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Last night, I received a text message from my son: “Mom, when do I come back?” I had promised to pick him up, but because of what happened to lawyer Chunfu [Li Heping’s younger brother], I was delayed again. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. At that moment, I didn’t know how to reply to this...

On July 31, lawyers, relatives of targeted lawyers, and other citizens initiated a signature campaign for an appeal to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. The appeal requests that officers from the Ministry of Public Security be investigated and...

On July 10, 2015, rights defense lawyer Li Heping was forcibly taken from his home by a number of unidentified individuals who did not provide any official documents or a notice of detention. Wang Qiaoling, his wife, has been inquiring with many public security bureaus regarding his whereabouts but...

“If I don't do this, and if nobody does it, then what would happen to the people who need help?”—Wang Quangzhang . . . As the wife of a human rights lawyer, I worry about your safety constantly. Every time I see you drag your tired body home after rushing around day and night—everything my eyes...

Actually, out of the Li brothers, Li Heping is not the most inspiring one; it is Li Chunfu. Heping’s ancestral home can be described as poverty-stricken. When Li Heping and I were married there, the marital bed had no mattress; it was straw covered in a coarse cotton sheet. The year when Heping...

This article is lawyer Yan Xin’s (燕薪) statement of defense for Tang Jingling who is accused of "inciting subversion of state power." In his defense for Tang Jingling, lawyer Yan Xin argues that Tang is not guilty of “inciting subversion of state power.” He argues that: the concept and actions of...

On July 15, Yang Weidong, an independent filmmaker in Beijing, and his wife and mother were preparing to board a train bound for Hong Kong for their vacation, but his mother, Xue Yinxian, was stopped at customs. The next day, Yang stood naked holding up a sign in front of the State General...

In 2001, the International Olympics Committee voted to award the 2008 Olympics to China, despite its human rights record and the fact that Beijing achieved a top rating in only one out of ten selection categories. In the nearly decade and a half since, not only has China failed to improved its...

Before, I always used to complain that the days passed by too quickly. But from July 10 onwards, every minute has been a torment. After the search of my home had finished, I thought that however excruciating it might be, it wouldn’t exceed 48 hours. After waiting through this period, I asked a...

Kao La (pen name of Zhao Wei) is a 24 years-old young woman, born in 1991. She graduated from Jiangxi Normal University Journalism School, and has been involved in public interest activities since her university years. Since October 2014, she has been working as the famous human rights lawyer Li...

Heping is not a big man, just 164cm tall. Because he worked so hard, his hair turned half white a decade ago. He continued dyeing his hair until six months ago, when he jokingly said, “truth starts at the beginning” [“beginning” is “head” in Chinese]. Heping, in my opinion, is a thinking type of...

We hereby state: Lawyer Wang Yu represented Fan Mugen—my [Fan Yonghai’s] father and my [Gu Panzhen’s] husband—in his defense. Wang Yu held onto principles, was not afraid of pressure, and conducted the defense in accordance with the law. The lawyers never instructed me (or my family) to do anything...

We hereby state: When acting as the defense counsel for my husband, Wang Qingying, who (along with Tang Jingling and Yuan Chaoyang) was accused of “inciting subversion of state power,” lawyer Sui Muqing was faithful to judicial justice, not afraid of power, and courageous in his fight for Wang’s...

The Beijing Chaoyang Lawyers Association sent a letter to the National People's Congress expressing strong concern about Articles 35 and 36 of the proposed Draft 9th Amendment to the Criminal Law , which will criminalize disruptions to courtroom order and disclosure of information from court...

What is happening at the highest level of Chinese politics as the Party prepares for the most important leadership transition in a decade? HRIC senior policy advisor Gao Wenqian sheds some light on this usually opaque blackbox.

On June 10, 2015, lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan met with activists Chen Qitang (penname: Tian Li) and Su Changlan at the Nanhai Detention Center in Foshan City, Guangdong Province. This is the first time Chen Qitang has been allowed to meet with a lawyer since his initial arrest on November 25, 2014...

Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong), rights defender accused of “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place” and detained in Tianhe District Detention Center, Guangzhou, demands state compensation for the ill-treatment he received from bailiffs of the Guangzhou Municipal Tianhe District...

Click here to download a PDF version of the open letter . To the EU and Chinese representatives to the 17 th EU-China Summit: Marking the 40th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations, the 17th Summit between the European Union and China that will take place on Monday 29 June in Brussels will...

See Chinese original . On June 18, 2004, I was in Xian when I heard about the poetry lecture courses that were being held by the Shanxi College of Literature, and Mr. Song Lin was invited to attend. Song Lin, who had lived in France, was my poetry mentor, and I hadn’t seen him in 14 years. I was...

In an open letter, Human Rights in China joins eight NGOs in urging Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew to clearly voice their concern, during the Strategic and Economic Dialogue next week, over human rights deterioration in China, and to stress that such...

In a statement of protest (see below), Shi Tao, a journalist who served eight years of a ten-year prison term, says that contents in his social networking WeChat account were deleted in recent days, in the lead up to the 26th anniversary of the June Fourth crackdown on the 1989 Democracy Movement...

On May 5, 2015, the Chinese government released for public comment the Foreign/ Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations Management Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft) (Second Review Draft) (《 境外非政府组织管理法（草案二次审议稿）全文 》”FNGO draft law”). If enacted and implemented in its current form, both...

[Translation by Human Rights in China] Chinese original . . . Thank you to all the international friends for your support. Thank you to all of the many allies and like-minded people—those we know and don’t know. It was your concern and support, along with your vigorous appeals, that made even more...

[Translation by Human Rights in China] Chinese original . . . Since the day I was released, I have been catching up on reading your articles and posts, and various media reports, and began weeping a lot. There’s a lot I want to say but have been too overwhelmed by emotions to get it out. I wept...

[Translation by Human Rights in China] Datu/Zheng Churan (with tears): “This Time, You’re Stronger and More Courageous than I Am” Wu Rongrong: “I Look Forward To Getting Together To Chat over Drinks” Wei Tingting: “To My Little Companions – Thank You Letter from Waiting” Wang Man’s Thank-you Letter...

Six months into detention, Guangdong rights defender Su Changlan has still not been granted her right to meet with her lawyer. On April 27, 2015, Su’s husband, Chen Dequan, requested open government information about her health condition, which was rejected by the Nanhai District Court of Foshan...

After his indictment on April 23, Henan dissident Yu Shiwen , who has been detained for organizing a June Fourth “public memorial service,” published a reflection from inside the detention center. In it, he expresses how honored he feels to be indicted for the concrete efforts he made in...

On Christmas Eve in 2014, the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (‘ XUAR ’) released this Notice on Strengthening the Management of Internet Information Security . The Notice requires Internet information service providers who serve users in the XUAR to give the government their...

After 37 days of detention, Wang Man ( 王曼 ) , Wei Tingting ( 韦婷婷 ) and Zheng Churan ( 郑楚然 ) , Li Tingting ( 李婷婷 ) , and Wu Rongrong ( 武嶸嶸 ) were released in a procedural step known as “release on guarantee pending further investigation,” or, qubao houshen ( 取保候审). Unfortunately, instead of a full...

Lu Xuancheng (路选成) is a resident of Tuole Village, Shiqiao Township, Pan County of Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province. In 2008, the local government demanded that he relocate the tombstone factory he operated in his unoccupied backyard. On August 20, 2009, Gu Yong (顾勇), Party Secretary of Shiqiao...

Cheng Hai (程海), a lawyer currently disputing his one year suspension from legal practice, leads 38 lawyers in demanding an end to the annual assessment and certification process for lawyers. The statement argues that this certification practice, mandated by the Ministry of Justice, not only...

Human Rights in China has received information that long-time petitioner Ma Yalian ( 马亚莲) , taken into custody in Beijing and brought back to Shanghai, began a hunger strike in an unofficial detention facility—a “black jail”—in a suburb of Shanghai to protest mistreatment by detention authorities...

[Translation by Human Rights in China] On the afternoon of February 2, 2015, the Tiananmen Mothers in Beijing gathered for their annual Spring Festival reunion activities. They once again reserved four tables, but the number of attendees this year was clearly smaller than in prior years, to the...

Before Occupy, I wouldn’t have known just how creative this city is. There wasn’t a true public space where people could create and share. But Occupy became that space: it connected people of different classes and professional backgrounds—to create in a way Hong Kong people had never been able to...

Editor’s note: This article was completed on December 7, 2014, four days before the Hong Kong police carried out the final clearing of the main protest in Admiralty. What’s next for the Umbrella Revolution? Therein lies the strength of a post-modern political movement: Success is no longer defined...

Zhang Guanghua, 64, never imagined that when he stopped by a neighbor’s home in an attempt to resolve a conflict that the visit—barely two minutes long—would result in “child molestation” charges and a three-year prison term. Following his release, his efforts in appealing his case and petitioning...

In April 2011, the Yinhai District People's Court in Behai, Guangxi Province, sentenced activist Gao Shifu to two years in prison for “illegal business activity.” Later, the Beihai Municipal Intermediate People’s Court upheld the first-instance verdict. Upon his release from prison, Gao appealed...