black Friday：human right crisis in china

[msc_de]

Beijing Rights Lawyer ‘Missing,’ Believed  Detained: Lawyer

2015-07-10  



Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yu in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Yu's microblog



Prominent rights attorney Wang Yu is missing from her Beijing home, presumedly detained by China’s state security police, rights activists and lawyers said.

Wang, who has defended high profile activists, including jailed Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, Cao Shunli and Wu Gan, has been incommunicado since the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Weiquanwang rights website.

The last communication from her was a social media post at around 3 a.m. which read: “I had just taken my husband and son to the airport … and when I got back home at 3 a.m. today the power was out, and the Wi-Fi was cut off,” the post said.

“I heard someone trying to force the door … but it was dark and I couldn’t see, but I could hear people muttering from time to time, but not clearly,” Wang wrote. “Now, calls to my husband and son’s cell phones are ringing unanswered. I really wonder what’s going on with them.”

Two hours later, Wang’s own phone was ringing unanswered, Weiquanwang said.

Repeated calls to her cell phone resulted in a message saying, “We are unable to connect calls to this number” throughout Thursday.

Fellow rights lawyer Cheng Hai said he had visited Wang’s apartment in Beijing on Thursday.

“I took a look in the morning because someone told me that people had forced the door in the early hours of the morning,” Cheng said. “The door hadn’t been forced, but Wang Yu herself was no longer there.”

Police were involved

Cheng also said the security guards at Wang’s apartment complex said the police were involved.

“[They said] that dozens of police surrounded the building where Wang Yu lives in the middle of the night, and detained one person, saying that it was a drug bust,” Cheng said.

An officer who answered the phone at the police office in Wang’s compound said nobody of that name was there.

“We just came on duty today, so we don’t know anything about this matter you mention,” the officer said. “At least I can tell you that there’s nobody by the name of Wang Yu here in this police station. If this person hasn’t come home for a certain period of time, then the relatives or family can come here and file a missing persons report.”

Wang’s apparent detention comes after a number of negative comments about her in China’s tightly controlled state media.

Beijing rights attorney Chen Jianggang told RFA on Thursday that Wang is “an outstanding example” of a human rights lawyer.

“Everyone knows that they have detained Wang Yu because she is an outstanding example of … a human rights lawyer in China,” Chen said.

“They are throwing the entire state power apparatus at a single lawyer.”

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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[msc_de]

update ,it is reported that yesterday the black Friday more than 20 human right lawyers and their assistants were arrested nationwide in mainland China.   

[msc_de]

human right crisis in china


within last 48 hours:

18 human right lawyers are detained or missing.

10 assistants are detained or missing.

29 human right lawyers are under house arrest or summoned.

2 lawyers offices in Beijing are rummaged.



total 57

[msc_de]

UPDATE

[CEG5952]

update ,it is reported that yesterday the black Friday more than 20 human right lawyers and their assistants were arrested nationwide in mainland China.   

What's their motive on taking away these lawyers and assistants? Are they involve in a big case? Interesting...

[msc_de]

HK TODAY

[msc_de]

update: total 65  up to now

[msc_de]

Statement of Congressman Smith on the Reported Detentions of Human Rights Lawyers in China

Washington, Jul 10 | Jeff Sagnip ((202) 225-3765)


As many as 20 human rights lawyers were reportedly detained today in a countrywide sweep by China’s security forces, including prominent rights defense attorneys such as Wang Yu, Li Heping, Wang Fan, Bao Zhuoxuan, and others. Congressman Chris Smith, Chair of the Global Human Rights Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China “condemned” the detentions saying they were part of an “increasingly muscular campaign to crush dissent [and] set an ugly tone for President Xi’s U.S. visit in September.”   
 
Congressman Smith has met some of the lawyers detained and calls them “some of China’s brightest and bravest people…whose skills and energy should be embraced, not repressed.” Smith released the following statement:   
 “This looks like a coordinated, countrywide sweep of human rights lawyers and is another step in President Xi’s increasingly muscular campaign to crush dissent. I condemn the detentions in the strongest terms.  The lawyers detained are some of China’s brightest and bravest people, people I admire, whose skills and energy should be embraced, instead of repressed. The detentions come only two weeks after the end of the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue and set an ugly tone for President Xi’s U.S. visit in September. We are facing a Chinese government that is more aggressive with its neighbors, more willing to plunder U.S. personal information in cyberspace, and quicker to suppress alternative voices within China than its predecessors.  It’s past time for a new U.S. strategic approach to China. President Xi wants a ‘new type’ of U.S.-China relationship, but that won’t happen if the price is acquiescence to repression.”   

 

[MakingMoneyHoney]

Since I was looking into the conspiracy theories related to the September 2015 thread...

The theory is that there are multiple FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) camps being set up all over the nation. Many conspiracy theorists believe at some point, the president will claim martial law, and many people will be taken to these camps, forced to go, and supposedly they'll die, if they can't be brainwashed into accepting the NWO. You can search "American holocaust" for more info.

Only because it was on my mind recently, did I think of a connection. If you wanted to do the same thing in China, you might want to take out those who would fight for those detained, first. I think the human rights workers are the ones who would fit that bill. I wonder if there are any conspiracy theories for camps being set up in China too?

Either way, this is horrible news. I'm very interested to see what happens with this.

[msc_de]

UPDATE

English version update

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11HCBROeInln2lvV3RVyvYFFSC8lBB_jzZnTl-UnEOi0/htmlview?pli=1

[MakingMoneyHoney]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

[jaysabi]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

Intimidation might be a motive if they grab them only to release them soon after.

[MakingMoneyHoney]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

Intimidation might be a motive if they grab them only to release them soon after.

I don't mean why (like what really happened). I mean what reason is the government giving for why they took them, only to release them shortly after?

[msc_de]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

Intimidation might be a motive if they grab them only to release them soon after.

I don't mean why (like what really happened). I mean what reason is the government giving for why they took them, only to release them shortly after?

collect so-called evidence to against key human rights lawyers according to the information on twitter, intimidation is also motiv

[msc_de]

update, total 84

[Okurkabinladin]

Statement of Congressman Smith on the Reported Detentions of Human Rights Lawyers in China

Washington, Jul 10 | Jeff Sagnip ((202) 225-3765)


As many as 20 human rights lawyers were reportedly detained today in a countrywide sweep by China’s security forces, including prominent rights defense attorneys such as Wang Yu, Li Heping, Wang Fan, Bao Zhuoxuan, and others. Congressman Chris Smith, Chair of the Global Human Rights Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China “condemned” the detentions saying they were part of an “increasingly muscular campaign to crush dissent [and] set an ugly tone for President Xi’s U.S. visit in September.”   
 
Congressman Smith has met some of the lawyers detained and calls them “some of China’s brightest and bravest people…whose skills and energy should be embraced, not repressed.” Smith released the following statement:   
 “This looks like a coordinated, countrywide sweep of human rights lawyers and is another step in President Xi’s increasingly muscular campaign to crush dissent. I condemn the detentions in the strongest terms.  The lawyers detained are some of China’s brightest and bravest people, people I admire, whose skills and energy should be embraced, instead of repressed. The detentions come only two weeks after the end of the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue and set an ugly tone for President Xi’s U.S. visit in September. We are facing a Chinese government that is more aggressive with its neighbors, more willing to plunder U.S. personal information in cyberspace, and quicker to suppress alternative voices within China than its predecessors.  It’s past time for a new U.S. strategic approach to China. President Xi wants a ‘new type’ of U.S.-China relationship, but that won’t happen if the price is acquiescence to repression.”

I wonder, when Chinese start to lecture United States on how to treat Guantanamo prisoners or Occupy Wallstreet protesters.

Onto the point, recent wave of "springs" that destabilized much eastern Europe and Arab world had roots within activist groups being financed by the west. I dont blame Chinese (or Russians or Iranians) for taking pre-emptive steps. If those "brightest" and "bravest" (in the words of Chris Smith) are on foreign payroll, then prison is the least they should be afraid of.

[jaysabi]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

Intimidation might be a motive if they grab them only to release them soon after.

I don't mean why (like what really happened). I mean what reason is the government giving for why they took them, only to release them shortly after?

The reason wouldn't matter to me, and I don't think many would believe what they say anyway. If they said it was a terrorism investigation, would it differ much from not saying anything at all? The intent of the detentions seems pretty evident.

[msc_de]

UPDATE

[MakingMoneyHoney]

I see a few of them have been released. Has the government said why they were taken at all if only to be released a few hours later?

Intimidation might be a motive if they grab them only to release them soon after.

I don't mean why (like what really happened). I mean what reason is the government giving for why they took them, only to release them shortly after?

The reason wouldn't matter to me, and I don't think many would believe what they say anyway. If they said it was a terrorism investigation, would it differ much from not saying anything at all? The intent of the detentions seems pretty evident.

That's pretty much the reason why I ask. I don't think there is a good reason, so what, they just don't give a reason? I guess that's smart on their part. Not giving a reason is better for them than giving one and people being upset with the answer.

It's pretty sickening to me.

[BillyBones]

Human rights crisis not only happening in China but all over the world, we cannot miss any country regards to the human rights crisis even it is taking place in U.S who boasts that equality to all races and religion. Pointedly search about Myanmar in YouTube video channels.

[BLKBITZ]

Beijing Rights Lawyer ‘Missing,’ Believed  Detained: Lawyer

2015-07-10  



Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yu in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Yu's microblog



Prominent rights attorney Wang Yu is missing from her Beijing home, presumedly detained by China’s state security police, rights activists and lawyers said.

Wang, who has defended high profile activists, including jailed Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, Cao Shunli and Wu Gan, has been incommunicado since the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Weiquanwang rights website.

The last communication from her was a social media post at around 3 a.m. which read: “I had just taken my husband and son to the airport … and when I got back home at 3 a.m. today the power was out, and the Wi-Fi was cut off,” the post said.

“I heard someone trying to force the door … but it was dark and I couldn’t see, but I could hear people muttering from time to time, but not clearly,” Wang wrote. “Now, calls to my husband and son’s cell phones are ringing unanswered. I really wonder what’s going on with them.”

Two hours later, Wang’s own phone was ringing unanswered, Weiquanwang said.

Repeated calls to her cell phone resulted in a message saying, “We are unable to connect calls to this number” throughout Thursday.

Fellow rights lawyer Cheng Hai said he had visited Wang’s apartment in Beijing on Thursday.

“I took a look in the morning because someone told me that people had forced the door in the early hours of the morning,” Cheng said. “The door hadn’t been forced, but Wang Yu herself was no longer there.”

Police were involved

Cheng also said the security guards at Wang’s apartment complex said the police were involved.

“[They said] that dozens of police surrounded the building where Wang Yu lives in the middle of the night, and detained one person, saying that it was a drug bust,” Cheng said.

An officer who answered the phone at the police office in Wang’s compound said nobody of that name was there.

“We just came on duty today, so we don’t know anything about this matter you mention,” the officer said. “At least I can tell you that there’s nobody by the name of Wang Yu here in this police station. If this person hasn’t come home for a certain period of time, then the relatives or family can come here and file a missing persons report.”

Wang’s apparent detention comes after a number of negative comments about her in China’s tightly controlled state media.

Beijing rights attorney Chen Jianggang told RFA on Thursday that Wang is “an outstanding example” of a human rights lawyer.

“Everyone knows that they have detained Wang Yu because she is an outstanding example of … a human rights lawyer in China,” Chen said.

“They are throwing the entire state power apparatus at a single lawyer.”

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

A drug bust lol all governments use drugs as cover ups.

[msc_de]

Beijing Rights Lawyer ‘Missing,’ Believed  Detained: Lawyer

2015-07-10  



Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yu in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Yu's microblog



Prominent rights attorney Wang Yu is missing from her Beijing home, presumedly detained by China’s state security police, rights activists and lawyers said.

Wang, who has defended high profile activists, including jailed Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, Cao Shunli and Wu Gan, has been incommunicado since the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Weiquanwang rights website.

The last communication from her was a social media post at around 3 a.m. which read: “I had just taken my husband and son to the airport … and when I got back home at 3 a.m. today the power was out, and the Wi-Fi was cut off,” the post said.

“I heard someone trying to force the door … but it was dark and I couldn’t see, but I could hear people muttering from time to time, but not clearly,” Wang wrote. “Now, calls to my husband and son’s cell phones are ringing unanswered. I really wonder what’s going on with them.”

Two hours later, Wang’s own phone was ringing unanswered, Weiquanwang said.

Repeated calls to her cell phone resulted in a message saying, “We are unable to connect calls to this number” throughout Thursday.

Fellow rights lawyer Cheng Hai said he had visited Wang’s apartment in Beijing on Thursday.

“I took a look in the morning because someone told me that people had forced the door in the early hours of the morning,” Cheng said. “The door hadn’t been forced, but Wang Yu herself was no longer there.”

Police were involved

Cheng also said the security guards at Wang’s apartment complex said the police were involved.

“[They said] that dozens of police surrounded the building where Wang Yu lives in the middle of the night, and detained one person, saying that it was a drug bust,” Cheng said.

An officer who answered the phone at the police office in Wang’s compound said nobody of that name was there.

“We just came on duty today, so we don’t know anything about this matter you mention,” the officer said. “At least I can tell you that there’s nobody by the name of Wang Yu here in this police station. If this person hasn’t come home for a certain period of time, then the relatives or family can come here and file a missing persons report.”

Wang’s apparent detention comes after a number of negative comments about her in China’s tightly controlled state media.

Beijing rights attorney Chen Jianggang told RFA on Thursday that Wang is “an outstanding example” of a human rights lawyer.

“Everyone knows that they have detained Wang Yu because she is an outstanding example of … a human rights lawyer in China,” Chen said.

“They are throwing the entire state power apparatus at a single lawyer.”

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

A drug bust lol all governments use drugs as cover ups.

much more here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1118518.0

 i know you can translate it into english

[msc_de]

[Okurkabinladin]

I love how western based trolls, didnt even start to answer objections about source of finance for these "activists". Instead they keep patting each other on the shoulder for sharing "scandal" of authorities investigating some shadow organization on their home soil.

[msc_de]

update： total159 today 

[msc_de]

陈泰和律师（教授）被秘密拘押，这是他和吴凎合影。Lawyer prof. Chen Taihe detained in secret location, picture with Wugan      #china #HumanRights

[msc_de]

Lawyer's Teen Son Missing in Widening Crackdown on China's Rights Attorneys
2015-07-17


Police in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin have taken the 16-year-old son of detained rights attorney Wang Yu from his home amid an ongoing crackdown on the country's embattled legal profession, lawyers told RFA on Friday.

Wang's detention on July 9 came amid a raid on her law firm, Fengrui, and kicked off a nationwide police operation that has targeted more than 200 public interest and human rights attorneys.

At least 222 lawyers, law firm employees and rights activists had been detained, summoned for questioning, or were incommunicado or held under house arrest by Friday, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website.

Wang's son Bao Mengmeng was taken away by police shortly after apparently texting lawyers who were en route to offer him legal assistance that they shouldn't come, Beijing lawyer Chen Jianggang told RFA.

"They took Bao Mengmeng away as soon as they knew the lawyers were on their way," Chen said, adding that he had received a text message from the teenager's phone.

"We received a text message of just a few words saying thank you, but please don't come here," he said. "I think the phone was shut down as soon as he sent it."

Chen said it was unclear whether Bao himself had sent the message.

"We have no way of knowing whether the phone was even in his hands," he said.

Chen said he too is expecting a visiting from China's state security police "at any time."

"I'm not sure I will be able to remain in contact, even if I wanted to," he said. "I don't know when I'll be detained too."

Lawyer Feng Yanqiang, who had been on his way to assist Bao, said the authorities have refused to answer any questions regarding the whereabouts of Wang and the others.

"What is going on with Wang Yu, and which department has detained her, and on suspicion of which crimes," Feng said.

"We don't even know where she is being held, and there's no way for us to find out right now," he said.

"We went to the Tianjin police department and district detention centers, to district police stations and to the courts, to inquire, but we haven't heard any news," Feng added.



'Grim' outlook for rule of law

Feng said he has been asked to resign from his own law firm because he is trying to help Wang, who has been accused by state media of taking part in a "criminal operation" spearheaded by Fengrui and allegedly aimed at undermining social stability.

State media reports have accused the lawyers of "colluding with petitioners to disturb social order and to reach their goals with ulterior motives."

Many lawyers have told RFA they have been summoned for questioning by police and warned not to publicize details of 'sensitive' rights cases online, nor to speak to foreign media organizations.

While many were later released, dozens of lawyers remain in detention, including Wang, her boss Zhou Shifeng, and colleague Huang Liqun from Beijing's Fengrui public interest law firm, which defended jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti.

Meanwhile, China's powerful propaganda department moved this week to curb coverage of the detentions in the country's tightly controlled media.

"All websites must, without exception, use as the standard official and authoritative media reports with regards to the detention of trouble-making lawyers by the relevant departments," according to a directive dated July 14 and leaked online.

"Personnel must take care to find and delete harmful information; do not repost news from non-standard sources," said the directive, which was translated and published by the U.S.-based China Digital Times website.

Rights groups and overseas agencies have continued to call on Beijing to disclose the whereabouts of nine detained lawyers, saying they are at "grave risk" of torture or other mistreatment, and two non-lawyers who went missing during the operation.

Among those "disappeared," and believed detained, are Beijing lawyers Li Heping, Xie Yanyi, Li Shuyun and Liu Yingxin, as well as seven other activists and paralegals.

U.N. human rights investigators demanded an end to crackdown, saying it may have broken the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Basic Principles of the Role of Lawyers and China's own criminal procedures.

"Lawyers should never have to suffer prosecution or any other kind of sanctions or intimidation for discharging their professional duties," they said in a statement issued by the U.N. human rights office.

In Hong Kong, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) said it was "gravely concerned" at the crackdown.

"Freedom of speech and of the press can only be guaranteed when there is the clear and unfettered rule of law," the FCC said in a statement on its website on Friday.

"By attacking lawyers who are dedicated to defending civil liberties, the Chinese authorities are clearly undermining the rule of law and sending a very chilling message to both journalists and lawyers working in China," it said.

The overseas-based Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders said that the future of rule of law in China now looks "grim."

"Our organizations call on the Chinese authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the detainees, ensure their right to access to a lawyer and respect their rights including those stipulated in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers," the group said in a statement on its website.

According to Australian China expert Geremie Barmé, two influential articles in state-run media in 2012 specifically mentioned rights lawyers as a potential threat to the incoming administration of President Xi Jinping.

One, penned by Yuan Peng in Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily in September 2012, identified five categories of people that could pose a threat to the regime because they were being infiltrated and manipulated by the United States.

The categories comprise rights lawyers, underground religious believers, dissidents, Internet opinion leaders and vulnerable groups who petition against official wrongdoing, Barmé wrote on The China Story website in 2012.

Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

维权律师陈建刚，张俊杰，付永刚，庞琨，赵永林等声援王宇律师。
"Embrace freedom",rights Lawyers in solidarity with Wang Yu. #china #freethelawyers

[msc_de]

Taiwan protest supporting mainland China rights lawyers

[msc_de]

 

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

Activist in Bid to Find Whereabouts of Detained Chinese Rights Lawyer Wang Yu
2015-07-27


A Chinese lawyer has filed a formal information request to police in the northern city of Tianjin in a bid to find out the whereabouts of his lawyer, detained rights attorney Wang Yu, who has been held at an unknown location since the start of a nationwide crackdown on the legal profession.

Yu Wensheng filed the freedom of information request online on Saturday, calling on Tianjin police to reveal her location, and what crimes she is suspected of committing.

“Nobody knows what has happened to Wang Yu, and we only know that she was criminally detained through the media,” Yu told RFA. “Even her relatives and her defense attorneys don’t know.”

“Wang Yu was also my defense attorney, and because I am currently out on bail, from a legal perspective, I have an interest in her case, and I also believe I have a duty to understand her whereabouts and the nature of the charges against her,” he said.

“That’s why I filed the freedom of information request with the police.”

Since Wang’s detention amid a night-time raid on the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm on July 10, at least 255 lawyers, paralegals and legal support staff have been detained or questioned by Chinese police, the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said in a statement on its website.



Lawyers in undisclosed locations

Of those, 230 have since been released, but 12 lawyers and three non-lawyers are still being held in undisclosed locations, including Wang Yu, her husband Bao Longjun, and Fengrui colleagues Wang Quanzhang, Huang Liqun and Zhou Shifeng, it said.

China’s tightly controlled state media has accused the Fengrui lawyers of “troublemaking” and seeking to incite mass incidents by publicizing cases where they defend some of the most vulnerable groups in society.

According to Yu, the lack of information about Wang’s whereabouts contravenes China’s Criminal Procedure Law. “Such a large-scale detention of lawyers is also in breach of legal procedural regulations,” he said.

“I think they are trying to create a climate of fear for lawyers, so that some of them won’t dare to speak out, or may not take on human rights cases,” Yu said. “But I don’t think they will succeed in their aim.”

“Maybe some rights lawyers will be silenced, but even more will rise up in opposition, and still more will want to enter the profession of human rights lawyers,” he said.

Rights lawyer Chen Jiangang said that information on the whereabouts of detainees should be given to relatives and lawyers as a matter of course.

“Nobody should have to apply for it,” Chen said. “The police should formally notify the families within a time period specified by law, but China’s police don’t abide by the law at all nowadays.”

“Every step they take is against the law now.”



Fearless 'warrior' Wang

An officer who answered the phone at the Tianjin police department declined to comment on the case.

“For freedom of information requests, you need to contact the complaints department, or you can call them and try,” the officer said. “I don’t really know about this.”

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said Wang Yu is described by those who know her as a courageous and fearless “warrior.”

“She has raced to the front lines of rights defense work in China to provide legal aid to those in need, regardless of how difficult or politically sensitive a case is,” it said in a statement on its website.

Wang has represented activists, scholars, members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, farmers who lost their land, forced evictees and petitioners seeking to protect their rights, those of women and children, and the right to freedom of religion, housing and of expression, CHRD said.

“Wang Yu has frequently been harassed, threatened, searched, and physically assaulted by police since she began to take on rights abuse cases in 2011,” it said

Meanwhile, authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong detained rights activist Jia Pin after he tried to attend the subversion trial of the Guangzhou Three rights activists last week.

“Jia Pin turned out in support at the trial of Tang Jingling, and he was taken away by police at the gates to the court along with a lot of other people … from across the country,” a friend of Jia’s who asked to remain anonymous told RFA. “They are all safe and we have heard from all of them now, except for Jia Pin.”

“He was taken onto a train by six state security police officers, for escort back to his hometown, and we were able to talk with him by phone while he was on the train, but after he got off the train, they moved him to a state security police building in Nanyang, Henan province,” the friend said.

“There has been no word from him since, and we are all very worried; Jia Pin has done a lot of rights activism and the state security police from Nanyang have never come looking for him before, so we think things could go very badly for him this time,” the friend said.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Ka Pa and Dai Weisen for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

lawyer Li chunfu, the brother of lawyer Li Heping , was detained by police in Beijing this evening on Saturday.

[msc_de]

contend for freedom

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

Chinese Rights Lawyer Wang Yu Held For ‘Subversion' As Crackdown Continues
2015-08-07


Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin are holding a top rights lawyer under "residential surveillance" on suspicion of subversion, denying her visits from her defense attorney amid an ongoing crackdown on the legal profession, rights groups and lawyers said on Friday.

Wang Yu's lawyer Li Yuhan received an official notification from police dated Thursday, the Chinese rights website Weiquanwang tweeted on Friday.

"Wang Yu is suspected of incitement to subvert state power, which is a case in the category of crimes related to state security," the Hexi branch of Tianjin's municipal police department said in a notification to Li, a copy of which was attached to the tweet.

"A meeting could obstruct the investigation, or reveal state secrets, and so we have decided not to permit the application for a meeting with Wang Yu," it said.

Incitement to subvert state power carries a maximum jail term of five years in less serious cases, and a minimum jail term of five years in cases deemed more serious, or where the suspect is regarded as a "ringleader."

Wang had previously been believed detained on the lesser public order charge of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."

The news emerged as the ruling Chinese Communist Party continued its nationwide operation to detain, question and restrict the activities of the country's embattled legal profession.

Beijing-based rights attorney Yu Wensheng, a vocal supporter of Wang Yu, was taken away by Beijing police on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in the early hours of Thursday morning, his wife Xu Yan told RFA.

"They told me that he is being held on a criminal summons, and it boils down to either an administrative sentence or criminal detention," Xu said.

Administrative sentences can be given to perceived troublemakers by police without the need for a trial.



‘Right to sue the authorities’

Xu said Yu's public support for Wang Yu was listed as one of the reasons for his detention.

"They mentioned his support of Wang Yu, and his online support for the lawyers detained on July 10, and also the fact that he has lodged official complaints against the police on many occasions," she said.

"[But] Yu Wensheng says that citizens have the right to sue the authorities, enshrined in the Constitution," Xu said. "Everything Yu did was within the limits in the law; he was law abiding."

Xu said police had treated her and her husband rudely during the raid on their home, and hadn't produced any form of official documentation while searching him in front of the couple's child.

"They broke down our doors, both the external metal one and the inner, wooden one, and pinned Yu to the floor in an instant, before putting handcuffs on him and dragging him away," she said.

"More than a dozen of them pushed me aside and shoved their way into the room, and started searching it," Xu said. "They took away a computer, cables, an external hard drive and CD-ROMs."

"Our kid was so scared, he still couldn't sleep at 2 a.m.," she added.



Form of retaliation

Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Chen Keyun said Yu's detention is a form of retaliation for his official complaint against the police.

"This is definitely an illegal act, and it looks like an act of retaliation over Yu's suing of the police," Chen said.

Yu had previously told RFA he had made mental preparation to be detained at any time.

In Beijing, the wife of detained rights lawyer Li Heping was also called in for questioning by police on Thursday.

"The crackdown on rights lawyers isn't over; it's still going on,"
Chen told RFA. "According to the information we have received, it is likely to continue until October."

He said the authorities regard rights lawyers as a threat to political stability, owing to their willingness to stand up for the most vulnerable groups inside China, and to communicate with media and organizations overseas.

In recent weeks, police have detained or interrogated at least 267 lawyers, law firm staff, and associated human right activists.

More than 20 people remain in detention, 16 of them at undisclosed locations, while many more have been placed under surveillance, police warning or house arrest, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website on Friday.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[msc_de]

I don't read or speak any squiggly languages well but I copied your signature

杀了天下所有公鸡，黎明还是会到来！maybe you can kill all roosters in the world but you can not stop sunrise.

THANK YOU ！！

[msc_de]

FREE WANG YU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[msc_de]

CHINESE HERO

[msc_de]

[Mikestang]

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

[ashfaq]

i dont think anyone can fight against governments .. unless he/she is a multi trillionaire or else the person should give more priority to his anonymity and if he fails to do so ..poof!! u r dead straight away and plus all these laws and rules r just formalities the world dosent works on these ,the world works on connections and money and after all POWER!! if ur demands r a threat to the government or any of ur reasonable rights then y the fuck would government allow u to do so

[msc_de]

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

You think people in communist countries are pigs? no human right?

how cute

[msc_de]

i dont think anyone can fight against governments .. unless he/she is a multi trillionaire or else the person should give more priority to his anonymity and if he fails to do so ..poof!! u r dead straight away and plus all these laws and rules r just formalities the world dosent works on these ,the world works on connections and money and after all POWER!! if ur demands r a threat to the government or any of ur reasonable rights then y the fuck would government allow u to do so

in the world autocratic governments become less and less, not vice versa, this success belongs to people who fight for justice!!!

[jayce]

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

Then do you think those people are not human? The term is "human rights", not the "non communist country people rights".

[ashfaq]

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

Then do you think those people are not human? The term is "human rights", not the "non communist country people rights".

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

[msc_de]

http://chrlawyers.hk/zh-hant/content/%E3%80%8C%E9%87%8B%E6%94%BE%E5%BE%8B%E5%B8%AB%EF%BC%81%E5%81%9C%E6%AD%A2%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB%E6%AA%A2%E6%8E%A7%EF%BC%81%E3%80%8D%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%80%E7%85%A7%E7%89%87%E8%A1%8C%E5%8B%95

[msc_de]

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

Then do you think those people are not human? The term is "human rights", not the "non communist country people rights".

you should ask mikestang, not me

[jayce]

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

Do you think the reality is different with all information msc_de has given for us in this thread? 

You think people in communist countries have any rights, let alone basic human rights?

How cute.

Then do you think those people are not human? The term is "human rights", not the "non communist country people rights".

you should ask mikestang, not me

I quoted his posting, so thats mean I'm asking him, not you actually.

[ashfaq]

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

Do you think the reality is different with all information msc_de has given for us in this thread? 

No. but it is not necessary that reality should win .what i meant by reality is what governments do and which is for their own power or international business whatever...

[ashfaq]

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

Do you think the reality is different with all information msc_de has given for us in this thread? 

No. but it is not necessary that reality should win .what i meant by reality is what governments do and which is for their own power or international business whatever...

A "government" is only a gang of people who have forced you to join them. If enough people ignore any government it will cease to exist. You have to be careful though and ignore it from a distance or its hydra heads will kill.

True ,that is exactly what i wanted to say,just fighting for human rights is not going to help,

[jayce]

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

Do you think the reality is different with all information msc_de has given for us in this thread? 

No. but it is not necessary that reality should win .what i meant by reality is what governments do and which is for their own power or international business whatever...

A "government" is only a gang of people who have forced you to join them. If enough people ignore any government it will cease to exist. You have to be careful though and ignore it from a distance or its hydra heads will kill.

True ,that is exactly what i wanted to say,just fighting for human rights is not going to help,

So, is the democracy all thing we need now? Well there is no other action except that to fight government, especially in the communist and socialism country imo.

[ashfaq]

well all of this discussion is based on rules(LAW) and IMO's but the reality i very different and is very partial .

Do you think the reality is different with all information msc_de has given for us in this thread? 

No. but it is not necessary that reality should win .what i meant by reality is what governments do and which is for their own power or international business whatever...

A "government" is only a gang of people who have forced you to join them. If enough people ignore any government it will cease to exist. You have to be careful though and ignore it from a distance or its hydra heads will kill.

True ,that is exactly what i wanted to say,just fighting for human rights is not going to help,

So, is the democracy all thing we need now? Well there is no other action except that to fight government, especially in the communist and socialism country imo.

yes bro, but u should read what gandhi did in INDIA back then (passive resistance) ..but u should be anonymous that is the key or else what do u expect ? they wont leave u when u act like a threat to them ..

[msc_de]

RT @patrickpoon

[msc_de]

[otrkid70]

The Chinese Government have no concerns for human rights or Any other type of rights. The Chinese Government is Fat and Corrupt with lots of Money from Cheap Chinese Slave products flooded throughout the world. They love the fact that the World is making them Rich.   

 Only the people of China can change this.   How do you say Civil War in Chinese?

[ashfaq]

The Chinese Government have no concerns for human rights or Any other type of rights. The Chinese Government is Fat and Corrupt with lots of Money from Cheap Chinese Slave products flooded throughout the world. They love the fact that the World is making them Rich.   

 Only the people of China can change this.   How do you say Civil War in Chinese?

yeah bro but what you are saying is not only happening in China but also other super power countries as i dont want to name any but i can assure you that China is the only one,my own country is the same as you mentioned so what if you just say 'democratic country " there is no freedom or power for the people.

[jayce]

[quote author=no-ice-please link=topic=1117666.msg12169423#msg12169423 date=1439865399]
[quote author=ashfaq link=topic=1117666.msg12161428#msg12161428 date=1439790752]
[quote author=otrkid70 link=topic=1117666.msg12159580#msg12159580 date=1439764498]
The Chinese Government have no concerns for human rights or Any other type of rights. The Chinese Government is Fat and Corrupt with lots of Money from Cheap Chinese Slave products flooded throughout the world. They love the fact that the World is making them Rich.   

 Only the people of China can change this.   How do you say Civil War in Chinese?
[/quote]
yeah bro but what you are saying is not only happening in China but also other super power countries as i dont want to name any but i can assure you that China is the only one,my own country is the same as you mentioned so what if you just say 'democratic country " there is no freedom or power for the people.
[/quote]

All national leaders, American, Chinese etc have to provide jobs to have domestic peace. For most people food comes before liberty. Civil war will not be between half of any one country today but between broader groups.

Today there are private companies arranging to colonize Mars.

Tomorrow private groups will do much more.

Some things to consider: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/08/17/woman-fined-under-gag-law-for-posting-pic-spanish-cop-car-in-handicapped-spot/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spanish-man-fined-up-to-600-under-new-gag-laws-for-calling-police-slackers-in-facebook-post-10424251.html



China is ahead in some regards http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/couple-refuses-move-apartment-building-lies-middle-roadway-article-1.1206400
[/quote]
It reminds me with 'UP' movie. They are brave couple anyway. If I am on that condition, I cant refuse to move from that. But, I think thats not a good idea for let their house lies middle roadway. I mean, thats not safe for their family.

[ashfaq]

well yeah that is the biggest problem which people need to understand that there is should be no extra rights given to the government which they dont require...but who can explain the people.

[msc_de]

The Chinese Government have no concerns for human rights or Any other type of rights. The Chinese Government is Fat and Corrupt with lots of Money from Cheap Chinese Slave products flooded throughout the world. They love the fact that the World is making them Rich.   

 Only the people of China can change this.   How do you say Civil War in Chinese?

sooner or later

no political reformation then revolution on the way

[jayce]

In most countries, including the U.S., there is no liberty to "refuse" a government request for your land. If the government wants your land they give you some money, take your land and you are "free" to complain in court.

Point being that in different countries the beast eats differently.

When you sacrifice any individual for society you are sealing the fate of your society. George Orwell was one of the best explainers of this.

Yeah, but sometimes government does that for its people, like build a bridge, highway, or park for them. Actually there are few useful infrastructures that government have built for us imo.

[ummina]

i have watched on tv more than 3 years ago may be..
and the toics is, there are any accident when the people hit by driver, but not anyone to help. just watch..
and cant to think, why??? why there is no one help the child??? oh my God. there is any good people in this world??

i wanna cry when i watch that.
 may be china must have human right protection system...
if, the right people must to save... dont be apatheticand selfish people, we should to be care with around us.
with anyone,..

[jayce]

i have watched on tv more than 3 years ago may be..
and the toics is, there are any accident when the people hit by driver, but not anyone to help. just watch..
and cant to think, why??? why there is no one help the child??? oh my God. there is any good people in this world??

i wanna cry when i watch that.
 may be china must have human right protection system...
if, the right people must to save... dont be apatheticand selfish people, we should to be care with around us.
with anyone,..

Was the accident in China? Nowadays, there is no person who care with others without any purpose. When accident is happening, most people prefer to take their gadgets and record the accident instead of help the victims.

[msc_de]

Prisoner of Conscience – Wang Yu
Jul 23, 2015 • 7:43 pm
Wang Yu 王宇

WangYu

Crime: Creating a disturbance & endangering state security

Length of Punishment: N/A

Court: N/A

Trial Date: N/A

Sentencing Date: N/A

Dates of Detention/Arrest: July 9, 2015 (detained)

Place of Incarceration: Residential surveillance at undisclosed location

Background

“She is a brave, forthright, selfless human rights lawyer. Most of the time she is on the road, seeking justice and defending the rights of wronged individuals, despite authorities having insulted her, stolen her phone, kicked her out courthouses, and even illegally detained her. She was never afraid, and continued to fight against violations committed by the authorities. She does not care for fame, or to make big money, but tirelessly works on many difficult and risky rights cases, in pursuit of legal justice. Her name is Wang Yu (王宇), and she is the pride of Chinese lawyers.”

                                                — Disbarred Rights Lawyer Wang Quanping (王全平)

 

In the early hours of July 9, 2015, authorities abducted prominent human rights lawyer Wang Yu from her residence in Beijing after they apparently had cut the power in her home. Wang had returned home that morning after taking her husband, Bao Longjun (包龙军), and teenage son, Bao Zhuoxuan (包卓轩), to the Beijing airport. She sent out alerts through her phone about unidentified people trying to break the lock on her apartment around 4 a.m., and has since been out of contact. According to neighbors, guards told them the heavy police presence was a raid on drug dealers and that one person was detained. Both Wang’s husband and son were prevented from boarding their plane and taken away. Bao Zhuoxuan was later handed over to his aunt, while his parents remain in criminal detention without police confirmation of criminal charges or their whereabouts. Wang’s son continued to be summoned and harassed by police while being barred from traveling and threatened not to speak to others. The day after Wang Yu was taken away, police also abducted the director of her law firm, Zhou Shifeng (周世峰), from his hotel room in the outskirts of Beijing and took him away with his head covered.

Soon after Wang Yu disappeared, more than 100 lawyers signed an open letter calling for her release. In response, authorities targeted almost all of them in a nationwide crackdown, setting off rapid police operations that involved abductions, detentions, interrogations, harassment, and threats. Those released from interrogation were warned not to voice support for Wang Yu or any of the detained lawyers. Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, which employs Wang, was the focus of a Xinhua state media article published on July 11 accusing the firm of running a “criminal syndicate” and serving as a platform for masterminding serious illegal activities to incite “social disorder” and gain “profits.” Citing the Ministry of Public Security, Xinhua confirmed the criminal detentions of the law firm’s director, several of its lawyers, paralegals, and administrative staff. Beijing Fengrui Law Firm has employed several of the country’s most courageous lawyers and even renowned activists, such as Wu Gan (吴淦). The raid and crackdown, though unprecedented, were part of a pattern that had been observed for years in China, where authorities have pressured law firms to fire (or simply not hire) rights lawyers.

Wang Yu has frequently been harassed, threatened, searched, and physically assaulted by police since she began to take on rights abuse cases in 2011. Just a week before Wang’s detention, she was protesting procedural violations at a pretrial meeting when a judge ordered her forcibly removed from the courthouse by bailiffs, who caused an injury to Wang’s shoulder. She has represented activists, scholars, Falun Gong practitioners, farmers, and petitioners in cases involving a wide array of issues, including women’s and children’s rights, and the rights to religion, housing, and freedom of expression, assembly, and association.

She has defended ordinary citizens victimized by China’s broken justice system, as well as prominent members of the country’s civil society who have paid a great price for their advocacy work. Wang represented the influential Uyghur scholar and activist, Ilham Tohti (伊力哈木.土赫提), who was sentenced to life in prison in January 2014 for advocating peaceful means to resolve ethnic tensions and to end state repression in Xinjiang. She also defended the late activist Cao Shunli (曹顺利), who died in March 2014 after pushing for years for access to international human rights mechanisms to improve rights conditions in China. Wang has persistently offered assistance amid heightened government attacks against civil society, such as with the detentions of the Five Feminists in the spring of 2015.

While government authorities have attacked Wang Yu for her efforts, her courageous rights defense work has attracted accolades from fellow lawyers. In 2013, China’s legal community, led by an organization called Public Interest Litigation, nominated two of Wang’s cases as “Top Ten Public Interest Cases,” including the case of two female toddlers who had been starved to death in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Wang and her colleagues filed litigation charges against local branches of the Public Security Bureau, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Community Administrative Division, and All-China Women’s Federation. Even though she did not win the case, the suit generated attention to the issue of insufficient national laws for protecting children. In the other nominated case, Wang provided pro bono representation to a farmer who twice had been forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital in reprisal for petitioning his grievances to the local government. In the end, a settlement was reached despite the perpetrators denying wrongdoing.

Wang Yu has taken on Falun Gong cases around China—including in Beijing, and the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, and Shandong—despite the fact that these cases heighten the chance of police mistreatment and retaliation. She assumed precisely this sort of risk when she decided to represent a Falun Gong practitioner illegally detained in the city of Jiansanjiang in Heilongjiang in 2014. In an incident that was widely monitored and condemned by China’s civil society, her client’s previous lawyers had suffered broken ribs after being seized, detained, and tortured for trying to provide legal assistance.

Authorities threw Wang Yu off a case in February 2015 after she filed a complaint against a judge for procedural violations during a hearing where she represented Fan Mugen (范木根) in Jiangsu Province. Fan is a farmer who attacked in self-defense two members of an illegal eviction team who had assaulted Fan and his family while attempting to demolish their home. The two men later died, and Fan was sentenced to eight years in prison when his trial resumed in May 2015, without any lawyer allowed inside the courtroom.

 

“Now, in fact, you could be detained with a charge of ‘creating a disturbance’ or ‘inciting subversion of state power’ if you say something on the Internet, and get sentenced. Perhaps you can say that is just for Falun Gong practitioners, but really it is also for us, and we should not let the government arbitrarily persecute any citizen. My power is limited, but despite being limited, I hope to make a small impact. Every lawyer who works on human rights cases thinks this way.” — Wang Yu

 

Born in 1971 in Inner Mongolia, Wang Yu graduated from China University of Political Science and Law in 1994, and began practicing law in Beijing in 2004. Started out as a commercial lawyer, Wang decided to pursue defending human rights after a personal encounter with China’s unchecked police power and failed legal system landed her in jail for two-and-a-half years. In May 2008, Wang got into in an altercation at a train station where staff prevented her from entering even though she had a ticket. Several unidentified men assaulted Wang. The lawyer filed a complaint at the local police station, but seven months later, police detained her for “intentional assault,” accusing her of beating three male personnel at the train station, and sent her to prison. She also was fined 129,377 RMB (approx. $21,500). According to a friend, since Wang’s release from prison in 2011, she has not even fully recovered her physical strength, yet she continued to travel across China fighting to defend others.

Her past imprisonment became the basis for a smear campaign in Xinhua, which published an article on June 11, 2015, portraying Wang Yu as a violent and deceitful lawyer who had refused to pay the financial penalty for her actions. Wang’s colleagues and supporters recognized that the defamation was in fact only further reprisal against the lawyer for taking on another high-profile case in June 2015—representing Wu Gan, the maverick activist who had been detained for criticizing officials. That same month, hundreds of lawyers and activists joined together to lend her funds to help pay off the legal fine, which Wang was not able to do before she was abducted from her home.

Many who know and have worked with Wang Yu describe her as a courageous and fearless “warrior.” She has raced to the frontlines of rights defense work in China to provide legal aid to those in need, regardless of how difficult or politically sensitive a case is.

http://chrdnet.com/2015/07/prisoner-of-conscience-wang-yu/

[ashfaq]

Is there any news on both of them ,i mean is there any kind of movement ?? at least if other human rights lawyers just dont give up the situation wont get worse.

[msc_de]

Is there any news on both of them ,i mean is there any kind of movement ?? at least if other human rights lawyers just dont give up the situation wont get worse.

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/08/what-happened-to-the-detained-lawyers/

[pinball8]

nothing that we can to do about that.
just awarennes from the china society with this news.
they can to learn and have instropection self.
are they good people and have conscience or not.
with this. they can more do respect with each other.
still there is goodness?

[tvbcof]

One can get a sense of who runs a country and with how much authority by observing who ends up disappeared or dead.  Judging by this, I'd say that those who emphisize the medical/industrial complex as a key element of our leadership here in the U.S. do so with some justification.

[MakingMoneyHoney]

One can get a sense of who runs a country and with how much authority by observing who ends up disappeared or dead.  Judging by this, I'd say that those who emphisize the medical/industrial complex as a key element of our leadership here in the U.S. do so with some justification.

There's more than just 8 dead now. The mainstream news won't cover it either. Also Brandy Vaughn is being stalked/harassed due to her speaking out against forced vaccinations.

Another Doctor DEAD: Dr. Mary Rene Bovier Found stabbed to death

Sharon doctor's death treated as a homicide

[msc_de]

China Probes Another Top Rights Lawyer For 'Subversion'
2015-08-25


Activists in Hong Kong demonstrate for the release of rights lawyers detained on the Chinese mainland, Aug. 25, 2015.
RFA


Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin have confirmed they are investigating a top rights lawyer of "subversion," amid growing calls for the release of dozens of people in a nationwide crackdown on the country's embattled legal profession.

Bao Longjun, who was detained alongside his wife and fellow rights lawyer Wang Yu on July 9, at the start of a nationwide police operation, has now had "incitement to subvert state power" added to his charge sheet, his lawyer Chen Yongfu told RFA.

Previously, Bao, who is being held at under "residential surveillance"
at an unknown location, had been charged with the less serious "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."

"Now that the police have confirmed the suspected charges, they will investigate," Chen said, after enquiring about his client's whereabouts at Tianjin's Hexi district detention center on Monday. "If he is formally arrested, then he will be transferred to the detention center."

Earlier this month, Tianjin police confirmed that they are holding Bao's wife Wang Yu on identical charges, also at an unknown "residential" location.

In recent weeks, police have detained or interrogated at least 269 lawyers, law firm staff, and associated human right activists, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers' Concern Group (CHRLCG) said on its website.

More than 20 people remain in detention, 16 of them at undisclosed locations, while many more have been placed under surveillance, police warning or house arrest.

Chen said the additional charge would make it harder to meet with Bao.

"According to the Criminal Procedure Law, where the charges involve harming state security, lawyers must get permission from the authorities before they are allowed to meet with their client," he said.

Legal assistant Zhao Wei, who was detained during the crackdown on Wang, Bao and other colleagues at Beijing's Fengrui law firm, has been incommunicado for 37 days, her lawyer Ren Quanniu told RFA.

Ren said he had applied for a meeting with his client, but the letter was sent back, marked "return to sender."

"I think it's because I wrote 'application for a meeting with a client' on the outside of it," Ren said. "I suspect that it was returned on purpose."



Activists begin postcard campaign

Activists in Hong Kong have launched a postcard campaign calling for the immediate release of rights lawyers detained in the crackdown, and staging protests outside Beijing's representative office in the former British colony.

Pan-democratic lawmaker and barrister Albert Ho said an estimated 17 people are still being held illegally or have "disappeared."

But he said he and other lawyers would continue to put pressure on the authorities.

"As long as we don't give up hope, and we keep making a fuss, I hope that we will come through this dark period," Ho said. "We have seen a lot of young human rights lawyers who have refused to give in [to persecution]."

"We will have to show even more courage to stand up and fight for peace, justice and human rights," he said.

Meanwhile, Beijing rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has filed a freedom of information request with the authorities in a bid to discover the whereabouts of the detained lawyers.

"I have written to five different government departments, but I haven't had any kind of reply from any of them," Yu told RFA in a recent interview.

"Now, I will have to use legal channels to demand that they respond, and they are supposed to investigate any lawsuit I bring against them," he said. "They are supposed to report the outcome of this investigation to me."

"I am trying to use freedom of information requests to get a clear answer about this."

Guangdong-based rights attorney Sui Muqing has also been detained on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," and his lawyer Liu Zhengqing has had no reply to his request for a meeting with his client.

"We don't even know where he is being held," Liu said. "I have repeatedly applied for a meeting, but they never reply."

"We have no way of knowing what is going on [with Sui]," he added. "My next step will be to try the Guangzhou municipal police department."

The crackdown on Chinese lawyers comes as the government intensifies a clampdown on all forms of civil society, including nongovernmental organizations, in an apparent bid to cleanse it of alleged "foreign influence."

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."

Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Xin Lin for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-probes-another-top-rights-lawyer-for-subversion-08252015110314.html

[msc_de]

you are all heroes!!!

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

@yacky_liu  was detained yesterday in guangzhou due to this shirt supporting chinese rights lawyers

[msc_de]

YOU ARE HEROES TOO

[tvbcof]

When I was in China I had occasion to go to the police station.  My 'apartment got in trouble' and the police wanted to see everyone's passport.  I (alone) was not willing to release my passport out of my control, having read stern warning about not doing so, so I took it to the station in person.

Everything was cool of course.  My passport was inspected quickly in the front office and the cops even gave me a lift back home.  I was aware that the cops were instructed to treat Westerns well and that seems to have been the case.

The most interesting thing was that every one of my friends and co-workers had the same reaction when I mentioned I went to the station.  That is, about a half-second of pure terror which showed in their eyes.  I also noticed that seeking help from the police did not seem to be something which was even considered by the locals.

These observations (and the pictures of the remains of the Fallon Gong people when the police got done with them) really drove home the notion of a 'police state' to me.  It also made me think that it is worth putting up a fight to try to avoid having that become the state of affairs here in the U.S.  More and more I worry that we are losing the struggle.

I do consider those fighting for human rights in China to be heros and much stronger people than I would likely every be.  I wish them the best.

[msc_de]

When I was in China I had occasion to go to the police station.  My 'apartment got in trouble' and the police wanted to see everyone's passport.  I (alone) was not willing to release my passport out of my control, having read stern warning about not doing so, so I took it to the station in person.

Everything was cool of course.  My passport was inspected quickly in the front office and the cops even gave me a lift back home.  I was aware that the cops were instructed to treat Westerns well and that seems to have been the case.

The most interesting thing was that every one of my friends and co-workers had the same reaction when I mentioned I went to the station.  That is, about a half-second of pure terror which showed in their eyes.  I also noticed that seeking help from the police did not seem to be something which was even considered by the locals.

These observations (and the pictures of the remains of the Fallon Gong people when the police got done with them) really drove home the notion of a 'police state' to me.  It also made me think that it is worth putting up a fight to try to avoid having that become the state of affairs here in the U.S.  More and more I worry that we are losing the struggle.

I do consider those fighting for human rights in China to be heros and much stronger people than I would likely every be.  I wish them the best.

thank you for sharing.

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

I googled the last person and found little. The first page that seems to apply to that Gao Yue is https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2015/08/china-list-of-lawyers-and-activists-targeted/ which goes to a "Page does not exist" error.

Yahoo and Google do not seem to favor publicizing the issue.

i only got update and quicker information on twitter, quite a lot in chinese

[msc_de]

Four Activists Held in China's Guangdong Over Lawyer Campaign T-Shirts

2015-09-01 


http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/tshirts-09012015105022.html

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong are holding four netizens amid a nationwide crackdown on rights lawyers and activists after one posted a photo of themselves wearing a T-shirt calling for the release of detained attorney Wang Yu.

Liu Yajie is currently being held on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," her lawyer told RFA.

Police have also detained fellow activists Liu Jinlian, Huang Xi, Wei Xiaobing and Huang Yongxiang, but their whereabouts were still unknown by Tuesday evening, when repeated calls to their personal cell phones resulted in a "switched off" message.

The four were detained after gathering at Liu's home on Friday, and taken to the nearby Yongxin police station in Xintang district of Guangdong's Zengcheng city.

"I went to Yongxin police station in Zengcheng this morning," Liu's lawyer Liu Zhengqing told RFA on Tuesday. "According to the police officers there, Liu Yajie is already under criminal detention."

"[They said] they didn't initiate this case, because they haven't the power to do that," he said. "It was initiated by the state security police in [provincial capital] Guangzhou," he said.

"They told me that she is now being held in the Zengcheng detention center."

Liu Zhengqing said he held a very brief meeting with Liu Yajie later on Tuesday, that was tightly controlled by police.

"I hadn't expected that my meeting with Liu Yajie would only last two minutes," he said. "A police officer came into the meeting room and told Liu Yajie to leave, and when I asked why, he said he was terminating the meeting."

Detention center authorities sometimes limit or deny access to lawyers on the basis that the meeting will "harm state security," but the public order charge of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" isn't in that category.

"When I went to ask the duty officer why this had happened, he told me they had just had a notice through from the state security police in Zengcheng city saying that Liu Yajie was to be denied visits from her lawyer," Liu Zhengqing said.

He added: "But this is a regular criminal case, and there's no need for approval from the state security police."

"I don't think we have to march to the beat of their drum."

Guangdong-based rights activist Liu Sifang, who is a close friend of Liu Yajie, said she had been a vocal and enthusiastic participant in civil society and had helped out in a number of civil rights cases.

"She is a single mother with a daughter, and we don't know at the moment just who is taking care of the child," Liu Sifang said.

"Any citizen or any person with any conscience at all, who loves justice, would want to speak out in support of those unjustly detained lawyers," Liu Sifang said.




Recent crackdown

As of Aug. 28, at least 277 lawyers, paralegals and assistants and other activists or family members had been detained, placed under house arrest or otherwise had their movements restricted in an ongoing crackdown, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website.

Nineteen people, including 12 lawyers, remain in criminal detention or are being held under "residential surveillance" in undisclosed locations, which is associated with a high risk of torture and mistreatment, rights groups say.

The crackdown began with the midnight detention of top rights attorney Wang Yu, her husband and son, as well as fellow rights lawyers and other employees of the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm on July 9-10.

Several lawyers have since been released from detention or questioning but have been prevented from leaving the country, the CHRLCG said.

A friend of the four Zengcheng activists, who gave only his surname Zhou, said he believed their detentions were linked to a T-shirt they had printed with Wang Yu's photograph on it, calling for the lawyers' release.

He said activists are still being detained across China for engaging in similar activities.

"In the past couple of days, friends of mine in Sichuan have been taken down to the police station and questioned," Zhou said.

"They all had to 'drink tea' [with state security police], and were questioned for several hours."

The police officers told them they were being questioned in connection with a parcel sent from Guangdong, Zhou said.

He said one of the parcels had been sent using Liu Yajie's ID card, and likely contained printed T-shirts in support of Wang Yu.

"We still don't know exactly who organized these T-shirts," Zhou said.

Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[tvbcof]

...
I do consider those fighting for human rights in China to be heros and much stronger people than I would likely every be.  I wish them the best.

thank you for sharing.

We 'on the right side of humanity' no matter which side of which ocean we are on are probably going to need each other before it's all over with.  Again, best wishes.

[msc_de]

@yacky_liu  was detained yesterday in guangzhou due to this shirt supporting chinese rights lawyers

---images---

I googled the last person and found little. The first page that seems to apply to that Gao Yue is https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2015/08/china-list-of-lawyers-and-activists-targeted/ which goes to a "Page does not exist" error.

Yahoo and Google do not seem to favor publicizing the issue.

i only got update and quicker information on twitter, quite a lot in chinese

msc, The person above is https://twitter.com/yacky_liu/status/620462520210362368  ?

Posted on July 10 but only 11 retweets? That is less than a photo of someone's big toe will get if they post by accident.

Can someone translate




Very unusual that this has such low ranking on major search engines.

吓唬老子？？？？

 去你妈地！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

[msc_de]

[peter0021]

has anyone found or been exposed ?

[msc_de]

has anyone found or been exposed ?

more info on twitter

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

RT ‏@chrlcg  :  Who is coming tomorrow at 1pm? Meet us at Hong Kong Western District Police Station   #freethelawyers

[msc_de]

[msc_de]

Teen Son of Detained Rights Lawyer 'Taken Away' From Myanmar Guesthouse
2015-10-09

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/teen-son-of-detained-rights-lawyer-taken-away-from-myanmar-guesthouse-10092015132215.html

Authorities in Myanmar have detained the teenage son of detained Chinese rights lawyer Wang Yu in a murky cross-border operation after he was denied permission to leave the country legally, a rights website and a Chinese lawyer said on Friday.

Bao Zhuoxuan, also known by his nickname Bao Mengmeng, was taken away from the Huadu Guesthouse in the border town of Mongla by Burmese police on Tuesday, the China Change website reported.

Two adult males, Tang Zhishun and Xing Qingxian were detained at the same time. The trio had crossed the border as tourists during the National Day holidays last week, it said.

It quoted the guesthouse owner as saying that the police had shown Burmese IDs, but local police later denied having detained anyone.

Bao Mengmeng was initially held at an unknown location following the detention of his parents, Bao Longjun and Wang Yu, which kicked off a nationwide police operation that has detained or questioned at least 288 lawyers and their associates since the night of July 9-10.

Bao, who had planned to attend college in Australia, was later told he couldn't leave China because his departure would "harm state security," and police confiscated his passport.

A number of rights lawyers have also been stopped by border guards from leaving China since.

Wang's colleague and supporter Yu Wensheng confirmed the report, but said he was having a hard time confirming exactly what had happened.

"It's likely that [Bao] is already in the hands of the Chinese police," Yu told RFA on Friday.

But he added: "The details of the situation aren't clear at the moment, because I only learned about this today. I am still not sure whether they were detained by Myanmar police or by Chinese police who had crossed the border."

He said Bao's whereabouts are still unknown, however, and that he had heard that the case is being handled by the state security police from China's northern region of Inner Mongolia.

No case file in Mongla

Mongla is in a military zone controlled by former Chinese citizen Lin Xianming and his son Lin Daode of the 815 Army, but China's currency, the yuan, circulates freely there, and there are close economic ties, as well as cross-border postal services.

Local residents are mostly ethnic Han Chinese, and the official language is Mandarin. The region has regular transport links across the border and shares a telephone code with China's Xishuangbanna region, whose police officers have the ability to cross the border easily.

An officer who answered the phone at the Mongla police bureau, however, declined to confirm who had detained Bao.

"Are you absolutely sure it was us who detained him?" the officer said. "If we had, there would be a case file set up here. We wouldn't have been able to detain him without a case file."

"I don't really know what's going on."

Asked if Myanmar police had acted on a request from Chinese police, he said it was unlikely.

"We don't just take orders from the Chinese side ... just like that,"
he said. "I think you should ask our leaders if you want to get answers to this question."

An officer who answered the phone at the Xishuangbanna police bureau in China said its officers have carried out cross-border arrests in the past.

"Sometimes we go [there] if it's necessary," the officer said. But he declined to comment on the detention of Bao.

"How would I know about that? There's no point in talking to me about this stuff," he said.

According to China Change, Bao's friends have reported the three detainees missing with local police, but say the guesthouse owner is refusing to discuss the case following a second visit from local police.

Wang Yu is being held under "residential surveillance" at an unknown location on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," as well as the more serious "incitement to subvert state power," her lawyers have said.

But repeated requests from Wang's and Bao Longjun's lawyers for a meeting with their clients have been turned down by the authorities.



China’s tightly controlled state media has accused the Fengrui lawyers of “troublemaking” and seeking to incite mass incidents by publicizing cases where they defend some of the most vulnerable groups in society.

Wang is well-known in China's human rights community for representing some of the most vulnerable people in Chinese society.

Her clients have included jailed moderate ethnic Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, outspoken rights activist Cao Shunli, who died after being denied medical treatment in detention and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group.

She has also represented forced evictees and petitioners, as well as activists seeking to protect the rights of women and children, and the right to freedom of religion, housing and of expression.

Wang Yu has frequently been harassed, threatened, searched, and physically assaulted by police since she began to take on rights abuse cases in 2011.

Hong Kong campaigners on Friday marched to Beijing's representative office in the former British colony to demand the release of all detained Chinese human rights lawyers.

Holding banners and chanting "Release the rights activists! Release the lawyers!" the group held up a list of detainees it wanted released immediately.

Napier Ng of the Progressive Lawyers' Group which helped organize the protest, said many lawyers in Hong Kong, where rule of law has largely persisted since the 1997 handover to China, are worried about the crackdown across the internal border.

"It is quite chilling for people who work in the legal profession in Hong Kong," Ng told RFA on Friday. "Today, mainland China, tomorrow, Hong Kong."

"For every day that goes by [without their release] more and more Hong Kong people will stop believing Beijing's promises regarding the rule of law here," he said.

Pan-democratic lawmaker and rights lawyer Albert Ho, who heads the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, said the situation for China's embattled legal profession is "extremely serious."

"We have never seen such a large operation targeting lawyers before," Ho said. "The [government's] actions are trampling on their stated policy of ruling the country according to law."

Reported by Lo Man-san and Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[msc_de]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/bao-zhuoxuan-teenage-son-of-prominent-chinese-human-rights-lawyer-is-missing-20151009-gk5tv8.html?stb=twt


Bao Zhuoxuan, teenage son of prominent Chinese human rights lawyer, is missing
Date: October 10, 2015 - 6:00AM
13 reading nowRead later
 Philip Wen
Philip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media


Beijing: The teenage son of a detained human rights lawyer blocked by Chinese authorities from attending high school in Australia has gone missing in Myanmar while attempting to flee China.

Bao Zhuoxuan, 16, was taken from his hotel on Tuesday by uniformed men in the Burmese town of Mong La, near the Chinese border, according to rights activists helping with his journey.

Mr Bao had been en route to Thailand where he planned to apply for asylum in the United States, having been under constant surveillance and harassment from Chinese authorities since his parents, prominent lawyer Wang Yu and legal activist Bao Longjun, were detained in July amid a sweeping government crackdown on lawyers in China.
Advertisement

"We believed we could find a way for him to travel as a refugee," Zhou Fengshuo, a US-based rights activist who had travelled to Thailand to meet Mr Bao, told Fairfax Media.

"He was under constant surveillance and harassment – he is just 16 years old."

Mr Zhou said the wife of the hotel owner said more than 10 officers produced Myanmar police identification and searched the guest rooms, taking away Mr Bao and the two supporters accompanying him, Tang Zhishun and Xing Qingxian.
None of the three have been heard from since, prompting rights activists to raise the alarm. Attempts by Fairfax Media to contact Mr Bao were also unsuccessful.

The route through Myanmar represented Mr Bao's best chance of fleeing China given his passport had been confiscated by Chinese authorities when he was forcibly stopped from his boarding his flight to Australia in July.

"I started to scream but one of the men put his hand over my mouth," Mr Bao told Fairfax Media in a phone interview in July. The teenager was thrown into a van and detained alone for two nights, before being released to family in Tianjin and then Inner Mongolia.
Other relatives of Chinese dissidents have fled through Myanmar, including the wife and two children of Gao Zhisheng, a prominent rights lawyer who has been held in lengthy spells of secret confinement.

Mr Bao's parents are among at least 288 rights lawyers, activists and law firm staff that have been detained or questioned by Chinese authorities since July, according to records kept by the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.
It comes amid a broader suppression of civil society under President Xi Jinping, which has targeted intellectuals, activists, artists, lawyers, journalists and non-governmental organisations.

[apollofire]

Human rights violations are very common in emerging economies like China and India. Govt is punishing them too hide their own blunders

[msc_de]

Human rights violations are very common in emerging economies like China and India. Govt is punishing them too hide their own blunders

india is quite different from china

[msc_de]

Teen Son of Rights Lawyers 'Under House Arrest' as Families Flee China
2015-10-12 


http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/son-10122015130738.html



Chinese authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia are holding the 16-year-old son of two detained rights lawyers under house arrest, as police target fellow lawyers who tried to help him escape via Myanmar.

Bao Zhuoxuan, also known as Bao Mengmeng, was detained on Oct. 6 in Myanmar after trying to escape to the United States amid a nationwide police operation targeting human rights lawyers, during which his passport was confiscated.

He is now under 24-hour police surveillance at his grandparents' house in Inner Mongolia and is not allowed contact with the outside world, Liang Bo, a San Francisco-based family friend, told the Associated Press.

Bao, who is the son of detained Chinese rights lawyers Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, was detained in Mongla, northern Myanmar, in a murky cross-border operation after he was denied permission to leave the country legally.

Wang's colleague and supporter Yu Wensheng said he is "very worried" about Bao.

"We are extremely worried about him, now and when he was detained, because he is basically just a kid, and both his parents have been detained," Yu told RFA on Monday.

"We are calling on the international community to bring his case up with the Chinese authorities," said Yu, who issued a statement which had gained some 200 signatures by Monday evening local time.

"We think this is terrible and wrong, because Bao Mengmeng is a child, who should be afforded some protection," the mother of activist Yeung Hung, who recently gained political asylum in Canada, told RFA after signing the statement.

"Everyone has human rights, whether they are an adult or a child," she said. "The lawyers who have been detained haven't been allowed lawyers to represent them. That's why I'm calling on the international community."

Liang told AP that Bao has already been beaten by police when under house arrest previously, in the northern port city of Tianjin.

Two activists

Meanwhile, police have searched the homes of rights activists Tang Zhishun, 40, and Xing Qingxian, 49, who had crossed the border with Bao during the National Day holidays last week and who were detained at the same time as him.

The whereabouts of the two men is currently unknown, while their families have fled the country, according to U.S.-based veteran dissident Zhou Fengsuo, who helped to arrange Bao's escape.

Tang's wife and young daughter and Xing's wife all recently arrived in the U.S. after fleeing China amid an ongoing crackdown on rights lawyers, their families and associates, he said on Monday.

"Tang Zhishun's wife and daughter are both in San Francisco," Zhou told RFA. "She was very worried by the situation and called home, where her parents said they couldn't talk right now [implying that police were present] and that the two of them were better off overseas."

Zhou said Xing Qingxian's wife He Juan also arrived at San Francisco airport on Monday, after an equally precipitate departure.

"He Juan made the decision to leave very suddenly, as soon as she found out that the authorities were searching her home," he said.

"She left China via Yunnan."

Zhou said the Chinese government has yet to comment on the detention operation in Myanmar.

"The Chinese government hasn't openly admitted or detailed how it came to detain people in Myanmar," Zhou said.

He Juan said she had initially planned to visit the U.S. as a tourist, but had decided to come early.

"Some people said my husband had run into trouble, or had been detained, so I thought that I couldn't stay behind in China, and that I'd better leave very fast," she said shortly after her arrival.

"I went to Thailand via Laos; that's how I got out," she said.

Refused exit

Prominent rights lawyer Ge Wenxiu said he was recently denied permission to board the Guangzhou-Kowloon express train heading across the internal border with the former British colony of Hong Kong.

"They said they had received a notification from the Beijing police department not to let me leave the country," Ge told RFA.

"The didn't give any details, but it was basically to do with my advocacy work for detained rights lawyer Liu Sixin," he said.

Liu was among a number of lawyers and other employees of Beijing's Fengrui law firm in July, who have since been accused by China's official media of deliberately fomenting social unrest.

Chinese police have detained or questioned at least 288 lawyers and their associates since the night of July 9-10 when Bao's parents were detained, according to the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers' Concern group.

More than 20 people remain in detention, 16 of them at undisclosed locations, while many more have been placed under surveillance, police warning or house arrest.

A number of rights lawyers have also been stopped by border guards from leaving China since.

Bao, who had planned to attend college in Australia, was later told he couldn't leave China because his departure would "harm state security," and police confiscated his passport.

Article 12 of China’s Exit and Entry Administration Law provides for a Chinese citizen to be prohibited from exiting China "because the national security or interest may be compromised," but the criteria for such a decision are not defined.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

[msc_de]

Bao Zhuoxuan, Son of Rights Lawyer Held in China, Is Said to Be Under House Arrest

By MICHAEL FORSYTHE

OCT. 12, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/asia/china-bao-zhuoxuan-son-wang-yu-rights-lawyer-house-arrest.html?_r=0


HONG KONG — The 16-year-old son of a detained Chinese human rights lawyer is now living under house arrest in northern China after being snatched at a Myanmar border town last week as he was trying to escape to the United States, a family friend said.

Bao Zhuoxuan, the son of the prominent human rights lawyer Wang Yu, is at his grandparents’ home in the Inner Mongolia region, said the friend, Liang Bo, who was planning to host Mr. Bao in the San Francisco area. Ms. Wang was detained in July during a nationwide crackdown in which more than 220 people were summoned for questioning. She remains in custody. Chinese officials have accused Ms. Wang of “inciting subversion of state power.”

Mr. Bao was taken by uniformed men this month from a guesthouse in Mong La, a town in Myanmar near the Chinese border, said Fengsuo Zhou, a United States citizen and human rights activist. Mr. Zhou had traveled to Bangkok to meet Mr. Bao and help arrange his travel papers to America.


Mr. Bao is now in Ulanhot, a city in Inner Mongolia, where he is under surveillance by the police and his movements are restricted, Ms. Liang said in a telephone interview. Mr. Bao’s grandparents could not be reached at two mobile phone numbers belonging to them. A woman at the office of politics of the Ulanhot Police Bureau said the bureau had no such case involving a 16-year-old boy named Bao Zhuoxuan.


Mr. Bao’s mother, Ms. Wang, is one of the most prominent human rights lawyers in China. She defended Ilham Tohti, an economics professor whom the Chinese government had accused of inciting separatism in his native Xinjiang and sentenced last year to life in prison. Her detention is part of a widespread crackdown under President Xi Jinping of human rights activists and the lawyers who represent them. In many cases, as with Mr. Bao, their families become pawns as the police try to pressure the detainees, Mr. Zhou said.

“That is the signature of Xi’s recent crackdown on human rights activists,” Mr. Zhou said in a telephone interview. “They want to crack open their defense basically, and they want to crush their will.”


Mr. Bao’s case has received international attention, and last week, a report by the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China recommended that lawmakers and administration officials bring it up with the Chinese government.

Mr. Bao was detained at Beijing’s international airport in July when he and his father were trying to leave the country for Australia, where he had been accepted into a school. His passport was revoked, and he was sent to live with his grandparents, according to the commission’s report. His father was taken into custody.

Mr. Zhou as well as other activists and family friends decided that it was worth the risk for Mr. Bao to try to cross the border into Myanmar in an area where passports were not required and to make his way to Bangkok, the Thai capital. There, Mr. Zhou would walk Mr. Bao through the steps required to gain legal entry into the United States.

“We knew it was such a risky move. We tried our best to help him. We tried to help Zhuoxuan to get freedom,” Mr. Zhou said. “It’s a battleground.”

Mia Li contributed research from Beijing.

[msc_de]

RT  ‏@rosetangy :  Australian reporter Philip Wen @PhilipWen11 taken away by Chinese cops in Ulanhot as he tried to intv #BaoZhuoxuan 

[msc_de]

free BaoZhuoxuan 

[msc_de]

Taken Question: Comment on Bao Zhuoxuan

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/10/248214.htm

Taken Question
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC

Question Taken at the October 14, 2015 Daily Press Briefing
October 14, 2015
Share on facebookShare on twitterShare
Attribution is on-the-record from Spokesperson John Kirby.

Question: Does the State Department have comment on the reports of Bao Zhuoxuan’s house arrest?

Answer: The United States is concerned about media reports that Bao Zhuoxuan, the son of detained rights lawyer Wang Yu and her detained husband Bao Longjun, is being held under house arrest in Inner Mongolia, China. We urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and protect the health and safety of this minor child.

We are also disturbed by a seemingly systematic campaign by China to target family members of Chinese citizens who peacefully challenge official policy and work to protect the rights of others. If Bao Zhuoxuan’s family wishes him to study abroad like hundreds of thousands of other Chinese students, China should permit him to leave the country.

We call on China to remove restrictions on Bao Zhuoxuan’s freedom of movement, and again urge China to release Wang Yu and Bao Longjun without condition.

[msc_de]

Taken Question: Comment on Bao Zhuoxuan

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/10/248214.htm

Taken Question
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC

Question Taken at the October 14, 2015 Daily Press Briefing
October 14, 2015
Share on facebookShare on twitterShare
Attribution is on-the-record from Spokesperson John Kirby.

Question: Does the State Department have comment on the reports of Bao Zhuoxuan’s house arrest?

Answer: The United States is concerned about media reports that Bao Zhuoxuan, the son of detained rights lawyer Wang Yu and her detained husband Bao Longjun, is being held under house arrest in Inner Mongolia, China. We urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and protect the health and safety of this minor child.

We are also disturbed by a seemingly systematic campaign by China to target family members of Chinese citizens who peacefully challenge official policy and work to protect the rights of others. If Bao Zhuoxuan’s family wishes him to study abroad like hundreds of thousands of other Chinese students, China should permit him to leave the country.

We call on China to remove restrictions on Bao Zhuoxuan’s freedom of movement, and again urge China to release Wang Yu and Bao Longjun without condition.

pro

[Wilikon]

I am not Chinese, but keep the good fight.


 

[MikeCoin]

has anyone found or been exposed ?

more info on twitter

Whats the twitter name?

[msc_de]

has anyone found or been exposed ?

more info on twitter

Whats the twitter name?

if you are Chinese or understand Chinese language then you can easily find out there

otherwise just follow VOA or BBC news

[msc_de]

China: International Law Requires the Immediate Release of Bao Zhuoxuan | Letter
October 21, 2015
Full PDF Version
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

http://www.lrwc.org/china-international-law-requires-the-immediate-release-of-bao-zhuoxuan-letter/

Xi Jinping
General Secretary, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie
Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
People’s Republic of China

Guo Shengkun
Minister of Public Security
No.14, Donchang’anjie,
Dongchengqu, Beijing 100741
People’s Republic of China
Email:  gabzfwz@mps.gov.cn

Attention CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun

Re: International law requires the immediate release of Bao Zhuoxuan

We write on behalf of Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), a committee of Canadian lawyers who promote human rights and the rule of law internationally. LRWC also campaigns for lawyers and other human rights defenders in danger because of their advocacy.
LRWC demands the immediate release of Bao Zhuoxuan, the return of his passport and removal of all impediments to his traveling to San Francisco California.

Illegal and Arbitrary Arrest, Detention and Treatment of Bao Zhuoxuan

In an illegal bid clearly intended to pressure and punish Bao Zhuoxuan’s parents, Chinese authorities arrested Bao Zhuoxuan, the 16-year-old son of human rights lawyers Wang Yu and Bao Longjun on 9 October 2015. The boy is reported to be under house arrest at the home of his grandparents in Ulanhot: his presence there and the conditions of his detention have not been confirmed by anyone independent of the Government of the People’s Republic of China. Bao Zhuoxuan was arrested by uniformed Chinese police in Mong La, Myanmar while he was enroute to the United States to stay with a family friend, Liang Bo, during his parents’ illegal detention. Liang Bo had been planning to host Mr. Bao Zhuoxuan in the San Francisco area in the absence of his parents.  Wang Yu and Bao Longjun were arrested 9 July 2015 and their whereabouts are unknown.[1] State authorities report that they are being held “under residential surveillance at a designated place.” A recent video of Wang Yu making a forced statement confirms that she is still alive, but her whereabouts, and the conditions under which she and her husband are currently detained, are unknown. Wang Yu and Bao Longjun have been detained for over three months without legal authorization, without access to legal representation and without judicial oversight. Their arrest and detention and the arrest and detention of their son are in gross violation of both Chinese domestic law and China’s international law obligations as a member of the United Nations and as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. LRWC considers the three members of this family to be victims of enforced disappearance.

Journalist Philip Wen was en route to the home of Bao Zhuoxuan’s grandparents when his team was intercepted by four police officers dressed in plain clothes. At the local police station, while asking questions about their credentials, “the officers largely refused to answer questions about Zhuoxuan’s welfare – and when they did, they provided conflicting accounts”, reports Wen. One said “Zhuoxuan had a cold and was running a high fever; another said he was in school”. Three policemen allegedly said the teenager had been “tricked” into crossing the Myanmar border, and “regretted” doing so. After some time, the police were able to determine that the reporters were in fact in Ulanhot legally and had not contravened any regulations. But in China foreign journalists require the permission of an interviewee before conducting interviews. Police in China of course routinely declare that prospective interviewees have declined to grant an interview, without the proposed interviewee ever appearing in person. The police said both the boy and his grandmother had declined to be interviewed, and escorted the journalists to the airport for their return flights to Beijing.

Bao Zhuoxuan’s case has received international attention; a report by the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China recommended that lawmakers and administration officials raise it with the Chinese government. The U.S. State Department said it was concerned over reports that Bao Zhuoxuan, the underage son of detained rights lawyers Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, had been put under house arrest in Inner Mongolia. Spokesman John Kirby said in a statement “We urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and protect the health and safety of this minor child”. “We are also concerned about an apparent systematic campaign of China to persecute relatives of Chinese citizens who peacefully question the official policy and work to protect the rights of others.” “We call on China to remove restrictions on freedom of movement for Bao Zhuoxuan, and again urge China to release Wang Yu and (her husband) Bao Longyun unconditionally”.


Violation of International Obligations by China

Actions that constitute grave violations of China’s international law obligations include the:
Unlawful and arbitrary arrest and detention of Bao Zhuoxuan;
Unjustified prevention of Bao Zhuoxuan from leaving China;
Denial of timely and confidential access to a legal representative of choice;
Denial of judicial review of the legality of the arrest, detention and treatment of Bao Zhuoxuan by a competent, impartial and independent tribunal;

Use by Chinese authorities of harm or threats of harm to Bao Zhuoxuan to coerce confessions from or force compliance by Wang Yu and Bao Longjun;
Use by Chinese authorities of harm or threats of harm to Wang Yu and Bao Longjun to coerce a confession from or force compliance by Bao Zhuoxuan.

These actions by officials acting at the behest of the Government of the People’s Republic of China are grave violations of China’s international law obligations to ensure the protected rights of Bao Zhuoxuan and to prevent and punish violations of those rights. The internationally protected rights of Bao Zhuoxuan which Chinese authorities have violated include his rights to: liberty; freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention; timely and confidential access to legal representation; judicial review of the legality of his arrest, detention and treatment by a competent, impartial and independent tribunal; equality and non-discrimination; freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the right to be treated as a child.

In addition, the arbitrary and unlawful arrest and detention of Bao Zhuoxuan is discriminatory, having been carried out solely because of his status as the son of Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, two human rights lawyers whom China wants to silence. The denial of judicial oversight and access to legal representation constitutes a contravention of the non-derogable prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment that is part of international customary law and a provision of all the above-noted treaties signed, acceded to or ratified by China. The European Court of Human Rights (El-Masri v. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Application no. 39630/09) unanimously held, inter alia, that incommunicado confinement in a hotel for 23 days outside any judicial framework was inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited by the Convention against Torture.

China has accepted and is bound by legal obligations to protect the rights of Bao Zhuoxuan and to effectively prevent and punish violations arising from the: Charter of the United Nations (19 October 1945), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (voted in favour 10 December 1948); Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (4 October 1988); Convention on the Rights of the Child (2 March 1992); and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (signed 5 October 1998). As a state party to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (acceded to 3 September 1997) China has additionally agreed not to “invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.” (Article 27)

In 1945 China accepted the obligation set out in Article 55 of the Charter of the United Nations to promote “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”[2]
These obligations are repeated and have been accepted by China, in all the above-mentioned human rights treaties. As a current member of the UN Human Rights Council China must, in accordance with Resolution A/RES/60/251 of April 2006, “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, shall fully cooperate with the Council and be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism during their term of membership.”

LRWC demands the immediate release of Bao Zhuoxuan, the return of his passport and removal of all impediments preventing him from traveling to San Francisco, California in accordance with China’s international law obligations.
 
Sincerely,
 
Gail Davidson                                                 Clive Ansley
Executive Director, LRWC                             Barrister and Solicitor
China Monitor, LRWC

Copied to:
His Excellency Ambassador Wu Hailong
Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations in Geneva
11, chemin de Surville 1213 Petit-Lancy, Geneva, Switzerland
Email: chinamission_gva@mfa.gov.cn

Mr. Wang Junfeng
All China Lawyers Association
5/F., Qinglan Plaza
No. 24, Dongsishitiao,
Dongchengqu, Beijing 100007, People’s Republic of China

Ms. Mónica Pinto
Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
8-14 Avenue de la Paix 1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland
E-mail: SRindependenceJL@ohchr.org

Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on Torture
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
E-mail: urgent-action@ohchr.org

Ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques
Canadian Embassy
19 Dongzhimenwai Dajie
Chao Yang District
Beijing 100600 PRC
Email: beijing-pa@international.gc.ca

Ambassador Elissa Goldberg
Permanent Canadian Mission to Geneva
5 Avenue de l’Ariana 1202, Geneva, Switzerland
E-mail: genev-gr@international.gc.ca

[1] For more information see, Mass arrest, detention and disappearance of lawyers and other rights advocates in China, LRWC, 16 September, 2015. Online at http://www.lrwc.org/china-mass-arrest-detention-and-disappearance-of-lawyers-and-other-rights-advocates-in-china-report/
[2] Ibid, art 55.

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