One year later, Chinese lawyers still imprisoned

On July 4, six women arrived at the top prosecutor’s office in Beijing with the names of their detained husbands pasted onto their summer dresses. “I support you, Xie Yang,” read one. “Waiting for you, Quanzhang,” read another. The wives, joined by lawyers and several Western diplomats, came to raise their frustrations that authorities in the neighboring city of Tianjing had barred them from contacting their husbands, whom authorities arrested last year in a nationwide roundup of human rights lawyers and activists.

The prosecutor refused the wives’ documents and referred them back to Tianjin authorities, according to the BBC. It marked the latest defeat for these wives and mothers, who for the past year have staged small protests to gain access to and information on their husbands. “For one year, we’ve heard nothing about our husbands except an arrest notice,” Li Wenzu, the wife of lawyer Wang Quanzhang, told BBC. “I’m worried about his health, I wish he could get back home soon.”

On the first anniversary of the 709 crackdown (709 refers to July 9, 2015, when the arrests began), more than 20 human rights lawyers and activists remain imprisoned. Chinese authorities accuse eight of them of “subverting state power,” which could lead to life sentences. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) called on China to drop the charges and release the lawyers and activists, claiming the arrests revealed that “the Chinese government has zero regard for the rule of law.”

The crackdown began with the disappearance of Wang Yu of Beijing’s Fengrui law firm in the early morning of July 9. A human rights lawyer, she irked authorities by representing sensitive figures like the Uyghur intellectual Ilham Tohti, members of the religious sect Falun Gong, and victims of sexual assault. Wang, her husband, and her son, all went missing that day.

In the ensuing weeks, authorities clamped down on more than 250 lawyers, legal assistants, and rights activists, aiming to silence the growing community of lawyers who were using China’s legal system to bring justice to rights violations. Some were released after a few days, while others, like Wang and her husband Bao Longjun, remain in prison today.

The detainees include lawyers like Li Heping, the father of two young children and a devout Christian who defended house church pastors, environmental activists, and dissidents such as the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng. Li’s wife, Wang Qiaoling, told The Guardian that as she struggles to explain to her daughter why Daddy isn’t home, she finds comfort in Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”

Another detained lawyer, Xie Yanyi, is known for writing essays on democracy and suing former President Jiang Zemin in 2003 for violating the Chinese constitution. Since his detention began last year, his mother passed away, his wife gave birth to their third child, and police pressured his landlord to evict his family from their apartment. When his wife, Yuan Shanshan, petitioned authorities to let her share the news with Xie, they refused. Yuan has yet to name her baby girl, who was born in March, as she wants to get her husband’s input.

CECC chairman Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., noted the need for China to release the remaining lawyers and activists: “China’s government has taken extraordinary steps to decimate the ranks of human rights lawyers, a profession that has quickly become one of China’s most dangerous. … Their continued detention is bad for business, bad for China’s global credibility, and damaging to U.S.-China cooperation on a number of fronts.”