China: Dozens of human rights lawyers targeted in nationwide crackdown
11 July 2015, 10:12 UTC
The Chinese authorities must end their assault on human rights lawyers, Amnesty International said on Saturday, after more than 50 lawyers and activists were targeted by police in a nationwide crackdown.
Prominent human rights lawyers Li Heping and Sui Muqing are among at least 20 people feared detained. All the individuals missing since the crackdown began on Thursday 9 July are well-known for their work on human rights cases.
The authorities have targeted lawyers across the country including in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. With new reports emerging, it is difficult to determine who has been detained by the authorities, or taken in for questioning and who may have simply gone into hiding to avoid possible detention.
“The authorities must end this assault against human rights lawyers. Such an unprecedented nationwide crackdown can only have been sanctioned from within the central government,” said William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International.
“This coordinated attack on lawyers makes a mockery of President Xi Jinping’s claims to promote the rule of law. The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely for their work defending human rights.”
On Friday night, police officers visited the home of lawyer Sui Muqing in Guangdong province, southern China, according to his wife. Police then detained Sui Muqing on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles", although they did not provide details on a specific incident or evidence.
Another lawyer in Beijing, Zhang Kai, sent a text message early on 11 July saying: "Police have come," and he has not been heard from since.
The alarm was first raised on Thursday, when Wang Yu, a lawyer in Beijing, disappeared in the early hours, after sending friends a text message that her internet connection and power at her home had been cut off. She then sent a text saying that people were trying to break into her home.
Amnesty International calls on the authorities to disclose the whereabouts and legal status of all those detained and guarantee unrestricted access to their families and lawyers, as well as ensure those detained are not at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/07/china-lawyers-targeted/
Topic: U.S. Condemns Detention of Human Rights Defenders in China (Read 316 times)
BAHAHAHA is this serious?
MERICA the country that threw out occupy EVEN WHEN they had the courts on their side.. The land of the pigs would dare to say this.. oh god this is gold.
MERICA the country that threw out occupy EVEN WHEN they had the courts on their side.. The land of the pigs would dare to say this.. oh god this is gold.
thank you for the feedback and making the thread up
BAHAHAHA is this serious?
MERICA the country that threw out occupy EVEN WHEN they had the courts on their side.. The land of the pigs would dare to say this.. oh god this is gold.
MERICA the country that threw out occupy EVEN WHEN they had the courts on their side.. The land of the pigs would dare to say this.. oh god this is gold.
China Detains, Questions More Than 100 Rights Lawyers in Nationwide Police Operation
2015-07-13
Hong Kong Democratic Party's Albert Ho (C) releases himself from mock handcuffs as he and legislator Leung Kwok-hung (L) protest a police crackdown on lawyers in China, July 12, 2015.
AFP
China has extended a crackdown on its embattled legal profession in recent days, holding and questioning more than 100 public interest and human rights lawyers across the country by Monday, lawyers and rights activists said.
In addition to the confirmed detentions of five top attorneys with the Beijing-based public interest firm Fengrui, authorities in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, as well as smaller cities across China have moved in an unprecedented nationwide operation targeting rights lawyers, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement posted to Google Docs.
“We have never seen such a huge detention operation before,” CHRLCG convenor Kit Chan told RFA. “If the government takes this sort of attitude to lawyers, regarding them as the enemy … then it will remove the legal system as an option, which goes against their claim to run the country by rule of law.”
“The methods they are using are all [in themselves] against the law,” Chan said.
Last week’s raid on the Fengrui public interest law firm in Beijing, in which rights lawyers Wang Yu, Zhou Shifeng, Huang Liqun, Liu Sixin and Wang Quanzhang had been accused by police of deliberately fomenting social unrest, was just the beginning of a much wider operation that has left the Chinese legal profession in a state of shock.
“This has caused a good deal of anger and a lot of fear,” rights lawyer Lu Zhoubin told RFA. “They detained them all in one fell swoop, and it is a time of great danger.”
The move comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party intensifies a clampdown on all forms of civil society, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in an apparent bid to cleanse Chinese of foreign influence.
Frequently singled out
Rights activists are frequently singled out for criticism in China’s tightly controlled state media for using social media to undermine social stability, and sometimes even national security.
Many who seek to help others defend their legal rights are accused of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” and sometimes the more serious national security offense of “incitement to subvert state power.”
Zhejiang rights lawyer Chen Zongyao said he received a summons for questioning on suspicion of “obstructing official duty” on Saturday.
“It was about the recent detentions of lawyers. They warned me not to post or retweet information about certain things,” Chen told RFA on Sunday. “They threatened me … saying that if I continued to retweet such things, they would target my son for rectification.”
“It was pretty scary, actually. Things have got pretty difficult here these last couple of days,” Chen said.
“The entire police force is detaining people right across the country, and it’s very serious,” he said. “They have also warned a lot of people, mainly about tweeting or retweeting [sensitive information].”
“And if threatening you doesn’t work, they threaten members of your family, to take it out on them.”
But Chen said the crackdown wouldn’t work.
“What we do is an archetypal process, and it’s not going to stop even if you stop us doing it.”
In the central province of Hunan, rights lawyer Wen Donghai said he had been called in for “a chat” with state security police, but had refused to go.
“I told them that they can’t just order me around, so they said they’d get a summons,” Wen said. “I said I’d wait for their summons, which requires some legal procedures … I think that they will take this further.”
He added: “I have totally lost any faith in the legal system. I think that China has already lost any sort of rule of law, and has already become a police state.”
Taken in for questioning
Among those taken for questioning in recent days and then released include Sichuan-based Ran Tong, defense attorney for Sichuan-based rights activist Chen Yunfei, Henan-based Chang Boyang, who defends a member of the “Guangzhou Three” rights activists, Yuan Xinting, and Guangzhou-based Ge Wenxiu, who represents one of the five feminists detained ahead of International Women’s Day, Wei Tingting.
Shanghai-based lawyer Li Tiantian, a prolific and outspoken social media blogger, Shandong-based Liu Shuqing, who has represented feminist Wu Rongrong, and Beijing-based lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who has represented members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, were also held and released, the CHRLCG said.
It said top Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Sui Muqing, defense attorney for detained rights lawyer Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong, is currently under “residential surveillance,” indicating a strict form of house arrest.
Many of those detained had signed a joint statement on Friday to protest against Wang Yu's arrest.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong activists on Sunday took to the streets in protest at the crackdown.
Chanting “Rights lawyers are innocent!” and “Release all rights lawyers!” the group marched to Beijing’s Central Liaison Office in the former British colony, with some lawyers dressed as if for court.
“The large-scale detentions of rights lawyers are an unprecedented disaster for the legal profession,” rights lawyer and pro-democracy politician Albert Ho told RFA on the sidelines of the demonstration.
“It’s also a major disaster for any last vestige of reliable rule of law in [China’s] judicial system. How can there be any public trust in the system left?”
Ho said many of those detained are the best-known rights attorneys in China.
“Their fame doesn’t come from earning large sums of money … but from all those human rights cases that they work on,” he said.
The U.S. State Department called on Beijing to cease targeting rights lawyers in a statement on Sunday.
“Over the last few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies,” it said.
Repression and coercion are routinely used by Chinese authorities against activists, ethnic minorities and law firms that took on sensitive cases, according to a State Department report last month.
Reported by Yang Fan and Xin Lin for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Ka Pa and Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
2015-07-13
Hong Kong Democratic Party's Albert Ho (C) releases himself from mock handcuffs as he and legislator Leung Kwok-hung (L) protest a police crackdown on lawyers in China, July 12, 2015.
AFP
China has extended a crackdown on its embattled legal profession in recent days, holding and questioning more than 100 public interest and human rights lawyers across the country by Monday, lawyers and rights activists said.
In addition to the confirmed detentions of five top attorneys with the Beijing-based public interest firm Fengrui, authorities in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, as well as smaller cities across China have moved in an unprecedented nationwide operation targeting rights lawyers, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement posted to Google Docs.
“We have never seen such a huge detention operation before,” CHRLCG convenor Kit Chan told RFA. “If the government takes this sort of attitude to lawyers, regarding them as the enemy … then it will remove the legal system as an option, which goes against their claim to run the country by rule of law.”
“The methods they are using are all [in themselves] against the law,” Chan said.
Last week’s raid on the Fengrui public interest law firm in Beijing, in which rights lawyers Wang Yu, Zhou Shifeng, Huang Liqun, Liu Sixin and Wang Quanzhang had been accused by police of deliberately fomenting social unrest, was just the beginning of a much wider operation that has left the Chinese legal profession in a state of shock.
“This has caused a good deal of anger and a lot of fear,” rights lawyer Lu Zhoubin told RFA. “They detained them all in one fell swoop, and it is a time of great danger.”
The move comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party intensifies a clampdown on all forms of civil society, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in an apparent bid to cleanse Chinese of foreign influence.
Frequently singled out
Rights activists are frequently singled out for criticism in China’s tightly controlled state media for using social media to undermine social stability, and sometimes even national security.
Many who seek to help others defend their legal rights are accused of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” and sometimes the more serious national security offense of “incitement to subvert state power.”
Zhejiang rights lawyer Chen Zongyao said he received a summons for questioning on suspicion of “obstructing official duty” on Saturday.
“It was about the recent detentions of lawyers. They warned me not to post or retweet information about certain things,” Chen told RFA on Sunday. “They threatened me … saying that if I continued to retweet such things, they would target my son for rectification.”
“It was pretty scary, actually. Things have got pretty difficult here these last couple of days,” Chen said.
“The entire police force is detaining people right across the country, and it’s very serious,” he said. “They have also warned a lot of people, mainly about tweeting or retweeting [sensitive information].”
“And if threatening you doesn’t work, they threaten members of your family, to take it out on them.”
But Chen said the crackdown wouldn’t work.
“What we do is an archetypal process, and it’s not going to stop even if you stop us doing it.”
In the central province of Hunan, rights lawyer Wen Donghai said he had been called in for “a chat” with state security police, but had refused to go.
“I told them that they can’t just order me around, so they said they’d get a summons,” Wen said. “I said I’d wait for their summons, which requires some legal procedures … I think that they will take this further.”
He added: “I have totally lost any faith in the legal system. I think that China has already lost any sort of rule of law, and has already become a police state.”
Taken in for questioning
Among those taken for questioning in recent days and then released include Sichuan-based Ran Tong, defense attorney for Sichuan-based rights activist Chen Yunfei, Henan-based Chang Boyang, who defends a member of the “Guangzhou Three” rights activists, Yuan Xinting, and Guangzhou-based Ge Wenxiu, who represents one of the five feminists detained ahead of International Women’s Day, Wei Tingting.
Shanghai-based lawyer Li Tiantian, a prolific and outspoken social media blogger, Shandong-based Liu Shuqing, who has represented feminist Wu Rongrong, and Beijing-based lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who has represented members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, were also held and released, the CHRLCG said.
It said top Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Sui Muqing, defense attorney for detained rights lawyer Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong, is currently under “residential surveillance,” indicating a strict form of house arrest.
Many of those detained had signed a joint statement on Friday to protest against Wang Yu's arrest.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong activists on Sunday took to the streets in protest at the crackdown.
Chanting “Rights lawyers are innocent!” and “Release all rights lawyers!” the group marched to Beijing’s Central Liaison Office in the former British colony, with some lawyers dressed as if for court.
“The large-scale detentions of rights lawyers are an unprecedented disaster for the legal profession,” rights lawyer and pro-democracy politician Albert Ho told RFA on the sidelines of the demonstration.
“It’s also a major disaster for any last vestige of reliable rule of law in [China’s] judicial system. How can there be any public trust in the system left?”
Ho said many of those detained are the best-known rights attorneys in China.
“Their fame doesn’t come from earning large sums of money … but from all those human rights cases that they work on,” he said.
The U.S. State Department called on Beijing to cease targeting rights lawyers in a statement on Sunday.
“Over the last few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies,” it said.
Repression and coercion are routinely used by Chinese authorities against activists, ethnic minorities and law firms that took on sensitive cases, according to a State Department report last month.
Reported by Yang Fan and Xin Lin for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Ka Pa and Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
U.S. Condemns Detention of Human Rights Defenders in China
Press Statement
John Kirby
Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 12, 2015
Over the last few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies. We are deeply concerned that the broad scope of the new National Security Law is being used as a legal facade to commit human rights abuses. We strongly urge China to respect the rights of all of its citizens and to release all those who have recently been detained for seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/07/244820.htm
Press Statement
John Kirby
Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 12, 2015
Over the last few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies. We are deeply concerned that the broad scope of the new National Security Law is being used as a legal facade to commit human rights abuses. We strongly urge China to respect the rights of all of its citizens and to release all those who have recently been detained for seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/07/244820.htm
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