July 9th is the eighth anniversary of the 709 Incident, that is, the special crackdown by the CCP’s stability maintenance authorities to arrest, summon, warn, and sentence human rights lawyers and activists. Except for Li Yuhan, a female lawyer in her 70s, all the lawyers and human rights defenders who were arrested and imprisoned in those years have been released one after another, and the main planner and person responsible for the 709 incident were imprisoned in Qincheng Prison due to corruption and political problems. , but some 709 lawyers are still being severely persecuted and suppressed, including forced eviction, water and electricity cutoffs, and restrictions on leaving the country. Critics pointed out that the CCP is implementing the 2.0 of the 709 suppression and persecution, seriously infringing and even depriving some human rights lawyers and their families of their right to life, highlighting the weaker and more panic-stricken nature of the current Xi Jinping administration, which is currently struggling both internally and externally.
Lawyers from China and Hong Kong won the award together
Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the non-governmental organization "Human Rights in China" who announced the winners on behalf of the organizers, told the Voice of America the significance of holding this awards event.
He said: "The most important significance of this awards ceremony is to let the world see the resistance of civil society. You can see the regressive human rights situation.
in the current situation is significant.
On July 9, 2015, the CCP authorities launched a mass arrest and suppression of more than 300 lawyers or human rights defenders in 25 provinces and municipalities nationwide. More than a year later, Zhou Shifeng, Hu Shigen, Zhai Yanmin, Gou Hongguo, and Li Heping , Xie Yang, Wu Gan and others were sentenced to 3 to 8 years in prison for "subversion of state power". In November 2016, human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong was arrested for supporting and visiting the family of lawyer Xie Yang arrested in 709. He was later sentenced to 2 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" and deprived of political rights for 3 years. He is under house arrest in his hometown in Henan and is not allowed to leave the country to reunite with his wife and children in the United States.
country to reunite with his wife and children in the United States.
Yu Wensheng - the first to openly challenge Xi Jinping's plan to amend the constitution
Lawyer Yu Wensheng has acted as an agent for many cases of lawyers arrested in 709. His wife Xu Yan was an active participant in the 709 arrests and rights protection activities. On April 13 this year, the two were invited to the German embassy to participate in a symposium and were intercepted and taken away by the police. They lost contact and were arrested on suspicion of provoking troubles. At the end of May, they were charged with inciting subversion of state power. The two are currently being detained at the Shijingshan District Detention Center in Beijing.
Yu Wensheng was detained for 99 days for publicly supporting the Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong. After his release, he published an open letter during the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China calling for the removal of Xi Jinping. In January 2018, as a citizen, he issued a document again to propose constitutional amendments. The next day, he was criminally detained by Beijing Shijingshan police on suspicion of obstructing public affairs.
Yu Wensheng told the Hong Kong media "Stand News" in 2017, "We are still following Gao Zhisheng's method. He is taking the citizen line and combining with the grassroots... You can see the 709 attack this time. , isn’t it just a lawyer who walks with the grassroots? They are all lawyers who are citizens.”
Zhou Fengsuo told VOA that Yu Wensheng was one of the first people in the legal profession to stand up and challenge Xi Jinping's constitutional amendment in order to stay in power for life.
He said: "In 2018, he (Yu Wensheng) was the first to challenge Xi Jinping to amend the constitution, implement lifelong tenure, and become emperor. One of the few people who stood up to challenge Xi Jinping. Recently, he was released from prison for about a year. He was arrested on the way to the German embassy, and there is no news of him until now. Even his children, teenage children, were harassed, followed and quarantined, and no one was allowed to visit him.”
Zhou Shifeng—"Principal Criminal" of the 709 Case Demands Justice
On September 24, 2022, Zhou Shifeng, the core figure in the 709 case and former director of Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, was released from prison and returned to his home in Beijing . He told the Voice of America at the time that he "believes that evil will never prevail and justice will be done."
Zhou Shifeng's release coincided with the time when the main planners and operators of the 709 large-scale arrest operation, former senior officials of the Ministry of Public Security, Fu Zhenghua and Sun Lijun were sentenced to death with a heavy sentence by the court. Some commentators pointed out that this coincidence is ironic and paradoxical.
More than two months later, Zhou Shifeng wrote a 10,000-word book, revealing the inside story of the case and his experience in prison for more than 7 years, accusing Fu Zhenghua, Sun Lijun and other political groups of creating the iconic 709 unjust case. He called on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the National People's Congress to set up an investigation team to rehabilitate the unjust imprisonment of 709.
Zhou Fengsuo, head of the human rights organization Humane China, pointed out that the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm chaired by lawyer Zhou Shifeng has gathered a group of human rights lawyers and human rights defenders like Wu Gan from all walks of life, becoming a very influential group, and human rights lawyers are very popular in China. a high-risk group.
Zhou Fengsuo said: "He (Zhou Shifeng) embodies a strategic vision, that is, the efforts of the civil society to defend rights and self-government, to establish a society ruled by law, a civil society, so he was arrested, and he himself faces a long period of severe punishment. , but now he is still sticking to his philosophy after he is released from prison.”
The Voice of America reporter called Zhou Shifeng's cell phone several times, but was unable to get through. His younger brother Zhou Xingshun in Beijing said that Zhou Shifeng had been "persuaded" by the authorities to return to his hometown in Henan more than a month ago because the 709th anniversary was approaching.
Zhou Xingshun: I didn't contact him (Zhou Shifeng) in my hometown. It's okay, I'm also worried. Contact is also useless, the point is. Nothing else.
Reporter: When he was in Beijing, was he monitored 24 hours a day?
Zhou Xingshun: Yes. That means, I don’t want him to be in Beijing.
Reporter: He was under pressure to go back to his hometown this time. Did he go back under pressure?
Zhou Xingshun: That’s what it means.
Reporter: Let him leave Beijing?
Zhou Xingshun: Yes, that’s what it means. It is inconvenient for him to be in Beijing. The place of residence is monitored and monitored 24 hours a day. He was inconvenient, he went back to his hometown.
Wang Qiaoling: The 709 case forced out a family rights protection group.
Since April this year, human rights lawyers Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping and other victims of the 709 case and their families have been forced to relocate and harassed by the Beijing authorities with various illegal means. Wang Quanzhang, his wife and their minor son were harassed and driven away by the police and unidentified people almost every day, and their water and electricity were cut off many times. Li Heping, a family of three rented in Songzhuang, Beijing, was forced to relocate due to water and electricity cutoffs. In mid-June, they took a flight from Chengdu Airport to Thailand for free travel, but they got stuck at the border inspection and were restricted for "may endanger national security." leave the country.
Wang Dan, a political scholar and activist in exile, Wang Anna, the founder of the news and political commentary website "Light Media", and Meng Yuanxin, a researcher at the Newland Public Research Institute, launched an open letter, urging the head of the Chinese police and the mayor of Beijing to immediately stop the persecution and harassment Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping and their families. This open letter was jointly signed by dozens of overseas dissidents, scholars and media professionals.
Shortly after the 709 case, the wives of the arrested persons spontaneously formed a 709 family group to defend their husbands' rights. Wang Quanzhang's wife Li Wenzu and Li Heping's wife Wang Qiaoling are two representatives of this group.
Wang Qiaoling told VOA that the group of 709 family members was coerced by the authorities' various illegal actions and human rights violations in the 709 case, and has aroused widespread sympathy and influence in the international community.
Commentary: The CCP’s guilt is due to its lack of legitimacy
Hong Kong barrister Zou Xingtong and two mainland Chinese lawyers won the "709 Human Rights Lawyer Award" which attracted the attention of some overseas Chinese media.
Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the non-governmental organization Human Rights in China, pointed out that Hong Kong has been severely suppressed by Beijing for more than three years, and the situation of Hong Kong lawyers needs to receive due attention.f
He said that Zou Xingtong used to be the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance, and has been advocating for Chinese human rights defenders and human rights lawyers. Now that she herself has been arrested and imprisoned, it will arouse more resistance in civil society.
Zhou Fengsuo said: "Because this regime, no matter how powerful it is on the surface, it does not do things convincingly. It does not have such legitimacy. It will only cause greater resistance. Therefore, regardless of the current No matter how dark the situation is and how cruel the suppression is, there are still many people who will persist and work hard to continue.”
At the end of November 2022, a large number of young people broke out in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and other cities to protest against the so-called "dynamic zero" extreme epidemic prevention policy. Step down" and other political slogans. More than two months later, a large number of retirees took to the streets in Wuhan, Dalian, Anshan and other places to protest against the reduction of medical insurance benefits. song. Some people shouted " Down with the reactionary government".
Chinese Communist Party Leaders Repeatedly Emphasize Security
On July 1, the Communist Party’s journal Qiushi published a speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping to young cadres at the Central Party School earlier last year. In his speech, he emphasized that if the cadres trained do not believe in Marxism-Leninism, they will repeat the mistakes of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and "the motherland cannot bear to look back on the moon." This warning, which quoted the poems of Li Yu, the emperor of subjugation in ancient times and the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, aroused heated public opinion.
Zhou Fengsuo said: "This kind of monolithic and increasingly strict control is actually impossible to maintain a regime without legitimacy in the end. Especially under the current general situation, the international community firmly believes that it may no longer be as economically as before. Get all kinds of benefits. The unemployment rate in the country is very high. In this case, it is actually very weak. It is the darkness before the dawn. We want to see that before the June 4th in China, a lady ran to the Linglong Tower to show The American flag and the Declaration of Independence. Not long after that, a man named Zhang Sheng went to Peking University alone to demand the implementation of multi-party democracy. This kind of voice of civil resistance will definitely become stronger and stronger. In the country where the censorship is strictly censored It can still be seen on the Internet that netizens use various methods to attack towers. Now this situation is becoming more and more common."
The human rights activist pointed out that the CCP's control of speech and information has exposed its lack of confidence in political security and regime security, and has entered into what he called "a sense of doomsday madness."
Zhou Fengsuo said: "This shows fear, guilty conscience, and panic. The most important thing is that no matter how successful the brainwashing is on the surface, this high wall still pursues people's freedom. There are still many people, Especially in times of crisis. For example, during the Wagner mutiny two weeks ago, it was obvious that many domestic accounts came up, because they were in the country, inside the wall, and could not get real news. It will not Reporting. So, at this time, the control of the regime is actually very weak. At the height of the white paper movement, there was a lot of information about WeChat, Douyin, and Kuaishou. I think it may happen at any time now This is the case. When a major crisis comes, you look at its control, I think it is obvious that it is not omnipotent, and its resources are limited."
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