central government”.
The protest, if held, would have encouraged the public to reject the election results and foster resistance, the magistrate added.
A defiant Koo told the court he wanted to be a “martyr for democracy and human rights” before being led away, according to local media.
The long-time activist has been jailed at least 12 times since 2000.
In a similar case from 2022, Koo was given a nine-month jail sentence for attempted sedition over plans to demonstrate against Beijing’s hosting of the Winter Olympics.
Sedition, a colonial-era offence dating to the days of British rule, lay dormant for decades before Hong Kong authorities revived it in 2020.
It has since been used to target dozens of government critics – in many cases criminalising remarks made on social media.
Hong Kong is also undertaking public consultation on a new national security law, which includes a proposal to widen the scope of “sedition” to protect more Chinese and Hong Kong state institutions.
This homegrown legislation, if passed, would exist on top of a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent.
As of mid-January, police have arrested 291 people for offences related to national security.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 20, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2024
- Event Description
On 5 January 2024, Chinese investigative journalist Shangguan Yunkai was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 380,000 Chinese yuan (around 50,000 euros) by court, in China’s central city of Ezhou, on five charges, including "picking quarrels and provoking trouble” as well as “selling fake medicines”.
Known for his investigations on the corruption of Chinese officials, Shangguan was detained on 20 April 2023. He had just published a report in a series of articles in which he revealed the wrongdoings of several officials and law enforcement in the city of Ezhou.
“This incredibly severe sentence, based on obviously trumped-up charges, clearly comes as a retribution against Shangguan Yunkai’s investigations on corruption. We urge the international community to build up pressure on the Chinese authorities to secure his release alongside all other journalists and press freedom defenders detained in the country.
Cedric Alviani RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Shangguan, who is a former leading reporter of the state-run newspaper Legal Daily, in recent years ran several groups on WeChat, the leading social media in China, in which he shared evidence of hundreds of officials' and criminals’ violations of discipline and law. In the 1990s, his investigations had already revealed the corrupt practices of Xu Penghang, then vice-governor of Hubei province, in central China, and contributed to the official's dismissal.
Since 2012, in line with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s crusade against the right to information, the Beijing’s regime has stepped up its crackdown on investigative journalists, such as Huang Qi, a seasoned Chinese journalist and the founder of independent media 64 Tianwang sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 for “leaking state secrets'' and “providing state secrets abroad”, as well as Huang Xueqin, a figure of China’s #MeToo movement, who has been detained since September 2021 and who faces a 15 years jail sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”.
Ranked 179th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2023 RSF World Press Freedom Index, China is the world's largest jailer of journalists and press freedom defenders, with at least 121 currently detained.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 14, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 30, 2023
- Event Description
A dissident writer from the southwestern Chinese megacity of Chongqing, who pledged allegiance to the 1911 Republic of China government in Taiwan in protest at local police, was recently detained for 15 days in a local detention center, Radio Free Asia has learned.
Liu Ermu, who has been a long-time critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, vowed last August to switch allegiance to the government of democratic Taiwan if a court didn't decide in his favor in an administrative lawsuit he filed against police.
Taiwan, which recently saw a Democratic Progressive Party president elected for an unprecedented third consecutive term, has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, although Beijing claims the island as its own.
It has been governed as a sovereign state called the Republic of China since the Kuomintang government fled to the island after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists on the mainland in 1949.
Liu made the pledge after the Xiushan County People's Court rejected his complaint about the police handling of a workplace dispute, which they characterized as a "fight," while Liu insisted he was acting in self-defense.
"I felt I was being persecuted in China," he said. "It felt as if the law was unable to protect me under this government, so I openly pledged my allegiance to the Republic of China government."
"The territory [claimed by] the Republic of China includes mainland China," Liu said.
Liu was placed under administrative detention on Dec. 30, ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan.
"Three policemen came and handed a summons directly to my wife, then activated a 15-day sentence suspended in 2021, and took me to the Youyang county police department," he told RFA following his release.
"My guess is that they mostly wanted a way to keep control of me before voting began in the Taiwan elections," he said.
‘Longing’ for democracy
Liu said he made the pledge to draw attention to Taiwan's democratic system.
Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang government as part of Tokyo's post-war reparation deal.
The island began a transition to democracy following the death of Chiang Kai-shek's son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.
"Based on my long-term observation of Taiwan, I have a longing for a political system like that in the Republic of China," Liu said. "One that's full of freedom, justice and the rule of law.”
"I said publicly on Douyin that if the appeal verdict was also unjust, I would choose to be loyal to the government of the Republic of China," he said. "The state security police contacted me many times to ask me not to do this."
But a person familiar with the case who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said Beijing would see such a pledge as subversive.
"Pledging allegiance to the Republic of China while living in the People's Republic of China isn't an option," the person said. "[An action like that] at the very worst could be regarded as subversion of state power, and at best as picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."
China Pan-Blue Alliance
The 1911 Republic of China officially lays claim to the whole of mainland China, the whole of the independent country of Mongolia, along with parts of Myanmar, India, Russia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, although the current government is largely focused on holding onto the islands it does control – Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu – in the face of Beijing’s territorial claims.
Support for Taiwan among Chinese dissidents isn't unheard of, however.
In 2006, state security police cracked down on a group of activists known as the China Pan-Blue Alliance, in a reference to the “blue camp” group of parties led by the Kuomintang in Taiwan, after they tried to field candidates in elections to district People's Congresses in a number of locations across the country.
Alliance members in the northern province of Hebei and in the eastern province of Jiangsu taken in for questioning by police, as well as the group's founder, Wuhan-based Sun Bu'er.
Police told them they were an "illegal organization," and “monkeys” that wouldn't be allowed to "create havoc in Heaven," a reference to the Monkey King Sun Wukong, a key figure in Chinese mythology.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 8, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 25, 2023
- Event Description
Tsering Tso, 39, was arbitrarily detained on 25 December last year under the charges of ''picking quarrels and provoking troubles” following three video clips she posted on social media, calling the police interrogation at Gongri Public Security Checkpoint of Drachen (Ch: Baqing) County in Nagchu City a violation of her privacy, and her attempt to make a phone call to the government hotline service.
In one of the videos posted on 19 December 2023, she said: “Take a look at this [Drachen County] police checkpoint. I came from Yushu to go to Lhasa. They [police] asked what I was going to do there. I told what I was going to do was my right to privacy. What right do you [police] have to know? They consistently infringe on our privacy as if we have no right to privacy. He [the police] also said that the other people have no problem [with the questions]. It is their business that they don’t understand the law. I understand the law. I want to make clear that going to Lhasa is my work.”
Her detention comes only a month after she completed a 15-day administrative detention, from 26 October to 10 November 2023, in Yushu City. According to an official letter from the Yushu Public Security Bureau, shared on her WeChat account, the police claimed she posted over 17 comments from 8 to 25 October 2023 on Douyin - Chinese TikTok- criticizing the government and its staff, although content analysis by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) confirms them to be legitimate grievances and issues that the Yushu PSB has failed to address.
A former participant in the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, Tsering is known to have been detained five times: in 2017 and November 2020 reported by the International Campaign for Tibet and TCHRD, on 1 November 2022, detained for ten days by the Chengguan Branch of the Lhasa Public Security Bureau, and the aforementioned detentions. She hails from Trika (Ch: Guide) County, Tsolho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, in Amdo, eastern Tibet.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Minority rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 8, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 29, 2023
- Event Description
On December 29, Qin Yongpei, a prominent Christian human rights lawyer from Guangxi, China, appealed his case, he was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” Guangxi Higher People’s Court upheld his five-year prison sentence from the court of the first instance. The lawyer’s defense was not accepted at all.
“This is the maximum sentence that can be found for this crime,” Qin Yongpei’s defense lawyer Cheng Hai said. Qin Yongpei’s sentence is until October 30, 2024.
Lawyer Cheng Hai expressed: As a defendant who is not pleading guilty or with the opinion that the sentence is excessive, he was completely ignored; it is very regretful. Qin Yongpei’s wife, Deng Xiaoyun, has not made any further comments on the case. This may be related to previous warnings received from the police.
The court’s so-called criminal charges against him primarily stem from Qin Yongpei expressing dissatisfaction and criticism on widely-used Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Twitter (now referred to as X). These expressions include opinions on pervasive corruption of government officials, lack of freedom of speech, as well as dissatisfaction and criticism of authoritarianism. He also shared complaints regarding illegal circumstances surrounding public security, procuratorial, and judicial personnel while processing his case.
Qin Yongpei exercised his freedom of speech granted by the law and his legitimate right to supervise and criticize. However, he was unlawfully treated as a criminal. Chinese judicial officials knowingly prosecuted him despite his innocence, engaging in a miscarriage of justice for personal gain.
Lawyer Qin Yongpei has been practicing law for over a decade, representing cases involving illegal administrative detention, industrial pollution, forced demolitions, and wrongful convictions. He is the founder of the Guangxi Baijuming Law Firm, where several human rights lawyers in Guangxi have worked. In the nationwide “709 Crackdown” in 2015, he was briefly taken for interrogation and ultimately had his lawyer license revoked.
After the incident, Qin Yongpei initiated a rights defense lawyer alliance called the “Disbarred Chinese Lawyers Club.” However, Beijing authorities deemed it an illegal organization. Lawyer Qin publicly offered rewards to collect evidence of crimes by the heads of the judicial department and public security bureau of Guangxi. He also publicly accused the former Minister of Justice, Fu Zhenghua. Qin frequently commented on national policies and actions on online platforms, including instances of officials abusing power and violating human rights. Due to his online criticisms of the government, several of his social media accounts were closed.
On October 31, 2019, Qin Yongpei was arrested by the local police in Nanning City, China, and subsequently held in prolonged detention. In March of the following year, the Guangxi Nanning Intermediate People’s Court sentenced human rights lawyer Qin Yongpei to 5 years in prison for the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” and deprived him of political rights for 3 years.
During Qin Yongpei’s detention, his wife Deng Xiaoyun, and their family from April 14 to 16, 2020 were subjected to harassment from the police. When his elderly mother passed away, Qin Yongpei was not allowed to attend the funeral, causing him to have an emotional breakdown.
Currently, he is being held at the second detention center of the Guangxi Autonomous Region. Unless there are outstanding circumstances, he will be transferred to prison and will stay there until his release.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 8, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2023
- Event Description
A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced the younger sister of a pro-democracy labour union leader to six months imprisonment for removing evidence from the latter’s home amid an ongoing security crackdown in the China-ruled city.
Marilyn Tang, 63, had earlier pleaded guilty to perverting the court of justice after she removed devices including a laptop and mobile phone belonging to her sister, Elizabeth Tang, soon after she was arrested in March.
Magistrate Patrick Tsang said while the offence wasn’t very serious and that the defendant hadn’t “turned on or obstructed the devices” he still handed down a custodial sentence.
Elizabeth, 65, had been arrested on March 9 for collusion with foreign forces under a China-imposed national security law, soon after she returned to the city to visit her jailed pro-democracy activist husband Lee Cheuk-yan, 66.
The husband, a former lawmaker and leading democrat, faces an incitement to subversion charge under the national security law and is awaiting trial.
The two sisters had been linked to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) – the city’s largest opposition trade union coalition that disbanded in 2021 after several members received messages threatening their safety. Elizabeth had served as its chief executive.
Tang’s lawyer Robert Pang had earlier told the court during a mitigation hearing that Marilyn’s behaviour was “not premeditated” while highlighting her lifelong service to the community.
Pang added that Elizabeth’s laptop and phone only contained personal information, family pictures and letters to her husband which had no direct impact on the police investigation.
More than 280 people have been arrested so far in Hong Kong under the national security law that punishes acts including subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces, and terrorism with up to life in prison.
Leading China critic and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 76, is currently battling a foreign collusion charge in a closely watched trial that has become a diplomatic flashpoint.
The national security law has been criticised by some Western governments as a tool to curb free speech and dissent while the Hong Kong and Chinese governments say it has restored stability after mass, pro-democracy protests in 2019.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Labour rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: Hong Kong pro-democracy WHRD arrested
- Date added
- Feb 1, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2023
- Event Description
A Hong Kong court on Thursday rejected a fresh bail application for pro-democracy activist and lawyer Chow Hang-tung, whose subversion trial under a China-imposed national security law is expected to open in late 2024.
In making the latest in a series of so far unsuccessful bail applications, Chow’s lawyer, Cheung Yiu-leung, noted Chow had already served more than 2 years in detention after being arrested on suspicion of “incitement for subversion” over her ties to a group that organised an annual June 4 vigil.
High Court judge Andrew Chan, however, said he couldn’t grant bail because Chow might carry out acts that endanger national security.
A tentative trial date was provided for Chow’s case in the second half of 2024 at the West Kowloon court, Chan said. A case-management hearing was also tentatively expected to be held on Feb. 15, 2024, he added.
Chow, 38, a human-rights lawyer, was the vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a now disbanded pro-democracy group. Despite being jailed, she has continued to defy Beijing’s campaign to subjugate the city.
Chow is charged with “incitement to subversion”, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment, alongside two former Alliance leaders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan under the national security law (NSL).
Chow has been detained since September 2021 at a maximum security women’s prison.
Hong Kong laws usually restrict reporting of full bail application proceedings to only key details, but Justice Chan lifted these restrictions over objections from the prosecution.
“I don’t see that anything you said, or I said, cannot be published. The press are free to publish whatever,” Chan said.
Chow was recently put in solitary confinement for 18 days for possessing “too many letters” from her supporters, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Hong Kong prison authorities said they wouldn’t comment on individual cases.
Chow has already finished two sentences for unauthorised assembly in relation to the banned Tiananmen vigils in 2020 and 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 1, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 8, 2023
- Event Description
Niu Tengyu, is a young activist known for allegedly leaking information regarding the family details of the leader of the Red Empire, Xi Jinping. He is reportedly experiencing mental distress while imprisoned in Guangdong. Niu Tengyu’s single mother is seeking justice for her son and has been advocating for his rights. However, her peaceful efforts for justice have recently been suppressed, which led to discomfort in her heart. The surrounding area of the prison (where Niu Tengyu is being held) has been reinforced with increased security. Over 100 international human rights and democracy organizations, along with more than 300 pro-democracy advocates, have jointly signed an open letter aimed at rescuing Niu Tengyu, a prisoner of conscience in China.
In a video call with his mother Coco in November, 19-year-old Niu Tengyu’s speech was unclear, and did not call out to his mother as usual and even failed to recognize her. He uttered some incomprehensible words for his mother. Suddenly, a prison guard wearing glasses appeared and disconnected the call. This video call took place at a police station near Coco’s residence in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province.
Coco stated that her son Niu Tengyu was tortured to the point of insanity at Sihui Prison in Guangdong.
Eager to see her son, Coco traveled from central Henan to southern Guangdong to visit him in prison. On December 5, 2023, she arrived at Sihui prison in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, to confirm the safety of Niu Tengyu. From the morning of the 6th to the early morning of the 7th, she engaged in a 15-hour-long negotiation with the prison authorities. The prison rejected her request for visitation, citing Niu Tengyu’s abnormal mental state.
Coco insisted on meeting her son, on December 9, Coco stated: “…… Guangdong’s Sihui prison refused to let me see my son Niu Tengyu. They deployed a large number of police officers and special and armed police to intimidate me! On December 8, 2023, I arrived at the Guangzhou Prison Administration from Sihui to Guangzhou to report the situation……That evening, I fell ill in the hotel and still cannot go out today. But I will not leave Guangzhou, I will wait for a response and continue to safeguard my rights!”
On December 11, Beijing time, Coco went to the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee to report that Sihui Prison in Guangdong prevented her from meeting her son Niu Tengyu, and she intends to inquire about the progress of the appeal case.
While sitting in a car near the Guangdong Political and Legal Affairs Committee, Coco was suddenly surrounded by several plainclothes police officers. The one leading in the front was a medium-built man with a fierce appearance. He forcibly opened the door of her taxi at once. The man claimed to be from the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau but refused to show identification. His actions were rough, and was loudly shouting; he tore apart her bag that contained documents, forcefully pulled her hand, and threatened her. This resulted in injuries to her hand, two of her fingers were swollen and numb, bruised and swollen, and she experienced discomfort in her heart, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. The secret police would not allow her to take the medication she carried around with her, Coco revealed.
Subsequently, a short-haired woman wearing a mask forced her and her older sister and others to put all their bags in the trunk, prohibited them from answering phone calls, and escorted her to a hotel. Even the hotel’s landline phone was taken away.
Niu Tengyu’s mother, Coco, was forcibly sent back to her home in Jiaozuo, Henan province.
Coco believes that Sihui prison received orders from higher-ups in Guangdong to deprive her and her son, Niu Tengyu, of the right to meet. Even with coordination between the police in Henan and Shanxi province (her hometown), Guangdong authorities still refused to allow her to see her son.
Coco said that Guangdong authorities’ harsh and arrogant attitude further confirmed her suspicion: prison personnel poisoned Niu Tengyu, leading to his abnormal mental state. Depriving her of the right to visit is simply to prevent the details of their poisoning from being discovered and exposed, which in return revealed their scheme.
Niu Tengyu’s mother, who was physically and mentally devastated by her son’s long prison sentence, is unable to take care of herself and needs care throughout the day.
The Guangdong authorities deprived Niu Tengyu of the right to meet, the right to communicate, and the right to seek medical treatment outside prison, gaining sympathy from over 100 global human rights and democracy organizations and more than 300 democracy activists. They jointly signed an open letter aimed at rescuing Chinese prisoner of conscience Niu Tengyu. On December 8, 2023, the letter, in both Chinese and English, was submitted to the White House for petitioning, and to 15 member countries of the United Nations Security Council, human rights offices worldwide, human rights officials at foreign embassies in China, and the Chinese government.
For background, in May 2019, the overseas websites Zhina Wiki and the Zhina Red Foundation published personal information about Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law, Deng Jiagui, and daughter, Xi Mingze. Subsequently, public security officials in Maoming, Guangdong province, arrested 24 members of the “Vulgar Wiki” website for forwarding the links. Niu Tengyu, a 19-year-old member of the Vulgar Wiki, was convicted by CCP authorities as the main culprit and sentenced on December 29, 2020, to 14 years in prison and a fine of 130,000 yuan in the first trial. In April 2021, a court in Maoming, Guangdong, upheld the original sentence in the second trial, which was held behind closed doors.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Youth
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 31, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 8, 2023
- Event Description
Christians including Wang Honglan, her husband Ji Heying, her son Ji Guolong, her daughter Liu Minna, her nephew Wang, Yang Zhijun, Zhang Wang, Liu Wei (Liu Minna’s husband), Li Chao, and others are charged with “illegal business operations” for “subsidizing money to help people buy the Holy Bible” in Hohhot. As of December 1, 2023, the case has been in trial at Huimin District People’s Court for nine days, entering the phase of evidence presentation and cross-examination.
Before the court session, defense lawyers requested the prosecution to provide an outline of evidence to enhance trial efficiency, but this request was refused by the prosecutor. The collegial panel asked the prosecutor to present evidence, and the prosecutor read aloud two sets of evidence. The presiding judge directly allowed the defendants to cross-examine. The defense lawyers requested to view the original documents. The presiding judge asked lawyers to present the legal grounds. After presenting the legal grounds, the collegial panel agreed to allow the lawyers to examine the original case files. The lawyers insisted that the defendants should be shown the original case files when presenting evidence, ensuring they know the materials to express their opinions; otherwise, they requested to present the evidence one by one. The collegial panel and the prosecutor ignored them and did not respond to this request.
The trial continued at 2:00 PM, with the prosecutor spending half an hour reading about eighty volumes of evidence on bank transfer records and accounting appraisals. Due to the refusal to disclose an outline of evidence, the court clerk’s hurried recording could not capture the complete details. Defense lawyers listened attentively to the prosecutor’s presentation but found it challenging to follow, while the defendants appeared bewildered. When the presiding judge and the prosecutor finished, the defendants were asked to express their objections. The defendants mentioned being detained for over two years, having poor memory, and requested to see the original evidence presented. This immediately faced opposition and rejection from the prosecutor Yang Yan. The presiding judge stated that if they did not express objections, it would be deemed as waiving the right to speak. The defense lawyers protested, demanding the defendants be allowed to examine the evidence presented.
Despite multiple requests, the presiding judge continued to refuse. Lawyer Zhao Qingshan protested the unjust conduct of the presiding judge, who responded that the application for request did not meet the Articles 29 and 30 of the “Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China” and was rejected without reconsideration.
Judge Han Yanjie of the collegial panel also argued that the defendants had no right to view the original case files during cross-examination phase. She criticized the lawyers for not diligently verifying the evidence with their clients in advance. Lawyer Zhao Qingshan stated that verification of evidence with their clients during visitation doesn’t void the defendant’s rights to examine original case files during cross-examination, the collegial panel should ensure the defendants’ right to examine the original case files.
Other defense lawyers again requested the prosecutor to present the evidence he read aloud and show this part of the case files to the defendants. The presiding judge insisted that the defendants review the court clerk’s records but refused to let them see the case files. The dispute continued. Lawyer Zhao Qingshan criticized the presiding judge for unjustly presiding over the trial, accusing him of violating the law. The presiding judge responded, ‘Then come up and hit me!’
The stalemate remained for a long time. The presiding judge finally announced an adjournment, instructing court security to provide five defendants with the case files to review.
The prosecutor Yang Yan stated, “Now that we are showing the case files to the defendants, what’s the point of having defense lawyers?”
Lawyer Zhao responded, ‘Defense lawyers can only verify evidence with their own clients and cannot cross-examine evidence with other co-defendants. If lawyers have already verified the evidence with the defendants, there’s no need for the defendants to see the materials in the courtroom. What’s the purpose of the trial then?’
Several defense lawyers live in other cities. At the end of the afternoon session, without consulting the defense lawyers, a sudden decision was made to hold court proceedings over the weekend. This arrangement disrupted the plans of many lawyers, especially those from out of town, and many lawyers expressed opposition. They believe that such an arrangement is too arbitrary. The court did not schedule trial over the weekend, and yesterday, on Thursday, a working day, no trial were arranged. However, after concluding the trial on Friday, there was a sudden decision to hold court over the weekend, completely disregarding the feelings of the lawyers. If a trial is necessary on the weekend, advance notice should be given. Such arbitrary arrangements have left the lawyers feeling unacceptable.
After reviewing the case files, it was already 4:15 PM, approaching the adjournment time. The prosecutor Yang Yan, proposed extending the trial to Saturday. The presiding judge asked court security if they could provide personnel on Saturday, and they replied that they can borrow personnel from week days. The presiding judge then went out to negotiate with court security and came back to announce directly to the lawyers: “The trial will continue tomorrow [Saturday].”
The lawyers expressed objections, stating that Thursday was a regular working day but an adjournment was arranged. Holding court trial on Saturday is an additional burden, but there was no prior consultation with the lawyers. Three lawyers had already left early because there were no court sessions last weekend, anticipating no hearings this weekend. Additionally, five lawyers had already booked round-trip flights for the evening.
Hearing the lawyers’ objections, the presiding judge Duan Wen directly said, “If you have booked a ticket, reschedule it. Tomorrow’s trial will proceed.” The five lawyers who had booked flight went up to the sixth floor to find the court president and report the arbitrary scheduling of court sessions by the collegial panel. However, they were intercepted in the corridor of the fourth floor by the head of the security team, who prevented them from going upstairs. The lawyers then requested that their message be conveyed to court president Mr. Zhou for coordination. Later, the head of the security team brought back Mr. Zhou’s response: He doesn’t meet with lawyers during the trial. Around 5:30 PM at the end of the court’s working hours, the head of the security team asked the lawyers to leave the courthouse.
During the sixth day of the trial, there was also an outburst from the audience accusing the prosecutor. The cause was that Christian who are over 70 years old, while answering questions, revealed that during questioning, the prosecutor not only falsely accused him of being a religious scammer but also mocked his personal life tragedy from over twenty years ago when his child died. The elderly, with gray hair and plagued by illness, became furious. This also triggered the anger of the audience, whose accusations were mostly directed at how a public servant could treat an elderly person of their parents’ age so heartlessly, not only lacking basic empathy but also using derogatory language, completely devoid of humanity.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to work
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 31, 2024
- Country
- China
- Event Description
Tibet Watch has learned that Gonmo Kyi, sister of Tibetan political prisoner Dorjee Tashi, was detained this morning, Wednesday 13 December, in Lhasa. Her husband Choekyong is also being held.
According to a source who spoke to Tibet Watch, Gonmo Kyi and Choekyong went to Lhasa People’s Court with a letter, urging officials to retry Dorjee Tashi, who has been in prison since 2008. They also requested that they be allowed to meet Dorjee Tashi in prison, something authorities had previously promised.
Instead, the pair were arrested by security personnel and taken to a police station in Lhasa. The source stated that it is difficult to know the couple’s current situation and in which police station they are detained.
Dorjee Tashi, a hotel owner, has been in prison since his arrest in July 2008. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for “loan fraud”, a charge he and his family contest, and has been subjected to torture while in prison.
In response, Gonmo Kyi, has held a series of protests targeted at officials in Lhasa, urging them to let her see her brother and for his case to be retried.
Police have attempted to block her protests from public view. According to Tibet Watch’s source, all photos, videos or information of Gonmo Kyi’s protests have been censored since August 2023, the last time that Tibet Watch received any information about her.
Police have also treated her violently, assaulting Gonmo Kyi in August and leaving her in need of hospital treatment, which was denied to her. In March this year, Gonmo Kyi was detained and beaten.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 30, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 26, 2023
- Event Description
Tibetan human rights defender Tsering Tso had been subjected to arbitrary detention for the second time in three years for her social media posts calling out Chinese authorities for engaging in human rights abuses against Tibetans in Kyegudo (Ch: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in the Tibetan province of Kham.
Tso was sentenced to 15 days of “administrative detention” by the Yushu Public Security Bureau (PSB) in the Yushu city detention centre from 26 October to 10 November 2023.
According to the official letter by the Yushu Public Security Bureau posted by Tsering Tso on her WeChat on 11 November 2023, The Yushu PSB or police claimed that between 8 and 25 October 2023, Tso committed the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” by posting a series of videos and personal statements on her Douyin account to “falsely accuse the government and spread misinformation on her private social media”.
The allegation of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” often directed at human rights defenders, minority ethnicities, critics, dissenters, and individuals deemed disloyal, is a legal tool to compel alignment with the official narrative, functioning as a means to deter questioning and dissent. Whether operating at the central or local level, the party-state assumes an authoritative role in delineating the boundaries of what constitutes picking a quarrel and provoking trouble. Essentially, any deviation from the official mass line falls within this defined category.
After examining Tso’s social media posts on Douyin, TCHRD can confirm that the Yushu PSB failed to address the legitimate grievances and issues Ms Tso raised and misused its discretionary powers.
In a video statement posted on 16 October 2023, Tso criticised the “feudalistic mindset” of official power holders and how it hinders the “hardworking and educated people from ordinary households to accomplish great deeds and realise their dreams”. She also called out the local leaders for misusing their power to further personal interests and subjecting ordinary people to corrupt bureaucratic practices.
In another video posted on 19 October 2023, she shared the challenges she faced in opening her own business in Kyegudo city, exposing the unfair practices of the local government leaders. Her efforts to operate business enterprises from 2016 onwards in the city have met with undue pressure and harassment from the local government authorities.
One of her widely viewed posts was a video she captured at the Lhasa railway station in July 2023, in which she called out the railway authorities for engaging in blatant racial discrimination against Tibetan passengers who were asked to show additional documents while Chinese tourists proceeded unhindered without any scrutiny or examination. She can be heard speaking Chinese in the video, “Lhasa authorities are violating the nation’s laws; they are engaging in racial discrimination. Chinese individuals with Identification Cards merely need to show their faces to pass. In contrast, Tibetans face restrictions despite possessing all requisite legal documents. Only Chinese individuals without Identification Cards are instructed to register. Meanwhile, we Tibetans, with all legal documentation in order, are denied passage. Look! The Chinese are permitted to pass without impediment. They encounter no issues. What does this convey? Does it not demonstrate a lack of racial equality? Is this not unmistakable racial discrimination?”
Yet another video shows her directly asking a police officer about the directive mandating Tibetans [from Tibetan areas outside Tibet Autonomous Region] to obtain permits to travel to Lhasa. She argues that such a rule constitutes evident discrimination against Tibetans.
An important issue she raises in one of her videos is the existing discrepancy between the operation of travel agencies in China and those in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). She asserts that while travel agencies in China could function autonomously, those in TAR are monopolised by one or two entities, primarily the Lhasa Communications Industry Group Company. This monopoly is facilitated, in part, through collaboration with the Border Management Office.
The Border Management Office, instead of focusing on its designated responsibilities, misuses its power to assist the monopolisation of the Lhasa Transportation Industry Group Company, which is evident in its practices, where only vehicles of the Lhasa Transportation Industry Group are permitted.
“This unjust practice restricts the freedom of other agencies, leaving approximately 300 drivers from non-monopolised agencies unemployed, as their cars are denied permits. Furthermore, the agency with the monopoly maintains a limited fleet, resulting in exorbitant car fares ranging from 2500 to 3000 yuan.”
Tsering Tso is originally from Trika (Ch: Guide) County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture but works and lives in Yushu City. She operates the Tibet World Tours and Travel, specialising in organising tours in various regions, including Lhasa City, Ngari, and other parts of Tibet, as well as destinations in other parts of the world.
This is the second time we have received information about her detention. Previously, in November 2020, Tsering Tso was apprehended in Siling (Ch: Xining), the capital of Qinghai Province, on charges related to disrupting “social stability”. She was subsequently transported to Trika (Ch: Guide) County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) and detained for ten days, along with a fine of 1000 Chinese yuan. Throughout her detention, she was provided only steamed bread and water, leaving her in a state of starvation. Additionally, she faced constant threats, with her 80-year-old father also being subjected to intimidation during this period.
In China, Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers frequently conduct administrative detention practices characterised by a vague legal framework that grants extensive discretionary powers. Administrative detention practices often include the extensive use of torture and ill-treatment, and expecting any supervision of such misconduct is impractical, as high-ranking officials in the upper echelons tend to incentivise the suppression of dissent and criticism. However, the malpractices of administrative detention directly contradict the promises outlined in Article 37 of the Chinese Constitution, which explicitly safeguards the liberty of citizens, stating, “The personal freedom of citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall not be violated.
No citizen shall be arrested unless with the approval or by the decision of a people’s procuratorate or by the decision of a people’s court, and arrests must be made by a public security organ.
Unlawful detention, or the unlawful deprivation or restriction of a citizen’s personal freedom by other means, is prohibited; the unlawful search of a citizen’s person is prohibited.”
In 2017, Tsering Tso advocated for the issuance of travel permits for Yushu residents legally. Subsequently, the Public Security Bureau dispatched people to physically assault her. Following the incident, an attempt was made to downplay the perpetrators as ordinary individuals under the influence of alcohol engaging in unruly behaviour. In response to this, Tsering Tso shared authentic documents online to counter the denial of justice. Given her prior experiences of enduring similarly severe and oppressive circumstances, and facing a recurrence of such incidents, she emphasised the imperative of a fair and just resolution. Consequently, her post addressing these concerns was made unavailable for public viewing.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Minority rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 30, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Dec 10, 2023
- Event Description
Three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were arrested on Sunday, just before voting began in a “patriots only” district election that has marginalised formerly popular opposition figures in the city amid a national security clampdown.
The pro-China government has been seeking to boost turnout, as some observers see large numbers spurning the polls, in contrast to the last council elections in 2019, during Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests, which drew a record 71% turnout and a landslide victory for the democratic camp.
Police arrested three members of the “League of Social Democrats” in the Central business district, the group said. It had planned to protest against the “birdcage election” that it said lacked any democratic scope, given vetting requirements by authorities that have effectively barred all democrats from running.
“Hong Kong people’s right to vote and to be elected seems to be absent,” the group said in a statement.
Police did not immediately offer grounds for the arrests. The city’s constitution guarantees freedom of assembly.
Regulations introduced in July slashed the directly elected district council seats by nearly 80% from four years ago.
All candidates must now undergo national security background checks and secure nominations from pro-government committees. At least three pro-democracy groups, including moderates, and even some pro-Beijing figures failed to secure enough nominations.
‘Hard to talk about democracy’
The changes further narrow electoral freedoms in the former colony that Britain returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The crackdown under a 2020 China-imposed national security law has led to the arrests of former district councillors and the disbandment of major opposition parties.
“It is the last piece of the puzzle for us to implement the principles of patriots governing Hong Kong,” Hong Kong leader John Lee said while casting his ballot with his wife, claiming that the previous poll in 2019 had been used to sabotage governance and endanger national security.
Security was tight around many polling stations with over ten thousand police deployed to maintain order.
While some Western governments say the China-imposed national security law has been used to crack down on dissent, China says it has brought stability to the financial hub after the protracted pro-democracy protests of 2019.
For weeks the major pro-Beijing and pro-government parties have been out in force, campaigning and festooning streets with posters and flyers in a bid to bolster turnout. On Saturday night, a harbourfront carnival featuring fireworks and patriotic pop singers made last-minute appeals for people to vote.
Some were not convinced.
“The broad political spectrum of voices that we saw four years has all gone,” said Tang, a 27-year-old who said she would boycott the vote, asking to be identified only by her family name.
Turnout was about 11.6% at 12.30pm, down from 31% at the same time in the previous election.
“It’s very hard to talk about democracy or democratisation anymore in today’s Hong Kong,” said Kenneth Chan, a political scientist at Hong Kong’s Baptist University and a former pro-democracy lawmaker.
“What they’re doing now is the installation of the so-called patriots-only governance structure.”
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 2, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 22, 2023
- Event Description
On 22 November 2023, human rights defender Yin Xu’an left prison after completing a 4.5 year prison sentence. He was escorted back to his home in Daye City in Hubei Province. CCTV cameras have been installed behind and in front of his home. Security officers have also been been stationed around his home.
Independent human rights monitors have reported that the human rights defender’s family has not been able to contact him in the days since his return home, and that he must request permission from the authorities if he wants to leave his home, even when seeking medical treatment.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 2, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 24, 2023
- Event Description
On 24 November 2023, the Shandong Provincial High Court announced its decision to uphold the first-instance verdict and sentence against human rights defender Ding Jiaxi. In April 2023, the Linshu County Court in Shandong province found Ding Jiaxi guilty of “subversion of State power” and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
The High Court did not hold any hearings during the appeal process, and barred the human rights defender’s defence lawyers from entering the courthouse when the decision was announced. The court also prohibited the lawyers from providing Ding Jiaxi’s family with the text of the appeal verdict on the basis of a “confidentiality agreement” that the lawyers were forced to sign.
On 21 November 2023, after having been informed of the date of the appeal decision announcement, the human rights defender’s two lawyers went to meet him at the Linshu Detention Centre but were told that the Shandong Provincial High Court had instructed the detention centre not to allow the lawyers to meet Ding Jiaxi. The lawyers then telephoned the High Court judge in charge of the case and were informed that the judge would need to consult with his/her superiors. After waiting for some time and still receiving no response from the judge, the lawyers eventually left the detention centre in the late afternoon.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 2, 2024
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 23, 2023
- Event Description
Two Tibetan women, known for helping the poor and needy in their village were detained on 23 October after sending voice messages in chat groups on the social media application WeChat, encouraging everyone to practise virtuous actions.
Tsomo and Nyidon, are devout Buddhists from a village in Karchen Township (སྐར་ཆེན་ཤང་།), Sershul County ( སེར་ཤུལ་རྫོང་།) in the Tibetan region of Kham. Before their arrests, the pair regularly volunteered to serve the poorest in their community.
Following their arrest, the pair were taken to a detention centre in the same county. Since then, there have been no further details about their condition.
According to a source spoken to by Tibet Watch, “Currently there is heavy restriction on activities related to religion” in Tibet.
The source added that in Karchen Township alone, many villagers have been summoned to their local police station and subjected to interrogations about their activities of promoting Buddhist virtues.
On 20 December 2021, the ruling Chinese Communist Party announced a new regulation aimed at controlling religion in society: Measures on the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services, of which Article 17 stipulates that individuals and organisations without authorised government licence are "not allowed to organise and carry out religious activities on the internet."
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 20, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 26, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested a man who went to board a flight out of the city, charging him with "sedition" under colonial-era laws for wearing a T-shirt with a banned protest slogan printed on it, after questioning a lone protester holding up a blank sheet of paper at the weekend.
Acting on a tip-off, national security police arrested Chu Kai-poon, 26, as he approached his boarding gate, charging him with "committing one or more acts with seditious intent," "possession of seditious publications" and "possessing other people's ID cards."
According to a government statement, somebody reported a man at the airport to police for wearing a shirt emblazoned with the banned 2019 protest slogan, “Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now!” and “Independence for Hong Kong,” as well as a “Free Hong Kong” flag, according to several media reports.
The arrest is the latest in a string of “sedition” cases in Hong Kong, which carry a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, and are used alongside a draconian national security law to target peaceful criticism of the authorities.
In July 2021, a court jailed motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit for nine years for “terrorism” and “secession” under the National Security Law, after he flew the “Free Hong Kong” slogan from his bike during a street protest.
"Police received a report that a man was allegedly wearing a shirt with seditious wordings at the Hong Kong International Airport," the Nov. 29 government statement said.
"Police officers sped to the scene and further seized some flags and clothing with seditious wording, as well as an identity card relating to another person from his personal belongings."
Lone protester
Chu's arrest came after police questioned a lone protester on Sunday after he stood on the street outside the Sogo Department Store in Causeway Bay holding up a sheet of white paper, marking the anniversary of the 2022 "white paper" movement.
The man stood there for some 30 minutes before he was approached by police, during which time some passersby were overheard asking him what he was doing, the independent InMediaHK news website reported.
Police then turned up and searched the man, checking his ID and asking if he was alone.
"What do you mean by this demonstration?" they asked him, according to bystanders interviewed in the report.
"Don't you know that a blank sheet of paper could easily incite others?" they asked.
Police later confirmed the incident to InMediaHK and said the 21-year-old man, surnamed Chan, had been allowed to leave with a warning.
'High-pressure environment'
Taiwan-based Hong Kong activist Fu Tong said the crackdown on public dissent is still making his home city "a high-pressure environment" for any form of peaceful activism.
"People dare not have anything to do with protest in the current high-pressure environment of Hong Kong," Fu said. "It's inspiring that there are still people willing to stand up."
"Those of us outside the Great Firewall sometimes feel that we're fighting in vain, and it's a form of mutual comfort and support to see that there are still people in Hong Kong who persist," he said. "It encourages us to keep up the fight."
U.S.-based political commentator Hu Ping said a lone protest – like that of the Beijing “Bridge Man” in 2022 – has a profound kind of symbolic power.
"The fact that a man in black held up a blank sheet of paper on the anniversary of the White Paper Movement carries deep political meaning," Hu said. "[It] expresses an overall sense of dissatisfaction and protest."
"Some people are still willing to stand up ... despite the high level of political pressure under the Chinese Communist Party's introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong," he said.
Zhuang Jiaying, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said the white paper incident showed how widespread such sentiments are, despite huge government attempts to stamp out any form of protest.
"The White Paper Revolution took place under the Chinese Communist Party's high-pressure, zero-COVID environment," Zhuang said. "While the [authorities] were able to suppress it very quickly and completely, they can't entirely eradicate sporadic protests."
"Even Beijing has no way to prevent such things, so I don't think it's surprising that such incidents happen from time to time in Hong Kong," he said.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 20, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Sep 27, 2023
- Event Description
Film director and dissident artist Guo Zhenming, known for his work commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, has been placed under a travel ban after being invited to a screening of his latest film in Singapore.
Authorities in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where Guo is currently based, cut the corner from his passport in May, and refused to accept an application for a new passport from him, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Guo traveled to Beijing last month in a bid to apply again from there, but his application was rejected due to a "restriction" placed on him by authorities in Yunnan's Lijiang city, he was told.
Last December, authorities in nearby Dali placed Guo under 15 days' administrative detention for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, after he made some comments about the "white paper" movement.
The incident is likely one reason for the travel ban, Guo said.
Another was an online signature campaign he signed supporting women's rights in the wake of the scandal of the woman found chained by the neck in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
"The first thing was the woman in chains ... I and [fellow artist] Yan Zhengxue launched a campaign at home and overseas in April and May last year ... calling for the protection of women's rights, which made a big impact at the time," Guo said.
"Then, the white paper movement happened while I was in Dali, and I made some comments in WeChat Moments," he said. "On Dec. 4, 2022, I was arrested by the Dali municipal police, who held me in administrative detention for 15 days in a separate cell."
Obstruction
Former 1989 activist Ji Feng said Guo's support for his sick friend and dissident sculptor Yan Zhengxue had also angered the authorities.
"When I went to visit with Yan Zhengxue, the main fundraiser was Guo," Ji said.
"I was picked up by the Guizhou police on Sept. 25, and he was placed under the travel ban on Sept. 27," he said.
"I was the one who had him travel from Yunnan to Beijing to visit Yan Zhengxue," he said.
Guo said he has faced various forms of obstruction from government departments ever since his detention, however.
"After I got out, the Dali municipal police department refused to show me the administrative penalty notice or the administrative detention certificate," Guo said. "They said it was a state secret. "
"What I later got was a detention certificate issued to me by the detention center, proving that I had been released," he said.
He said officials at the Gucheng district branch of the Lijiang police department, where he lives, then proceeded to clip the corner of his passport, invalidating it.
Guo, who hails from the central province of Hunan, but who has lived in Beijing and Yunnan for much of his adult life, recently had his film "Tedious Days and Nights" accepted by the Singapore International Film Festival.
"I was going to attend the world premiere [of my film] at the ... Singapore International Film Festival on Dec. 4, so I was eager to apply for a passport so I could leave the country," he said.
"But the Lijiang municipal police department refuses to accept my passport application, saying that I am suspected of being a threat to national political security," he said. "I'm banned from leaving the country."
'Filth, irreverence and melancholy'
An officer who answered the phone at the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of the Lijiang municipal police department declined to discuss Guo's case when contacted by Radio Free Asia for comment on Nov. 14.
"We don't know," the officer said. Asked which department was in charge of Guo's case, the officer said: "I don't know that either."
Repeated calls to the Entry-Exit Detachment and Supervisory Branch of the Gucheng district police department rang unanswered during office hours on Nov. 14.
"Tedious Days and Nights" tells the story of poet Zeng Dekuang, who returns to the former industrial town of Coal Dam after 30 years of wandering to find the place in disrepair "much like the promise of his youth that has dimmed in middle age," according to the publicity material on the festival website.
"Rather than resist time’s decay, Zeng and his old friends drift into it with abandon and return to their basest of impulses, sometimes with comedic failure, but mostly in drunkenness," the synopsis reads.
"In Tedious Days and Nights, the Tiananmen Square massacre continues to haunt a lost generation of Chinese artists," it says.
"As the men frolic about ruins, this documentary enacts a passive resistance equivalent to the tang ping (lying flat) movement of Chinese youths today ... with equal parts filth, irreverence and melancholy."
The entry in the Singapore International Film Festival Guide for the Dec. 4 screening of the film advertises "Q&A with film-maker," an event that Guo will now be unable to attend.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Artist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 4, 2023
- Event Description
Rights lawyer Tang Jitian is incommunicado, believed detained in a hotel in the northeastern province of Jilin following his release from two years of incommunicado detention in January, people familiar with his case told Radio Free Asia.
"He sent a message on WeChat Moments around Nov. 4 that his daughter's grandmother had passed away," U.S.-based rights activist Xiang Li told RFA Mandarin. "This was the last public message he sent [and it] showed that he was in Jilin at the time."
"Shortly after he posted the message, he was incommunicado and I haven't managed to get in touch with him in more than two weeks," Xiang said.
A person familiar with the case who declined to be named for fear of reprisals said Tang had been detained en route to his mother-in-law's funeral on Nov. 6, and is currently being held by state security police at a hotel in Yanbian city.
Tang has a round-the-clock detail of state security police sleeping in the same room and eating all meals with him, they said.
He was taken into custody again because someone "disclosed information about Tang" on social media, the person said.
Xiang said the daring flight of ethnic Korean dissident Kwon Pyong by jet ski from the eastern province of Shandong might have heightened tensions around Tang, too, although the two men aren’t associated with each other.
"Maybe state security police in Jilin were made nervous by that escape, which caused an international sensation," Xiang said. "Tang Jitian is a human rights lawyer and dissident whom they regard as very important."
When he was released after more than a year of police detention on Jan. 14, 2023, Tang showed up in his birthplace in Jilin instead of his home in Beijing, an increasingly common practice for recently released political prisoners.
"I'll try to keep doing what I can keep doing, but ... I can't say any more right now," Tang told RFA at the time, saying it was "inconvenient" to speak, a phrase often employed by people targeted for official surveillance.
Tang's license to practice as a lawyer was revoked in 2010 after he campaigned for direct elections within the state-run Lawyers' Association, and represented practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
He has been barred from leaving China to visit his daughter in Japan, who is on life support in a Tokyo hospital after contracting meningitis.
"If he is incommunicado, that must mean he has been forcibly disappeared, and that the state security police must have detained him," Xiang said.
Sedatives overdose
Meanwhile the teenaged son of detained rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been sent to hospital after being left alone in the family home following his parents' detention in April.
Yu Zhenyang was taken to hospital after taking an overdose of sedative medication, fellow lawyer Liang Xiaojun told RFA Mandarin.
"When I got there, he didn't say anything to me, just sat there on the hospital bed," Liang said. "There were nurses and policemen there beside him."
"The policeman told me he had taken some sedatives and then started to feel unwell while on a bus in Mentougou," he said. "He told the driver he felt unwell and the driver called the police, and they sent him to the hospital."
Yu Zhenyang was treated and was recovering, Liang said.
"His mental state was quite good – he was drinking water, and he was on a drop – he looked okay," he said. "Maybe it was sleeping pills and he took a little too many."
Fellow rights attorney Wang Yu, who has been keeping an eye on Yu Zhenyang since he was left alone, said the overdose took place on the young man's 19th birthday, which he spent alone.
"They said he turned 19 on [Nov. 18]," Wang said. "He was alone and in a very sad mood."
"He went out to eat alone and took nine tablets in one go," she said. "He started to feel unwell on the bus home."
She called on the Chinese authorities to release Yu Wensheng and his wife on bail pending trial to allow them to take care of Yu Zhenyang.
Canada-based family friend Zhao Zhongyuan said Yu Zhenyang has had a tough time since both parents – father Yu Wensheng and mother Xu Yan – were detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in April, en route to meet with European Union diplomats in Beijing.
Xu has reportedly been charged with "incitement to subvert state power."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 27, 2023
- Event Description
Ji Xiaolong was sentenced on Friday, October 27 to four years and six months in prison by a Shanghai court for picking quarrels and provoking trouble. He disclosed the truth about Shanghai’s lockdown during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic. He demanded the Chinese government relax the excessive lockdown measures and for those responsible to be held accountable for their policy making.
“All the news I received today has not been good, sentenced to four and a half years, it will take more than three years to get out of prison. (They) have not given him a haircut yet, I do not know what these officials are plotting,” Ji Xiaolong’s sister said in response.
In 2018, Ji criticized China’s “vaccine scandal.” Amidst public outrage, many victims’ families demanded accountability and protection of rights. Ji Xiaolong initiated the “Toilet Revolution,” subsequently he was arrested by the police and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. He was released in February 2022. In the following months from April to June, Shanghai implemented stringent lockdown measures due to the outbreak of COVID-19, which resulted in the endangerment of people’s livelihoods. Ji spoke out on the internet, asking the Shanghai government to sympathize with the people, relax their excessive control, and stop campaign-style covid prevention measures.
In August 2022, Ji was reprimanded when he issued a real-name petition to Li Qiang, the party secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee at the time, and now China’s Premier, demanding accountability for the city’s closure. He was taken away from his home by the Shanghai police on August 31, and was criminally detained by the Pudong New Area Police, where he was held without timely and effective care for his serious dental condition. His case was once returned for supplementary investigation, but in the end he was charged in March of this year.
Ji Xiaolong is currently being held at the Pudong New Area Detention Center in Shanghai, where he will serve his sentence until February 28, 2027.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 17, 2023
- Event Description
Nanjing dissident journalist Sun Lin, who used the pen name Jie Mu, has died following a raid by state security police on his home last week, Radio Free Asia has learned.
"On Nov. 17, police reportedly entered his home, and neighbors later heard loud noises," the overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said via its X account. "At 2:44 p.m. he was sent to hospital; dead at 5:45 [p.m.]."
"At the hospital, Sun Lin's family requested to see his body, but the state security police refused," the group said.
"Medical staff at the hospital said his clothes were torn and he had suffered head injuries, indicating he was beaten to death," it said.
Overseas-based dissident Sun Liyong, who isn't related to Sun Lin, said the suspected beating took place at around noon on Nov. 17.
"A group of state security officers from Nanjing's Xuanwu district broke into Sun Lin's home," he said. "Then the neighbors heard sounds of a struggle from inside."
He said police have since tried to claim they were defending themselves after being attacked by Sun.
"Sun Lin is nearly 70 years old, so how would he be able to beat up a group of young men?" he said.
Open letter
A group of Sun's friends and fellow activists, including Huang Jinqiu, Wu Lihong, Zou Wei and Zan Aizong have signed an open letter calling on the Nanjing municipal government to conduct an independent investigation into Sun's death as soon as possible, the Chinese-language rights website Weiquanwang reported.
Sun's friend Fu Tao said he believes "from the information we have so far, it seems like his death wasn't normal."
Sun was sent to Jiangsu Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine at 2:44 p.m., and the hospital pronounced him dead at 5:45 p.m.," Weiquanwang said, adding that Sun had recently undergone a full medical checkup three days earlier, and had been in "normal" health.
A friend of Sun's who gave only the surname Lu told RFA Mandarin: "They [state security police] wanted to enter his home, but [Sun] refused them entry, so they forced their way in."
Lu said he believes police beat Sun to death to stop him from speaking out.
"If they want to control you, they will use any means," Lu said. "They often kill people and cut off all contact with the outside world to prevent any kind of public backlash."
Sun’s friend and fellow activist Zou Wei held up a blank sheet of A4 paper to commemorate his death in front of the Memorial to the Fallen Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army on Xixi Road in Hangzhou on Monday.
Weiquanwang said Sun's remains are currently in the hands of the Nanjing state security police, and have been removed from the hospital.
State security police have placed Sun's daughter Sun Yijia under tight restrictions, and have visited his ex-wife He Fang to warn her against "causing trouble," it said.
Repeated calls to He Fang and Sun Yijia rang unanswered on Tuesday.
Reporting on rights violations
In a profile on its website, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders describes Sun as "independent journalist who has reported on human rights violations and the corruption of Chinese officials."
He was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” on Dec. 25, 2018, and served a four-year jail term in connection with his social media posts, and for shouting "Down with the Communist Party" at a party meeting in Nanjing.
He had also served an earlier four-year jail term in 2008 for "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" along with his then wife He Fang, after he refused to stop reporting on forced evictions at a Nanjing factory.
"Born in Nanjing on Dec. 24, 1955, Sun Lin forged a reputation from the outset of his journalism career for exercising free speech that attracted the attention of authorities," the profile said.
In August 1998, he began working with a television station in Nanjing, which dismissed him for speaking too openly about “politically sensitive” subjects, prompting him to launch his own video channel in September of the same year, which the authorities later shut down, it said.
Sun had also been the editor of the Nanjing version of Business Times Today and edited the Metropolis newspaper which he founded in 2000. After authorities forced Metropolis to close, Sun started to report for Boxun.
"He continued to report on social justice issues despite growing pressure and harassment by officials, culminating in his prison sentence in 2008," it said.
New book
A friend of Sun's who asked to remain anonymous said that just before his death, the authorities had paid a call on a fellow activist in the central city of Wuhan who had just received a copy of a book written by Sun.
"Ten days ago, the Nanjing state security police and the Wuhan state security police went to pay a call on [Wuhan rights activist Xiao Yuqing]," the friend said. "Sun Lin had written a book, and sent a copy to [Xiao]."
"The day after it arrived, the police showed up – he hadn't even had time to open it up and take a look," the friend said. "They took the book away."
"Sun had been chatting with Xiao Yuqing the day before [Sun died]. [Xiao] had just gotten out of hospital, and was planning a trip to Nanjing," they said.
"I know some of the rights activists in Nanjing who were taken down to the local police station after receiving the news of Sun Lin's death on the group chat," the friend said.
"Why would they cover up the news of Sun Lin's death? It's not going to work," they said.
When contacted by RFA Mandarin, Xiao said he has been banned from talking to the media or posting online, and declined to give an interview.
Xiao isn't the only dissident to have been contacted and told to keep quiet.
A Hubei-based online activist who gave only the surname Mo said he had received a call from state security police warning him not to travel anywhere.
"They said they would come round within 10 minutes if I were to buy a rail ticket anywhere," Mo said. "Henan-based rights activist Fang Yan was told by the state security police not to go to Nanjing."
"It's getting harder and harder for us to exist," Mo said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Death, Raid, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to life
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 14, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 17, 2023
- Event Description
Hong Kong police have arrested a former pro-democracy member of the city's District Council and prison welfare activist -- amid calls for a boycott of forthcoming district elections, which are open to "patriots only."
Derek Chu, a 46-year-old former directly elected councilor who resigned in 2021 before being forced to take an oath of loyalty to the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, was arrested in Shatin on Tuesday on suspicion of breaching the city's mandatory pension law, police told the paper.
His arrest comes as the government moves ahead with an "election" process that will slash the number of directly elected seats on the District Council by 80%, while ensuring that almost nobody in the city's once-vibrant opposition camp will stand for election again, the result of ongoing arrests of pro-democracy figures and rule changes requiring political vetting.
"At about 12 noon, Derek Chu was taken to an office at Manulife Plaza in Kwun Tong by the police for evidence collection," the report said. "He was later taken to a food store in W Plaza in Mong Kok and Fuk Keung Industrial Building in Tai Kok Tsui for investigation."
Those locations are linked to Chu's "Migratory Bird" platform to support prisoners, which raised money via the As One online shopping platform – part of the "yellow economic circle of pro-democracy businesses" – to support his prison work.
He is currently being held by the Sham Shui Po Crime Division pending further investigation, after his home was also searched and documents confiscated, the paper reported.
Chu was a member of the last directly elected District Council, which saw a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates amid record turnout that was widely seen as a ringing public endorsement of the 2019 protest movement.
He resigned his seat along with many like-minded colleagues amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 2020.
'Patriots' only
The government later changed the Legislative Council electoral rules to ensure only "patriots" loyal to Beijing could stand as candidates or hold any kind of public office, prompting record-low turnout of 30.2% in Legislative Council elections in December 2021 compared with more than 70% in the last District Council poll.
Officials then rewrote the District Council poll rules in May, citing a "disastrous" result in the 2019 election, sparking calls from overseas activists for a boycott of the forthcoming poll on Dec. 10.
"Abandon illusions, boycott this fake election," read an Oct. 16 statement on Facebook signed by dozens of former pro-democracy councilors.
"We, the last district councilors to be elected by the citizens of Hong Kong, solemnly declare that we will not recognize these so-called elections run by the Communist regime of Hong Kong, and call on all citizens of Hong Kong to boycott the election and the councilors it produces," the statement said.
It said candidates wishing to take part have to run a complex gamut of vetting from support for nomination to a slew of official recommendation letters to political background checks, "all of which runs counter to the democratic spirit," warning that anyone who makes it to the list of candidates is "purely a permitted cheerleader for the regime."
It said the government also looks set to use the "election" as an opportunity to engage in "the political brainwashing of minors."
"This so-called election will actually take place under military totalitarian rule, and can have no fairness or legitimacy," the councilors wrote.
Australia-based former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who signed the statement, said the forthcoming poll is a "huge step backwards for democracy" in Hong Kong.
"Most of the seats will be controlled by the government," Hui said. "We believe that it would be best for citizens to totally refuse to take part, to boycott [the election]."
'Huge step backwards'
Some parties in the democratic camp have said they will field candidates, though it remains to be seen if their bid for candidacy will be accepted.
The Democratic Party has said it hopes to field six candidates, and the Association of Democracy and People's Livelihood wants to field two.
But Hui said this could send a dangerous signal about complicity with the authorities, who have told opposition parties to give up any hope of “Western-style democracy” in the city.
"One or two [pro-democracy candidates] might pass the test and get nominated, but this will do great harm, because it shows the people of Hong Kong that they agree with this huge step backwards for democracy," he said.
Former district councilor Sam Yip, who also signed the statement, said it was naive of pro-democracy parties to imagine it was worth contesting such elections.
"It helps to whitewash these elections, which are illegal, unfair and inconsistent with the whole concept of democracy," Yip said. "Their actions are actually ruining democracy."
'A screening process'
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak, asked if the government is expecting turnout to fall in this year's poll, said it wasn't the most important thing.
"We should not just look at the turnout in District Council elections, [which can be] affected by many factors, such as the weather, including whether it rains that day, whether there is a typhoon in the summer, and whether the weather will be too cold," Mak said.
"The most important thing is how to find patriots who sincerely serve the community and citizens through the electoral system," she said.
Former Hong Kong Island Eastern District councilor Derek Ngai, who also resigned to avoid taking his oath, said democrats faced with the oath of loyalty requirement feared being required to pay back two years of salary if their oaths were rejected.
"If we hadn't resigned, we could have wound up getting disqualified, which ... could mean serious consequences like being asked to pay back your salary," Ngai told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
He said the new election rules will slash the proportion of directly elected seats on the council from 100% to just 20%, with a much more grueling set of vetting processes and bureaucratic hoops for prospective candidates to jump through than in the past.
"We expected the Hong Kong government to take back control of the council, but they have set a lot of hurdles on the remaining 20% [of directly elected] seats."
"It doesn't feel like an election so much as a screening process packaged as an election," Ngai said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 26, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 18, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Hong Kong on Wednesday handed down a four-year jail term for “rioting” to a protester who was shot in the chest by police during the 2019 protest movement.
Tsang Chi-kin, who was 18 when he was shot by an officer on Oct. 1, 2019, during protests on the 70th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule, was given a 40-month jail sentence for "rioting" and a seven-month sentence for "assaulting a police officer."
Tsang, now 22, was also handed an 11-month sentence for "perverting the course of justice," but also received a 35% sentence deduction for expressing remorse, and for actively assisting the police in their investigations, Deputy District Judge Ada Yim told the district court.
Multiple media reports and social media accounts posted video showing protesters flailing at armed riot police with batons and sticks during clashes in the New Territories town of Tsuen Wan.
The officer is shown in the video pointing a handgun at Tsang, a secondary school student at the time, before a shot rings out and the boy slumps to the ground.
Social media posts from the scene on Tsuen Wan's Hau Tei Square said Tsang shouted out: "My chest hurts a lot," adding his full name and identity card number before being taken away by ambulance.
The shooting sparked widespread condemnation of the police and their handling of the months-long protest movement, in which predominantly young people thronged the streets and occupied the city's legislature and airport in a bid to end the erosion of their promised freedoms under Chinese rule.
Sought asylum
Tsang went into hiding for two years after a failed bid to seek asylum at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong. He told journalists that his rejected attempt had plunged him "into hell," prompting him to hide from the authorities.
He later pleaded guilty to all charges, citing depression and health problems from the gunshot injury, but Judge Yim said this wasn't taken as a mitigating factor.
"Tsang Chi-kin came well-prepared with a homemade shield and a metal baton," Yim told the sentencing hearing. "He and other demonstrators pursued a lone police officer and relied on the strength of their numbers to use violence, which was of a vile nature."
Tsang, who skipped bail following his initial arrest, told the court that he was "extremely confused" by the prevailing political atmosphere in 2019, and had made "wrong decisions" that he later came to regret.
He also cited his "active cooperation" and testimony as a witness for the prosecution.
However, Yim said the protesters' actions were premeditated, and that demonstrators in the area had thrown petrol bombs, bricks and committed arson, risking injury to police and passers-by.
She said the sentence had to act as a deterrent, and show the court's determination to safeguard public order.
Silent protest
As Tsang received his sentence, the city's police force was out on the streets and on university campuses trying to recruit new officers, sparking a silent protest from a student at a university in Shatin.
Police recruiters faced off on the campus of Hang Seng University with a student who held up a placard scrawled with the words: "Where were you on July 21, 2019?" in a reference to a delayed police response to mob attacks on protesters and train passengers at Yuen Long MTR station.
The city’s police force, which quashed a critical report from an international panel of experts on its handling of the 2019 protests, has struggled in recent years to find fresh recruits.
Despite being allocated huge amounts of fresh funding in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, the force has been struggling to fill its additional vacancies, thousands of which have been filled by allowing officers to work past the usual retirement age of 55.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, Student
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 17, 2023
- Event Description
Former political prisoner beaten for posting video of government staff refusing license registration
Former Tibetan political prisoner and language rights activist Tashi Wangchuk was detained and beaten by Chinese police personnel on 17 October after he posted a video of government staff refusing his request for business license registration.
Tashi Wangchuk opened a car wash shop on 17 October in Yushu City, and upon the local police’s instruction, went to the Yushu City People's Government to apply for a license for his new business. His request was refused, which he filmed and later posted as status on his WeChat account.
He was then arrested by the Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau ( 城管执法大队 ) and handed over to the Yushu City Public Security Bureau ( PSB ), where he was kept under detention for three days and subjected to interrogation. The head of Yushu PSB and the Vice Mayor, Zhi Husai ( 冶胡赛 ), brutally beat him, and Tashi’s shop was also forcibly shut down.
He was told that he had committed a crime against the state by posting the video on his WeChat. " But I can’t accept it because it’s my right and freedom of speech. I don’t know why they [the police] again put such a black-hat on my head ( meaning falsely accusing someone of wrongdoing ).”
Earning a livelihood remains increasingly difficult for former political prisoners who are also deprived of their political rights. Even after their release from prison, they are subjected to constant surveillance and harassment by security officials.
Tashi Wangchuk is a herder-turned-shopkeeper who came to international prominence in late 2015 after appearing in the New York Times’ article and documentary about his solo advocacy to file a lawsuit against local authorities after local Tibetan classes were shut down. Even after serving a five-year sentence, he still continues advocating for the Tibetan language at government offices and monitoring schools that are replacing Tibetan textbooks in favor of Chinese. A month ago, he was attacked by a group of unidentified, masked men after he posted a video of himself near a Tibetan school.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 12, 2023
- Event Description
A mainland Chinese student was imprisoned in Hong Kong for six months for “sedition” charges. Authorities recently released her on October 12th, when the Hong Kong government deported her to mainland China.
SEDITION 23-year-old Zeng Yuxuan was originally a PhD student studying law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Zeng Yuxuan is the first mainland Chinese student to be imprisoned in Hong Kong over a sedition charge.
On January 1st this year, Zeng was accused of displaying a sketch of ‘The July 1 stabbing Incident’ suspect Leung Kin-fai outside the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Police charged her with ‘committing acts with seditious intent’ for placing candles and flowers on the ground in mourning.
ARRESTED AGAIN After being granted bail, Zeng Yuxuan was arrested again on the eve of this year’s “June 4th.” She intended to unveil a giant banner featuring the “Pillar of Shame.” However, before the event, she was arrested and charged with “attempting to do an act with seditious intent.” The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court sentenced her to six months.
PILLAR OF SHAME The “Pillar of Shame” depicts several twisted and tragic figures, symbolizing the casualties of the 1989 Tiananmen Square bloody crackdown. This copper statue was removed in 2021. Traditionally, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China would send people yearly to clean the “Pillar of Shame” on the eve of the June 4th massacre. The leadership of the alliance was arrested in 2021 as well.
Ms. Tonyee Chow Hang-tung, a jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and former leader of the Alliance said, “When the court says that displaying the Pillar of Shame is a crime, it is nailing itself on the pillar of shame.”
ZENG YUXUAN’S ACTIVISM Zeng Yuxuan once expressed her wish to “make a little change” for Hong Kong, claiming that “it’s our duty” to participate in the protests. She also held up white papers at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, in response to the “White Paper Movement/A4 Revolution” launched in Mainland China in opposition to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
On October 12, Zeng Yuxuan was released after serving her sentence, and the Hong Kong government deported her to China declaring her “persona non grata.”
HONG KONG WATCH The London-based human rights organization “Hong Kong Watch” expressed deep concern about Ms. Zeng’s circumstances upon her arrival in mainland China.
Hong Kong Watch’s statement indicates that the expulsion of Zeng Yuxuan reflects Beijing’s increasing control over Hong Kong. With Hong Kong’s judicial independence steadily declining, Hong Kong authorities are seen as following Beijing’s demands to execute their political agenda, with little regard for the rule of law. The rule of law and judicial independence in Hong Kong are deteriorating.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Deportation
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, Student
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: defender sentenced in Hong Kong
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 25, 2023
- Event Description
Li Yuhan, the Chinese human rights lawyer who won the 2020 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Detained six years ago, she was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
Li, who was tried in 2021, was sentenced on Oct. 25 in the First Courtroom of Heping District Court in the Liaoning Province city of Shenyang. She will receive credit for her time in detention and has filed to appeal the sentence.
She represented Chinese rights lawyer Wang Yu during the "709 Crackdown" in 2015, when China launched a sweeping crackdown on more than 300 lawyers and human rights defenders.
The ailing Li Yuhan, 74, has been detained at the Shenyang No. 1 Detention Center since her arrest on Oct. 9, 2017. Authorities added a third charge against her, fraud in 2018, and canceled her trial repeatedly without explanation.
Human rights officials from Germany, France, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries had hoped to observe the trial but were unable to as authorities packed the room with selected spectators.
Li Yuhan's younger brother, Li Yongsheng, told VOA Mandarin, "In this so-called open trial, except for me, a family member, everyone else was kept away by the government. The Heping District Court treated this ordinary criminal case like that of a formidable enemy. They surrounded the court with iron fences and deployed many undercover police and auxiliary police."
Wang, Li’s onetime client, told VOA Mandarin that Shenyang Heping District Court violated international norms against illegal detention and went against China's Criminal Procedure Law, which mandates issuance of a verdict within five years.
Paul Mooney, an American human rights advocate and former Reuters journalist, said, "The sole 'crime' of lawyer Li Yuhan is her courage in handling highly sensitive cases related to religious freedom, including Falun Gong and house churches, and her defense of the distinguished human rights lawyer Wang Yu.
“Detaining a human rights lawyer like Li Yuhan arbitrarily for over six years without a verdict not only violates Chinese law but also underscores the Chinese Communist Party's lack of confidence and a concerning trend of increasing political repression."
Li's son, Ma Wenting, who lives in Germany, told VOA Mandarin, "She has coronary heart disease and arrhythmia. She has undergone coronary artery bypass grafting and stent surgery. … My mother suffered multiple heart attacks in prison. Our family applied for medical parole three times but were all rejected."
Teng Biao, a prominent human rights lawyer in China who has lived in the U.S. since 2014, said in a phone interview on Oct. 25, "Li Yuhan is over 70 years old and seriously ill and has been detained for more than six years. The refusal of her medical parole is not only a violation of legal procedures but also a violation of humanity."
Li Yongsheng told VOA Mandarin that his sister had questioned the Shenyang Heping District Court's jurisdiction since the beginning of the trial, as she did not have a registered address in the district, and she wasn’t arrested there.
"This is an illegal trial. In addition, the testimony and evidence from the prosecutor's office cannot prove my sister is guilty at all," he said. "The defense lawyer He Wei's defense is very good. It is a pity that the power of judgment lies in the hands of the authorities, and the court still pronounced my sister guilty. We will have to continue to appeal and complain that the authorities violated the law."
Teng said, "The heart of the Li Yuhan case lies in the blatant disregard for the law and proper procedures by the authorities. Her arrest and charge of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' are clearly retaliatory actions against her human rights activities. The primary and direct motive for this retaliation is her involvement in the case of Wang Yu, the first lawyer arrested in the Chinese Communist Party's 709 crackdown. Additionally, Li Yuhan has a long history of petitioning and human rights work. This clearly indicates that the authorities are targeting her."
Ma told VOA Mandarin, "Although the sentence of six years and six months is relatively severe, compared with the previous indefinite extended detention, our family can see more hope. ... I hope my seriously ill mother can be released from prison as soon as possible and receive medical treatment. I also hope the prison will guarantee my mother's basic human rights and the right to see a doctor."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: prominent WHRD and lawyer stands trial after 4-year pre-trial detention among irregularities (Update)
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 29, 2023
- Event Description
Hui Muslim poet Cui Haoxin, formerly a vocal critic of Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs and Hui Muslims, has been severely beaten by an unidentified man after lying low for nearly three years, according to an associate and an account of the attack posted to his personal blog.
The reports emerged after Cui, who lives in Shandong and goes by the pen name An Ran, disappeared from social media for nearly three years after being warned off speaking out publicly or talking to journalists – on pain of a prison sentence, Radio Free Asia has learned.
Cui was attacked by the man at around 4.00 p.m. local time on Oct. 29 after he went downstairs to pick up a parcel near the gates of his residential compound, a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin.
"This man, whom An Ran had never seen before, was waiting for him on a motorbike near the shelves in his residential community," the person said.
"He didn't say anything but shoved An Ran to one side and started shuffling through all of the packages ... then he asked if he could move over [so An Ran could look for his package], and the guy immediately started yelling and cursing at him," they said.
According to Cui's blog post, the man then knocked him to the ground and started beating him.
"He was hitting so fast and so hard that I couldn't fight back – I just tried to block the blows," he said. "The punches hit home, and now my temples, eyes and the back of my head are swollen and painful."
Cui, 44, tried to get up after his attacker fell over, but the man started beating him again "knocking me to the ground, and not stopping until he was tired," he wrote, adding that his eyesight is now "significantly reduced."
Critical posts
The attack came nearly three years after Cui was held in criminal detention by police in January 2020 for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" after he made posts to Twitter criticizing China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.
Cui dropped off the radar of the overseas media and international activists after that, and made no more posts to his former social media accounts.
A friend of his told Radio Free Asia on Nov. 1 that he was actually released on "bail, pending trial" on Feb. 21, 2020, and warned off posting anything to social media or talking to foreign journalists.
"An Ran's father came to take him home, and from that point on, they lived in a situation where they were continually followed, warned and intimidated by the police," she said.
"The state security police warned his family that he would be sent to prison if he gave interviews to foreign journalists," the friend said. "That would have left An Ran's parents without anyone to take care of them, so An Ran said nothing for three years, not even a comment or a picture."
"He was depressed and almost at the point of mental collapse when he got out [from detention]," the friend said.
‘Big prison’
U.S.-based activist Sulaiman Gu said the blog post is the first news anyone has had from Cui in three years.
"An Ran really did disappear completely over the past three years," he said. "Nobody knew what had happened to him."
"All I know is that he had been warned many times and held for short periods of time prior to his detention [in 2021], and tricked into going for 'red' education in Jinggangshan," Gu said.
"He was in great danger at that time, but then he was released into the big prison," he said, referring to the tight surveillance and restrictions that are frequently imposed by Chinese police on former political prisoners long after their release from detention or prison.
"At least he's not in the small prison," Gu said.
Prior to his detention Cui was an outspoken critic of China's mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where authorities have placed as many as 1.8 million people accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in a network of internment camps since April 2017.
He had also been detained and questioned by state security police in 2018 over critical tweets, and warned not to use overseas social media or to become a "tool" of hostile foreign forces.
In April 2018, Cui was sent on a week-long ideological "re-education" course in eastern China and was briefly detained in connection with his poetry and other writings that reference Xinjiang.
In one article published at the time, Cui describes Xinjiang as having left a "planet-sized impression" on him.
"Xinjiang, that massive presence that defies expression, left a planet-sized impression on me that is ineradicable," Cui wrote in an article that also referenced the Syrian conflict and the Arab Spring.
"This is a land of poetry and song ... when I headed out west to the Central Asian city of Kashgar, no sooner had I arrived than I made straight for the tomb of an ancient poet, and raised my hands in prayer for him beside the dusty tomb swathed in green silk."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Unknown
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Unknown
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 19, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Sep 22, 2023
- Event Description
A Chinese journalist who popularised the country’s stalled #MeToo movement and a labour activist were due to face trial Friday, with supporters voicing concerns for their health after two years in detention.
Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were arrested on 19 September 2021, under the broad charge of “inciting subversion of state power” — but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only announced this week, according to their supporters.
Calls to the court where they were expected to appear went unanswered.
The case shows how “the Chinese government has to a large extent eliminated the space for civil society activism”, Yaqiu Wang, China research director at Freedom House, told AFP.
“Authorities have arrested and silenced so many people, by this point, people can be thrown in jail for any perceived infraction of what is permitted, and the space for what is permitted is constantly shrinking.”
Authorities have not given details on Huang and Wang’s arrests.
The two were involved in running a weekly gathering in Guangzhou, a member of a group of supporters told AFP.
With “the whole of civil society fragmented, this was a way to reunite and reconnect, to foster a new network in Guangzhou”, they told AFP.
Police subsequently cracked down on the group, questioning over 70 people and detaining some over the course of several days, they said.
“There was so much PTSD after this attack (on the group)… Some activists had to leave Guangzhou, and (the community) is just not able to join together or connect anymore,” they added.
Huang and Wang’s trial is being held behind closed doors, and it is not known when their sentence will be announced.
Health concerns Huang wrote on social media about her experience of workplace sexual harassment as a young journalist at a Chinese news agency, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement.
She had been arrested before, after returning from reporting on Hong Kong‘s enormous pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Supporters said that her health had deteriorated significantly in detention at that time.
In February, the group said she had stopped menstruating and had experienced dramatic weight loss, as well as bad back pain.
“Her self-appointed lawyer was forced to withdraw from the case and replaced by government-appointed lawyer(s), who has not communicated with Huang’s family and friends,” a statement said.
The group member told AFP they had no further updates on either Huang or Wang’s health.
Both activists have been cut off from outside information, they said, with the detention facility refusing to pass on requested books, and granting no access to families or friends.
The families of the pair had been visited by police again this week and told not to come to Guangzhou for the trial, they said.
On Thursday, 32 NGOs released a statement demanding the pair’s release.
“These baseless charges are motivated purely by the Chinese authorities’ relentless determination to crush critical voices,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for China, in a Thursday statement.
“But activists in China refuse to be silenced despite the serious risks of raising their voices to address so-called ‘sensitive’ issues.”
The member of the supporters’ group who spoke to AFP said the pair had understood the risks.
“You want to make social change, you commit to social justice, you commit to the outcome,” they said.
“As a very close friend of theirs, I know they don’t regret what they’re doing.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Labour rights defender, Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: HRDs held incommunicado
- Date added
- Oct 6, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Sep 12, 2023
- Event Description
Zeng Yuxuan, a doctoral student from mainland China found in possession of posters depicting the "Pillar of Shame" sculpture commemorating the Tiananmen massacre, was recently handed a six-month jail term under colonial-era sedition laws.
Zeng's Sept. 12 sentencing came after she was convicted of conspiring with U.S.-based democracy activist Zhou Fengsuo to "commit acts with seditious intent" ahead of the June 4 massacre anniversary, and has sent shockwaves through the growing community of mainland Chinese who have made Hong Kong their home.
Zeng is the first mainland Chinese person to be convicted of sedition under an ongoing crackdown on public dissent that has seen senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from "collusion with a foreign power" to "subversion."
Since the 2019 protest movement, police have made more than 1,000 arrests under a draconian national security law, with thousands of protest movement supporters also targeted under colonial-era public order and sedition laws.
Like many defendants keen to avoid months or even years of pretrial detention with no bail, Zeng pleaded guilty to "attempting to commit or preparing to commit one or more acts with seditious intent."
Before her arrest, Zeng had taken part in the "white paper" protests against the stringent restrictions of the zero-COVID policy in November 2022.
But the action that prompted her prosecution by the Hong Kong authorities was her public commemoration of the death of Leung Kin-fai, who committed suicide after non-fatally stabbing a police officer outside the Sogo Department Store on July 1, 2021 in an attack described as "terrorism" by police at the time.
Not the only one
Zeng isn't the only person to be prosecuted for supporting Leung in public.
On Sept. 11, four former University of Hong Kong students pleaded guilty to "incitement to wound with intent" after they publicly praised Leung's action, according to Hong Kong court reporting service The Witness. They had earlier been accused of "glorifying terrorism," but the terrorism-related charges were dropped.
Kinson Cheung, Charles Kwok, Chris Todorovski and Anthony Yung, who are aged between 21 and 22, were arrested in 2021 after they took part in a student union meeting that passed a motion of sympathy for Leung, a move that was denounced in the pro-China press and by then leader Carrie Lam.
Zeng was released on bail following her January arrest, but then rearrested on June 1 after she was found carrying the "Pillar of Shame" posters.
In an interview recorded before her second arrest, Zeng told Radio Free Asia that she was inspired by her first glimpse of the 2019 protests, which came when her law lecturer at a mainland Chinese university used a VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall of government censorship and show the class live footage of protesters occupying Hong Kong's Legislative Council chamber on July 1, 2019.
She later applied to study in Hong Kong, and started keeping up with political developments there, as well as doing some in-depth reading on overseas websites about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre that ended weeks of student-led democracy protests in Beijing and other major cities.
"The outcome was tragic, but there was something quite glorious about the fact that this has now entered into the collective memory of our generation, of several generations -- it's a shared memory," Zeng said.
Zeng arrived in Hong Kong as Peng Lifa was staging his explosive banner protest on Beijing's Sitong Bridge, ahead of the party congress.
Zeng eagerly embraced the "white paper" movement that followed, she said, adding that she felt a "duty" to protest.
"It feels like most people in mainland China don’t actually care about [politics or social justice]," she said. "But I still think it's my duty — it's everyone's duty."
Fearless at her trial
Mainlanders turned out in Hong Kong's Central business district, the working class district of Mong Kok and on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to hold up blank sheets of A4 in solidarity with "white paper" protesters in mainland Chinese cities.
Yet many had their ID cards photographed by police, leading to fears that their participation could lead to repercussions for loved ones back home.
By New Year's Day 2023, Zeng had been arrested for taking part in a public commemoration of Leung Kin-fai, and the police in China were already in touch with her parents.
"My feeling is that my parents and I are individuals, and independent of each other," Zeng said. "If they target my parents, then the responsibility falls on them, not on my parents."
A fellow Hong Kong-based mainlander who gave only the nickname Sandy for fear of reprisals, said Zeng had seemed fearless at her trial, appearing in a sweatshirt with a Winnie-the-Pooh motif, in an apparent sideswipe at ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who is said to resemble the fictional bear.
"A lot of our friends and classmates in mainland China lack the courage to stand up, but they are grateful to those who do," Sandy said. "It's also heartbreaking, because she didn't have to do this."
Another mainlander who once met Zeng as a student in Hong Kong said Zeng's actions had tested the government's vaguely defined "red lines" under the national security crackdown, and that she admires her bravery.
She believes Zeng's sentence was handed down to act as a warning to other mainlanders in Hong Kong who might sympathize with the pro-democracy movement.
"[It's now clear that] the national security law and the [attempted] police assassination attempt are off-limits," the woman, who gave only the nickname Lily for fear of reprisals, said, adding that the space inside the government’s "red lines" appears to be narrowing all the time.
"It's pretty scary whether you're a Hong Konger or a mainlander," Lily said. "I didn't think it would give rise to so many criminal charges."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, Student
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 5, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Sep 3, 2023
- Event Description
Chinese rights attorney Lu Siwei has been repatriated to China after being arrested in Laos en route to join his family in the United States, in another example of transnational law enforcement by Beijing, rights activists said on Thursday, citing Lu's lawyer.
A senior official in Laos' Ministry of Public Security in charge of the case told Lu's Laos-based lawyer in a phone call on Thursday that his client was sent back to China last week along with dozens of other Chinese nationals, Bob Fu, president of the U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid told Radio Free Asia.
The news -- which was also posted to X by Tokyo-based human rights activist Patrick Poon -- emerges amid growing international criticism of China's "long-arm" law enforcement and pursuit of dissidents overseas.
"Sadly, Chinese human rights lawyer #LuSiwei was deported back to China, according to his lawyer in Laos," Poon wrote, adding: "We should continue to put pressure on China, calling for his release."
According to an official notification dated Sept. 11 issued by the Chinese Embassy in Laos to the Lao Ministry of Public Security, Lu was "approved for criminal detention" by police in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Sept. 3, on suspicion of "illegally crossing a border."
The document, a copy of which was circulating on social media in recent days but which has now been proven likely genuine, informed the Lao authorities that the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China "requires that the suspect Lu Siwei be transferred to China, to be brought to justice as soon as possible."
It suggests that Lu was already in China when activists in Tokyo, including Poon, were demonstrating for his release outside the Lao Embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Torture concerns
Fu said he was "shocked and disappointed" at the move, which he described as a violation of international law.
"The communist government in Laos has grossly ignored its legal obligations under international human rights [treaties] and violated international law under the Convention against Torture," Fu said.
"By deporting one of the most persuasive and well-known human rights lawyers of all time, Lu Siwei, it has set a terrible precedent," he said. "Every drop of his blood he sheds will be on the hands of the Laos and Chinese Communist regimes."
Lu, a prominent rights advocate who lost his law license after speaking out about the cases of 12 Hong Kong activists detained by the Chinese coast guard after the 2019 protest movement, was arrested in Vientiane in late July as he boarded a train for Thailand en route to the United States, where he planned to join his family.
Lu had been under surveillance in China since his attorney’s license was revoked in 2021, with a camera installed at the door of his home. He had also been barred from leaving China.
Lu's wife Zhang Chunxiao told Radio Free Asia in an interview on Tuesday that she fears for her husband's safety and well-being.
"The thing I feared was suddenly right there in front of me," she said, commenting on being told that the police document seen on social media was genuine. "Before that, it just had a vague existence [in my mind], but then I saw all at once, saw clearly that this was real."
She said Lu will be sent to prison once back in China, and "probably tortured," and the couple's daughter may not see her father again for eight, possibly 10 years.
Last month, it was confirmed that free-speech activist Qiao Xinxin, who was reported missing in Vientiane amid reports of a cross-border arrest by Chinese police, is being held in a detention center in the central Chinese province of Hunan, according to overseas activists familiar with the matter.
Qiao, whose birth name is Yang Zewei, went missing, believed detained on or around May 31 in Vientiane, after launching an online campaign to end internet censorship in China known as the BanGFW Movement, a reference to the Great Firewall, according to fellow activists.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Deportation, Judicial Harassment, Transnational repression
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Lao PDR: Chinese lawyer arrested by the police
- Date added
- Oct 2, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 31, 2023
- Event Description
A Chinese court on Thursday handed down a four-and-a-half-year jail term to an outspoken economics professor who had estimated the high personnel costs of the Chinese government, finding him guilty of “incitement to subvert state power,” according to rights website.
The Guiyang Intermediate People's Court handed down the sentence to former Guizhou University professor Yang Shaozheng in a trial behind closed doors on July 29, a post on the Weiquanwang rights website said.
"Yang Shaozheng expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment in court and filed an appeal," the group said. "The reason for the appeal was that this was an illegal trial."
Yang's appeal argued that members of the Chinese Communist Party had presided over the case from start to finish, including the investigation, the prosecution and the trial itself.
"The actions he was charged with fell under freedom of speech and expression, and to criminalize a citizen for exercising those rights was a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression," the report paraphrased Yang's appeal as saying.
A key member of Yang's defense team, Zhang Lei, declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia, indicating that he was under a lot of pressure from the authorities, while repeated calls to another member of his defense team rang unanswered on Thursday.
Cost to Chinese taxpayers
Yang, 53, lost his job at Guizhou University’s Institute of Economics in November 2017, on the orders of someone "higher up" the government hierarchy, and was subsequently investigated by police amid a purge of outspoken academics and the adoption of President Xi Jinping's personal brand of ideology across higher education.
Hunan-based dissident Chen Siming said an article in which Yang calculated that party and government personnel cost the Chinese taxpayer an estimated 20 trillion yuan (US$2.75 trillion) annually was likely the trigger for his arrest.
"These questions [he was asking] hit home," Chen said in an interview last month. "He was later expelled from Guizhou University, and then secretly arrested. During this period, lawyers and family members weren't allowed to meet with him."
Yang spent some time on the run in 2019 after being shackled to a chair and interrogated by state security police for eight hours, around the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Just before that stint in detention, Yang had criticized a new wave of ideological training being launched in China's colleges and universities.
He was arrested in secret in May 2021 and placed under incommunicado detention for six months on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," before being formally arrested and prosecuted. He is currently being held in the Guiyang No. 1 Detention Center.
His lawyers filed an administrative complaint with the Guizhou provincial state prosecutor on March 3, alleging that state security police were trying to force a "confession" from Yang through torture, which caused him to lose consciousness several times and lose some 25 kilograms (55 pounds) in weight.
The complaint said the abuse took place during the six months he was held under "residential surveillance at a designated location," a type of incommunicado detention frequently used to target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in "national security" cases.
A Guizhou-based lecturer who gave only the surname Yu said Yang, whom she counts as a friend, is a "rare" person in today's China.
"I think Yang Shaozheng knows very well what he was bringing down on his own head when he spoke out like that, but he did it anyway," Yu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview. "He is a politically brave person, which is a rare thing in our society."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Academic
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 14, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 22, 2023
- Event Description
Chinese political commentator Zhou Yuanzhi, 62, was detained again on 22 August 2023 under undisclosed accusations, only 16 months after his release following a four-year long detention on trumped-up charges. His recent arrest is reportedly related to his comments on the authorities’ handling of recent flooding in Hebei province, in the east of the country, and the detention of another political commentator critical of the regime, Qin Yongmin.
“Zhou Yuanzhi was only serving the public interest by commenting on the country’s political issues. He should never have been detained. We urge the international community to build up pressure on the Chinese authorities to secure Zhou’s release alongside all other journalists and press freedom defenders detained in the country." Cédric Alviani RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director
For decades, Zhou has been commenting on corruption and pressing social issues under several pen names in overseas Chinese-language media outlets, including The Epoch Times, a american-registered media outlet close to persecuted religious movement Falun Gong.
Zhou was detained from November 2017 to May 2022 after being convicted of “unlawful assembly”, “defamation”, and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, blurry charges which are frequently used as a weapon against journalists. He was also briefly detained in May 2008 during the crackdown on civil society in the leadup to the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has been conducting a large-scale crusade against journalism, as revealed in RSF’s report published in December 2021 The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China, which details Beijing’s efforts to control information and media within and outside its borders.
China ranks 179th out of 180 in the 2023 RSF World Press Freedom Index and is the world's largest captor of journalists and press freedom defenders with at least 115 detained.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 13, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 22, 2023
- Event Description
Chinese government censors have shut down key LGBTQ+ social media accounts in a further crackdown on sexual minorities.
Public accounts for the Beijing Lala Salon, Wandouhuang, Transtory, Outstanding Partners, Ace and the Flying Cat Brotherhood were shuttered on the eve of Chinese Valentine's Day on Aug. 22, veteran activist Li Tingting said.
"Such accounts have been targeted once before two or three years ago," said Li, who is better known in feminist circles as Li Maizi. "The government departments in charge of internet management have always targeted accounts linked to sexual minorities, which aren't encouraged by the Chinese government."
She said not all of the accounts were linked to LGBTQ+ groups – some were more broadly feminist.
The move comes after Chinese officials removed an LGBTQ+ anthem titled "Rainbow" by Taiwanese pop star A-Mei from her setlist from a concert earlier this month in Beijing, while security guards forced fans turning up for the gig to remove clothing and other paraphernalia bearing the rainbow symbol before going in, according to media reports.
Sherry Zhang, who goes by the stage name A-Mei, wrote the song for all of her lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning friends, and it is frequently heard at Pride events in Taiwan. Her fans among the LGBTQ+ community often turn up and wave rainbow flags or wear rainbow clothing in a show of solidarity, confident that the song will make an appearance.
Li, who was among five Chinese feminists detained ahead of International Women's Day in 2016 for planning a campaign against sexual harassment on public transport, added: "The accounts targeted included the Beijing queer women's center Lala Salon, Wandouhuang, which is a feminist platform."
Advocacy and Promotion
She said the Flying Cat Brotherhood was a gay men's group, while censors had also targeted the transgender account Transtory and Ace, a group representing asexuals.
The Wandouhuang artists' group was set up by Toni, Mengxia and Xiao Lufei, who all graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art in 2019, according to a bio that was still visible online on Wednesday.
Beijing Lala Salon was set up in November 2004 as a non-government organization offering social activities for lesbians, to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and to promote lesbian culture.
Chinese government censors have shut down key LGBTQ+ social media accounts in a further crackdown on sexual minorities.
Public accounts for the Beijing Lala Salon, Wandouhuang, Transtory, Outstanding Partners, Ace and the Flying Cat Brotherhood were shuttered on the eve of Chinese Valentine's Day on Aug. 22, veteran activist Li Tingting said.
"Such accounts have been targeted once before two or three years ago," said Li, who is better known in feminist circles as Li Maizi. "The government departments in charge of internet management have always targeted accounts linked to sexual minorities, which aren't encouraged by the Chinese government."
She said not all of the accounts were linked to LGBTQ+ groups – some were more broadly feminist.
The move comes after Chinese officials removed an LGBTQ+ anthem titled "Rainbow" by Taiwanese pop star A-Mei from her setlist from a concert earlier this month in Beijing, while security guards forced fans turning up for the gig to remove clothing and other paraphernalia bearing the rainbow symbol before going in, according to media reports.
Sherry Zhang, who goes by the stage name A-Mei, wrote the song for all of her lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning friends, and it is frequently heard at Pride events in Taiwan. Her fans among the LGBTQ+ community often turn up and wave rainbow flags or wear rainbow clothing in a show of solidarity, confident that the song will make an appearance.
Li, who was among five Chinese feminists detained ahead of International Women's Day in 2016 for planning a campaign against sexual harassment on public transport, added: "The accounts targeted included the Beijing queer women's center Lala Salon, Wandouhuang, which is a feminist platform."
Advocacy and Promotion
She said the Flying Cat Brotherhood was a gay men's group, while censors had also targeted the transgender account Transtory and Ace, a group representing asexuals.
The Wandouhuang artists' group was set up by Toni, Mengxia and Xiao Lufei, who all graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art in 2019, according to a bio that was still visible online on Wednesday.
Beijing Lala Salon was set up in November 2004 as a non-government organization offering social activities for lesbians, to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and to promote lesbian culture.
- Impact of Event
- 6
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Censorship, Online Attack and Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Internet freedom, Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Artist, Community-based HRD, NGO, SOGI rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 11, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 19, 2023
- Event Description
The language advocate and former political prisoner Tashi Wangchuk was attacked on Saturday 19 August by a group of unidentified, masked men.
Free Tibet’s research partner Tibet Watch has established that Tashi Wangchuk travelled to Darlak County in eastern Tibet on the evening of 19 August with the aim of raising awareness about the disappearance of the Tibetan language from schools in favour of Chinese. He filmed a video near to Darlak County Nationality Middle School, which he posted on the Chinese social media platform Douyin before travelling to a hotel where he was hoping to stay.
At around 8pm, Tashi Wangchuk’s hotel room door was forced open and he was beaten and kicked by a group of men wearing masks for around 10 minutes. He believes he was followed to his hotel from the school.
Tashi Wangchuk begged the group to stop attacking him and called to the hotel owner to contact the police. Police arrived at his hotel room at around 9pm and took him to the police station for questioning, where Tashi Wangchuk stayed until around 11:30pm. During this meeting, police forced Tashi Wangchuk to erase photos and videos he had taken earlier that day from his phone.
After being rejected from the hotel he was staying and several other hotels, he instead went to Darlak County Hospital, where he asked the doctor to check his head. The doctor responded that the CT scanner was broken. Tashi Wangchuk spent the night on a stool on the first floor of the hospital, where he composed a detailed account of the day’s events, including his beating and what he referred to as “crime by gangs and illegal acts by government officials who break the law and cover for each other.”
Tashi Wangchuk, is from Kyegudo in Yulshul (Chinese: Yushu) Prefecture eastern Tibet. He came to international prominence after speaking to the New York Times in 2015 about his efforts to file a lawsuit against local authorities after local Tibetan classes were shut down. He also expressed fear for the future of Tibet’s language and culture. Tashi Wangchuk insisted on being named and identifiable in the New York Times’ article and video documentary, which were released in November 2015.
In January 2016, Tashi Wangchuk was arrested, held in a secret location and tortured. After spending two years in pre-trial detention, he was found guilty of “inciting separatism” and sentenced to five years in prison. For the duration of his detention and imprisonment, Tibet groups launched a global campaign, demanding that Tashi Wangchuk be released.
Following his release from prison in January 2021, Tashi Wangchuk has continued to advocate for authorities in Tibet to respect the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which provides for the teaching of what it calls “minority” languages, including Tibetan.
In January 2022, Tashi Wangchuk approached local government offices in Jyekundo to call for the preservation of the Tibetan language. This led to him being summoned for an interrogation session at the Public Security Bureau of Yushu. He has also travelled to other schools in occupied Tibet and collected textbooks showing the emphasis on Chinese-language instruction over Tibetan.
While Tashi Wangchuk carries out his peaceful language advocacy, authorities across occupied Tibet have imposed policies to marginalise or even eliminate the Tibetan language from the public sphere. This includes closing down Tibetan language schools and the Chinese government’s residential boarding schools policy, in which almost one million Tibetan children between the ages of four and 18 have been placed in boarding schools and pre-schools. In this environment, children have limited access to their families and are placed in a teaching environment that promotes the Chinese language and Chinese Communist Party-approved history over Tibetans’ own language and history. The policy has been criticised by the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which in March 2023 urged China to abolish the residential school system.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Online, Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation Corporation (others), Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: China Jails Tibetan Language Activist For Five Years on __�Separatism___ Charges, China: Tibetan defender faces censorship, surveillance
- Date added
- Sep 8, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Apr 19, 2023
- Event Description
Chinese authorities should immediately release Lü Hua, founder and publisher of the independent news website Hubei Xinshidianwang (Hubei New Perspective Site), and respect media organizations’ right to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
On April 19, police arrested Lü in the city of Huanggang, in central Hubei province, according to reports in late July and mid-August by the Chinese-language human rights news website Weiquanwang and state-owned provincial newspaper Hubei Daily.
The Hubei Daily said that Lü and another suspect were arrested for allegedly extorting advertisers, their equipment was seized, and their bank accounts frozen. It said their case went to court on May 26 with the approval of the Huanggang City Procuratorate, or public prosecutor. The trial had not started as of Tuesday, August 22.
“Authorities in China’s Hubei province should ensure that publisher Lü Hua and all other members of the press can cover topics of public interest without fear that they will be arrested and face years in prison,” said Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative. “Arresting a journalist for reporting on alleged government wrongdoing is shameful, and Lü should be released at once.”
Hubei Xinshidianwang regularly reports on social issues. In early April, the outlet published an investigation, which was covered by other domestic media outlets, about a local official in eastern Hubei who allegedly used public money to build herself a luxurious bedroom in a government office building. The story has since been removed from the outlet’s website, which has not been updated since Lü’s arrest.
If convicted of extortion, Lü could face up to three years in prison; if the court rules that the journalist committed a “more serious” form of extortion, he could face up to 10 years, according to China’s Criminal Law.
CPJ’s calls to Hubei Xinshidianwang and messages to the Huanggang Public Security Bureau, the local police force, did not receive any replies.
At least 43 journalists were imprisoned in China at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 6, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 23, 2023
- Event Description
Free Tibet has seen new videos, in which Gonmo Kyi, sister of imprisoned Tibetan businessman Dorjee Tashi, is seen lying on the floor of a hospital.
The videos, received by Tibet Watch on 25 August, show the appeal letter Gonmo took to Lhasa People’s Court on 23 August asking for a retrial of Dorjee Tashi’s case. Police personnel reacted with force, stopped her, dragged and beat her in front of the court. She was taken to Lhasa People’s Hospital afterwards but was refused admission, even as she lay vomiting on the cold floor.
This is the second time this month Gonmo has been beaten for seeking justice for her brother’s unjust verdict. Earlier this month, she went to Drapchi prison, where her brother is being held, hoping for a meeting. But her pleading was rejected and she was instead beaten, leaving her with injuries to her arms.
The recent police violence has left her in urgent need of medical treatment. Without any response from the hospital, however, she has now been taken to her home.
Dorjee Tashi has been in prison since his arrest in July 2008 and was sentenced to life imprisonment for “loan fraud”, a charge he and his family contested through a series of protests outside courts. While in detention he has been subjected to torture.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: sister of Tibetan political prisoner apprehended, her whereabouts unknown (Update), China: sister of Tibetan political prisoner arrested, beaten (Update), China: sister of Tibetan political prisoner obstructed as she resumes protest (Update), China: Tibetan WHRD, her husband arrested once again
- Date added
- Sep 6, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 8, 2023
- Event Description
Hong Kong police on Tuesday took the parents of U.S.-based democracy activist Anna Kwok for questioning, in the latest in a series of moves targeting the relatives of eight prominent overseas activists wanted under a draconian national security law, according to a London-based rights group.
"Today, the Hong Kong national security police detained the parents of US-based pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok ... for questioning over whether they had any contact with, or had sent money to, their daughter," Hong Kong Watch said in a statement on its website, citing local media reports.
Kwok, 26, is the executive director of the U.S.-based political lobby group, the Hong Kong Democracy Council, and is applying for political asylum in the United States.
She was among eight exiled activists listed as wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police, and is accused of "colluding with foreign forces" under the national security law, which bans criticism of the authorities.
Hong Kong leader John Lee has vowed to pursue the eight activists for the rest of their lives.
Kwok, who has a bounty of H.K.$1 million on her head, hadn't commented on her X account by 1000 GMT on Tuesday.
Her parents' questioning comes after similar police action against the family members of the other seven activists on a "wanted" list announced in early July, along with bounties on the head of each activist.
The moves come as the ruling Chinese Communist Party takes more direct control over national security policy in Hong Kong, which was once the domain of China's cabinet, the State Council.
Adopting PRC tactics
So far, police have targeted the relatives of former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Dennis Kwok, U.S.-based businessman Elmer Yuen and U.K.-based veteran labor activist Christopher Mung, also known as Mung Siu-tat. Australia-based former lawmaker Ted Hui and U.K.-based activist Finn Lau are also on the wanted list.
“This is yet another outrageous escalation since the issuing of arrest warrants and bounties against the eight activists over a month ago," Hong Kong Watch policy and advocacy director Sam Goodman said in a statement. “It is increasingly clear the Hong Kong government is adopting the tactics of the security apparatus in mainland China which targets family members to silence criticism overseas."
“We emphasize that the Hong Kong National Security Law has no jurisdiction abroad, and governments must protect the rights and freedoms of activists in exile," he said.
The group called on the international community to treat China's claims that the national security law is applicable to anyone, anywhere in the world, as illegal.
"Hong Kong Watch calls for the protection of anyone who is threatened by the National Security Law abroad," it said.
Last week, police took away Elmer Yuen's ex-wife Yuen Stephanie Downs and their daughter Yuen Mi-shu and son Yuen Mi-man, the Ming Pao newspaper reported, while government broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong cited police sources as saying Yuen's ex-wife, son and daughter had been hauled in for questioning.
Earlier this month, national security police raided the home of trade unionist Mung Siu-tat's brother, taking away him, his wife and son for questioning -- also on suspicion of "assisting fugitives to continue to engage in acts that endanger national security."
Police also took away the parents, brother and sister-in-law of exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok and questioned them on suspicion of the same offense, a few days after similar treatment was meted out to Nathan Law’s parents and brother.
No arrests were made, and all of the activists' family members were released after questioning.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 22, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Aug 10, 2023
- Event Description
Hong Kong national security police on Thursday arrested 10 people for "collusion with foreign forces" and "inciting riot" over a now-defunct fund set up to help those targeted for involvement in the 2019 protest movement.
"The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force today ... arrested four men and six women, aged between 26 and 43, in various districts for suspected 'conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security,' ... and inciting riot," the police said in a statement on the government's website.
"The arrested persons were suspected of conspiracy to collude with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to receive donations from various overseas organizations to support people who have fled overseas or organizations which called for sanctions against Hong Kong," the statement said.
The arrests come after the arrests of Cardinal Joseph Zen and other trustees of the now-disbanded Fund prompted an international outcry in May 2022.
Police searched the arrestees' homes and offices with court warrants, seizing documents and electronic communication devices, it said, adding that the 10 are being held "for further enquiries."
"The possibility of further arrests is not ruled out," it said, warning the general public "not to defy" the national security law.
Hong Kong police typically don't name arrestees, but Reuters identified one of the 10 as pro-democracy activist Bobo Yip, who was photographed waving at journalists as she was taken away.
The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said the arrests were a "new low" in an ongoing crackdown on dissent under the national security law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing in the wake of the 2019 protests.
"Today’s arrests mark a new low in the deterioration of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms," the group's research and policy advisor Anouk Wear said in a statement.
"It was already an overly broad and political interpretation of the law, including the National Security Law, to arrest and fine the trustees and secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund last year," Wear said.
In May 2022, police arrested five former trustees of the fund – retired Catholic bishop and Cardinal Joseph Zen, ex-lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung – on suspicion of "conspiring to collude with foreign forces."
While they were never charged with the offense, the five were later found guilty of failing to register the fund – which offered financial, legal and psychological help to people arrested during the 2019 protest movement – and were each fined H.K.$4,000.
"The arrest of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund’s staff for alleged collusion and rioting is an absurd criminalization of providing legal and humanitarian aid," Wear said.
"This is an attempt by the Hong Kong government to rewrite history and frame all association with the protest movement as criminal, which is deeply damaging to rule of law and civil society."
Zen, whose passport had been confiscated following his arrest as a condition of his bail, was allowed to retrieve it to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in January, handing it back again on his return.
Zen was among six Hong Kongers nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in February.
- Impact of Event
- 10
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 22, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jul 7, 2023
- Event Description
Free-speech activist Qiao Xinxin, who was reported missing in Vientiane in June amid reports of his arrest by Chinese police, is being held in a detention center in the central Chinese province of Hunan, according to overseas activists familiar with the matter.
Qiao, whose birth name is Yang Zewei, went missing, believed detained on or around May 31 in Vientiane, after launching an online campaign to end internet censorship in China, known as the BanGFW Movement, a reference to the Great Firewall, according to fellow activists.
Now, his family have been informed that he is being held in a juvenile detention center in Hunan's Hengyang city in another example of China’s cross-border law enforcement activities, Netherlands-based activist Lin Shengliang told Radio Free Asia.
"They issued legal documentation at 3.10 p.m. on July 7, saying where he was being held," Lin said. "But [his family] were unwilling to share the specific charge with me, perhaps because they felt it wasn't a good idea to speak out – they have a lot of fear and doubt."
Lin said it was unclear whether Qiao would get a visit from his family members, however.
"His parents want to go visit, but I told them the authorities wouldn't allow that," he said. "They may find a lawyer who could go and meet with him at the detention center."
200 Chinese police in Vientiane
Qiao had lived in Laos for several years before launching the BanGFW Movement, yet was believed to have been detained by Chinese police in Vientiane.
Canada-based Li Jianfeng, a former Chinese judge, told Radio Free Asia earlier this month that 200 Chinese police officers were billeted in a Vientiane hotel, amid growing concerns that rights lawyer Lu Siwei will also be repatriated to China after being detained by immigration police.
Lu's disappearance sparked international criticism amid ongoing concerns around the Chinese Communist Party's "long-arm" law enforcement operations, which have included running secret police "service stations" in dozens of countries, according to the Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.
Lin said Qiao had clearly met with the same fate.
"This was 100% a cross-border arrest," he said. "Unfortunately it didn't receive enough attention from the international community to help."
"I think that [the international outcry over Lu Siwei] could have a helpful effect," Lin said.
U.S.-based rights lawyer Wang Qingpeng said Qiao's anti-censorship campaign was brave, and highly representative of public opinion in China.
"The Chinese won't have a safe, free and democratic place to live until more people stand up against tyranny," she said. "Like most ordinary people, [Qiao] really detests the Great Firewall, and had hoped to bring it down, so that the whole world would pay attention, and the Chinese people would know the truth."
"But anyone who tells the truth faces greater risks, whether at home or abroad, and particularly in Southeast Asian countries," Wang said.
Greater risks in Southeast Asia
Gambling tycoon She Zhijiang, whose casinos have been linked with massive human trafficking and online scam operations in the region, was arrested by Thai police in August 2022 and faces repatriation to China despite being a naturalized citizen of Cambodia.
In November 2022, police in Bangkok Police detained an exiled Chinese dissident l after he staged a lone street protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping inspired by the Oct. 13 "bridge man" protest in Beijing.
Veteran rights activist Li Nanfei, who has been stranded in Thailand for several years despite being a United Nations-registered refugee, was arrested after holding up a placard on a Bangkok street that read: "His Majesty President Xi, put an end to dictatorship in China! Give the people back their freedom!"
Earlier in the same month, Adiyaa, an ethnic Mongolian Chinese national who fled the country after his involvement in 2020 protests over a ban on Mongolian-medium teaching in schools, reported being held by Chinese state security police in Bangkok.
In 2019, Thai police detained two Chinese refugees – Jia Huajiang and Liu Xuehong – who had earlier helped jailed rights website founder Huang Qi before fleeing the country.
Thailand has sent refugees from China back home in the past.
And in July 2018, authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing jailed rights activist Dong Guangping and political cartoonist Jiang Yefei after they were sent home from Thailand as they were awaiting resettlement as political refugees, prompting an international outcry.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Deportation
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jul 22, 2023
- Event Description
Government-funded broadcaster RTHK will suspend a LGBTQ-related radio programme next month after 17 years, the host of the programme has said on its official Facebook page.
We Are Family was launched in 2006 to promote diversity and integration, according to the broadcaster’s website and was the first show of its kind. It remains the city’s only LGBTQ radio show.
Brian Leung, a host for the programme and an advocate for LGBT rights, said that he was informed by the head of the Chinese programme service in early July that We Are Family would be suspended from August owing to “programme rescheduling”.
Aired on Saturdays at midnight, the award-winning show covers topics from trans rights, to the culture of drag queens, and the life and stories of the LGBTQ community, with special guests.
In response to HKFP, an RTHK spokesperson said on Monday that they do not comment on internal matters: “RTHK reviews programming strategies from time to time to ensure providing quality programmes and information for the public in compliance with the public purposes and mission set out in the Charter of RTHK.”
Numerous fans commented on Facebook expressing disappointment over RTHK’s decision: “I was in the first year of secondary when the programme was aired for the first time. Equal rights for the LGBT community had not been widely promoted at that time. But thanks to We Are Family, people from our family started to speak up…” one commenter said.
Veteran broadcaster Leung said that he would not host any programmes in the near future: “[T]here is no need for self-deception.”
“At a time when Hong Kong saw drastic changes, many things are just a matter of time, and we had mentally prepared ourselves for what may come.”
In an episode broadcast on July 5, Leung said he was invited in 2006 by RTHK to re-join the company to host the new show. “I thought the programme would only last three months. In the end, it has been airing for 17 years.
‘Propaganda mouthpiece’ Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the security law. Watchdogs cite the arrest of journalists, raids on newsrooms and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News. Over 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, whilst many emigrated. Meanwhile, the city’s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines, purged its archives and axed news and satirical shows.
In 2022, Chief Executive John Lee has said press freedom was “in the pocket” of Hongkongers but “nobody is above the law.” Lee, whose administration is mulling a “fake news” law, has told the press to “tell a good Hong Kong story.”
In August 2021, RTHK started to partner with China Media Group – the holding group for CCTV and China National Radio – to air more programmes to “nurture a stronger sense of patriotism” among viewers, a move condemned by the city’s journalists association as changing the city’s public broadcaster into “a propaganda mouthpiece”.
The government proposed last week that programmes about national education, national identity, and the “correct understanding” of the security law be exempt from an impartiality clause requiring “even-handedness” when opposing points of view are presented.
Chinese authorities have targeted the LGBTQ community in recent years, with university societies and pride events discontinued. The Beijing LGBT Center, one of China’s leading organisations offering support for the queer population, announced in May that it would halt its operations.
Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it. Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.
As well as opposing progress towards equality in court, the government has also funded groups with homophobic views and those which advocate “gay conversion.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- LGBTQ+/ Non-Binary, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Media freedom, Freedom of expression Offline, SOGI rights
- HRD
- Media Worker, SOGI rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 10, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 20, 2023
- Event Description
On 20 June 2023, the trial against woman human rights defender Li Qiaochu began at the Linyi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in the Shandong province. The trial was not open to the public.
One of the woman human rights defender’s two lawyers refused to submit to a body check, which she deemed to be unlawful, at the entrance to the courthouse and was thus denied entry. Her other lawyer entered the courtroom, but the judge denied his legitimate requests to summon defence witnesses, to gain access to evidence held by the prosecution, and to seek the recusal of officials with perceived conflicts of interest in the case. As a result of his inability to perform his duty as the defence counsel, the lawyer asked Li Qiaochu to dismiss him and exited the courtroom in protest.
Afterwards, the court informed the woman human rights defender’s family that the right of the two lawyers to represent Li Qiaochu had been revoked and the lawyers are no longer allowed to meet her. The trial is now suspended pending the appointment of new defence lawyers for Li Qiaochu.
Li Qiaochu continues to suffer from serious symptoms of depression and auditory hallucinations.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice, Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 4, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jul 11, 2023
- Event Description
Hong Kong briefly took in three family members of exiled democracy activist Nathan Law for questioning on Tuesday, a week after authorities issued a bounty on him and seven others accused of breaching the city’s national security law.
Police officers from the national security department brought in Law’s parents and elder brother without formally arresting them, a police source confirmed to AFP, adding that Law’s flat was searched.
The trio were taken in so that police could “learn whether they have provided financial support for Law and whether they are Law’s agents in Hong Kong”, the source said.
“Law’s family members were allowed to leave after giving statements to police.”
Authorities last week offered rewards of HK$1 million for information leading to the arrest of eight prominent democracy activists now based abroad, accusing them of subversion, foreign collusion and other crimes.
City leader John Lee today repeated his call to the public to stay away from the wanted activists and to treat them like “rats in the street”.
“Police have received some information and will continue to gather intelligence, and enforce the law strictly and relentlessly,” Lee told reporters.
AFP has contacted Law for comment.
The move today came days after Hong Kong arrested five men for supporting the wanted activists.
Ads by Kiosked Law, who was granted asylum in Britain in 2021, had previously said in response to the bounties that Hong Kong abused the concept of national security to suppress dissident voices.
After fleeing Hong Kong, Law said in 2020 that he had cut ties with his family and that he was not in contact with them.
The US, the UK and Australia – places where the eight wanted activists reside – have issued statements criticising the bounties.
Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub.
Police have arrested 260 people under the national security law so far, with 79 of them convicted or awaiting sentencing in Hong Kong.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 17, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jul 3, 2023
- Event Description
All Chinese social media accounts of popular media outlet Health Insight were suspended on 3 July 2023 on the pretext of "violating public account management regulations", one month after it reported on the profit-oriented management practices within big hospitals and the escalating prescription drug prices. As Health Insight ’s operation model is based on direct distribution of news on internet platforms, this ban is equivalent to a forced shutdown.
The suspension follows the launch in March by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), an entity personally supervised by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, of a campaign aimed at “regulating the chaos of self-publishing media," a term encompassing accounts that share information on social media platforms.
“By forcibly shutting down a popular source of health news, the Chinese regime once again demonstrates its fear of having its policy failures publicly exposed. We urge the international community to build up pressure for the regime to end its policy of systemic censorship, and release all journalists and press freedom defenders currently detained in the country.
Cédric Alviani RSF East Bureau Director Founded in 2018 and censored several times, Health Insight was particularly influential during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, it was praised as an example of innovative media by a committee of Chinese media researchers and professionals.
Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has been conducting a large-scale crusade against journalism as revealed in RSF’s report The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China, which details Beijing’s efforts to control information and media within and outside its borders.
China ranks 179th out of 180 in the 2023 RSF World Press Freedom Index and is the world's largest captor of journalists and press freedom defenders with at least 112 detained.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Online Attack and Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom, Media freedom, Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 17, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 9, 2023
- Event Description
We are deeply concerned about the recent interception of Chinese human rights lawyer Li Heping and his family, who were prevented from leaving the country by border police at Chengdu's Tianfu International Airport on June 9th.
They were subjected to travel restrictions on the grounds that their departure might endanger national security. These restrictions amount to a violation of their right to freedom of movement and raise questions about the legality of such measures.
Li Heping started his human rights work as a lawyer in 2002. He has represented many politically sensitive cases including religious leaders, environmental and community activists as well as campaigned against the use of torture. Li Heping was arrested as part of the ‘709 crackdown’ on 10 July 2015. He spent nearly 22 months in pre-trial detention, including 'residential surveillance in a designated location' after which he was convicted in a secret trial to three years imprisonment and a four-year probationary suspension. Mr Li was released from prison on 10 May 2017. Since his release, Mr Li and his family have remained subject to close control and surveillance by state authorities.
We are deeply concerned that Li Heping's wife and 13-year-old daughter, who were traveling with , also faced travel restrictions and were unable to leave the country. This not only affects their personal freedom but disrupts their education. Li Heping's 23-year-old son has also experienced delays in his studies as a result.
International human rights law protects the right to freedom of movement. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 13, grants that "everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 12, similarly establishes that "everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own." The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 10, entreats states to "respect the right of the child and his or her parents to leave any country." Although China did not ratify the ICCPR, it has signed ICCPR and ratified the CRC, thereby assuming legal responsibilities under international law to protect freedom of movement and it must not act against the purpose of the ICCPR. International human rights norms provide clear guidance relating to China's obligation to safeguard freedom of movement.
The excessive use and misuse of exit bans in China, as demonstrated in the case of Li Heping and his family and other recent cases of Jiang Tianyong, Guo Feixiong, violate the right to freedom of movement enshrined in international human rights law. Many exit bans are imposed without legal justification, lack transparency in their application, deny recipients due process, and frequently target individuals based on their family, ethnicity, or profession. These exit bans are often used to coerce, punish, and suppress individuals, with no clear legal basis or arguable connection to endangering "national security, public order, public health, or the rights and freedoms of others." The Siracusa Principles define legitimate national security interest as aiming to protecting the territorial integrity of the nation against the threat of force, such restrictions are neither necessary nor proportionate under international human rights standards.
Freedom of movement restrictions must be legal and specific enough for people to follow. Undefined limitations are illegal. Restrictions must be reasonable and directly related to the protected interest. The UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 27, Article 12 states that freedom of movement restrictions must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate. Specific, personalized, and least intrusive are also needed.
We urge the relevant authorities in China to immediately lift the travel restrictions imposed on Li Heping and members of his family, allowing them to exercise their right to freedom of movement. Furthermore, we call upon the Chinese government to ensure the safety and well-being of Li Heping and his family and refrain from any further actions that may violate their rights or expose them to harm.
The international community must closely monitor the situation of Li Heping and his family and call on China to adhere to its international obligations and respect their rights to freedom of movement. All individuals should be able to exercise their rights without fear of reprisals or arbitrary on restrictions.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: HRDs prevented from leaving home on International Human Rights Day, China: pro-democracy lawyer among those put under close surveillance
- Date added
- Jul 16, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 14, 2023
- Event Description
The police officers of Changping, Beijing, worked with the government to hire unidentified individuals to harass human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang and his family before forcefully entering and pressuring them to leave. Hired to Harass
On the evening of the 14th, while Wang Quanzhang was taking out the trash downstairs, three unnamed individuals were already stationed outside his door. Wang Quanzhang repeatedly asked for their identities, but they replied that they were merely citizens. Two of them blocked the doorway.
Faked injury
After his wife, Li Wenzu, opened the door, a man falsely claimed that his foot was caught in the door and accused Wang Quanzhang of attacking him. Immediately, he pretended to fall and lay at the entrance of Wang Quanzhang’s residence. Responses from social media
Wang Quanzhang uploaded portions of the interaction on social media. Lawyer Bao Longjun said, “They must have such thick skin…” Human rights lawyer Chen Jiangang said, “It’s clear that these individuals know that what they are doing is illegal and unethical, but the Communist Party gave them a task, and they are willing to do it anyway. It was the same case when hundreds of people surrounded Chen Guangcheng. In China, the most terrifying and evil are not the Chinese Communist Party, but these ignorant people who can’t distinguish right from wrong and blindly obey evil.” Illegally trespassing
A police officer with the last name Liu from the Songyuan police station in Changping District, Beijing, showed up at the house. He reportedly heard claims that Wang Quanzhang and Li Wenzu “illegally trespassed someone else’s residence.” Wang conversed with the officer outside through the door’s surveillance camera. The officer requested verification of his legal identity and lease information, and for the physical person, the legal identity, and the renter’s information to all match up. Wang assured them that everything was legal and requested for the police to present any evidence of suspicion, stating that otherwise it would be considered a “presumption of guilt.” Forceful entry
The police officer from Changping District (Badge number: 054725) did not present any legal documents and forcefully entered Wang Quanzhang’s legally rented residence. Li Wenzu requested that he show his police identification document and follow proper procedures. The police officer aggressively declared, “I’m wearing a police uniform so I can come in. Wearing a police uniform means I do not need to display my work identification. It is my right.”
Wang Quanzhang exclaimed, “I am a lawful tenant with tenant rights. What kind of society is this? What kind of country is this? What kind of world is this?” Continuing harassment
Since April, Wang Quanzhang’s entire family, including their underage son Wang Guangwei, has been facing repeated harassment and pressure from the Beijing authorities. Authorities force them to move. They rent a new place only to move shortly after. In some instances, police pressured landlords behind the scenes, coercing them to evict the family. In this particular case, Wang Quanzhang’s landlord personally recorded a video and presented the “Housing Lease Agreement” to demonstrate that the tenancy was voluntary for both parties. 48 hours to comply
Currently, Wang Quanzhang is renting a house in the third district of Changshengyuan in Changping, Beijing, which belongs to a friend who is currently in the United States. Wang Quanzhang provided the lease agreement and a video from the landlord, but the police insisted that it didn’t prove legal occupancy. They demanded the presence of the landlord or a relative with their ID card, the Hukou (household registration) booklet, and a property ownership certificate to the house to prove residency. The Changping police threatened to forcibly evict them if the above requirements were not met within 48 hours. Fabricating charges
After entering the rented premises, the police started taking photos everywhere, attempting to create some sort of incriminating evidence. Among them, they said a faucet on the floor was a doorknob, perhaps hoping to use it as evidence of “illegal intrusion into someone else’s property.” A netizen responded to the situation on social media, “What are they trying to do? What kind of charges are they trying to fabricate?” Operation from superiors
Dissident Yang Zili contacted the Songyuan police station, where a police officer with the last name Wang (Badge number: 066575) stated, “The operation is instructed by higher-ups.” Yang Zili conducted an online search and found that the deputy chief of the station is named Wang Bingqi. Yang Zili commented, “Regarding Wang Quanzhang’s family since the landlord did not evict them, the police are resorting to engaging upfront with hooligan-like behavior.” After the incident
Wang Quanzhang reflected on the absurd interaction with Beijing police, “When the landlord cut off our water and electricity, we called the police. But they dismissed it as a ‘civil dispute’ and left without taking any action. When the landlord smashed glass to remove the door, the police said, ‘Removing your door and breaking your glass is not a problem,’ and left without doing anything. When the landlord threatened and evicted us in the middle of the night and refused to refund our rent, the police considered it a civil dispute and left without intervening. But now, when the landlord signed a contract and recorded a video stating he rented the house to us, the police claim that we illegally invaded someone’s residence and (the officers) refused to leave.” The next morning
On the morning of June 15, authorities covered the peephole camera and cut off the electricity. People were stationed downstairs near the entrance. Li Wenzu expressed in a video, “The electricity meter in our apartment 502 is no longer showing up.” However, the power was restored after about an hour. Threatened to leave Beijing
The Beijing authorities planned to drive them out of Beijing one by one in an attempt to minimize their interaction with the outside world and their diplomatic influence. Facing the pressure of forced eviction from the authorities in Beijing, lawyer Wang Quanzhang stated that they only seek to live peacefully in Beijing, but it seems that they will continue to encounter new challenges in the future. Multiple cases
The plight of lawyer Wang Quanzhang is not an isolated case. ChinaAid Association has continuously exposed the forced eviction and persecution of many Christian families across China.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to housing, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: Jailing of Chinese Rights Lawyer Wang Quanzhang Sparks Public Outcry, China: lawyers, family members forced to evict from their houses
- Date added
- Jul 16, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 7, 2023
- Event Description
Police in China are keeping up their harassment of prominent rights lawyers, putting pressure on recently evicted Wang Quanzhang and his family, slapping a travel ban on Li Heping and his family, while denying rights attorney Xie Yang a phone call with his sick father.
And a court in the central city of Changsha recently denied detained rights lawyer Xie Yang a video meeting with his ailing 90-year-old father, who is terminally ill with COVID-19.
"The lawyer asked angrily whether the judges of the Changsha Intermediate People's Court were raised by their parents," the China Rights Lawyers Twitter account said of the June 7 hearing.
Xie's U.S.-based ex-wife Chen Guiqiu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview that her father-in-law Xie Huicheng had been in hospital with a high fever for days at the time of the request.
"Xie Yang is a very filial son, and the old man really wanted to see him before he dies," Chen said. "The court just came up with various excuses to refuse."
Xie is currently being held in the Changsha No. 1 Detention Center, awaiting trial for "incitement to subvert state power," and recently told his visiting attorney that he has been tortured while in detention.
Chen said the court's decision not to allow him to video call his dying father could be a form of retaliation, or a way to silence Xie.
U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said that while there was no good legal reason to deny such a request, the ruling Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate arbiter of its citizens' rights, not the law.
"There was no reason to reject a humanitarian request of this kind," Wu said. "They use [such requests] as a way of controlling suspects [to elicit a 'confession']."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: prominent lawyer arrested once again
- Date added
- Jul 16, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jul 12, 2023
- Event Description
On June 12, 2023, Mongolian herders from eastern Southern Mongolia’s Zaruud Banner gathered to block the road near their grazing land in protest of the local government’s land grab. Hired to advance the expropriation, a Chinese driver by the surname of Lu plowed into the protestors with a large bulldozer, crashing herders’ motorcycles, and injuring at least two.
According to protestors on the scene, the Zaruud Banner Breeding Farm Ar-Hundelen Branch appropriated a large swath of grazing land and sold it to a Chinese business—all with the authorization of the Zaruud Banner government.
A written statement from the local community notes that “Without our prior and informed consent, the breeding farm sold our land to a Chinese business at a price of 2,000,000 yuan (approximately 280,000 USD),” and that “the Chinese buyer is now bringing truckloads of cows and other animals to the land, attempting to graze them in disregard of our protest.”
“This happened before the eyes of government officials who are ganging up with violent Chinese invaders,” said an angry herder in a WeChat discussion group, in reference to the bulldozer attack. “The lives of Mongolians are worthless here.”
In a public statement, the Zaruud Banner Public Security Bureau confirmed the case while downplaying the violence as a “dispute that escalated to a conflict between a herder and the bulldozer driver, Mr. Lu, and the accountant Ms. Lu, resulting in an injury to the herder Mr. Wu.”
The next day, another attack took place in eastern Southern Mongolia’s Evenk Banner. A Chinese land-grabber struck a Mongolian herder with a vehicle while the herder defended his grazing land alongside other herders. The injured herder fell unconscious at the scene, but the state of his current health remains unknown.
“Violence by the Chinese toward Mongolians has happened two days in a row,” a Mongolian herder said in a WeChat discussion group. “Now even our lives are not guaranteed, let alone our land.”
Despite draconian censorship and aggressive surveillance of the Internet and social media, Southern Mongolians are managing to express their discontent over WeChat, China’s most popular social media platform. Sparked by these violent incidents, discussions among angry Southern Mongolians have gone far beyond the land-grab episodes and are touching on sensitive, foundational issues, including those of colonialism and national freedom.
“This is the cost we are paying for being colonized by the Chinese,” a Southern Mongolian said in a WeChat discussion.
“Yes, but nothing lasts forever,” another replied. “The days of this colonial regime are numbered. We Mongolians must stay patient, resilient and hopeful.”
In the same chat, another Southern Mongolian asked members to “Imagine if we have our own government and own country like the independent country of Mongolia. This type of violence would never happen, and even if it happens, the perpetrators will be brought to justice immediately.”
Yet another member said that “The squares [code name for Chinese settlers] are the most violent and brutal invaders in human history. They took away all of our rights, plundered our natural resources both under and above the ground; now they are taking away our land and lives.”
“This is no different from the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said another. “The nature of the two is the same: the strong enslave the weak.”
The perhaps even more politically charged question of whether “Southern Mongolians are slaves to the Chinese” sparked heated debates in a number of WeChat groups. Some excerpts:
“We must admit that we are enslaved by the Chinese. This is the reality. This is our status.”
“I disagree. We are not slaves. We are proud Mongolians. Calling ourselves slaves won’t help improve the situation anyway.”
“Our situation is equally serious, if not more so, than that of Xinjiang and Tibet.”
“Remember, land appropriation is just a small part of the systematic destruction of Southern Mongolia; our language and culture are being wiped out by the Chinese now.”
As Chinese policies in Southern Mongolia grow increasingly oppressive, widespread discontent among Southern Mongolians has led to two major uprisings since 2011.
In May 2011, a region-wide uprising was precipitated by the brutal killing of a Mongolian herder, Mr. Mergen, by a Chinese truck driver. These protests prompted Chinese authorities to launch an extensive crackdown on all forms of resistance across the region.
In September 2020, an even a larger uprising transpired in Southern Mongolia, in opposition of China’s new language policy, which Mongolians widely consider “cultural genocide.” An overwhelming majority of Southern Mongolians joined the protests in some fashion, and an estimated 8,000-10,000 protesters were arrested, detained, imprisoned and placed under house arrest.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Land rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation Agricultural business
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 7, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- May 19, 2023
- Event Description
According to information released by independent human rights monitors in late May 2023, woman human rights defender He Fangmei, who is in detention awaiting the verdict in her trial, wrote a letter to her older sister on 19 May 2023 authorising her to take care of her three young children. Two of her daughters, who are around seven and two years old, are believed to be kept at a psychiatric hospital in Xinxiang, Henan province, while her older son has been placed in foster care with a rural family.
However, when the family contacted the psychiatric hospital, the hospital refused to let the family visit the two girls, stating that access must be approved by the local police in Huixian county. When the family contacted the police, they referred the family to the local government. When the family contacted the local government, officials said they were “not aware” of the case.
The family has also been informed that the prosecutors have recommended a sentence of between five and seven years for the woman human rights defender. Her trial took place in Huixian in March 2022.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 29, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 4, 2023
- Event Description
Hong Kong police have deployed en masse at key sites on the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, apprehending several people in Causeway Bay, including Tsui Hong-kwong, who was among the organisers of the Tiananmen vigils, unionist Leo Tang and chairperson of pro-democracy group the League of Social Democrats (LSD), Chan Po-ying.
At around 5pm on Sunday, veteran activist Wong, popularly known as Grandma Wong, was apprehended by police in Causeway Bay, near where the city’s Tiananmen vigils were once held.
Three other people were escorted away by police soon after, also in Hong Kong Island’s shopping district.
LSD chair Chan was taken away in a police vehicle after being stopped in the area. She was holding a yellow flower. The party later told reporters that Chan had been released from Wan Chai Police Station at 9.15pm, adding that police had said they would need to conduct further investigations and Chan had been released without bail terms.
Journalist Mak Yin-ting, former chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was taken away by the police after being stopped on Great George Street.
Leo Tang, a former vice-chairperson of the pro-democracy coalition of unions the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, was taken away by the police. Tang was wearing a black t-shirt printed with the Wen Wei Po headline from its 1989 report about the Tiananmen crackdown.
Former member of the the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Tsui Hong-kwong was placed in a police vehicle after carrying an electronic candle on the street in Causeway Bay. Tang later posted to Facebook to say he had been taken to Wan Chai Police Station to assist with police investigations.
A man wearing a black Tiananmen crackdown remembrance t-shirt was escorted into a police van at around 7.20pm. Police told HKFP he would be held for questioning.
Outside Victoria Park, a man who was sitting on a bench holding a candle was taken by police officers to a police van.
Near the water fountain in Victoria Park, a woman in a black t-shirt was taken away by police, who held her hands and legs while she was escorted to a police vehicle. She yelled “I want to go home” and “will every June 4 be like this?” Before being apprehended, she sat on the ground. Officers told her that if she did not cooperate, she would be arrested for obstructing police.
A person who gave their name as Chan, who had witnessed the woman being taken away, told HKFP that police surrounded her after she displayed a photo of a candle on her phone and requested to conduct a stop and search. The woman tried to leave but was stopped by a group of officers.
Also near the Victoria Park fountain, a middle-aged man with a hearing aid and an electronic candle which shone red at its tip was taken to a police vehicle.
Earlier on Sunday, a number of passers-by were stopped and checked under a green canopy tent set up by police on Great George Street, near to Exit E of the Causeway Bay MTR station, the closest exit to Victoria Park.
It was not only people who were apprehended. A Porsche with a licence plate “US 8964,” the date of the Tiananmen crackdown, was seen driving through Causeway Bay on Sunday evening before being impounded. The owner of the car said in a public Facebook group that the officers cited his car’s embossed license plate and brake as reasons to impound the vehicle.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker, NGO staff, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 14, 2023
- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jun 8, 2023
- Event Description
A court in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi has jailed prominent rights lawyer Chang Weiping for three-and-a-half years after he attended a gathering of dissidents in the southeastern city of Xiamen in December 2019.
The Feng County People’s Court handed down the sentence to Chang – whose lawyers say he has suffered torture in incommunicado detention – after finding him guilty of “incitement to subvert state power” at a secret trial.
The sentence came eight weeks after authorities in Shandong province handed down a 14-year sentence to prominent dissident Xu Zhiyong and a 12-year term to rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who also attended the Xiamen gathering, on the same charges, prompting an international outcry.
Subversion charges are frequently used by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to target peaceful critics of the regime.
Chang’s wife Chen Zijuan dismissed the case against her husband as “absurd.”
“His sentence of three-and-a-half years ... may appear more lenient than those of Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, but the whole case against him was ridiculous from start to finish,” Chen said.
“Even a day in prison would have been too much.”
De facto travel ban Before his trial, Chang had been held for a long time under “residential surveillance at a designated location,” which rights groups say is associated with a higher risk of torture and mistreatment in detention.
Lawyers representing Chang, Xu and Ding have all reported that they were tortured during their time in pretrial detention.
“He has been locked up in the detention center for a very long time already, and I’m very concerned about his health,” Chen said, adding that her husband has also been sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ “deprivation of political rights,” which she said was a de facto travel ban.
“The point of the so-called deprivation of political rights is to stop him from leaving the country,” she said.
“Judging from past practice ... even if political prisoners are released after serving their sentences ... they are unlikely to have true freedom but be under surveillance, and they won’t have the freedom to leave the country,” Chen said.
She added that Chang is still considering whether or not to appeal, according to his lawyer.
Rights attorney Liu Shihui said any appeal would just be a question of “going through the motions,” however.
“Everyone knows that the sentence is never changed in these sorts of cases involving prisoners of conscience,” Liu said. “It’s a form of political persecution.”
“They have delayed this case for more than three years before pronouncing sentence ... and everyone knows that life in those detention centers is hell on earth, and a year seems like a whole lifetime,” he said.
‘No legal basis at all’ U.S.-based rights activist and legal scholar Teng Biao said Chang had gotten off relatively lightly compared with Xu and Ding, whom the authorities seem to regard as the main “culprits’ behind the Xiamen dinner gathering.
“They probably think Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were the ringleaders in the Xiamen case, but from a legal point of view, neither Xu, Ding nor Chang or anyone else [accused] in this case have committed any crime,” Teng said.
“Arresting them and sending them to prison for subversion of state power is pure political persecution and a gross violation of their civil rights and freedoms, and has no legal basis at all, regardless of how lenient the sentence may be,” he said.
Chang, who was only allowed to meet with a lawyer after nearly a year in detention, was strapped immobile into a “tiger chair” torture device for six days straight, and deprived of food and sleep, his lawyer said in September 2021.
Ding’s lawyers say he was restrained in a “tiger chair” between April 1 and April 8, 2020, and interrogated for 21 hours a day, subjected to sleep deprivation and limited food and water.
Xu has told his lawyer that he was subjected to similar treatment in the “tiger chair” while detained in Shandong’s Yantai city.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: lawyer tried amongst blatant violations, family members and supporters prevented from attending (Update)
- Date added
- Jun 14, 2023