In the first week of August 2016, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court tried and convicted one rights lawyer and three activists of “subversion of state power.” They were Zhai Yanmin (翟岩民), a law firm employee; Hu Shigen (胡石根), a democracy and religious freedom activist; Zhou Shifeng (周世鋒), a lawyer and law firm director; and Gou Hongguo (勾洪国), a rights activist.
This issue of CRF looks at key human rights problems and challenges in mainland China and Hong Kong a quarter of a century after the June Fourth crackdown.
2015 has seen one of the most draconian crackdowns in China since 1989, marked by detentions, threats and intimidation of defenders, often extending to their families, personal attacks in the official media, and seemingly endless restrictions on their professional and personal lives. HRIC’s looking back on the year highlights and pays tribute to the persistence and resilience of the lawyers, women’s rights activists, and other defenders who, at great personal risk, are working for a stronger China.
