Xu Zhiyong, January 1, 2020 This is the New Year’s message from a civil society leader who is, at this very moment, on the run to elude arrest by the Chinese authorities. A report on this new and ongoing wave of crackdown is forthcoming. — The Editors Enter 2020 in the march of history: another wave of crackdown against civil society is sweepin [...] Keep reading »

The China Human Rights Lawyers Group, January 1, 2020 One hundred years ago, when the New Culture Movement sang the praises of democracy” and science, nobody could have imagined that a century later, in the China of today, democracy has failed to flourish, while science has become a powerful tool aiding a totalitarian dictatorship. Seventy years [...] Keep reading »

China Change, December 4, 2019 On November 21, the Guangzhou Lawyers Association gathered a meeting of all law firm directors, and disseminated the following orders issued “from higher authorities.” These law firm directors were required to then pass on the following points to all the lawyers they employ. From that day [Nov 21] through December [...] Keep reading »

Xu Yan, November 29, 2019 To the respected international lawyers participating in the Global Lawyers Forum: Greetings!  My name is Xu Yan (许艳), and I am the wife of Yu Wensheng (余文生), a Chinese human rights lawyer. When I learned that China will be hosting the Global Lawyers Forum in Guangzhou, on December 9-10, as a Chinese citizen [...] Keep reading »

China Change, October 31, 2019 Zhang Baocheng (张宝成) is a 60-year-old Beijing resident, a dissident and human rights activist. Last October, when the 85-year-old mother of renowned Sichuan activist Huang Qi arrived in Beijing to petition for the release of her son, Zhang Baocheng housed her for over a month. He accompanied her as her “bodygu [...] Keep reading »

Li Wenzu, September 6, 2019 In 2016, the police issued an order to all the kindergartens, including all the early education centers in Beijing’s Shijingshan District (石景山区) to not accept my son at their schools. My son, Quanquan (泉泉), had stayed home, unable to attend school since May 2018. Then, by luck and coincidence, I found a pri [...] Keep reading »

July 9, 2019 The world was shocked by the mass detention of Chinese human right lawyers on July 9, 2015 –– in what became known as the “709 Incident.” Following the secret sentencing of “709” lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), who was tried for the crime of “subversion of state power,” people thought that the “709 Incident,” at [...] Keep reading »

China Change, July 4, 2019 Given the serial nature of Ms. Huang Wang’s Twitter revelations, which began on June 25, we will start our report on her latest revelations with a recap of what she has posted earlier. Huang Wan (黄婉) is the daughter-in-law of Zhou Yongkang (周永康), one of the nine CCP Standing Committee members during Hu Jintao� [...] Keep reading »

China Change, July 2, 2019 Since we posted our last piece, Billionaires and Zhongnanhai Families — China’s Newest Breed of ‘Rights Defenders’, Ms. Huang Wan (黄婉), daughter-in-law of Chinese Communist Party’s former standing committee member and chairman of the powerful and much feared Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission Zho [...] Keep reading »