In recent years, the persecution of human rights defenders and dissidents by the Chinese Communist authorities has intensified. According to the latest report from overseas human rights organizations, the Chinese Communist Party has been using extreme measures to persecute human rights defenders, dissidents, and their families.
On April 15, the US-based human rights organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders released a report titled “If I don’t obey, my family will suffer,” revealing the continued collective punishment inflicted by the Chinese government on the families of human rights defenders.
The report shows that the Chinese authorities not only cruelly persecute human rights defenders but also engage in harassment of their children, depriving them of the right to education or to leave the country, or even placing them in mental hospitals or orphanages. The Chinese government even arrests the relatives of human rights defenders through criminal proceedings to pressure the defenders in prison and coerce them to cooperate with the authorities.
During an online press conference organized by Chinese Human Rights Defenders on April 11, Li Wenzu, the wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, detailed the constant harassment and forced relocations her family has endured over the past year. She mentioned that the persecution by the state security doesn’t stop day or night.
The Chinese authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on human rights lawyers on July 9, 2015 (known as the “709 Crackdown”), during which hundreds of lawyers, civil rights activists, petitioners, and their families were arrested.
According to reports from Voice of America, Wang Quanzhang was arrested and sentenced to four years and six months in prison on charges of subverting state power due to representing sensitive cases, including cases related to Falun Gong practitioners, land disputes of farmers, and Christians. Despite being released in 2020, the persecution by the Chinese authorities against him has not ceased.
In addition to being stripped of his lawyer’s license by the authorities, Wang Quanzhang and his family have faced continuous harassment from official personnel even after his release from prison, forcing them to move 13 times within a span of two months. Wang Quanzhang revealed that when they found a school for their son, the police quickly harassed the teachers at the school, and the next day they were informed that their son could no longer attend that school.
Another victim of collective persecution is the daughter of He Fangmei, the founder of the Vaccine Baby Home, a rights group. In October 2020, both He Fangmei and her husband were detained by the Chinese police. Subsequently, she and her two young children were sent to a mental hospital in Xinxian City, Henan Province. After giving birth to a daughter while in detention the following year, she was transferred to a detention center, but her two children remained in the mental hospital.
According to human rights groups, He Fangmei’s son was later sent to live with informants who had been reporting on her family to the police without any consent from relatives. Her two daughters were declared “not in the records” by the hospital in September 2023.
As of the publication of the report, the investigation found that two girls taken by hospital staff to the office of the town mayor of Guanzhen Town in Huixian County on April 1 are still missing.
Another victim of collateral damage is the mother of Keke Niu Tengyu, who spoke at the online press conference organized by Chinese Human Rights Defenders. Niu Tengyu was sentenced to 14 years in prison for leaking network data related to Xi Jinping’s family and suffered inhumane torture during his arrest, including beatings, sitting on a tiger bench, sleep deprivation, and withholding food. However, Niu Tengyu has not confessed to date, and his mother herself has been persecuted for a long time in her efforts to seek justice for her son.
Keke mentioned that initially she was followed and filmed, and later the security guards in her community vandalized her car tires, played various kinds of noise outside her residence in the early morning, urinated on her rooftop, cut off water and electricity supply, and even cut off heating in the cold winter.
She said that over the past four years, she has suffered various persecutions for seeking justice for her son, leading to chronic illnesses. Even her sister, who came to take care of her, became a victim and received death threats at one point. The relatives of other defendants in the same case were also forced to write letters of guarantee to distance themselves from her.
Additionally, ahead of the release of the report by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xuyan, had been illegally detained by the Chinese authorities for a year. The European Union issued a statement on April 13, calling for the release of Yu Wensheng and Xuyan, allowing them access to medical assistance when needed, regular meetings with chosen lawyers, and contact with family members.
In the previous statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting, the EU listed several human rights defenders currently detained in China, including Yu Wensheng and Xuyan, and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of these individuals.