On September 22, Chinese civil rights organization Minsheng Watch released statistics on a number of cases in which “one person defending rights, the whole family is criminally punished,” condemning the Chinese authorities for their indiscriminate use of guilt-by-association.
According to the statistics, two siblings, Yin Hongbin and Yin Hongyan, petitioners in Fixian Township, Lushan County, Sichuan Province, and Yin Hongbin’s wife, Li Jiongying, were prosecuted in court last week on suspicion of “provoking and provoking trouble” after being detained by the local government for one year. The three members of the family were forced to go to Beijing to petition the local government for seven consecutive years to protect their rights after their house on their homestead was demolished in 2013, but to no avail. The three were picked up by the police last September and sent directly to a detention center where they have been held ever since.
In October 2018, 85-year-old Li Shuxian, a mother and daughter from Chengde City, Hebei Province, reported illegal deforestation and the abuse of power by the Luanping County Land Resources Bureau. The three were arrested for disturbing public order and sentenced to prison for provoking trouble.
According to official media, in September 2019, a court in Wuqiao County, Shandong Province convicted the defendants Mou Xying, Mou Xqiang, and Lin X for the crime of “provoking and provoking trouble,” for their unnatural transgressions in petitioning.
In recent years, there have been numerous cases in China in which entire families have been sentenced by local authorities for petitioning to protect rights, and numerous cases in which entire families have been jailed for their belief in Falun Gong, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and other rights. This includes the case of Falun Gong practitioner Long Zhuyun and his two daughters, Sun Fangfang and Sun Yuan Yuan, who were sentenced by the Xixia District Court in Yinchuan, Ningxia, in July 2018 to one year for Long Zhuyun, one year for Sun Fangfang, and eight months for Sun Yuan Yuan.
“Minsheng Watch condemns the Chinese Communist Party authorities for persecuting human rights defenders, faith groups, and independent dissidents on various so-called charges, and for blackmailing them into submission by means of silencing them.
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