Chen Guiqiu, ex-wife of Xie Yang, July 28, 2025
Human rights lawyer Xie Yang (谢阳) was arrested in January 2022, shortly after displaying a banner in support of an elementary school teacher in his province who had been arbitrarily detained in a mental hospital for online expression. As of today, he has been held for 1,295 days without trial. His trial is now scheduled for Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court in Hunan Province. He faces charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” This marks Xie Yang’s second imprisonment since the 709 Crackdown in 2015. In January 2017, while still in detention, in an act of incredible bravery, he revealed gruesome details of police interrogation and torture to his two lawyers, sparking international outcry. — The Editors
It has now been ten years since the 709 Crackdown. In that time, Xie Yang has been arrested twice, spending a total of five and a half years in detention so far.
For those who have never experienced it, it is almost impossible to grasp the toll those five and a half years—spent under residential surveillance and in detention centers—took on his body, mind, and spirit. Nor can they easily imagine what it takes to survive such endless days and nights, stripped of sunlight, enduring each second as it crawls by.
The Changsha Public Security Bureau, along with its First and Second Detention Centers, the Municipal Procuratorate, the Changsha No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Court, have together operated as a vast, bloodthirsty apparatus, tearing into Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer who bravely defended Falun Gong practitioners, dispossessed villagers, and individuals arbitrarily diagnosed as mentally ill. They prolonged his torment through beatings, handcuffs and shackles on his feet, forced stripping and humiliation, calculated provocation, and obstruction of his legal counsel. During the detention over the last two and half a years, they issued no fewer than twelve notices to again and again delay court hearings on his case, an ongoing assault on the limits of human endurance.
You must stop now!
Over these ten years, what have you truly gained beyond the animalistic thrill of tormenting Xie Yang? Behind those snarling grins and bared fangs, is there not even a flicker of reverence left for human life? When you return home, do your wives and children still smell the blood you forgot to wipe from your lips?
You are nothing but beasts.
Imprisoning Xie Yang was not enough for you—you never stopped trying to tear our family apart. You sent various women to test and tempt him while he was separated from his wife and children and had not yet returned to the Lord. Under the guise of friendly visits, you threatened my elderly father; you obsessively eavesdropped on our WeChat calls and screenshotted our private conversations. You even weaponized people close to me, using them to invent lies and slander my name.
You are despicable beyond measure.
But you have miscalculated. I have given my life to Christ. Your demonic schemes—I now see through them with clarity. Your malice and slander—I withstand them by the strength of God. The snares you set—the Holy Spirit warns me before I step near. You have already been defeated—defeated by my God himself.
You must stop now.
Next Monday (July 28) you’ll stage your pre-trial meeting. By Wednesday you will conduct your secret trial behind closed doors. Tell me, who is this performance for? Do you have even a shred of respect for the lawyers present? Even a trace of reverence for the law itself? You wield power in the name of the people, yet in practice you destroy them, for the sake of profit and power. Was this you signed up for when you entered this path? Was it to one day gorge on the blood and flesh of the very people you once aspired to serve?
You must stop now!
Have you not seen what became of those who once walked the same path as you? Have you already forgotten the downfall of Sun Lijun (孙力军) and Fu Zhenghua (傅政华)? When you return home, how can you face your wives and children in peace? How do you sleep without torment, in the dead of night? The blood on your hands is not yet washed clean, yet in your hearts, you are already plotting the next assault. Has your conscience already been devoured by the devil?
Come to church.
No one but God can drive away the darkness that clouds your heart. No one but God can forgive the monstrous crimes you have committed. No one but God can break the chains of evil that bind your soul, and lead you to true and lasting freedom.
If you dare to convict Xie Yang—even for a single day—you set yourselves against God and you stand with the devil. From that moment on, we are not fellow citizens; we are enemies. The verdict may not be decided today, or even in our generation, but every act is recorded before God. Whether it brings blessing or judgment—upon you or your children—everything rests in His hands.
If you truly have no fear of God, then take up your blade, strike Xie Yang, and drink his blood.
Chen Guiqiu
Ex-wife of Xie Yang
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Related:
Punches, Kicks and the ‘Dangling Chair’: Detainee Tells of Torture in China, New York Times, Jan. 20, 2017.
Transcript of Interviews with Lawyer Xie Yang (2) – Sleep Deprivation
Transcript of Interviews with Lawyer Xie Yang (4) – Admit Guilt, and Keep Your Mouth Shut
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