Xie Yang, a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, went to Sichuan to attend the disbarment hearing of lawyer Lu Siwei, and then went to Shaanxi to visit the parents of lawyer Chang Weiping, but was taken away by the Changsha Public Security Bureau and then lost contact with him. It was not until 8 p.m. on the 17th that Xie Yang tweeted his safety report, saying he had retrieved his phone from the state security guards.
According to Apple Daily, rights lawyer Chen Keyun said that he and Xie Yang were preparing to leave Xi’an in the morning of the 16th to go to Baoji to visit Chang Wei Ping’s parents, who were under house arrest. But as soon as they boarded the high-speed train to Baoji at 11:25 a.m., more than 10 public security officers from Xi’an and Baoji pulled them off the train under the pretext of “epidemic prevention and inspection” and took them to a five-star hotel in the city center for house arrest, intending to expel them from Xi’an.
Chen Keyun said he and Xie Yang strongly objected, so the public security officers took them to the scenic area of the city walls to “play” until 7 p.m. and sent the two to a hotel near the airport. Changsha 3 public security officers arrived at about 8 p.m., brought Xie Yang back to Changsha, after which Xie Yang lost contact. The three Guangzhou public security officers arrived in Xi’an at 11:00 p.m., but there were no more flights to Guangzhou at that time.
Chen Zijuan, the wife of the lawyer under surveillance, said on Twitter that Xie Yang and Chen Keyun had lost contact with each other since around 11 a.m. on the 16th. Chen Guiqiu, Xie Yang’s wife, tweeted that night, “It’s nearly 10 p.m. Beijing time. The phone numbers of both #709 Xie Yang and #humanrights lawyer Chen Keyun are not available.” She kept trying to call the State Security Bureau of Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, which is hosting the Chang Wei Ping case, but no one answered.
At 8 p.m. on the 17th, Xie Yang tweeted a message to report her safety, saying her phone had just been returned by the Changsha State Security Bureau. He is currently returning to Changsha.
Chen Keyun, who was briefly out of contact this time, had his license to practice law revoked by authorities after representing several rights cases in 2017 during an outbreak of tuberculosis in Taojiang County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province.
Xie Yang, who has represented many sensitive human rights cases since he began practicing in 2011, was taken away and detained for more than two years by the Changsha Public Security Bureau in Hunan Province during the “709 arrests” in 2015. Xie Yang’s case received immediate international attention after his lawyer Chen Jiangang relayed to the international community the abuse he suffered in detention. He was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” by the Changsha Intermediate Court on Dec. 26, 2017, but the court said at the time that he had “confessed and repented after his return to the case” and that his criminal punishment had been waived.
Xie Yang told Deutsche Welle that during his trial in 2017, the Chinese Communist authorities demanded that he deny being tortured in court and that he confess his guilt. After he “fully cooperated with their courtroom performance,” the authorities agreed to give him back his lawyer’s license. On August 11, 2020, the Hunan Provincial Department of Justice revoked Xie Yang’s license to practice law.
On August 13, 2020, Xie Yang went to Chengdu to show solidarity with another human rights lawyer, Lu Siwei, and attended a hearing on Lu’s disbarment, during which he was pushed by the Chengdu Qingyang Public Security Bureau and pushed to the ground, causing Xie to bleed from his mouth and injure his left knee.
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