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Lu’s husband, Liu Sifang, a musician and former teacher, was among several Chinese activists and human rights lawyers arrested, forced into hiding or exiled after participating in an informal gathering in 2019 to discuss human rights.
Rights groups say the execution of the Liu family shows Beijing’s growing crackdown on dissent inside China and beyond. As groups commemorate the 75th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Sunday, they fear the situation in the world’s second most populous country is getting worse, not better. .
Western governments have failed to put pressure on China, rights groups say, and a stronger China under President Xi Jinping is more vulnerable to international pressure.
“If you look at the independent crisis when Xi came to power, compared to what you are seeing now, what is really disturbing is that the Xi leadership tried to destroy civil society and silence it. the opposition, not only in the country but in the whole world, make sure that anyone who criticizes him and the administration should think twice,” said Sophie Richardson, an observer China is a longtime and former China director at Human Rights Watch.
A new report by the Roman rights group, Safeguard Defenders, published on Sunday to mark International Human Rights Day, states that the Chinese government has increased its use of “collective punishment” to against dear human rights advocates in recent years.
“Under Xi Jinping, China has become increasingly reluctant to allow politicians to leave the country, beating them and their families for leaving, and using conservative methods to control those who do,” according to the report.
The report, based on interviews with more than a dozen human rights activists and combined media reports, said it revealed at least 50 such cases from 2015 to 2022, including or detention, eviction, harassment or violent attack on family members.
This year’s International Human Rights Day – marking 75 years since the United Nations adopted the universal charter for the protection of human rights everywhere – is just a few days away. since EU leaders visited China for a new round of talks.
While the meeting focused on trade and the war in Ukraine, the EU said the bloc also expressed its “deep concerns” about the human rights situation in China. Both sides said they had agreed to restart their dialogue on human rights earlier this year.
Wang Lutong, the head of European affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Beijing was willing to continue the dialogue – although he warned that “human rights should not be then it will be a stick to beat China with.”
Last week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated China’s longstanding defense against international criticism of its human rights record. Beijing opposes “any attempt to impose its own values and standards on others,” it said in a statement.
“We must reject any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or to suppress their development under the pretext of human rights,” he said. “China has opened … a new way for the development of human rights that meets the changing times and meets our national conditions.”
Richardson, the China rights expert, said the EU-China rights deal falls far short of achieving real results for protesters.
“This is what the political establishment likes the most because it doesn’t anger Beijing too much,” he said. “It’s a deliverable that people can point to and say, ‘we did that.'”
In April, Chinese police detained Yu Wensheng, a human rights lawyer, and his wife Xu Yan on their way to the European Union office in Beijing to meet with the EU ambassador.
The couple is facing charges of abuse of state power and “inciting fights and inciting violence” – although they have not received legal documents detailing the charges, according to the Bao Longjun, a lawyer familiar with the case.
Such vague charges are common against human rights activists in China, and rights groups have noted an uptick this year in cases like Yu’s. He and his wife are still in custody.
Other Chinese human rights advocates, such as detained human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, continue to face harassment from authorities even after being released from prison.
Liu, the protester who fled to America, described the hardship of being separated from his wife and son for three years. Now the couple is remarried in America
“Those policemen, they used violent methods to retaliate against me because I was able to go out,” he said. “They’re showing people like us that this is what we can do for you and your family.”