July 10, 2025 Epoch Times News: The “709 Rights Lawyers Mass Arrest Incident” has passed for 10 years. Hundreds of lawyers who legally defended the people have unprecedentedly become targets of illegal arrests, detention, torture, and imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Human rights lawyer You Feizhu, who experienced arrest and interrogation that year, said that this was not just a mere arrest, but a well-planned kidnapping from top to bottom.
You Feizhu is a well-known human rights lawyer in China, also a popular figure on the internet, having graduated as a postgraduate student from Southwest University of Political Science and Law. In 2023, he represented the highly publicized case of Hu Xinyu, which involved CCP organ harvesting. Sensing imminent personal threats, he urgently sought asylum in the United States the same year.
You Feizhu had been arrested once before 10 years ago: in the early hours of July 10, 2015, he was arrested by the police breaking into his home. He was just one of the two to three hundred human rights lawyers and defenders arrested nationwide during that nationwide crackdown.
During an interview with Epoch Times in Los Angeles on Tuesday (July 8), he recalled the terrifying moments of his arrest night and the globally notorious rule of law scandal known as the “709 Incident.”
“I have a different view on the term ‘mass arrest,'” You Feizhu said. He explained that an arrest is when the state apparatus legally detains someone according to legal procedures, while the “709 Incident” did not follow any statutory procedures: “They did not present any documents when they arrested me, were plainclothes officers, did not guarantee my right to meet with a lawyer, and did not inform me of my rights.”
Fortunately, You Feizhu was released two days after his arrest, while many other lawyers were not as lucky. “They were denied their right to request a lawyer, their families couldn’t see them, lawyers couldn’t see them, and they were basically cut off from the outside world,” he said. “In such a situation, it should not be called an arrest, but rather a ‘kidnapping.'”
He continued to reflect on that night, stating that he had already heard about the widespread arrests of human rights lawyers throughout China. He saw news that lawyers he knew, who had defended cases with him, were being taken away one by one. A fellow lawyer called him to express concern for his safety. Aware that in China, once someone is arrested, they can hardly protect their rights and have difficulty seeing their lawyers, they had an agreement: if one of them was arrested, the other would arrange a lawyer for them.
Before going to bed that night, You Feizhu thought everything would go smoothly. However, at 1 a.m., he was awakened by a phone call. A person from the Chongqing Judicial Bureau lawyer management office called saying there was an urgent matter and asked him to come to the judicial office. You Feizhu thought, “How could there be an urgent matter so late at night?”
“I ignored him, saying ‘we can talk tomorrow, it’s too late today, you need rest too,'” he recalled.
After about twenty to thirty minutes, someone knocked on the door. You Feizhu was already wary and asked through the door what was happening outside. The person claimed to be a neighbor downstairs, saying there was a water leak from You Feizhu’s home, leaking into their place, and they wanted to check. You Feizhu checked the restroom and found everything in order, replying through the door, “There’s no water leak from my home, the water in your place didn’t come from mine,” and he did not open the door.
Shortly after, the outsiders found a way to unlock the door, forced their way in, and the first door was already open; as they were working on the second door, there was loud noise. “I knew they were coming to arrest me, so I posted two WeChat messages to inform my friends,” You Feizhu said.
That night, many human rights lawyers across the country stayed awake, watchful of each other. A colleague who came to visit upon hearing rumors was recognized by a leader from the judicial bureau downstairs and promptly arrested. According to the colleague, there were groups of people scattered around the building. Later, the neighbors were told by the police that they were on a mission to arrest a murderer.
Unable to open the gate initially, the plainclothes officers outside began yelling at You Feizhu. Concerned about scaring his family, You Feizhu voluntarily opened the door. Dozens of people rushed in, crowding the hallway and the building’s elevator.
He was taken to the interrogation room of the Guanyin Bridge Pedestrian Street Police Station in Jiangbei District, Chongqing.
Throughout the ordeal, You Feizhu remained composed, questioning the officers, “Why not just give me a call, or send me a subpoena? I understand the law, I would go to the designated location to report to you and accept the subpoena; or you could have taken me away during the day. Why did dozens of armed individuals storm my home in the middle of the night, alarming my elderly relatives and children?”
The leader of the Chongqing State Security Brigade made no attempt to hide their intentions: “You have been particularly bold recently, not showing the respect we expect. We did this to intimidate you; if we didn’t scare your family, you wouldn’t be afraid.”
From July 10 to July 12, State Security officers interrogated You Feizhu day and night, not allowing him to sleep. He was utterly exhausted but whenever he dozed off, they would forcefully wake him up by hitting the table. Claiming that rights lawyers were colluding with each other, they repeatedly asked who he was colluding with, who was giving him orders, if he had received funds, and why he chose to help those people (vulnerable groups) with rights protection.
“I said, ‘As a lawyer, am I only supposed to serve the rich? Or only those in power?'” You Feizhu stated.
Later, he learned of the experiences of his fellow lawyers. Several lawyers from the Beijing Zhou Shifeng Law Firm were forcibly fed pills before their interrogations, resulting in mental distress. The most severe torture was inflicted on Xie Yang, a lawyer from Hunan: he was forced to sit on a stack of high plastic stools for three days, five days, ten days, until the muscles in his buttocks and legs began to decay.
“This is more unbearable than being beaten! Being beaten is just momentary pain,” You Feizhu said. Sitting for a long time could potentially lead to paralysis, and “They won’t let you get up, if you do, they will beat you. This kind of torture can drive you crazy.” The case was handled by the Henan police, and the trial was postponed about ten times, further prolonging Xie Yang’s suffering.
When asked about the spark that ignited the “709 Incident,” You Feizhu believed it was related to the police shooting of the petitioner Xu Chunhe in Qing’an County, Heilongjiang Province, at a railway station, which led to national attention and support from the lawyer community, putting the CCP on the defensive.
Following the Qing’an incident, a large number of rights lawyers were unlawfully arrested, sparking further public outrage. Justice advocates from all corners of the country flocked to Qing’an, demanding the release of the detained lawyers. “This made them (the authorities) extremely panicked, feeling the need to suppress these lawyers’ courage,” he assessed, suggesting that the 709 Incident was a unified command operation from top to bottom, as the arrests that night spanned over twenty provinces nationwide.
Reflecting on the cases he represented at the time, You Feizhu said, “I did not break the law, nor did I seek fame or profit; I was only advocating for the rights of the people, following the laws established by the CCP… The law does not differentiate which cases are sensitive or not, or who can defend whom.”
After enduring three days and two nights of interrogation, authorities found no incriminating evidence against You Feizhu and released him back to his home.
Looking nationwide, many of the lawyers abducted that night were sentenced to prison, with some receiving sentences based on just a single statement. Guangxi lawyer Chen Jiahong was sentenced to three years for saying in a group chat that he wanted to overthrow the Communist Party. Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, and others were sentenced to more than ten years.
You Feizhu stated that before the 709 Incident, he didn’t have such a deep understanding of Chinese law; however, after the incident, he realized that “Chinese law is like a little girl dressed up at will by the CCP authorities, whether she looks pretty or ugly, it’s all up to them; and lawyers are just ornaments to them.”
He pointed out that lawyers, especially rights lawyers, are generally well-versed in the law, experienced, just, and know how to utilize the internet to spread truths, which is something that “they fear and dread very much.”
You Feizhu also mentioned another background to the 709 Incident: at the time, the CCP leaders wanted to amend the constitution, paving the way to abolish term limits, yet they feared that the lawyers would spark online opposition. Before the incident, he was frequently warned not to express any opinions on term limits or the constitutional amendments.
Reflecting on the 709 Incident, You Feizhu said that the massive purge against Chinese rights lawyers was aimed at creating a climate of fear, essentially constituting the CCP’s “national terrorism.” Post-event observations reveal severe restrictions and oppressions on civil society and citizen movements domestically, yet, it also alerted some people.
He found solace in the fact that none of the abducted lawyers during the incident succumbed. “There are even braver individuals continuing the fight; in some specific cases, rights lawyers have achieved significant results.”
“I believe that this event should be commemorated every year. Chinese human rights lawyer groups regard July 9 as a ‘holiday’; of course, this is something the CCP doesn’t want to see, and just mentioning 709 makes them fearful,” You Feizhu said. “709 has become a thorn in the side of the CCP, similar to ‘June 4th’.”