ICC Note:

The Chinese government has been on an aggressive pursuit to oppress human rights lawyers more than ever before. The latest crackdown was over 300 lawyers and activists who have been swept into police custody facing detention, abuse, and interrogation. Some are convicted with charges of “subversion” or “inciting subversion,” which more often than not, leads to these lawyers being imprisoned. However, the persecution these lawyers face for standing up for religious freedom is still not comparable to the thousands of Christians abducted and imprisoned for their faith in the hands of the Communist Party.

09/08/2016 China (The Diplomat News) – For over a year, the Chinese government led by President Xi Jinping has pursued an aggressive campaign against human rights lawyers, their assistants, and the larger “rights defense movement” they represent. The effort came to a head last month with the conviction of four lawyers and activists after farcical trials.

Some international news outlets, rights groups, and scholars have characterized the campaign as the “harshest crackdown on human rights and civil society in decades.” But, as dismaying as the assault is for these activists, their families, and the cause of free expression and rule of law in China, such labeling is inaccurate, or at the very least misleading.

The crackdown on legal activists is disturbing and highlights the expansion of repression to new targets under Xi, but focusing on the Communist party’s latest victims has the effect of erasing critical context. The scale and severity of this assault pales in comparison to the party’s campaigns of persecution against millions of religious believers and ethnic minorities over the past 20 years. To overlook this vast population of existing targets is to distort the nature of repression and dissent in China today. Ironically, such skewed analysis also risks inadvertently reinforcing the very censorship and impunity surrounding these groups that the human rights lawyers have sacrificed so much to combat.

Since July 2015, the starting point of the latest crackdown, over 300 lawyers and activists have been swept into police custody. Most were subsequently released following varying periods of detention, abuse, and interrogation. Disturbingly, 19 remained in custody a year later, including 15 who faced serious politically motivated charges of “subversion” or “inciting subversion.” It is in this context that prominent attorney Zhou Shifeng and activist Hu Shigen were sentenced to seven and seven and a half years in prison, respectively, in early August. The impact of their punishment reaches far beyond the legal community, generating negative ramifications for their clients and the broader cause of freedom in China.

Still, even 300-plus detentions pale in comparison to the number of people abducted and imprisoned in the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) campaigns against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, and Christians.

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