On December 9, several Chinese human rights lawyers and their families tweeted videos of being prevented from leaving their homes by unknown persons. In one of the videos, Beijing Guobao indicated to Yu Wensheng’s wife, Xu Yan, that they were going to prevent her from attending a World Human Rights Day event organized by a foreign embassy.
Several Chinese human rights lawyers, including Li Wenzhu, Xu Yan, and Wang Geoling, and their families posted videos on the morning of December 9, highlighting the fact that they were blocked from leaving their homes by unknown individuals.
One day before World Human Rights Day on December 10, several Chinese human rights lawyers or their family members shared videos on Twitter stating that their homes had been blocked early in the morning by unknown individuals who prevented them from leaving their homes. Xu Yan, the wife of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, told Deutsche Welle in an interview that she opened her door at around 6:20 a.m. this morning to take her son to school, but three Beijing national security guards were standing at the door, indicating that they would not let her out.
She said, “They made it clear that I would not be able to leave the house on December 9 and December 10. I asked to go out and exercise, but I haven’t succeeded yet. There were three of them blocking the door, and about four downstairs. They mentioned that December 10 is World Human Rights Day, and they also said that they would prevent me from going to the World Human Rights Day event between the European Union and the U.S. Embassy.
On the other hand, Li Wenzhu, the wife of lawyer Wang Quanzhang, and Wang Cragling, the wife of lawyer Li Heping, who were both imprisoned by the Chinese government in connection with the “709 mass arrests,” tweeted that a large number of unidentified people blocked the entrance to their home at 6:00 a.m., preventing them from sending their children to school, walking their dogs, or taking their father to the hospital.
Lee wrote in a Twitter post that at 5:27 a.m. on the morning of September 9, unidentified people taped up the camera in front of her house, and at 6 a.m., someone rang the doorbell of her house. As soon as the door opened, at least six men wearing masks were seen standing in front of her house. She questioned the men in the video about their identities, but they were reluctant to reveal their identities. One of them tries to talk to Wang Quanzhang, but is also stopped by Li Wenzhu.
Afterwards, when she wanted to take her father to a nearby hospital for a checkup, three men were still blocking the doorway. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Li said that she had called the police, but the police have not yet come to deal with the situation, and the men at the door are still there. She said, “They didn’t identify themselves, and they didn’t show their papers. They just told me that they wouldn’t let me go out, and then they stopped me.
Xu Yan told Deutsche Welle that the national security guards made it clear to her that she would not be able to leave her house on December 9 and December 10.
Li Wenzu told Deutsche Welle that one of the people outside the door was a policeman surnamed Wei who escorted Wang Quanzhang back to Beijing from Jinan on April 27, 2012. Although Wang Quanzhang later negotiated with him and was able to take her son to school, there were still three people at the door, preventing her from going out.
She said, “There were two groups of people on my side. One is from Jinan, and the other is from Beijing, Shijingshan. The police officer surnamed Wei told me that they were only responsible for Quanzhang, and I was in charge of Shijingshan. Just now I opened the door, and there were three people sitting at the door, and they had portable chairs with them.”
On the other hand, Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yanyi also shared a video on Twitter showing three unidentified people standing guard in front of her house early in the morning. In the video, Li Heping, a human rights lawyer who was also sentenced to imprisonment by Chinese authorities for the “709 arrests,” stands on the rooftop of his home and yells at the people standing in front of his house.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Lan Ning, research and advocacy advisor for the human rights organization Human Rights Defenders in China, said that the Chinese government views World Human Rights Day as a sensitive occasion and therefore restricts the freedom of movement of Chinese citizens, including preventing them from attending related events. He said, “The Chinese government’s actions show that their claims that they will abide by their international commitments are simply false. When dissidents are suppressed by the Chinese government for speaking out about the reality in China, it means that there is no freedom of expression in China.”
Xu Yan also told Deutsche Welle that while she will fight for her right to freedom of movement, past experience shows that any form of protest is unlikely to make a difference. When a dozen people are blocking the corridor, you can’t move at all,” she said. Last year, on World Human Rights Day, I was not allowed to leave my home, while the families of other human rights lawyers were still free to move. But this year, even they are not allowed to leave.”
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