Chinese police persecuted two HRDs for their online speech. Hunan activist Liu Yanli received a four-year prison sentence on April 22 and former prisoner of conscience Xie Wenfei was criminally detained on April 29.
Read more![[Briefing] COVID-19 Arrests & Victims Threatened for Seeking Compensation; Lawyer Punished](https://www.nchrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/56F40CD5-DF79-4295-9409-45C7FAF3BF48-336x300.jpg)
Crackdown on free expression tied to COVID-19 continues as retired professor arrested for criticising CCP and three young volunteers detained for documenting censored news. Victims and families threatened for seeking compensation over government failures in handling the virus. Lawyer punished for representing another rights lawyer.
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Chinese police intimidated and harassed potential plaintiffs in litigation against Wuhan and Hubei governments for failure to release vital information about the novel coronavirus in a timely manner, which resulted in deaths and damages.
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Beijing police formally arrested retired professor Chen Zhaozhi on April 14 for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” over his online speech about the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Three young volunteers of “Terminus2049” Github website documenting censored news and information about COVID-19, Chen Mei (陈玫), Cai Wei (蔡伟), and Cai’s girlfriend Xiao Tang (小唐) went missing on April 19, 2020 and later confirmed detained by Beijing police, according to their family, friends and employers.
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The Chengdu City Lawyers’ Association, a state-run agency, handed out a “professional reprimand” to discipline human rights lawyer Lu Siwei (卢思位) on April 24, 2020.
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Beijing Filmmaker Forcibly Disappeared on “Inciting Subversion” Likely for Making Documentary about Xu Zhiyong; Hubei Woman Arrested After Neighborhood Protest Against Price Hikes in Lockdown; Hong Kong Police Arrest 15 Democracy Leaders in Connection to 2019 Protests
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Several human rights defenders working on socio-economic rights issues have been detained just days after the close of China’s 3rdUniversal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva on March 15 during the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC). The timing of the detentions indicates that authorities waited until after the (read more…)
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Chinese authorities put a number of HRDs on trial over the holiday season, including journalists Sun Lin and Ding Lingjie, lawyer Wang Quanzhang, and activists Zhen Jianghua and Zhang Kun.
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Chengdu authorities shut down the Early Rain Covenant Church and detained over a hundred church members and their pastor, Wang Yi, during a raid beginning December 9, in one of the largest crackdowns on underground Christian churches since new regulations went into effect.
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Several Chinese professors have lost their jobs for speech they made online or in classrooms. Sichuan resident pleaded not guilty for failing to delete posts from a website he managed, the first instance of certain charges being applied. Xinjiang government has revised regional regulations to include provisions on the extra-legal (read more…)
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Authorities took into custody Chinese citizens protesting the government’s mishandling of vaccine scandals. Police have also suppressed workers and students seeking labor protections in Guangdong while, elsewhere in China, shutting down house churches.
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