Rogue Nation

China’s massive attack on human rights and the rule of law continues
The Washington Post

Li Wenzu, the wife of imprisoned lawyer Wang Quanzhang, reacts before an interview at her home in Beijing on Monday. 

ON JULY 9, 2015, China launched its war on lawyers. 

Over the course of a few weeks, some 300 lawyers, legal assistants and other advocates for the rule of law were rounded up. 

One of the most prominent, Wang Quanzhang, disappeared into secret detention on Aug. 3, 2015; after being held incommunicado for nearly 3½ years, he was the last to go on trial. 

On Monday, he was sentenced to 4½ years in prison on charges of subversion, putting a punctuation mark on one of the principal means of repression used by Xi Jinping to consolidate power.
Since taking office six years ago, Xi has employed corruption investigations to purge rivals in the Communist Party; stepped up censorship of social media; and conducted a massive campaign against Muslims in the East Turkestan colony, hundreds of thousands of whom have been confined to concentration camps and forced to undergo “reeducation.” 

Meanwhile, he has sought to stifle dissent by targeting the lawyers who defend human rights activists and religious believers or bring cases against local authorities for corruption.
Most of the lawyers and activists detained in what became known (for its July 9 date) as the 709 campaign were held for a few weeks; a number were later stripped of their licenses or driven out of business. 

But at least four besides Mr. Wang have been sentenced to prison. 

In August 2016, lawyer Zhou Shifeng and activist Hu Shigen were given terms of seven and 7½ years, respectively; in November 2017, lawyer Jiang Tianyong was sentenced to two years. 

The next month, human rights activist Wu Gan was handed an eight-year term.
Mr. Wang’s trial may have come last because of his refusal to buckle under pressure — including physical torture. 

While some lawyers signed confessions or publicly confessed to plotting against the government, Mr. Wang resisted to the end. 

When his closed trial was held on Dec. 26, he threw a wrench into the proceedings by firing his government-appointed lawyer.
His wife, Li Wenzu, bravely advocated on his behalf, speaking out about his treatment and shaving her head in protest of judges’ refusal to uphold Mr. Wang’s rights under Chinese law. 

She was prevented from attending his trial and denied visitation rights, along with seven lawyers appointed by the family. 

One of those lawyers, Yu Wensheng, has himself been detained incommunicado for more than a year, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
The crackdown on lawyers has attracted some international attention and protests; the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Mr. Wang was being held arbitrarily and called for his release. 

For the most part, the Trump administration has been silent, as it is on most human rights issues involving China.

But the State Department issued a statement Tuesday calling for Mr. Wang’s release and expressing concern about “the deteriorating situation for the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms in China.” 

While that’s not likely to influence Xi, the United States should be heard on cases such as this. 

The courageous Chinese lawyers still attempting to enforce the rule of law deserve the support of the democratic world.

Rogue Nation

China Sentences 'Vulgar Butcher' Rights Activist to Eight Years in Prison
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING — A prominent activist who called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he mocked and pressured Chinese officials was given an eight-year prison sentence Tuesday for "subversion", the harshest sentence handed down in a sweeping crackdown on rights campaigners.

The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the sentence after finding activist Wu Gan guilty of subverting state power. 

Wu will appeal the sentence, his lawyer Ge Yongxi told The Associated Press.
Wu had become known among rights advocates and lawyers for his attention-grabbing campaigns. 

In one, he posed for online portraits brandishing knives that he said he would use to “slaughter the pigs” among local officials who’d done wrong.

In court on Tuesday, Wu struck an irreverent note in his remarks following the sentence, saying he was “grateful to the party for granting me this lofty honor,” according to Ge, who was in court.
“I will remain true to our original aspiration, roll up my sleeves and make an extra effort,” Wu said, playing on well-known phrases Xi Jinping often uses to exhort Communist Party officials to improve their work.
Wu was among the first activists and lawyers caught up in an intense crackdown by authorities that began in 2015. 

His secretive one-day trial was held in August after a detention of more than two years.
Activists like Wu focused on individual cases instead of challenging Communist Party policy at the national level, making them a greater headache for local officials than for Beijing. 

But their ability to organize and bring people out on the ground apparently made authorities nervous.
Human rights groups have said that the authorities are persecuting Wu and that it is ironic that his fight for justice for others had cost him his own freedom.

“With extraordinary courage and disdainful words, Wu Gan set the tone for this so-called ‘trial’ against him,” said his friend and fellow Chinese activist Wu Yuren. 

“It will inspire more and more people to stomp on this government that seems powerful yet doesn’t have the authority of the people.”

The court said Tuesday in an online statement that Wu Gan had made many remarks online that “attacked state power.”
It accused him of hyping cases that “discredited state organs” by organizing illegal public gatherings, causing trouble, and making abusive comments online about other people. 

It said such actions were part of a series of criminal activities seeking to “overthrow state power and the socialist system.”
Wu had also worked as an administrative assistant at the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, which had worked on sensitive cases and became the focus of the authorities’ crackdown that began in July 2015. 

Hundreds of lawyers, activists and others were detained in a coordinated nationwide sweep that sent a chill through China’s activist community. 

Many were later released.
Vaguely defined subversion charges are frequently leveled against human rights activists and perceived political foes of the ruling Communist Party.
Wu had been detained in May 2015, after traveling to the southeastern city of Nanchang to put pressure on a judge. 

Defense lawyers had been denied access to files in a case in which four men were serving prison time for a double murder despite a later confession from a fifth man. 

Wu had said on social media that he planned to hold a mock funeral for the judge, and was arrested after unfurling a banner that insulted him.
In a separate case Tuesday, a court in central China convicted the lawyer Xie Yang for inciting subversion of state power but said he was exempted from criminal penalties.
Xie had been detained for two years before he was released on bail in May after he admitted to the charges. 

Even after his release, his wife said, Xie was followed by security agents everywhere he went.
Four months prior to his release, Xie’s family had released a jailhouse statement from him saying he had been tortured in custody with repeated beatings, starvation and dehydration. 

It said that if he publicly confessed at any point in the future, it would be because he broke down under enormous government pressure and coercion.
In May, Xie pleaded guilty at his trial to inciting subversion of state power and read from a prepared statement denouncing his past activism. 

He also recanted the allegation of torture, which had gained international attention.
Xie said he accepted the verdict and would not appeal, according to a video of part of the hearing posted on the Changsha City Intermediate People’s Court’s official microblog site.
Amnesty International’s China Researcher Patrick Poon said it was “disgraceful” that the Chinese authorities chose to deal with Wu and Xie’s cases the day after Christmas — when diplomats, journalists and the public are less likely to respond.
“By trying to avoid scrutiny from the press and the international community, the Chinese government betrays the fact it knows well these sham trials cannot withstand scrutiny,” Poon said.

Rule by Fear and Torture

Canada, 10 other countries call out China for torturing human rights lawyers
By NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE

BEIJING — Eleven countries have jointly called on the Chinese government to investigate reports of torture against human rights lawyers and urged Beijing to abandon a controversial detention system that holds suspects in secret locations for months at a time.
The unusually direct criticism comes in a letter from the Chinese diplomatic missions of the signatory countries, including Canada, that expresses “growing concern over recent claims of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in cases concerning detained human rights lawyers and other human rights defenders.”
The signatories call for China to end the practice of “residential surveillance at a designated place,” a Chinese form of pretrial custody for sensitive cases that allows suspects to be held for up to six months, often without families or lawyers being told where they are.
Residential surveillance amounts to “incommunicado detention in secret places, putting detainees at a high risk of torture and ill-treatment,” the letter states. 

China should, it says, remove all suspects from residential surveillance and repeal enabling legislation.
“Detaining people without any contact with the outside world for long periods of time is contrary to China’s international human rights obligations,” the letter says.
It calls for a prompt and independent investigation into “claims of torture” against lawyers Xie Yang, Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang and Li Chunfu, as well as activist Wu Gan.
Under Xi Jinping, Chinese authorities have waged a war on civil society, detaining and arresting labour activists, women’s rights campaigners and human rights defenders. 

Hundreds of human rights activists and lawyers have been questioned and detained, Amnesty International has said.
Mr. Xie was punched, kicked and kneed by interrogators who threatened: “I’m going to torment you until you go insane.” 

Authorities used electric shocks to torture Li Heping and Mr. Wang.

Family members of Li Chunfu said 500 days of secret detention left him with a mind that was “shattered.” 

Wu Gan was not allowed to sleep for several days and nights.
The Globe and Mail obtained a copy of the Feb. 27 letter, which has not been made public. 

It was addressed to Guo Shengkun, China’s Minister of Public Security. 

It was signed by ambassadors and chargés d’affaires from Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland, along with seven European Union member countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Neither China’s public security ministry nor its foreign ministry responded to requests for comment on Monday.
“Canada raises human rights with our Chinese counterparts regularly, using a variety of methods,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement. 

“Sometimes it is public, but often these issues are best raised privately, where we can have a frank discussion.” 

The Japanese embassy declined comment, since the letter was sent through a diplomatic channel. 

The German embassy said it is “not in a position to comment.”
Joint action is often the most effective way to pressure China, human rights advocates say.
“Beijing always hears a clearer and firmer message when it’s delivered by multiple governments,” said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch. 

The issuance of joint letters is “a strong indication of the widespread concern about human rights erosions in China today.”
Shortly after the letter was sent, Chinese government-controlled media published a week-long series of articles and social media posts lashing out at what People’s Daily called “FAKE NEWS” in Western media reports on the torture of Mr. Xie, the human rights lawyer. 

State-run news agency Xinhua called Mr. Xie’s accusations of mistreatment “nothing but cleverly orchestrated lies” orchestrated by a legal team “aiming to cater to the tastes of Western institutions and media organizations and to use public opinion to pressure police and smear the Chinese government.”
Mr. Xie’s lawyer, Chen Jian'gang, has issued a detailed rebuttal of what he called “groundless lies” in those state media reports.
In an interview Monday, Mr. Chen questioned why the 11-country letter was submitted quietly.
Had it been made public, “the effect would have been much stronger,” he said. 

In a closed and restrictive system like China’s, he said, “secret talk and private questions will have no effect whatsoever.”
Joint diplomatic letters are rare, but becoming more common as countries seek a way to raise issues with China, while avoiding individual retribution from a government that often exacts revenge through economic means.
Last year, the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan together expressed concern about three new Chinese laws on counterterrorism, cybersecurity and the management of foreign non-governmental organizations. 

Those laws, they wrote, had “the potential to impede commerce, stifle innovation, and infringe on China’s obligation to protect human rights.” 

The European Union submitted a similar letter.
Adding several signatures to one document was a way to raise attention in Beijing, said Guy Saint-Jacques, who was then Canada’s ambassador to China.
“We came to the conclusion that the Chinese were not listening to what we had to say,” he said.
The letter “was badly received by the Chinese government. It accused us of ganging up on them,” he said. 

It produced limited results. 

“There was an offer in one case to have more consultation, and there were some slight changes” to proposed legislation, said Mr. Saint-Jacques, who retired from the foreign service last fall. 

But “they didn’t go as far as we would have liked them to go.”
The new letter on torture, he said, comes at a time when “all observers agree that the human rights situation has deteriorated a lot under Xi Jinping,” even as China has grown more confident in promoting the merits of its autocratic system to other countries.
The letter is notable, however, in part for who did not sign. 

Only seven members of the European Union participated; several diplomatic sources said unanimous support was blocked by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has praised China’s authoritarian model and sought Chinese investment. (The EU in January publicly called for an investigation into the handling of Chinese human rights lawyers, saying their treatment, if verified “would amount to torture.”)
The United States was also absent from the letter, which human rights workers took as a worrying sign of Washington’s posture under Donald Trump.
“When a country like the U.S. is silent on this, it’s really interpreted by Beijing as a free hand to do what they want. And that costs people their lives,” said Sarah Cook, senior East Asia research analyst at Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog on political, religious and economic liberties. 

“So it’s unfortunate if the U.S. removes itself from that type of leadership role.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has pledged to keep pressing China on such issues.
“I made clear that the United States will continue to advocate for universal values such as human rights and religious freedom,” he said in Beijing on Saturday.
The latest U.S. report on Chinese human rights documents former prisoners and detainees who “were beaten, subjected to electric shock, forced to sit on stools for hours on end, hung by the wrists, raped, deprived of sleep, force-fed, and otherwise subjected to physical and psychological abuse.”
The United Nations Committee against Torture, too, has criticized China for allowing torture to become “deeply entrenched” in its criminal justice system. 

In a late 2015 report, it urged Beijing to eliminate residential surveillance and hold criminally responsible any officials responsible for abuse.
Mr. Chen, the lawyer for Xie Yang, called residential surveillance a form of “illegal prison” that allows interrogators power to “do whatever they want.”
But he held out little hope that real change is possible in authoritarian China, even if the residential surveillance is formally abolished. 

He pointed to previous Chinese practices of “re-education through labour” and “custody and repatriation” that were scrapped, only to have other abuse-prone forms of detention emerge.
“As long as there is poison in the system, you can remove one poisonous fruit today — and that looks good,” Mr. Chen said. 

“But these kinds of poisonous fruit will grow out anew every day, without stop.”