Uwazi

Chinese authorities have detained incommunicado a Tibetan monk from the local Kirti Monastery for staging a peaceful solo protest against repressive policies in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.

On 26 March, a Tibetan monk named Pema was arbitrarily detained and subjected to incommunicado detention by the local Public Security Bureau Officers for staging a peaceful solo protest by holding a portrait of the Dalai Lama on the stretch of a road known to the local Tibetans as’ martyrs road’ in Ngaba County. Local witnesses reported hearing Pema shouting slogans calling for the “Return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet” and “Religious Freedom in Tibet,” among others.

Pema, who is in his 50s, is son of Toepa and a native of Soruma village in Ngaba County. Pema serves as a primary teacher at the Kirti Monastery while pursuing higher Buddhist studies. He is widely known in the monastery as Gen Pema (English: Teacher Pema).

Following Pema’s arbitrary arrest, Chinese security forces have intensified their control and restrictions in Ngaba County, especially in Soruma village and Kirti Monastery.

A source informed TCHRD that “prior to deleting his WeChat account, Chinese authorities contacted individuals on his contact list, seeking information about their identities. His personal WeChat is now inaccessible and has been deleted.”

On several occasions, Pema has confronted the local police authorities for pressuring young monks to be enrolled in state-run schools and forcing them to stop attending the Kirti monastic school.

March is considered a ‘politically sensitive’ month by Chinese authorities because of the 10 March anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day that led to the exile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans since 1959. The annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) are also held the same month, leading to heightened restrictions in all parts of Tibet.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is gravely concerned about Pema’s fate and whereabouts. His current location remains a mystery, and we call for his immediate and unconditional release. Chinese authorities must also disclose Pema’s whereabouts and condition to his family members without delay and guarantee his physical and mental well-being.

Some 200 Myanmar migrant workers were fired from their garment factory jobs in China’s Yunnan province and forced to leave the country after they protested for better pay and working conditions, a labor union leader told Radio Free Asia.

More than 1,000 workers from two garment factories in Yunnan’s Yingjiang city demonstrated on March 17, according to Tin Tin Wai, the co-chairwoman of the New Light Federation of Labor Unions Myanmar.

“We were threatened through interpreters with police arrest if we didn’t stop the protest,” said a worker who identified himself as Super. “The police officers looked like they were about to beat us, but they ended up not hitting any protesters.”

The next day, factory officials demanded that some of the protesters undergo a medical exam, Tin Tin Wai said. The 200 workers who were fired from the Shangcheng and Xinjiahao factories were told they had failed the exam, she said.

They were then immediately driven out of the factory gates to a police station, where they were told to sign a document that said they weren’t fired for protesting, according to one of the workers, Ma Jue.

“They didn’t allow us to take our belongings out of our rooms,” she told RFA. “We were forced to sign a paper that we were voluntarily returning home.”

The workers were then driven back to Myanmar’s Kayin state, Tin Tin Wai said.

No legal recourse

Protesters had demanded that their usual 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. working schedule be scaled back, that they be paid extra for overtime and that they receive a monthly salary of 1,500 yuan (US$208) with an attendance bonus, she said.

They also asked for reasonable output goals and to have Sundays off, she said.

There are more than 1,000 Myanmar migrant workers at the Shangcheng factory and about 300 workers from Myanmar at the Xinjiahao factory.

Because there is no memorandum of understanding between the two governments, Myanmar migrant workers at Chinese garment factories don’t have legal recourse and can be sent home at any time, according to observers of Myanmar labor issues at the Chinese border.

At the Shangcheng and Xinjiahao factories, employment agents who arranged for the workers to come from Myanmar never get involved or take any responsibility when there are disputes between the workers and factory owners, Tin Tin Wai said.

Super told RFA that some Myanmar workers were promised higher salaries than the ones they now receive.

“The Chinese employers offered salaries of 900,000 to 1,000,000 kyats (US$425 to US$475), plus overall expenses for accommodation,” said the worker, who identified himself as Super. “However, the workers did not even get 800,000 kyats (US$380).”

Super said he watched some workers quit because they couldn’t handle all the overtime work and didn’t have access to painkillers or other medicine.

RFA contacted the Chinese Embassy in Yangon and the Myanmar Consulate in Yunnan about last week’s protest, but there was no response.

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu have handed a four-year jail term to veteran rights activist Xu Qin, after repeatedly delaying her trial and sentencing despite concerns over her deteriorating health, and amid reports of torture from a prominent rights group.

The Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu, a key figure in the Wuhan-based China Rights Observer group founded by jailed veteran dissident Qin Yongmin, to four years' imprisonment on March 29 for "incitement to subvert state power," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website reported.

It quoted Xu as telling the sentencing hearing: "I'd like to thank everyone for their care and support, and also thank my husband for his help and support. Regardless of whether it’s futile or not, I must appeal. This is my right."

An award-winning activist in a number of high-profile human rights cases, including that of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, Xu was detained under "residential surveillance at a designated location" in 2021, a form of incommunicado detention rights groups say puts detainees at greater risk of torture and mistreatment.

Her family told RFA in earlier interviews that Xu is a stroke and heart attack survivor who suffers from high blood pressure, among other ailments.

But according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website, many of Xu's health problems were caused by her torture and mistreatment in detention.

"During her detention and interrogation, Xu Qin was brutally tortured to extract a confession, and was held in solitary confinement for a long period of time," the website said in a report about her sentencing published on Sunday.

"Xu already suffered from multiple health problems including stroke, heart attack and hypertension, and as a result [of the torture], she was left paralyzed and unable to stand," it said.

Since she was locked up in the detention center, Xu has started using a wheelchair, according to her lawyer.

Xu told the court on Friday that she would appeal the sentence, which came after more than two years in pretrial detention at the Yangmiao Detention Center in Yangzhou city, where she held intermittent hunger strikes in protest at a loss of communications privileges as well as a months-long ban on meetings with her lawyer, Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch said.

Repeated calls to Xu's lawyer rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

Trial was delayed

Xu's trial was delayed several times following her initial detention in May 2021, with the authorities citing only "unavoidable circumstances."

But her family says it was delayed due to her refusal to provide the state security police with a "confession."

The trial was eventually held on Nov. 7, 2022, but the verdict and sentencing were also repeatedly delayed until now.

New York-based rights lawyer Chen Chuangchuang, who also heads the U.S. branch of the banned China Democracy Party, said Chen has always been an extremely tenacious activist.

"The trial was held a long time ago, but the verdict and sentencing were delayed multiple times, which is a deliberate form of torture used by the Chinese Communist Party," Chen told RFA on Monday.

Chen said that one of the purposes of the authorities' repeated delay in pronouncing the sentence was to get Xu Qin to plead guilty, and that she had been especially targeted due to her association with Qin Yongmin.

According to the Weiquanwang rights website, the charges against Xu listed her participation in Qin's China Rights Observer and its sister organization Rose China as evidence against her.

Qin was sentenced in July 2018 to 13 years' imprisonment for "incitement to subvert state power," the latest in a string of long sentences for his peaceful dissent and attempts to build the banned China Democracy Party.

A contemporary of exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, Qin was sentenced to eight years in prison for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and subversion" in the wake of China's Democracy Wall movement in 1981.

He served a further two years' "re-education through labor" in 1993 after he penned a controversial document titled the "Peace Charter."

Qin then served a 12-year jail term for subversion after he helped found the China Democracy Party in 1998 in spite of a ban on opposition political parties.

Xu was honored with the Lin Zhao Freedom Award for her human rights advocacy in 2022, and the Oscar China Freedom Human Rights Award last month.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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.”

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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']."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Eight people were detained near Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Saturday 3 June for what police described as “displaying protest items loaded with seditious wordings, chanting and committing unlawful acts”.

Two of those detained have since been released, but the four arrested for “seditious intention and disorderly conduct” could face up to two years in prison.

Those arrested include two people who had held aloft pieces of paper saying, “personal commemoration, hunger strike for 8964 3.4 seconds” (referencing the year, date and anniversary of the crackdown) and holding flowers. Another arrested, an artist, had reportedly chanted, “Don’t forget June 4! Hong Kong people, don’t be afraid of them!”

Every year on 4 June since 1990, up to hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed during the Tiananmen crackdown. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and take accountability for the fatalities. The vigil was banned in 2020 and 2021, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds.

Last year authorities closed parts of Victoria Park citing potential “illegal activities”. This year it was “unavailable” due to the hosting of an outdoor market organized by pro-Beijing groups, including those sponsored by the Chief Executive and former and current members of China’s National People’s Congress.

The organizer of the past vigils, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was forced to disband in September 2021 after coming under increasing pressure since the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law in June 2020. Several of its senior figures, including human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung, have been prosecuted under “inciting subversion” charges for their peaceful activism.

The Alliance is one of numerous prominent civil society organizations or political groups forced to close after being targeted by the Hong Kong police on national security grounds.

Every year the vigil in Hong Kong featured a recorded message from the Tiananmen Mothers, family members of those killed, who are still seeking a full government account of the deaths, lawful compensation and investigation of criminal responsibility.

Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 when Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully calling for political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption. Tens of thousands were arrested across China in the suppression that followed. Many were charged with counter-revolutionary crimes and served very long prison sentences following unfair trials.

Regularly since 1989, activists in mainland China have been detained and charged with “subversion” or “picking quarrels” if they commemorate those who were killed, call for the release of prisoners or criticize government actions during the Tiananmen crackdown.

CHRD is alarmed at the forced closure of the Beijing LGBT Center under pressure from the Chinese government. Shutting down China’s longest established LGBTIQ+ organization signals yet another worsening turn in the Chinese state’s years-long campaign against civil society. We urge the Chinese government to take seriously its human rights obligations under international law to eliminate discrimination against LGBTIQ+ individuals and protect NGOs working to promote LGBTIQ+ rights in China.

On May 15, Beijing LGBT Center sent out a WeChat post announcing that “We very unfortunately are informing everyone that due to an inability to resist [pressure], Beijing LGBT Center is ceasing operations today.”

Members of the Center told Deutsche Welle that they were frequently questioned and harassed by the police, or asked to euphemistically “drink tea” with them. At the same time, on multiple occasions authorities tried to dissuade the Center from ceasing operations for fear of the international repercussions. This put the Beijing LGBT Center in a difficult position where they found it impossible to do their work but also were forced by authorities to maintain the appearance of being in operation until now.

Members of the LGBTIQ+ community have faced growing restrictions on their rights and advocacy in recent years. CHRD has learned from a Chinese civil society expert that another NGO, EnGender, ceased operations in May due to an increasingly difficult operating environment. In November 2021, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, an NGO with operations nationwide, was forced to shut down due to government pressure. On July 6, 2021, nearly 20 WeChat accounts of university students’ LGBT and gender studies groups were suddenly closed down.

Beijing LGBT Center, founded in 2008, provided much of the research and data for understanding the social obstacles and stigma against LGBTIQ+ people in China. For example, in 2016, it produced the largest survey ever done on sexual and gender diversity issues in China, Being LGBT in China – A National Survey on Social Attitudes towards Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression, which was co-authored by Beijing University Sociology Department with support from the UN Development Programme. In 2017, also in collaboration with Beijing University Sociology Department and with support from the Dutch embassy, it produced the 2017 Chinese Transgender Population General Survey. In 2018, Beijing LGBT Center created a national hotline for suicide prevention for transgender people. A member from the Center also conducted a survey that found that transgender people faced domestic violence after telling their parents about their transgender status.

Beijing LGBT Center aspired to serve as a safe space for people in the LGBTIQ+ community in Beijing and around the country. The organization frequently hosted events speaking out on LGBTIQ+ issues. It provided resources to members in the community, such as offering health care counselling on resisting being pressured into “conversion therapy,” which is still prevalent in China. In 2020, it held a workshop at Beijing Normal University for 100 graduate students majoring in psychological counselling to help them better understand the needs of the LGBTIQ+ community.

Disregard for China’s International Human Rights Obligations

The intensified pressure on Beijing LGBT Center leading to its closure occurred just two days before this year’s International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on May 17. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk marked the day by noting that “[t]he human rights of all LGBTIQ+ people, as equal members of the human family, must be respected,” but that “…in many countries LGBTIQ+ people are facing unacceptable pushbacks to their rights.” To this end, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) launched a new thematic campaign on solidarity within its Free & Equal campaign, which aims to engage with “the public and policymakers to advance social acceptance and positive changes in laws and policies.”

Chinese government harassment of LGBT NGOs goes against UN independent experts’ recent recommendations to the state to combat discrimination against LGBTIQ+ persons. In March 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) released its findings in the latest review of China’s treaty obligations, urging the government to:

“(a)dopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislative, political and administrative measures prohibiting direct, indirect and multiple discrimination, including explicitly prohibiting discrimination and criminalizing harassment, hate speech and hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in accordance with article 2 (2) of the Covenant…; [and] (i)ntensify its efforts to combat discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, including by conducting public awareness-raising campaigns.”

During the current review by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, independent experts on the Committee asked about “how the State party responded to the need for protection of… lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and intersex persons, and other groups facing multiple forms of discrimination.” An official on the Chinese government delegation responded by saying that the Chinese Constitution does not discriminate against LBGTIQ+ people, and it views them as “ordinary people,” thus there are no special legal protections for LGBTIQ+ citizens.

Our “asks”

In light of these alarming developments, which are detrimental to combating discrimination against the LGBTIQ+ community in China, CHRD strongly urges the Chinese government to immediately end its campaign of harassment and intimidation against LGBTIQ+ rights NGOs and heed the calls of UN experts to take specific measure to combat discrimination against this community. The government should cooperate with UN bodies, particularly the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity to protect LGBTIQ+ rights and increase social inclusion.

CHRD recommends that the OHCHR incorporate the issue of the shrinking advocacy space for LGBTIQ+ rights in China into its Free & Equal campaign. The Chinese government should be highlighted as a country moving backwards on LGBTIQ+ rights. The High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk should speak out and raise serious concerns about the recent closure of Beijing LGBT Center in communications with the Chinese government and in public messaging on LGBTIQ+ rights globally.

The UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity should publicly condemn the closure of the Beijing LGBT Center and the other alarming developments, and urge the Chinese government to enact strategies, policies, and laws to advance LGBTIQ+ rights.

Chinese authorities have notified the family of veteran rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan of their formal arrest on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the Communist Party, friends of the couple told Radio Free Asia.

Yu and Xu were detained last month en route to a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing, prompting calls for their release from Brussels.

U.S.-based rights lawyer Wang Qingpeng said there are now fears that Yu and Xu may be tortured in order to elicit a "confession," given the amount of international attention generated by their arrests.

"The authorities will be concerned about how this case looks ... and about international attention," Wang said. "A lot of lawyers have been warned off representing Yu Wensheng and his wife."

"Many lawyers have been tortured already, including Xie Yang, Wang Quanzhang, Chang Weiping and Zhou Shifeng," he said. "We have reason to believe that Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan could also be tortured, so as to avoid further outside attention and attempts at rescue."

"There could be further [and more serious charges] to come, for example, 'incitement to subvert state power,' which is impossible to predict right now," Wang said.

Chinese courts almost never acquit political prisoners, and the charge Yu and Xu currently face generally leads to jail terms of up to five years.

Lawyers warned

A friend of the couple who asked to remain anonymous said Yu's brother received notification of his formal arrest on May 21.

"According to what I have learned, Yu Wensheng has put up a great deal of resistance to the authorities since his detention," the friend said. "His brother has also said [their detention] is unacceptable."

Police informed Yu's brother of the change of status on Sunday, but had refused to give the family anything in writing, the brother said.

"His brother tried to get a photo of the notification of arrest, but the police stopped him," they said. "Now Yu Wensheng's family need to find a lawyer to help him, but a lot of lawyers have been warned off doing this by the authorities."

They said police had also told the family not to try to find their own lawyer to represent the couple.

Another person familiar with the case, who gave only the surname Shi, confirmed the friend's account.

"They wouldn't let their [18-year-old] kid instruct a lawyer, and the police were also telling people that Yu Wensheng didn't want a lawyer, and that Xu Yan had already hired two lawyers," Shi said.

"Then the police visited the law firms [that might potentially represent Yu and Xu] and put pressure on them -- the Beijing municipal judicial affairs bureau also stepped up the pressure, threatening the law firms that they would fail their annual license review," he said.

"I don't know whether they actually revoked any licenses or not -- we won't know until early June," Shi said.

Son alone

A friend of the couple who gave only the surname Qin said he is worried about their situation, and also about their son, who is living alone in the family home under strict police surveillance, with no contact with the outside world.

"It has destroyed this family, and their kid is still so young with nobody around to take care of them -- it's wrong to arrest both husband and wife together," Qin said.

The European Union lodged a protest with China after police detained veteran rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his activist wife Xu Yan ahead of a meeting with its diplomats during a scheduled EU-China human rights dialogue on April 13.

“We have already been taken away,” Yu tweeted shortly before falling silent on April 13, while the EU delegation to China tweeted on April 14: “@yuwensheng9 and @xuyan709 detained by CN authorities on their way to EU Delegation.”

“We demand their immediate, unconditional release. We have lodged a protest with MFA against this unacceptable treatment,” the tweet from the EU’s embassy in China said, referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The family of Dong Yuyu, a famous journalist in China, has decided to inform international human rights organizations that he has been indicted on charges of espionage. Dong had been arrested in February 2021 while he was having what the authorities characterized as an “unauthorized” lunch with a Japanese diplomat at the Novotel Xin Qiao hotel in Beijing. He was later formally arrested, and indicted for espionage on March 2023.

Following warning from the authorities, relatives had decided not to divulge news about its detention, but now believe that Dong’s situation is so precarious that it may be better to speak out and seek the help of international human rights groups and media.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, one of Dong’s colleagues told Bitter Winter that “the idea that he can be a spy is just ridiculous. The charges have been invented by those who did not like his articles.” Dong was the deputy director of the editorial pages of the “Guangming Daily,” a newspaper whose owner is the Chinese Communist Party, and which is supervised by the Party’s propaganda department. Dong has been one of the most popular journalists of the “Guangming Daily” for more than thirty years.

Dong was also a scholar of international law and Japanese issues. He had been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University from 2006 to 2007, a visiting scholar at Keio University in Japan in 2010, and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at Hokkaido University in 2014.

Although in no way disloyal to the CCP, Dong advocated a reformist and moderate approach in line with Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up,” including on issues of state control of religions. While Xi Jinping has purged from Chinese media the Maoist “left,” he is now also purging the Dengist “right”—all this while extolling the merits of both Mao and Deng.

This is a typical Communist approach, and one also aimed at reminding journalists that no criticism of Xi Jinping or critical comparison with previous leaders is allowed. Trumped-up charges await those even vaguely suspected of dissent.

The China allegations are aimed at Dong Yuyu, a well-known liberal commentator and editor at Guangming Daily, one of the five major Communist Party-affiliated newspapers in the country. Historically, according to his family, the newspaper served intellectuals, artists, teachers and others with a higher education, and for many years it was more liberal than others. Mr. Dong has long expressed support for liberal reforms in China, particularly in creating a legal system based on the rule of law. He participated in the 1989 Tiananmen student protests and was punished, sent to endure hard labor in a steel factory for a year, but kept his job at the newspaper. He eventually rose to become deputy head of the editorial department.

Concerns are mounting for a Taiwan-based book publisher believed to have been detained in China, in a case that has echoed the disappearances in 2015 of five Hong Kong booksellers.

Li Yanhe, also known by the pen-name Fucha, reportedly travelled to Shanghai last month to visit relatives but has been uncontactable since Thursday. His alleged detention was first reported by Bei Ling, a Chinese writer and activist, who said on Facebook that he had been told by various sources that Li had been arrested by authorities in Shanghai.

Taiwan’s government has said it is monitoring the situation. Last week, a mainland affairs council spokesperson, Jan Jyh-horng, said Li was “safe” but declined to give further details, citing calls for privacy from his family. Taiwan’s premier, Chen Chien-jen, said the government was providing care and assistance to Li’s family.

Bei later took down his Facebook post reportedly upon request of Li’s family, but the alleged detention has sparked concern in Taiwan and in east Asian academic and dissident circles. Under the rule of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, crackdowns on dissenters, human rights groups, and critics have intensified.

Gusa is known for publishing books that are critical of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) or are politically sensitive, including about the Tiananmen Square massacre, human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and corruption within the CCP.

Li was born in China but relocated to Taiwan in 2009, where he established Gusa Publishing. Colleagues at Gusa have said Li had since obtained citizenship of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s formal name), and was seeking to renounce his Chinese citizenship within the requisite three months under Taiwan law. Taiwan media also cited government officials as saying Li was being treated as a Taiwan national.

The case has drawn comparisons to the detention of five booksellers connected to Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, a seller of numerous critical, political and gossipy titles that had been banned by the CCP. In late 2015, the five were “disappeared” from various locations in Hong Kong, mainland China and Thailand, re-emerging later in Chinese detention.

One, Gui Minhai, remains in detention, and in 2020 was sentenced to 10 years on charges of “illegally providing intelligence overseas”. Another, Lam Wing-kee, skipped bail in Hong Kong in 2016, later fleeing to Taiwan where he has since re-established the bookstore in Taipei.

Lam told the Guardian on Monday that Chinese authorities would be treating Li as a Chinese national, whether or not he had renounced his citizenship to obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

“From the point of view of mainland China, they think you’re from where you were born,” Lam said. “Li published some books in Taiwan that violated the laws of his own country. This is a more serious situation … Publishing these books is a risk. And it is an important warning to other Taiwanese publishers.”

Supporters including the Gusa publishing house, where Li is editor-in-chief, PEN America, and dozens of writers, academics and activists have all voiced concerns for his safety.

“Li is not the first publisher to be detained by China, which is also the world’s largest jailer of journalists,” said the TFCC on Monday, calling on Beijing to respect media freedom and release “all unjustly imprisoned media workers”.

On Saturday, a group of more than 40 Asia-focused writers, media workers and academics joined Gusa Publishing on a statement calling for his release. It said Li had not had access to lawyers or family members and communication was restricted, according to a report by Taiwan’s CNA.

“In Taiwan, freedom of speech and publication, and academic freedom are like the air we breathe. They are part of daily life for every reader, every author, every translator and every editor,” said the statement.

“Under Fu Cha’s leadership as editor-in-chief, Gusa’s books have been very popular with Chinese-language readers around the world for their diversity and the inspiration they provide. We believe Fu Cha has not committed any crime in utilising these freedoms.”

A court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday jailed veteran dissident Wang Aizhong for three years after he retweeted foreign media reports on Chinese social media platforms.

The Tianhe District People's Court handed down the jail term after finding Wang guilty of "picking quarrels and stirring up troubles," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The court found that Wang had "used social media platforms to quote and repost false reports in the foreign media about China's political system."

Wang, 46, also stood accused of "adding false information that seriously damaged China's image" and of causing "serious public disorder," it said.

Police threw a security cordon around the court building, with plainclothes and uniformed officers patrolling nearby streets, and took Wang's wife Wang Henan to attend the trial, escorted by state security police, she told Radio Free Asia.

"One man and two women from the state security police sent a special car to meet me downstairs from our apartment and take me to the court," Wang Henan said. "The two women watched me the whole time."

She described the sentence handed to her husband as "a joke."

"It's an absolute joke, and we totally refuse to accept it," she said. "His lawyers have argued all along that Aizhong is innocent, because nothing that he said added up to a crime."

‘A way of keeping me quiet’

Wang Henan said she was prevented from attending the pretrial conference with her husband and his defense team, despite not having seen him in two years.

"They don't want me to know too much about the process and content of the trial," she said. "It's a way of keeping me quiet and stopping me from posting something publicly."

"They also want to torture me psychologically because I love Aizhong, and I haven't seen him for two years," Wang Henan said.

Outside the courtroom, police were stationed on nearby sidewalks in a bid to prevent Wang's supporters from showing up for him.

"There are plainclothes police officers dotted along more than one kilometer from the court gates, all the way to the subway entrance," a Guangzhou resident who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia.

"I'm guessing there are about 70-80 of them in total, and seven or eight of them are currently surrounding me," he said. "One of them asked to see my ID ... then I was told to leave immediately or I would be taken to the police station."

Fellow rights activist Liang Yiming said Wang's online comments had always been very moderate, and that had only been exercising his constitutional right to freedom of speech.

"Take the pandemic in Wuhan," Liang said. "Wang Aizhong once called on them to disclose the number of deaths, but the authorities felt that this would cause panic."

"They don't like people to be so proactive, but we as citizens have the right to question them, or why would we pay our taxes and fund a government that just does whatever it wants," he said.

Guangzhou protests

The length of Wang's sentence likely means he will be released in May 2024, after time already served is deducted from the sentence. The family has indicated that it supports him in appealing the sentence.

Wang was initially detained at his home in Guangdong's provincial capital, Guangzhou in May 2021, and his apartment searched by police, who confiscated reading materials and computer devices.

He had been a key activist during protests in Guangzhou in January 2013 that were sparked by the rewriting of a New Year's Day Southern Media Group editorial calling for constitutional government.

Activists, journalists, and academics faced off with the authorities for several days after the Southern Weekend newspaper was forced to change a New Year editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the Chinese Communist Party.

The protest was one of the first overt calls by members of the public for political freedom since large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in a military crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

He was later detained in 2014 on suspicion of the same charge, shortly before the 25th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen massacre.

Footage has emerged showing Gonmo Kyi being forced into a car by security personnel in Lhasa.

Gonmo Kyi is the sister of the detained Tibetan businessman Dorjee Tashi and has carried out a series of protests calling for him to be given a fair trial.

Tibet Watch received the videos on 16 May. In one, Gonmo Kyi, is on the ground and surrounded by police. While she is struggling, it sounds like she is saying: “It doesn’t matter that I am falling down! I don’t want to go! Just arrest me!”

The next shows the security personnel holding Gonmo Kyi and forcing her into the back seats of a white vehicle while she says: “You can kill me here.”

There is currently no further information on Gonmo Kyi’s location and wellbeing.

Over the past five months, Gonmo Kyi has carried out a series of protests outside Tibet Higher People’s Court in Lhasa. She has been detained numerous times and during recent protests the police have obstructed her from public view by surrounding her and covering her with black fabric or barriers.

Authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen shut down an art exhibit that described young people in China as the "last generation," a reference to a viral video from the 2022 Shanghai lockdown, in which a young man tells police officers threatening him that he won't be having kids.

Beijing artist Li Wei was served a "notice of closure" by the venue hosting his work "Manifesto," which consists of the words "We Are The Last Generation, Thank You." in English and Chinese, according to information posted to Twitter by "Mr. Li is not your Teacher."

The work had been part of a contemporary art exhibit in Shenzhen's Nanshan district to mark the anniversary of the 1919 May Fourth Movement of patriotic young Chinese, according to the account, which typically posts reports that would be quickly censored within the Great Firewall of Chinese internet censorship.

“On May 6, the Shenzhen Yanhan Highland 404 Space, which hosted the exhibition, announced that it would be closed for maintenance," the tweet said, adding that the exhibit had been open for just four days.

The move comes as President Xi Jinping has been struggling to counter a growing culture of passive resistance among young people, who face dwindling job prospects, a failing economy and scant desire to marry or have children.

Local officials have announced schemes to relocate unemployed urban youth to rural areas to work in agriculture, potential signs of a planned mobilization that was last tried during the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Social justice theme

Li Wei’s work typically carries a strong social justice theme, said an arts administrator who gave only the surname Li who met him more than 10 years ago.

"He uses his works to speak out at social and artistic events," she said. "He used his installation ‘A Cake’ to speak out in 2010, when the Beijing Art District was demolished” by the authorities.

Censors backed by the Communist Party have been deleting references to a viral video that spawned the "last generation" meme, which emerged as a form of protest over ongoing lockdowns, mass incarcerations and compulsory testing under the three-year zero-COVID policy, which ended in December.

In the viral video, PPE-clad police officials turn up outside a young man's apartment and try to force them to go to an isolation camp even though he had recently tested negative for coronavirus.

"We're negative. You have no right to take us away," the man says, before a police officer steps forward wagging a finger and says: "You know that we will punish you, right? And when that happens, it will have a bad effect on your family for three generations."

"We're the last generation. Thank you." the man replies in the video which began circulating on Chinese social media platforms in May 2022, garnering huge numbers of views and comments.

Some joked online that the era from 1966 onwards was all about the innocence of revolution and justified rebellion, while the 1989 pro-democracy movement felt it was their "duty" to protest.

‘Saying no to four things’

According to online comments, the youth of today are shutting up shop before their lives have properly begun, by referring to themselves as the "last generation," or "the People Who Say No to Four Things": finding a mate, marriage, mortgage and raising kids.

Former Nanjing teacher Gu Fang said local businesses are closing down in large numbers, while foreign investors are fleeing, leaving few opportunities for fresh graduates as unemployment runs at 20% for that age group.

"Their outlook is grim in terms of basic material security," Gu said. "Yet the phrase 'we are the last generation' also shows psychological distress."

"[Li Wei's] artwork expresses dissatisfaction and anger, wondering whether modern life is even worth living," he said.

To try to counter that pessimism, Xi praised young people who had "gone down to the villages and fields" as part of the "rural revitalization" campaign in a letter to students of the China Agricultural University to mark May Fourth.

Similar phrasing was used by late supreme leader Mao Zedong to initiate the mass mobilization of educated urban youth to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

"Chinese youth in the new era should embrace this spirit," Xi wrote, in a reply to an earlier letter from the students saying they would be "seeking out hardship" by volunteering for rural manual labor.

His comments came after he gave a speech on "rural revitalization" on Dec. 24, 2022, calling for "orderly guidance" of college graduates, skilled businesspeople, migrant workers and enterprises to "return to their hometowns," with young people being "the most dynamic force" behind his plan, according to state media.

‘Familiar ring’

Wu Chien-chung, associate professor at the National Taiwan Ocean University, said the wording of Xi's letter had a "familiar ring."

"They have used this method of having young people write letters to Xi before," he said. "The Chinese Communist Party's propaganda system is constantly adapting."

"They have recruited a group of young people to act as props to glamorize the Communist Party and act like a united front," he said, adding that Chinese agents in Taiwan had used a similar tactic by getting young Taiwanese people to write to Xi last year.

He said Xi's letter comes after Vice President Wang Qishan warned people to "expect hardship."

"The whole of China and the entire world know that China's economic growth has fallen sharply," Wu said, adding that authorities in the southern province of Guangdong have already launched a scheme to send 300,000 urban youth to rural areas.

"A lot of people thought it was a scam," Wu said. "Even mainland Chinese websites and Little Pinks [government supporters] thought it was cognitive warfare or fake news."

"Only when the government confirmed that it was a nationwide policy direction did they realize it was an overt conspiracy by the Communist Party ... to try to solve youth unemployment and other issues," he said.

PR campaign

Public perception of the scheme hasn't been helped by the appearance of scantily clad social media influencers posing as rural laborers on Chinese social media in recent months, Wu added.

”Here we go again with those so-called rural volunteers fit to make you blush," Weibo user Gray_Production_Circle wrote in July 2022 above a video clip of a glamorous young woman posing on a tractor. "Leave the poor old guy alone!"

A story on the Yiping News Network showed a group of scantily clad young women sitting at a farmyard table, describing the "rural volunteer" phenomenon as a new trend for Chinese social media influencers.

"Many rural villages have become places for Internet celebrities and beautiful women to check in and 'show off their skills,"’ the story said.

On 3 May, Gonpo Kyi shared a video decrying the unjust verdict against her brother Dorje Tashi. Kyi says in the video, “Both the masses and leaders must abide by the law of the country. Here, however, the leaders do not follow the law and are not punished while the masses are subjected to punitive measures. The court did not respond to my petitions calling for its judges to be held accountable and penalised for not following the rule of law. Instead, the petitions were snatched from our hands and thrown into the dustbin. If common people like us did such a thing, we would have been accused of breaching various laws and subjected to numerous punitive measures.”

This comes within a week after her detention in police custody for staging a relentless series of protests against the Chinese judicial authorities, specifically the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Higher People’s Court, which passed the verdict on Dorje Tashi. On 26 April, Gonpo Kyi and her spouse were apprehended by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers in Lhasa and were released the following night on 27 April, reported exile Tibetan sources. During their detention, they were reportedly subjected to physical abuse, rigorous questioning and warned not to engage in such activities in the future. Instead Gonpo Kyi responded, “I will continue to protest until they kill me.”

Unfazed by police beatings and intimidation, Gonpo Kyi staged a protest in front of the TAR Higher People’s Court on 23 and 24 April. She demanded a fair and just trial for her brother Dorje Tashi, whose case was marred with allegations of false conviction and judicial irregularities. Notwithstanding the peaceful nature of the demonstration, the authorities attempted to suppress her voice by covering her protest with long black sheets.

Earlier on 20 March, Kyi stood outside the TAR Higher People’s Court wearing a white shirt on which was written a slogan in Mandarin Chinese: “The allegations made by the Tibet Autonomous Region Higher People’s Court against Dorje Tashi are false!” In her hand, she held a copy of the verdict against Dorje Tashi. Her protest was short-lived when the Lhasa PSB officers arbitrarily detained her overnight and subjected her to beatings and interrogation.

A day later, on 21 March, a video clip surfaced on social media showing the police beating up Gonpo Kyi in front of the police station.

Following this, on 26 March, Kyi returned to the site of the protest to call for the verdict against her brother to be overturned and for her brother to meet his family members.

On 31 March, Dorje Tseten, brother of Dorje Tashi, was summoned to the Lhasa PSB office, where he was informed that regardless of the numerous discussions about the wrongful conviction of Dorje Tashi, there was no possibility of overturning the verdict. Furthermore, Dorje Tseten was threatened with harsh punitive measures if he or anyone else continued to protest against the verdict.

Gonpo Kyi recorded a video just prior to the protest of 20 March, which later circulated widely on the internet. In the video, she says, “I have spoken about this issue and introduced myself numerous times. It is now common knowledge. I am the sister of Dorje Tashi, the owner of Yak Hotel. In 2008, both of my siblings were arrested. Dorje Tsetan was sentenced to six years in prison, as indicated by the verdict document. My other sibling has been in prison for fifteen years now. The verdict was made 15 years ago by Norbu Dhondup, a judge from the TAR- Higher People’s Court, along with Penpa Lhamo and Pasang. At the same time, a Chinese couple, He Xingyou and his wife, were convicted of mortgage fraud worth 53 million yuan and sentenced to only 15 years in prison and released after serving just ten years. But my brother Dorje Tashi, who has been falsely accused of the same crime, remains behind bars despite repaying his total loans.”

It’s been 15 years since Dorje Tashi has been unjustly imprisoned for life for false loan fraud charges. Despite numerous appeals for a just trial and case revision, he remains behind bars. His family is not allowed to meet with him or to appeal to higher authorities about his case.

Both Gonpo Kyi and Dorje Tseten have resorted to peaceful protests in front of the TAR Higher People’s Court and carried out protests in the form of open letters and video messages to expose the names of those responsible for the unfair trial.

The Chinese authorities’ repeated detention and intimidation of Gonpo Kyi, a peaceful protester demanding justice for her brother Dorje Tashi, clearly violates her fundamental right to protest and expression. Such actions are not only contrary to the law, but they also show a blatant disregard for fundamental human rights.

TCHRD calls on the Chinese authorities to respect the fundamental rights of Gonpo Kyi and all Tibetans. We condemn the cowardly and unlawful acts of the Lhasa PSB authorities for intimidating and threatening Dorje Tseten and his family members for merely exercising their basic human rights and demanding justice for Dorje Tashi, who is in prison for a crime he did not commit. We demand that the authorities cease their harassment of Gonpo Kyi and address her grievances, as a responsible government must. It has been proven through expert legal analyses that Dorje Tashi was unjustly imprisoned and disproportionately sentenced in a politically motivated verdict.

China sentenced lawyer and prominent rights activist Guo Feixiong to a prison term of eight years on Thursday, with diplomats from several countries saying they were barred from the trial in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The sentence follows terms of more than a decade in jail each handed to two prominent rights lawyers, Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong in April, amid China's clampdown on dissent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

While rights groups say hundreds of lawyers and activists have been detained in recent years, China says it respects the rule of law and individual rights and rejects criticism of its human rights record.

Guo, 58, has drawn international attention for campaigns against issues such as graft and censorship, and his accusations of mistreatment by Chinese authorities during more than a decade behind bars on previous charges.

His latest detention, in 2022, came a year after he was stopped from leaving the country to visit his dying wife in the United States, sparking further outcry.

After a three-hour trial Guo, whose real name is Yang Maodong, was found guilty of defaming China's political system and inciting subversion of state power, his brother said in a statement, adding that Guo would appeal against the judgment.

Thursday's statement was confirmed by Guo's lawyer.

Diplomats from several countries said they were prevented from attending the trial.

"Today, U.S. diplomats were blocked from attending the court proceedings of Guo Feixiong," the U.S. embassy in China said on its Twitter account. "We continue to call for Mr. Guo's speedy release so he may be reunited with his family."

Diplomats from Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands were also turned away and told by a court clerk that foreign visitors needed approval from higher authorities, four diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court and China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In early 2021, Guo was stopped by officials at the airport in the commercial hub of Shanghai as he sought to visit his ailing wife in the United States.

His public pleas to be allowed to leave were rebuffed and his wife died of cancer about a year later. Two days after that, Guo was arrested by Guangzhou police and has been held in detention since, according to rights groups.

Guo was subjected to "years of mistreatment, imprisonment, routine harassment and surveillance, and denied foreign travel for his peaceful advocacy on behalf of the Chinese people," the U.S. state department has said earlier.

Beijing authorities have refused to accept Wuhan-based citizen journalist Fang Bin for relocation after he was bundled onto a high-speed train for the capital shortly after his release from a three-year jail term on Sunday.

Fang was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at a secret trial on orders from Beijing after filming from hospitals and funeral homes early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio Free Asia reported last week.

After his release, he was turned around and sent right back again by Beijing police as the authorities stepped up "stability maintenance" measures aimed at getting rid of other politically sensitive figures who have made their homes in the capital.

The Wuhan authorities had believed they were relocating Fang to live with his son, but his son was himself under huge political pressure from the authorities not to have Fang Bin live with him, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"His son was apparently under pressure, and that made his father unwilling to stay in Beijing, so the son took Fang Bin out to eat, bought him some clothes, then Beijing police bought Fang Bin a high-speed train ticket and sent him back to Wuhan on the train that same evening," said the person, who asked to remain anonymous.

Fang was scheduled to arrive in Wuchang, one of the cities in the Wuhan conurbation, at around 9.00 a.m. on Monday, where he was reportedly met by relatives, according to another person who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

However, repeated attempts to contact him were unsuccessful on Monday.

"The police told Fang Bin that he's not allowed to give any interviews or post videos online," the person said.

"He went to the traditional Chinese clothing store that he used to run in Hankou North this afternoon, but found that everything in it had been taken away," the person said. "I heard that Fang Bin lost a tooth in prison, but I don't know exactly how."

His release comes amid reports that Fang's sister is unwilling to have him living with her, according to someone familiar with the matter who gave only the surname Liu.

"Fang Bin's sister is likely under pressure [from the authorities], and doesn't want Fang Bin living with her," Liu said. "He will stay with his sister [Monday] night, then will find somewhere else to live in Wuhan later."

"But the Wuhan police don't want Fang Bin to stay in Wuhan either," Liu added.

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei have detained an investigative journalist known for exposing official corruption on charges of "selling counterfeit medicines."

Shangguan Yunkai was taken away by local police, hooded and handcuffed, from a teahouse in Hubei's Ezhou city, and is currently under criminal detention after police found a skin cream imported from Taiwan in his possession, his son Shangguan Keke told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

"This ointment is made in Taiwan, and is available on a number of e-commerce platforms in China, and ... isn't a medicine in the true sense – it's more of a wellbeing product that is ... only for external use," Shangguan Keke said.

"All he did was put up an advertisement so people could contact him [to buy it]," he said.

Shangguan Keke said his father was detained following an apparent sting operation.

"On April 13 and 14, people from two addresses near the Ezhou municipal police department contacted my dad and said they wanted to buy the ointment," he said. "When they had done so, my dad was arrested."

Shangguan Yunkai is currently being held at a police-run detention center, where officers are refusing to allow a lawyer hired by his family to meet with him.

"The reception staff at the detention center told me that there was a note on the detention center system saying that Shangguan Yunkai wasn't to be allowed to meet with any lawyers," Shangguan Keke said.

"After we filed a complaint with the local state prosecutor, both our family and our lawyer received various kinds of threats," he said.

He said he was contacted and warned "not to kick up a big fuss" around the case, and warned that he would be held responsible for "online words and deeds."

Reporter who investigated graft

57-year-old Shangguan Yunkai, a former journalist at state-run paper the Rule of Law Daily, was detained after writing books, blog posts and social media posts taking aim at official corruption.

Some of his investigations had led to investigations and the punishment of hundreds of local officials and members of criminal organizations.

Lawyer Li Qinglilang, who has been following the case, said his detention was likely a form of political retaliation for his reporting.

"He's an investigative reporter, and his work has prompted the downfall of hundreds of corrupt officials," Li said.

"Selling [ointment and ointment-infused] plasters is very common in China," he said. "I am guessing that his detention is due to selective and retaliatory law enforcement."

"They use a formula that entails strict laws, widespread violation and selective enforcement," he said, adding that the "counterfeit medicines" charge is a way of avoiding a more political charge like "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," and defusing public reaction to Shangguan's case.

The charges carry similar maximum sentences of up to three years' imprisonment.

In February 2022, Shangguan wrote an article revealing that Wang Bokun, who had been promoted to deputy director of the Huanggang Municipal People's Congress, had transferred benefits to his private household during his tenure as Luotian County Communist Party Secretary, prompting Wang's dismissal.

He also exposed violations of party discipline and law by Zhang Jingping, Huanggang People's Court judge and executive deputy mayor of Ezhou's Huangzhou district.

Shangguan Yunkai also ran a number of WeChat groups collecting clues and evidence against officials in smaller, prefecture-level cities in the region.

His detention came as official figures showed that more than 770,000 complaints of corruption were received by the Chinese Communist Party's disciplinary arm in the first quarter of 2023, with 111,000 leading to punishments for officials, including nine at the provincial and ministerial level in the space of just 21 days.

Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said anti-corruption operations, spearheaded by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, have been ongoing since supreme party leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

A former student leader of the 1989 protest movement at Hangzhou University has stood trial in the eastern province of Zhejiang for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, after he refused food and drink in detention to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre.

Xu Guang appeared in poor health and was extremely weak as he stood trial by video link at the Xihu District People’s Court on April 3, following months of hunger striking and intermittent force-feeding while in a police-run detention center, fellow activist Li Qing told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

He told the court that he had refused food and drink in detention to remind the world to “never forget June 4th,” the date of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre that put an end to weeks of student-led protest in Beijing and other major Chinese cities.

“He was very weak,” Li said. “It wasn’t that cold ... but he was wearing a padded jacket, so I think he must be pretty thin – his face looked very thin.”

Li said the authorities had removed his nutritional IV drip, and that Xu had asked for it to be brought back before he would address the court.

“I need the nutrient drip if I’m to have the strength to speak,” Xu said, after which his doctor told the judge that he should be able to speak with no problem.

“I can’t talk with the nutrient drip,” Xu insisted, speaking slowly but clearly after it was wheeled over and put in again, according to Li.

Later, he told the court: “I had just one aim in pursuing this hunger strike, which was to remind the world not to forget June 4th.”

Public mourning for victims or discussion of the events of spring and summer 1989 are banned, and references to June 4, 1989, blocked, filtered or deleted by the Great Firewall of government internet censorship.

Tank-shaped ice cream

Beauty influencer Austin Li, part of a generation of younger Chinese people who consequently know little of the massacre, had his June 3, 2022, livestream interrupted after he displayed a tank-shaped ice cream dessert, prompting censors to pull the plug immediately.

Li said he was particularly moved by Xu’s closing statement.

“He said: ‘I love this country, and I love the Chinese people. I want the verdict on the 1989 protests to be overturned,’” Li said.

Xu friend and fellow activist Zou Wei said the prosecution had based its case on comments made by Xu on overseas social media platforms.

“The long arm of the Chinese Communist Party now extends overseas,” Zou said. “Xu Guang’s video comments on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram are being used as a basis for conviction.”

The prosecution requested a jail term of less than five years, sources told Radio Free Asia.

Xu, 54, had been approached by officers from the Xihu district police department and warned to keep a low profile during the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 2022.

He was later detained after he held up a placard outside his local police station calling for the official verdict on the 1989 protest movement to be overturned.

‘Never publicly accounted for its actions’

Xu previously served a five-year jail term after trying to formally register the China Democracy Party as a political party in 1998, and has repeatedly called on the party leadership to overturn the official verdict of “counterrevolutionary rebellion” on the 1989 protests.

The New York-based Human Rights in China describes the June 3-4, 1989, massacre as a government-backed military crackdown that ended large-scale, peaceful protests in Beijing and other cities during that year.

But the government described the protests as “counterrevolutionary riots,” a term they later replaced with “political disturbances” which they say were suppressed by “decisive measures.”

“The Chinese government has never publicly accounted for its actions with an independent and open investigation, brought to justice those responsible for the killing of unarmed civilians, or compensated the survivors or families of those killed,” the group says on its website.

“In fact, it has never made public even the names and the number of people killed or wounded during the crackdown, or of those executed or imprisoned afterwards in connection with the protests,” it said.

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have slapped a travel ban on veteran democracy activist Zhu Yufu, as he prepared to travel to Japan to visit his terminally ill sister.

In his first interview with the media in five years, Zhu, 71, told Radio Free Asia that he had applied for, and gotten, a visa for Japan to visit his sister Zhu Yanmin in Sasebo, who is dying of cancer.

“My sister’s lung cancer is at an advanced stage, and she has already had surgery on both lungs,” he said. “All four of her cancer treatment plans have failed, and now her white blood cells are nearly zero, which is very dangerous.”

“That’s why I want to go and visit her now – the trip is for humanitarian reasons,” Zhu said.

Zhu, who was among a group of activists who applied for official permission to set up the now-banned China Democracy Party in 1998, has previously served time in jail for “incitement to subvert state power.”

He served a second jail term from 2012 for “subversion of state power” after he posted a political poem online titled “It’s Time,” calling on people to stand up for their freedom.

He has been under house arrest and close surveillance since his release from prison, and has spent the last two years navigating the bureaucracy necessary to get himself to Japan to visit his sister despite the restrictions of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s zero-COVID policy, which ended last December.

In mid-March, however, he got a visit from state security police in his home in the eastern city of Hangzhou, who confiscated his passport and shattered his dream of meeting with his ailing sister one last time.

“They said if I left the country, I would become a focal point for other people,” Zhu said. “Nobody is being allowed to leave the country now.”

Zhu said he had retorted that the state security police didn’t want to lose the funding that came attached to his case under China’s draconian “stability maintenance” system, which seeks to nip potential political and social unrest in the bud by targeting activists seen as likely instigators.

“I haven’t opposed the Communist Party for more than 10 years,” Zhu said. “I haven’t given any interviews or written any articles.”

“All I have done is keep on trying to visit my sister.”

‘Top surveillance target’

Zhu said he has long been regarded as the No. 1 threat to social stability by authorities in his home province of Zhejiang.

“I’m the top surveillance target in Zhejiang,” he said. “I’m not allowed to leave Hangzhou, nor say or write anything.”

“There are several surveillance cameras downstairs in this building that were installed just to watch me,” he said. “They call me if I cross the Qiantang River [to leave town], and they come to my door every week to take photos.”

Zhu said he plans to ignore such restrictions now that he has been prevented from seeing his sister.

“I’m not going to comply from now on,” he said. “I’m going to do what I want to do.”

Fellow Hangzhou dissident Zou Wei called on the authorities to let Zhu leave for compassionate reasons.

“This is a form of political persecution,” Zou told Radio Free Asia.

“I hope the authorities will approve Zhu Yufu’s overseas trip to visit a terminally ill relative as soon as possible, on humanitarian grounds,” he said.

In 2013, Zhu was subjected to abusive treatment in jail after his relatives traveled to the United States to garner more support for his release.

One of the most prominent democracy activists in Hong Kong over recent years, Joshua Wong, was sentenced today to three months in prison over an information breach involving a police officer, according to a post on Wong’s Facebook account.

The 26-year-old rose to prominence in 2014, when, as a bespectacled teenager, he emerged as a leader of student-led democracy protests in which roads in the heart of the financial centre were blocked for 79 days.

In today’s ruling, he was sentenced for breaching a court ban on disclosing personal information about a police officer who opened fire at a protest in 2019, according to the post.

Wong attended the hearing but did not speak, a witness in the court said.

The court did not immediately publish a written judgement, delivering only an oral sentencing today. Wong’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Wong galvanised international support for the former British colony’s pro-democracy movement, meeting politicians from the US, Europe and elsewhere, and drawing the wrath of Beijing, which says he is a “black hand” of foreign forces.

Wong was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his role in the 2014 protests, known as the Umbrella movement because of the umbrellas protesters wielded to protect themselves from water cannon and tear gas.

Wong is one of 47 pro-democracy figures who have been charged with conspiracy to commit subversion, under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, for participating in an unofficial primary election that year.

Western governments have criticised the law as a tool to crush dissent but Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say it has brought stability the semi-autonomous financial hub after months of sometimes violent protests in 2019.

Years after the infamous crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists, landlords persecuted their pro-democracy tenants. One landlord shut off the gas and electricity for Beijing lawyer Wang Quanzhang’s home. Meanwhile, lawyer Li Heping was forcibly evicted. 709 Crackdown

On July 9, 2015, the Ministry of Public Security of China launched a large-scale arrest and crackdown on lawyers and human rights defenders. Over 300 rights activists were arrested overnight, known as the “709 Case.” More than 7 years have passed, and the suppression against human rights lawyers has not been eliminated. Wang Quanzhang

Lawyer Wang Quanzhang was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison in 2019. On the morning of April 26, he and his wife, Li Wenzu, were forced to move out of their rented home in Beijing after their landlord cut off their electricity. Forced to leave

Wang disclosed the situation on Twitter. According to him, the landlord, last name Li, led an electrician from the power supply company to cut off the power to their rented house and forced them to move. On the 27th, while Li Wenzu was cooking, she realized the landlord also shut off their gas. Renewing the lease

Three months ago, the regular lease expired and turned into a cancelable lease. After Li Wenzu announced her candidacy for the National People’s Congress, the landlord suddenly changed her mind and said she would not rent to them anymore. Some back-and-forth communication ensued, and she was willing to renew the lease again. Change of mind

In April, the authorities stepped up on the surveillance of Wang Quanzhang, and the landlord changed her mind again. On April 20, they were suddenly given notice to move out in a week. Otherwise, the water, electricity, and gas would be cut off. On the 25th, the landlord first asked the residential property management to help cut off the power, but they refused. The landlord then asked workers from the power supply company to help. Illegal eviction

Wang Quanzhang tweeted that the eviction violated the “Housing Leasing Regulation of Beijing. He especially stressed the new article which came into effect last year: “(the lessor) shall not resort to power cuts, water cuts, heat supply cuts, and other such methods and shall not use threats of violence to force the lessee to change or terminate the lease contract.” Power outage

Li Wenzu said in a Twitter video that the landlord removed the electricity meter and caused a power outage, leaving Wang’s house in darkness. The couple relied on candles and rechargeable lamps to maintain the light. “I never thought that in today’s civilized society, in Beijing, we would still live this kind of life using lit candles,” she said helplessly. The real culprit

Wang Quanzhang revealed that there was no actual conflict between them and the landlord; it was just a simple landlord-tenant relationship. There is someone who instigated behind the scenes, and the landlord helped the evildoer. “Wherever we move,” he said, “we face the problem of being forced to move out, and everyone can see who is the instigator behind the scenes.” Li Heping evicted

Wang Qiaoling, the wife of Beijing human rights lawyer Li Heping, has a similar experience of being forced to relocate. She tweeted on April 26 that they were forced to leave Shunyi, Beijing. “We would like to live and work in peace and contentment, but there are always people who are unwilling and unhappy.” Li’s statement

Lawyer Li Heping released a statement on the 25th:

After July 9, 2015, we were forced to move out of our residence seven times by the police. This recent time, in order to force us to move out of the district we are currently living in, the chief of the police station called a meeting of the real estate agent, demanding that the real estate agent not rent a place to my family, and not let us live in it even after signing the contract. My current residence was signed through a real estate agent. They threatened to revoke the agent’s business license and forced the agent to come to the house several times to force us to move out. They keep cornering us; they’re going to force us all the way to the moon! German Foreign Minister’s visit

The Foreign Minister of Germany came to visit China earlier in April. During his visit, plainclothes officers blocked the front doors of Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping, Wang Yu, Bao Longjun, and others. Yu Wensheng

Human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan, were intercepted on their way to the German embassy after receiving an invitation to visit. The couple were both charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” without having committed any illegal acts. Authorities then forced the couple to relocate. Arrested

They had just found a house and settled down when police arrested the couple on April 14. Their son was kept under surveillance at home.

A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer and his wife have been arrested while traveling to the European Union embassy in Beijing, the EU said on Friday.

Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan, were detained on Thursday and whisked away in a police car to a police station “for going to an embassy,” Xu said in a video posted on her Twitter account.

In one of the clips, not accessible in China where Twitter is banned, Xu explained how they were forced into the car by “various people.”

The EU delegation in China said it lodged a complaint with China’s foreign ministry “against this unacceptable treatment.”

“We demand their immediate, unconditional release,” the EU embassy tweeted.

Yu was sentenced in 2020 to four years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and was released in March 2022.

Yu has a track record of high-profile human rights cases including the defense of Falun Gong practitioners, a banned religious group since 1999.

He represented people arrested in 2015 during the so-called 709-crackdown that saw Chinese authorities conduct a series of coordinated mass arrests across the country targeting human rights lawyers and activists.

The EU delegation also demanded the release of lawyers Wang Quanzhang, Wang Yu, and Bao Longjun, who are “under house arrest.”

Wang Yu was arrested in 2015 with over 300 human rights lawyers and activists during the 709-crackdown and was released on bail a year later. She has remained under the strict supervision of authorities ever since.

Wang Quanzhang remained in jail for five years until 2020 after being accused of “subversion against the state,” a charge commonly used against activists and dissidents.

Earlier this week, lawyers and activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after being found guilty of “subverting state power.”

Gonmo Kyi has continued her protests against the ongoing imprisonment of her brother, the businessman Dorjee Tashi.

Dorjee Tashi has already spent more than 15 years in prison but his family, including his elder sister, Gonmo Kyi, have maintained that he was never given a fair trial.

The latest protest took place on Monday 24 April in front of Tibet Higher People’s Court in Lhasa.

In videos received by Tibet Watch on 25 April, Gonmo Kyi can be seen holding up a sign as police try to hide her from view by surrounding her with black material.

In the background of one video, Dorjee Tseten, brother of Dorjee Tashi and Gonmo Kyi, can be heard saying: “Today, my sister is forcibly covered into this black cloth, because she refuses to leave and keeps protesting in front of the court.”

This is followed by two more videos, in which Dorjee Tseten says:

“She [Gonmo Kyi] protests for a fair trial for her brother’s case but the court opposed his fair trial. Some Chinese security personnel concealed her with black cloth”, and:

Hello everyone, just take a look, this is Dorjee Tashi’s sister Gonmo Kyi. She keeps calling for fair trial for her brother, but Tibet Higher People’s Court not only defined the fair trial but also covered her with black cloth and detained her.”

Gonpo Kyi, the sister of Tibetan political prisoner Dorjee Tashi, has been arrested while protesting for her brother’s release.

Sources report that, on 20 March 2023, Lhasa police forcibly removed Gonpo Kyi from outside the Tibet Higher People’s Court and detained her for a night at Lhasa Beijing Middle Road Police Station. During this time, she was beaten and sustained an injury to her right arm.

The day following her arrest, her elder brother, Dorjee Tseten, visited the police station where she was being held and demanded that she be taken to a hospital. Following a visit to the hospital, she was released from police custody.

In a video seen by Tibet Watch, Gonpo Kyi shows the injury to her arm, as well as the protest slogans written on her shirt and some posters. These slogans read: “Tibet Higher People’s Court perverts the law, Dorjee Tashi is innocent,” alongside a call for Dorjee Tashi’s case to be reviewed. She also shows the police station where she was detained.

Gonpo Kyi and Dorjee Tseten have tirelessly protested their brother’s imprisonment, and called for his release. In a second video seen by Tibet Watch, Gonpo Kyi showed documents of the court’s verdict. She compares her brother’s case to that of two Han Chinese businessmen convicted of loan fraud, who were released after 10 years in prison.

Dorjee Tashi has been in prison for over 15 years for similar loan fraud charges. However, his family disputes the legitimacy of these charges, claiming that the money he borrowed was paid back on time.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of Chinese anti-censorship blogger Ruan Xiaohuan, better known in his country by the pseudonym “Program Think”, who was sentenced in February to a seven years prison sentence.

In the end of March, the wife of Ruan Xiaohuan, a blogger better known by the pseudonym “Program Think”, revealed that her husband was sentenced on 10 February by Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court to seven years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power". For twelve years, his personal blog gave advice on how to circumvent China’s Great Firewall of internet censorship, and exposed the regime's malpractices, including corruption. Ruan’s wife, despite the regime's pressure, made a difficult decision of making husband's case public, hoping the media exposure and public attention could help him.

In February, “Program Think”, 46, reappeared in trial for the first time since his forced disappearance in May 2021. He was convicted of having "written more than 100 seditious and defamatory articles''. In addition to the harsh prison sentence, he was also deprived of his political rights for two years, while 20,000 renminbi (2,671 euros) worth of his property was confiscated.

Ruan’s wife noticed that after nearly two years in secret detention, her husband's weight had halved and most of his hair had turned white. In early March, one of his lawyers was denied a prison visit, and notified that two state-assigned legal representatives had instead been appointed by the court.

Mapping of corruption within the party

Launched in 2009, “Program Think” originally published technical advice on cybersecurity on his blog. In time, he started to translate foreign news, compiling data, and producing investigative and political content. In 2016, the blogger published a mapping of the connections and hidden wealth of high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members on Github, exposing the high level of corruption within the regime.

Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he began a 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 175th out of 180 in the 2022 RSF World Press Freedom Index and is the world's largest captor of journalists with at least 115 detained.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of Chinese political commentator Xu Zhiyong, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for “subversion” after three years in detention during which he was submitted to torture.

On 10 April, prominent Chinese political commentator Xu Zhiyong, 50, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for "subversion of state power" by the Linshu County Court of Shandong Province. He was arrested in Guangzhou on 15 February 2020 after having published an opinion piece critical of general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping and his handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Xu was sentenced along with civil rights activist Ding Jiaxi, who received 12 years prison term, after a closed-door trial which took place in June 2022. Both have reportedly been deprived of water, food and sleep, and subjected to prolonged interrogations on the "tiger chair", a notorious instrument of torture used by the Chinese police, during detention. Xu’s fiancée, rights activist Li Qiaochu, was herself detained in February 2021 on suspicion of “inciting subversion” after posting information about Xu and Ding’s treatment in custody.

Relentless fight for a free and fair China

Xu Zhiyong, the founder of the New Citizens' Movement -an informal network of activists advocating for governance reforms and denouncing corruption- was previously jailed for 4 years in 2014 on charge of "gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public place".

Except for Xu, at least nine Chinese journalists or press freedom defenders have been arrested for their coverage or comments on handling of Covid-19 pandemic in China, four of which are still detained, including journalist Zhang Zhan, and political commentators Guo Quan, Fang Bin and Ren Zhiqiang.

China ranks 175th out of 180 in the 2022 RSF World Press Freedom Index and is the world's largest captor of journalists.

On 31 March 2023, the Nanning Municipal Intermediate Court in Guangxi province convicted human rights lawyer Qin Yongpei of “inciting subversion to State power” and sentenced him to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of “deprivation of political rights”. The human rights defender said he would appeal.

According to the verdict, the court’s decision was based on the human rights defender’s online speech on Twitter and on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo criticising government wrongdoing and corruption, the interviews he gave to overseas media outlets, and his role in establishing a support group for disbarred human rights lawyers. The court said these acts amount to disinformation and libel against the government, the judiciary, and the Chinese Communist Party, and thus constitute “incitement to subversion of State power” under article 105(2) of the Criminal Law.

The human rights defender has been in detention since late October 2019 and was tried on 31 December 2021. In September 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Qin Yongpei’s detention is arbitrary because his fair trial rights were not guaranteed and that the charge of “inciting subversion of State power” is so ill-defined that it fails to meet the principle of legal certainty. The Working Group also ruled that the human rights defender’s arrest and detention were in retaliation against his exercise of his human rights, including the rights to defend human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. The Working Group called for his release and for the Chinese government to amend its Criminal Law, including article 105, to align it with China’s human rights obligations under international law.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns today’s verdict against Qin Yongpei as it believes it is solely in retaliation against his peaceful and legitimate human rights work. We call on the relevant authorities in China to promptly quash the conviction and sentence against Qin Yongpei and immediately release him.

Chinese authorities should immediately quash the lengthy sentences on baseless charges handed down to two of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers and activists, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 10, 2023, a court in Shandong province sentenced Xu Zhiyong to 14 years in prison and Ding Jiaxi to 12 years after convicting each for the crime of “subversion of state power.” Their trials were conducted behind closed doors and riddled with procedural problems and allegations of mistreatment.

“The cruelly farcical convictions and sentences meted out to Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi show President Xi Jinping’s unstinting hostility towards peaceful activism,” said Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Governments around the world should join in calling on the Chinese authorities to release the two lawyers immediately and unconditionally.”

The authorities detained Ding, 55, in December 2019, after he and Xu participated in a gathering in Fujian province where a group of rights lawyers and activists discussed human rights and China’s political future. In February 2020, the police apprehended Xu in Guangzhou, where he had gone into hiding. Li Qiaochu, Xu’s partner and a Beijing-based women’s rights and labor activist, has been detained since February 2021 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and is awaiting trial.

Xu, 50, a former lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, was a cofounder of the now-banned legal aid center Open Constitution Initiative and the New Citizens’ Movement, a nongovernmental group advocating for civil rights, government transparency, and education equality. Ding, a former commercial lawyer, played key roles in both groups.

For their activism, Ding was imprisoned from 2013 to 2016 and Xu served four years in prison, from 2014 to 2018.

Xu was a 2020 recipient of PEN America’s PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. In 2023, the United States Department of State awarded Ding the Global Human Rights Defender Award.

“Beijing’s treatment of the country’s best-known human rights defenders should be a reality check for foreign leaders rushing to return to business as usual with Beijing,” Wang said. “The international community needs to stand by those who are paying the highest price by fighting for the rights of everyone in China.”

Wang Zang and Wang Li previously lived at Beijing’s Songzhuang artists’ village, and had been targeted with repeated forced evictions for showing online support for the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Wang Li had several episodes of mental illness as a result of the evictions, including a spell in a psychiatric hospital and reported suicidal thoughts, friends told RFA at the time.

Beijing-based housing rights activist Ni Yulan said Wang Li has been left providing and caring for four children while Wang Zang is in prison.

“The fact that they resorted to threats to get Wang Li to delete video showing her current situation shows that they are the culpable ones,” Ni said.

“What is their ulterior motive here?”

A women's labor organization in Hong Kong canceled a march last weekend to mark International Women’s Day amid threats from police that they would arrest key activists.

The move comes despite the lifting of bans on public gatherings in Hong Kong and criticism by a United Nations rights expert about curbs on civil society and rights activism under a draconian security law.

"We have regretfully decided to cancel the Women's Day rally and demonstration that were scheduled for tomorrow," the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association said in a brief statement on its Facebook account on Saturday, without giving a reason for the change. "Apologies for this!"

The League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy political party led by veteran rights activists that would have taken part in the event, said police had claimed that "violent elements" had been planning to join the rally.

"We are sure the reasons behind the decision are patently obvious to the public," the group said in a statement on its Facebook page, adding: "Two days before the march, four LSD members were warned by the National Security Police that they must not join the march, or else they will be arrested."

League Chairperson Chan Po-ying said she and three other members were hauled in by national security police on March 3 and warned that they would be arrested if they took part in the event.

"They called last Friday ... and sent a car to take me to the police station," Chan told Radio Free Asia. "They got straight to the point and told us that we couldn't take part in the demonstration, without giving the reason."

"They just said that we are well-known figures ... When I asked what would happen if I insisted on going, he told me very clearly that I would be arrested," she said. "He wouldn't answer my questions ... just told me not to go."

Chan said it's possible that the authorities are trying to avoid any public protest or dissent during the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress in Beijing.

‘Deeply infuriated’

The League of Social Democrats said on Facebook that it was "deeply infuriated that our joining of a legal protest was met with intimidation and obstruction by the National Security Police," it said.

"Under such pressure, we decided not to attend. Yet we still hoped the march would go ahead, and the flags of gender equality and the rights of women from the grassroots would fly high on the streets."

It said Hong Kongers' freedom of expression and right to protest were now in "shreds."

Human rights experts at the United Nations seemed to agree, issuing a report that was highly critical of human rights protections in Hong Kong following a review of economic, social and cultural rights in Geneva last month.

"The Committee is concerned about reports of arrests, detentions and trials without due process of civil society actors, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers working on human rights, disbarment of such lawyers, and others working to defend economic, social and cultural rights," the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said in concluding comments following the review process.

It called for a review of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party from July 1, 2020, and for a national security hotline taking tip-offs from informers about breaches of the law – which criminalizes criticism of the authorities – to be abolished.

"The Committee ... concerned that the national security hotline is used extensively and might have detrimental effects on the work and expression of civil society, trade unions, teachers and other actors, including those mentioned above, working on human rights," it said.

‘Mobs in black’

Hong Kong Chief Executive and former police chief John Lee said the organizers of public events have a legal responsibility to ensure it doesn't break the law.

"Anyone who is not confident, is incompetent, or is worried about whether they can do this should not organize public activities, because they have to bear the legal responsibility," he warned.

"We have felt the pain caused to Hong Kong by mobs in black to Hong Kong," Lee said, in a reference to the 2019 protest movement that won broad popular support at the time for its calls for fully democratic elections and better official accountability.

Former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who fled into exile amid the citywide crackdown that followed the 2019 protests, said police now appear unwilling to allow any kind of political activity in public.

"My analysis is that the police want to ban demonstrations, and they're not going to give them any opportunity," Hui said. "The police didn't reject the application for the demonstration, so next time they go to the United Nations or face [criticism from] Western countries, they can say they approved it, but that the group canceled it."

"Threatening to arrest people unless they refrain from taking part in a demonstration is very indicative [of the authorities' attitude] and a blatant violation of the Basic Law," he said.

Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Beijing is continuing to manipulate civil society and political participation in Hong Kong, citing the recent cancellation of the Democratic Party's spring fundraiser by the venue, which said it had an issue with its gas supply.

"This is the Chinese Communist Party ... fully implementing the model it uses [to control] the Chinese people in Hong Kong," Sang said.

"It's very similar to the methods they used to suppress lawyers caught up in the July 9, 2015 crackdown [on rights attorneys, public interest law firms and rights activists]," he said.

He said claims by the Hong Kong government that the city is getting back to normal were misleading, and that normalcy can't happen with the national security law still in place.

State security police surrounded the home of rights activist Li Wenzu and her rights lawyer husband Wang Quanzhang on International Women’s Day, as a U.S.-based rights group hit out at the country's intimidation and harassment of dissidents.

“They sent people to start blocking our door, and not allowing us to go out, from about 5 a.m.,” Wang said from the couple’s home in Beijing’s Shunyi district on Thursday. “They used open umbrellas and shone their flashlights at our security cameras to stop themselves being captured.”

“Our camera shot some blurry footage of them, and found out later that they’d stuck some kind of medicinal plaster over the lens,” he said.

But the harassment didn't stop there, said Wang, a prominent target of a nationwide police operation that detained hundreds of rights lawyers, law firm staff and activists starting on July 9, 2015, and who later sued the authorities over his treatment in detention.

“At around 7:30 a.m., they started knocking on the door,” he said, adding that when he had opened the door to speak with them, they said they were there due to “special circumstances,” as it was International Women’s Day.

“There were around 20 of them, front and back, with several of their vehicles parked outside the door,” said Wang, who also found that the tires of his car were flat on the same day.

“This happened on Human Rights Day last year too, so I’m even more sure that someone is doing this stuff deliberately,” he said. “Other lawyers [in my chat group] told me they had also found their tires punctured.”

Passport application denied

The harassment of Wang and his family comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party steps up “stability maintenance” measures during the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

But fellow rights activist Wang Qiaoling said she believes the harassment could be linked to the fact that Li, who won the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in 2019, had planned to file an administrative review against her denied application for a passport, to mark International Women's Day.

“We were planning to go to the Beijing municipal government to submit an application for an administrative review [of that decision], which is actually a pretty common legal procedure,” Wang Qiaoling said. “I don’t understand why they had to go to such lengths [to stop it].”

As the state security police stood guard over Wang and Li, a report from the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House showed that China remains at the bottom of its global survey of freedoms, one of the few countries to have been described as "Not free" for five consecutive decades.

“China ranks near the absolute bottom in terms of overall political rights and civil liberties,” according to the “Freedom in the World 2023” report, which described the country as unmatched in its ability to deploy technology in the service of a surveillance state. “Those who criticized the party received severe penalties.”

It said no country could match the scale and sophistication of the Chinese surveillance state.

“Residents’ activities are invasively monitored by public security cameras, urban grid managers, and automated systems that detect suspicious and banned behavior, including innocuous expressions of ethnic and religious identity,” the report said.

“Those identified as dissidents can face consequences including forced disappearance and torture,” it said. “Protesters continued to encounter pervasive surveillance, abusive interrogations, and intimidation at the hands of authorities.”

Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the U.S.-based rights group Human Rights in China, said there is still plenty of resistance to abuses of power by the government, citing the white paper movement of November 2022 that prompted a swift retreat from the rolling lockdowns, mass quarantine and compulsory testing of supreme leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.

“On the one hand, the Chinese Communist Party stepped up controls and concentrated its power, and its darkness reached a peak,” Zhou said.

“But on the other hand, there was also unprecedented resistance to trouble the waters, particularly in the second half of the year,” he said. “Eventually, that culminated in the white paper movement of late November.”

On 4 March 2023, a Hong Kong government-designated national security judge at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court convicted woman human rights defender Chow Hang-tung and two other leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Hong Kong Alliance) for refusing to comply with the Hong Kong police’s request in August 2021 demanding disclosure of extensive information about its funding, activities, Board members, executives, and staff.

Sentencing is scheduled on 11 March 2023. The woman human rights defender and the two other Alliance leaders face up to six months in jail and a HKD100,000 fine (approximately EUR 11,919). Chow Hang-tung is also being prosecuted for “inciting subversion of State power” under the National Security Law in a separate case.

The police’s request for information was based on what it claimed were “reasonable grounds” for believing the Alliance was a “foreign agent”, and was issued under the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, which grant expansive investigative powers to the police. However, during the trial, the prosecution concealed the identity of the foreign organisation for which it accused the Alliance of acting as a “foreign agent”, and a key police officer who testified also refused to answer questions regarding the identity of the foreign organisation. The judge also sided with the prosecution’s and the police’s argument that disclosure of such information would damage “the public interest” and “jeopardise on-going investigations” into other individuals and organisations.

Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) is a barrister and woman human rights defender in Hong Kong. At the time of her arrest on 8 September 2021 for refusing to provide data to the police, she was one of the vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance. On 24 September 2021, as a result of the prosecution of the Alliance’s leaders and high risks of further prosecution, members of the Alliance voted to dissolve the organisation. On 26 October 2021, while the liquidation process for the Alliance was still on-going, then Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued an order for the Alliance be removed from the Companies Register on the basis that "the operation of the Alliance which seeks to end the Chinese Communist Party's leadership amounts to seeking to overthrow" the political system of the People's Republic of China and subverting state power.”

In his ruling, the national security judge also affirmed that the National Security Law itself as well as the decisions and actions of the National Security Committee, a new body created under the National Security Law, cannot be challenged in local court. The National S ecurity Committee, chaired by Hong Kong’s chief executive and supervised by the central Chinese government in Beijing, was responsible for developing the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law.

UN human rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns that the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules for Article 43 pose serious risks to the right to defend human rights and to freedom of expression, freedom of association, privacy, and a fair trial.

In September 2021, UN Special Procedures mandate-holders wrote to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities about the detention of Chow Hang-tung. The experts said that detention and arrests of human rights defenders “form part of a broader operation to impose undue restrictions on the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong” and that such “a criminalisation of the exercise of human rights with reference to national security is incompatible with international human rights law.”

In July 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations on the implementation by the Hong Kong government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), expressed concerns about the arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defenders under the National Security Law and sedition law, calling for the suspension of enforcement of these laws and for their reform or repeal. The Committee stated that “Article 43(6) of the National Security Law and Schedule 6 of the Implementation Rules, which facilitate arbitrary intrusion into privacy for the purpose of public security or national security, are not compatible with article 17 of the Covenant.”

In February 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also criticised the use of the National Security Law to target human rights defenders in Hong Kong, and was concerned that the law “has de facto abolished the independence of the judiciary.” It has called for a review of the Law to bring it into line with international human rights standards.

Front Line Defenders believes the arrest and subsequent prosecution of Chow Hang-tung and other Alliance members under the National Security Law are reprisals against their legitimate and peaceful human rights work. Both the substantive and procedural inconsistencies with international human rights standards seen in this case illustrate the intention and capacity of the Hong Kong authorities to use the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules to punish and intimidate human rights defenders and organisations and deter them from communicating or collaborating with or receiving support from international partners, other governments, and UN human rights mechanisms.

Front Line Defenders calls on the Hong Kong authorities to quash the conviction against Chow Hang-tung and the other Alliance leaders, release them immediately, and drop the other criminal charges against them. It reiterates its call on the central Chinese government to repeal the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong national security police have arrested an activist over suspected foreign collusion, with reports identifying her as the wife of detained former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan.

Elizabeth Tang was apprehended outside Stanley Prison at around noon on Thursday, media outlets including iCable and Sing Tao reported.

She was arrested after visiting Lee in jail, iCable said. Tang is understood to have moved to the UK in 2021.

Police confirmed on Thursday night that a 65-year-old woman had been arrested for “suspected collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

Tang was chief executive of the pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) until 2011, according to her LinkedIn page. The group was among the dozens that disbanded in the wake of the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020.

She is currently the general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation, a global organisation advocating for the rights of domestic workers with affiliates in 68 countries, according to the group’s website.

HKFP has reached out to the police for comment. Ex-lawmaker husband

Her husband Lee, a former leader of the Tiananmen vigil organiser the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is currently detained under the national security law. He and two other ex-leaders, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho, and the group itself, stand accused of incitement to subversion.

The case was transferred to the High Court in September, where the highest penalty for incitement to subversion is 10 years’ imprisonment.

Lee was denied bail in December, when a judge ruled there were insufficient grounds for believing that he would not continue to commit acts endangering national security if bail was granted.

In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – bypassing the local legislature – following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city. ‘Getting off scot-free’

Tang was the target of reports by Beijing-controlled local media outlet Ta Kung Pao in September 2021, when the newspaper accused her of receiving funding from foreign organisations as a board member of labour rights advocacy group Asia Monitor Resource Centre.

Ta Kung Pao added that the centre operated “under” HKCTU, which pro-Beijing supporters have long accused of having close ties with overseas organisations.

After Ta Kung Pao’s report, the centre said it was “independent of any local or international organisations” and said it would cease operations in Hong Kong amid pressure that had “intensified significantly.”

The Asia Monitor Resource Centre conducts advocacy work across the continent. Its website still lists its Hong Kong address.

In November 2021, pro-Beijing supporters petitioned outside the police headquarters, asking why Tang was allowed to “get off scot-free” after Lee had already been “brought to justice.”

Tang’s reported arrest comes days after Chief Executive John Lee met with director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Xia Baolong in Beijing. Lee said Xia told the leader that the Hong Kong government must “nip in the bud” any acts that endanger national security.

“We will definitely crack down on any [forces] trying to undermine national security or breach the peace of Hong Kong society, or [hurt] Hong Kong’s overall interests – and hold them legally responsible under the law,” Lee, who was in the nation’s capital to attend the start of the National People’s Congress session, said on Monday.

A human rights lawyer who represented Ai Weiwei against the Chinese government has "disappeared" after trying to board a train to the southern province of Guangdong, according to rights activists.

Liu Xiaoyuan was stopped by police on March 1 as he tried to travel to Zhuhai city from Ganzhou in the eastern province of Jiangxi, the Weiquanwang rights website reported.

"I was stopped by police from the Ganzhou West Railway Station public security station in Jiangxi province, en route to Zhuhai," Liu wrote in a WeChat post before going incommunicado.

"I asked for a written record [of this interaction], but they refused."

The incident comes as China has stepped up detentions of dissidents and religious figures ahead of the annual session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

Liu, a former member of the now-shuttered public interest law firm Beijing Fengrui, went incommunicado on the eve of the annual session in Beijing, a time when the authorities typically target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The lawyer previously represented Ai Weiwei when the globally renowned artist was detained in 2011. Ai once called him “the best lawyer in China”.

Other clients have included journalists and activists accused of subverting the Chinese Communist Party.

Stopped by rail police

Before going missing, Liu wrote that he had been stopped by rail police while attempting to travel.

The Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website also reported concerns about Liu's whereabouts, tweeting a message from the lawyer on the day of his "disappearance."

"My ID card showed up as invalid when I went through the [automatic security] gates, and it wouldn't let me through with just a train ticket," Liu said in comments posted by the group to Twitter.

"Then four railway policemen surrounded me and wouldn't let me go, and the duty supervisor even wanted to confiscate my ID card," he wrote.

"[They said] they were assisting the state security police in my hometown of Suichuan county with their investigation," Liu said.

A fellow rights lawyer who asked to remain anonymous confirmed the rights groups' accounts.

"Liu [told me] last night that he didn't eat, because he was waiting for them to give him an explanation," the lawyer said. "I haven't been able to contact him since [Wednesday] afternoon."

"His mobile phone is switched on, but nobody is picking up," he said.

He said Liu has been repeatedly harassed and persecuted by the government since he was targeted in a 2015 nationwide police operation that saw hundreds of lawyers, law firm staff and rights activists detained, hauled in for questioning and even jailed for subversion.

Stripped of license

Authorities in Beijing stripped Liu of his license to practice as a lawyer in October 2019 after he published a photo of himself selling insecticide as a street vendor - an image that could be considered “a kind of art…[and] a complaint against the abuse of power” by authorities who had forced the shutdown of his law firm he told RFA at the time.

An employee who answered the phone at the Ganzhou municipal railway police department declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia on Thursday about Liu’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, veteran journalist Gao Yu has been taken to the eastern province of Shandong under police escort, while police in the southwestern province of Guizhou have placed more than a dozen members of the banned Guizhou Human Rights Forum under detention or house arrest, activists told Radio Free Asia.

Prominent dissidents Zha Jianguo and Ji Feng are both under house arrest or close surveillance, as is rights activist Li Wei, who posted that he was "going out to walk around and shop, with personal carers alongside," in an apparent reference to state security police minders.

Guizhou rights activists Chen Xi, Li Renke, Liao Shuangyuan, and Shen Youlian have all been placed under close surveillance, while a local Protestant church member said Guizhou pastor Yang Hua is currently under travel restrictions that will likely end in mid-March, after the National People's Congress closes.

Authorities in Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi have detained an outspoken ethnic Kazakh musician, weeks after a Kazakhstan-based rights group warned that she was at risk of being hauled off to a psychiatric facility.

State security police in Urumqi's Shayibak district took Zhanargul Zhumatai, 47, away from her mother's house on Feb. 10, after she received a request for a "media interview" from someone claiming to be an Associated Press correspondent, according to the Kazahstan-based rights group Atajurt.

"State security police from the Shayibak branch of the Urumqi police department detained Zhanargul at 5.40 p.m. on Feb. 10," Atajurt spokesperson Nurbek told Radio Free Asia. "She is gone."

While Zhanargul's whereabouts are currently unclear, critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party have repeatedly reported being held in psychiatric facilities despite having no diagnosis of mental illness.

A few days before she was detained, Zhanargul made a recording of a phone call with local state security police, who wanted to arrange a time to visit her at home.

"I don't want you people in my home," she says on the recording. "I need to tell you straight, Officer Xu, I don't want anyone from the residential office, particularly not the neighborhood committee or the political and legal affairs commission, in my home either."

"I don't want any of this. All I want is to be left in peace," she says.

But the police paid no heed to her request.

"The Xinjiang police called to threaten her at around 5.00 p.m. Urumqi time on Feb. 10, then they sent two ethnic Kazakh [officers] round," Atajurt founder Serikzhan Bilash said.

"They went to her mother's house and took Zhanargul Zhumatai away by force," he said.

Calls to the phone number given out by the purported AP journalist who contacted her on Feb. 8 resulted in a message saying the number was "temporarily unavailable" on Monday.

Land compensation

Her detention comes after she told Radio Free Asia in a Jan. 6 interview that she has been targeted by the authorities ever since she spoke out against government appropriation of ethnic Kazakh herding communities' land to make way for highways and hydropower stations around Urumqi.

Zhanargul spoke out after some herding communities received low compensation or none at all for the loss of their grazing lands, with some of the compensation money believed embezzled by local government officials.

"I wrote in a letter that the Urumqi county government has been suppressing herding communities and violating management regulations for national grasslands including resettlement subsidies that herding communities should get," she said in the interview with RFA Mandarin on Jan. 6.

"Urumqi officials sent me to a concentration camp, for so-called re-education ... because I refused to apologize," she said, adding that she was initially detained at the Urumqi No.3 Detention Center in 2017, before being transferred to one of the mass incarceration camps across Xinjiang which the ruling Chinese Communist Party says are for "re-education" and "vocational training."

She was put under huge pressure in the camp to write a confession detailing her "extremist" thoughts based on religious material on her cell phone, but continued to insist on her innocence.

In the interview, Zhanargul described being made to sing revolutionary songs about the "motherland" and the Communist Party, as well as study the government's guidelines on religious "extremism," which include a number of behaviors that are required or commonly regarded as desirable for Muslims, such as reading the Quran, or wearing head-coverings or beards.

She also said she was injected with unknown substances by medical staff during her time in the camp.

"I nearly fainted, had diarrhea and felt nauseous afterwards," she said. "While they were injecting me, they laughed at my screams and asked if it hurt. I couldn't lift my arm for a couple of weeks after they injected me."

Zhanargul said she lost nearly half her body weight during her stay, developed a number of health problems, and was denied permission to communicate with her family.

"When I went in there, I weighed 86 kilos, and I was a very strong woman," she said. "By the time I got out in May 2019, I was a skeleton who weighed around 50 kilos. I almost died."

Camps 'still there'

Serikzhan Bilash said little has changed in Xinjiang since Zhanargul's incarceration in the camp.

"The inhumane genocidal policies haven't changed; they're still being implemented in Xinjiang," he said. "The Xinjiang concentration camps are still there."

He said that while the Chinese government had released some ethnic Kazahs and allowed them to be reunited with their relatives in Kazakhstan, those who remain inside China remain "under huge pressure."

He said in a Jan. 6 interview that Zhanargul was "extremely brave," as she had been one of the first camp detainees to speak out about her experiences while still in China.

"She is still in Xinjiang, so the state security police could make her disappear, fake her suicide, or put her in a psychiatric hospital at any time," he warned at the time.

Zhanargul's detention came after U.S. lawmakers called on Washington to do more to enforce recent laws passed by U.S. lawmakers addressing the forced labor of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority group, who have made up the majority of detainees in the camps.

The government has detained large numbers of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities simply for posting religious videos not approved by officials, or for possessing Qurans, prayer mats and traditional clothing, all of which have been described as evidence of "extremism" by Chinese police in recent years.

Sources estimate that Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have detained hundreds of ethnic Kazakhs in recent years, freezing their bank accounts and assets pending "investigation," also for “extremist” behavior that includes normal Islamic practices.

Chinese police have detained at least five activists who supported recent mass protests in two major cities against the slashing of retirees’ medical insurance benefits earlier this month, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Among those detained was veteran rights activist Zhang Hai, who was picked up by authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen, a resident of Wuhan who gave only the surname Zhang said.

"One of five people detained in connection with the silver protests was Zhang Hai – I heard he was detained in Shenzhen," the woman said. "There was also a 23-year-old man who was detained for singing The Internationale with some older people."

The detentions come after thousands of people took to the streets of two Chinese cities – Wuhan and Dalian – on Feb. 15 in a second mass protest over major cuts to their medical benefits.

Protesters were shown in social media video clips singing the communist anthem "The Internationale" as well as China's national anthem.

"There was also a taxi driver called Shu Li, who was detained around Feb. 20," Zhang said. "He was detained for going to support [the protests]."

Shu was handed a 10-day administrative jail sentence, which can be handed out for up to 15 days to people the police see as troublemakers. However, many detainees aren't released but held under criminal charges when the administrative sentence is complete.

Zhang said Wuhan-based rights activist A Meng was detained in Shanghai and brought back to Wuhan after he supported the protests, while fellow activist Bai Yun had also been detained.

She said the five she named were only the cases she knew about.

"There are probably many more than that, who have been counted," Zhang said.

Clamping down

Zhang Hai's arrest came after he reposted video clips of the protests in Wuhan, along with media reports and comments to his Twitter account.

Zhang Hai, who lives in Shenzhen, became an outspoken critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party since the pandemic prompted a city-wide lockdown in Wuhan and killed his father.

In June 2022, the authorities placed restrictions on his bank cards, with many transactions blocked, he told Radio Free Asia at the time.

Zhang was recently asked to submit additional proof of ID in recent transactions via his account at the Bank of China Nantou branch in the southern city of Shenzhen, where he currently lives.

Similar restrictions have been placed on several of his bank cards since the beginning of this year, he told RFA, while online banking transactions often fail to go through, he said.

"He didn't only speak out for his father, but also stood up for the rights of other bereaved families," Zhang said. "He became a voice for all vulnerable groups."

Silver protests

Another Wuhan resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said police in her local area have also been investigating people who took part in the so-called silver protests.

"There was one person who gave interviews to a lot of reporters in Wuhan over the past three years," she said. "They started following him on Feb. 15, and he was snatched away by some [identified] people on Feb. 16."

"He was locked up in the police station for several hours – there is a state of red terror here in Wuhan right now," she said.

The silver protests began on Feb. 8 outside the municipal government in Wuhan, with retirees warning more action would follow in the absence of a response from officials.

An official account on social media described protesters on Feb. 16 as having been "bewitched by rumors" and warned people not to believe "rumors" that medical insurance reforms will leave pensioners worse off.

The protests came after warnings from the central government in Beijing that it won’t be bailing out cash-strapped local governments, whose coffers have been drained by three years of President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, which ended in December.

People in China frequently challenge those in power, despite nationwide measures aimed at nipping popular protest in the bud, the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House reported in November 2022.

Despite pervasive surveillance, a "grid" system of law enforcement at the neighborhood level and targeted "stability maintenance" system aimed at controlling critics of the government before they take action, the group identified hundreds of incidents of public protest between June and September 2022 alone.