The "709" Crackdown on Rights Lawyers

Background

Hualing Fu of the University of Hong Kong divides China's human rights lawyers since 2011 into "rights-protection" (weiquan), "die-hard" (sike) and "public-interest" (gongyi) lawyers, arguing that together they challenged authoritarian governance. The Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, directed by Zhou Shifeng, had taken on many high-profile sensitive cases. According to state media, in May 2015 Wu Gan, a Fengrui administrative assistant known online as "Super Vulgar Butcher", was detained after a protest outside the Jiangxi High People's Court and then criminally detained for picking quarrels and defamation.

The Arrests

Fengrui lawyer Wang Yu was taken away on 9 July 2015; over the following days police in many places detained or summoned lawyers, law-firm staff and activists, and searched the offices of Fengrui and others. An open letter signed by the International Commission of Jurists and other groups said that by 19 July a total of 233 people had been detained, arrested, imprisoned, summoned or temporarily deprived of liberty. In mid-July Xinhua reported that the Ministry of Public Security had directed police to "smash" a "suspected major criminal gang" in which lawyers colluded with "online promoters" and "petitioners" using Fengrui as a platform, naming nine lawyers — Zhou Shifeng, Wang Yu, Li Heping, Xie Yanyi, Sui Muqing, Huang Liqun, Xie Yuandong, Xie Yang and Liu Jianjun — and saying the group had "hyped" more than 40 cases and incidents since July 2012; on 18 July Xinhuanet published Zhou's "confession". Lawyer Wang Quanzhang was taken on 3 August. In January 2016 the arrest of Zhou, Wang Yu and others on suspicion of subversion was approved.

The Trials

From 2 to 5 August 2016 the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court convicted four people of subversion: Zhai Yanmin received three years suspended for four, Hu Shigen seven years and six months, Zhou Shifeng seven years, and Gou Hongguo three years suspended for three; Xinhua said all four admitted guilt in court and did not appeal. State media said the cases were tried "in open court" before NPC deputies, CPPCC members and Chinese and foreign journalists, and criticised foreign media for calling the trials "secret" because family members could not attend. Wang Yu had been released on bail in July 2016; in an interview with state media she said she would not accept a human rights award from the American Bar Association and others.

Later trials were mostly closed on "state secrets" grounds: Li Heping was tried on 25 April 2017 and on 28 April sentenced to three years suspended for four; Jiang Tianyong, arrested in late 2016 after visiting Xie Yang's family in Changsha, was sentenced by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court on 21 November 2017 to two years for inciting subversion; and Wang Quanzhang, tried on 26 December 2018, was sentenced by the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on 28 January 2019 to four years and six months for subversion.

Torture Allegations and the Official Response

In January 2017 lawyer Chen Jiangang published transcripts of his and Liu Zhengqing's meetings with Xie Yang, in which Xie said he had been subjected to prolonged coercive interrogation while held under "residential surveillance at a designated location". From 1 March state media including the Global Times reported that Jiang Tianyong had admitted fabricating the torture reports "to cater to Western media", and said interviews with Xie himself, prosecutors and fellow detainees showed he had not been tortured; a Xinhua English report called the coverage "fake news". Jiang's lawyer and his wife Jin Bianling rejected the official accounts, saying both men had long been held incommunicado and there was reason to suspect mistreatment and coercion. After Wang Quanzhang's conviction his wife Li Wenzu issued a statement declaring "Wang Quanzhang is innocent" and accusing the authorities of torturing him and others.

International Reaction

On the first anniversary in July 2016, State Department spokesperson John Kirby said that more than 300 people had been interrogated, detained, arrested, placed under residential surveillance or barred from leaving the country, that the United States was "deeply concerned" about the continued detention of at least 23 lawyers and rights defenders, and that the detentions "violate China's international commitments"; he urged their release and the dropping of charges. Eva Pils of King's College London argues that the crackdown showed the Party-State adopting more public and sophisticated forms of repression in response to smarter human rights advocacy.