Two Christian activists are among a group of at least fifteen human rights lawyers and campaigners who have been formally arrested on suspicion of subverting state power or inciting subversion of state power in China.
Liu Yongping, 52, and Gou Hongguo, 53, both members of an underground Protestant church in Beijing, were arrested on 8 January as they were preparing to attend a church gathering. They had originally been accused of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”.
An elder at the church was arrested on the same grounds just two weeks earlier.
All three have been denied meetings with their lawyers since their detention, says anti-persecution charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Under China’s criminal law, “subversion of state power” and "inciting subversion of state power" falls under the category of Crimes of Endangering National Security, carrying maximum penalties of life imprisonment and 15 years in prison respectively.
The other detainees include human rights lawyers who have worked on religious freedom cases, land rights and discrimination.
The 15 individuals accused of these charges are among a much greater number – roughly 300 – lawyers and activists, as well as relatives and associates, who were interrogated, detained, imprisoned and disappeared between July and December 2015. This crackdown on the legal rights defence community in China comes at a time when many observers believe the space for civil society is shrinking.
The Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mervyn Thomas, said he was joining the international human rights community in calling for China to release those held without legal basis. He said: “In China, lawyers and rights activists have been instrumental in defending the rights of religious communities and in calling for further improvement of the protection of freedom of religion or belief.”
An Amnesty International report entitled No End in Sight last year found that despite changes to the law in China in 2010 that made physical torture a crime, incidence of torture, particularly against defence lawyers, seemed to be on the rise.
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