The Chinese Communist Party continues to suppress dissent, leading to many broken families and pushing some relatives to speak out overseas. Luo Shengchun, the wife of mainland Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, has gone through depression and lows but now dedicates herself to human rights advocacy and civic education abroad.
Luo Shengchun has founded the “Alliance for Civil Rights” in the United States, focusing on promoting civil rights and education. The organization has published reports on cases of Chinese citizens being restricted from entering or leaving the country, highlighting the authorities’ use of border controls to limit the freedom of movement of rights activists and ethnic minorities, depriving them of basic rights granted by international documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to a report by Central News Agency on April 29th, Luo Shengchun told the media that the Chinese authorities use border control measures to persecute rights activists, Tibetans, Uighurs, and other ethnic minorities, stating “China is a big prison”. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly stipulates the right of citizens to freedom of movement, a principle that the Chinese Communist Party completely ignores, failing to comply with international conventions and its own laws.
Moreover, the “Alliance for Civil Rights” is dedicated to promoting civic education by inviting overseas Chinese students to collaborate on educational materials and offering courses on “citizenship behavior guidelines” to immigrants, with the overarching goal of “changing oneself to change others”.
Ding Jiaxi has long worked with legal scholar Xu Zhiyong to promote the “New Citizens’ Movement”. The two were first imprisoned on fabricated charges in 2013. Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong were released in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Despite their release, they continued to engage in public affairs, drawing the ire of those in power. In 2019, they were detained again following the Xiamen gathering incident. In 2023, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to 14 years and 12 years respectively on charges of “subverting state power”.
Luo Shengchun revealed that her mother was deeply affected when Ding Jiaxi was first arrested. Having experienced her husband being persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and nearly single-handedly raised her children, her mother’s reaction upon hearing about her son-in-law’s arrest was, “Oh my, history is repeating itself.”
After Ding Jiaxi’s arrest, Luo Shengchun fell into severe depression. At the time of her husband’s arrest, she was offered a position in the United States by a foreign company. Being able to safely access various information abroad, she watched the news daily and discovered her husband’s communication records, finally understanding the “New Citizens’ Movement” they were promoting.
In 2017, after a brief reunion with her husband in the U.S. followed by his return to China and subsequent re-arrest, she gradually emerged from her low point under the influence of other rights activists’ families, transforming her personal pain into continuous advocacy and action.
The widespread arrest of human rights lawyers by the Chinese Communist Party in the “709 Incident” of 2015 made Luo Shengchun stronger. The resilience shown by the wives of those detained lawyers in the “709 Wives” group taught her how to turn pain into resistance against those in power.
Having personally experienced the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, she once protested on the streets in Dalian. For democracy movements, she naturally resonates and has a deep-rooted belief in the cause.