Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to cut down on public attention on human rights cases in the country, the wives of dissidents who were arrested in April have been advocating for their husbands globally to raise awareness about human rights abuses in China, according to the Voice of America (VOA).
“The best way to get the international community’s attention on these human rights cases in China is to speak about them from a family member’s perspective,” the wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, Luo Shengchun, emphasised.
“I always start with the stories of Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, then I touch on the current situation of human rights violations in China, the re-arrest of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan in April, and the exit bans that the Chinese authorities have imposed on human rights lawyers,” she added.
For Luo Shengchun, Christmas has not been easy, and instead of celebrating the holidays with her family, the wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi has spent the last four years advocating for her detained husband and other Chinese dissidents.
“Christmas has become a challenging holiday for me since 2019 after Chinese police arrested my husband in a crackdown targeting dissidents who participated in a private gathering,” Luo, who now lives in the US, said.
“I am usually not in the mood to buy Christmas greeting cards and I usually try to bury myself in work, which is a way for me to try to relax my mind a bit,” she added.
Luo’s husband, Ding and Chinese dissident Xu Zhiyong were prominent personalities in the New Citizens’ Movement, a group of activists and lawyers concerned about human rights and government transparency in China, reported VOA.
Ding and Zhiyong took part in a private gathering in the Chinese city of Xiamen in December 2019, where they discussed human rights and China’s future with over 20 Chinese dissidents.
Later, in the following months, Ding, Xu, and Xu’s girlfriend, Li Qiaochu, were arrested by the police, VOA reported.
In April 2023, Ding and Xu were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for subversion of state power, while Li’s secret trial was suspended by the court earlier this month.
Notably, before their sentencing in April, Xu and Ding had been detained for more than three years.
Moreover, proving the human rights violations to be true, during the time of their detention, they were denied meetings with their lawyers, tortured, and kept under residential surveillance at a designated location, which is a form of solitary detention often used by Chinese authorities against individuals accused of endangering national security.
Despite Ding and Xu’s attempts to appeal the initial court ruling last month, the Shandong Provincial High Court upheld its decision.
Moreover, Ding’s wife, Luo, accused the authorities of withholding the verdict from family members, reported VOA.
“The way that the Chinese authorities handle the case shows that they have no regard for the law and are behaving like ‘mafia,’ trying to dictate the entire judicial process,” she said.
According to some analysts, the Chinese government’s handling of the cases shows that the rule of law no longer exists in China and that Beijing is trying to prevent the public from paying attention to the cases by delaying the judicial process.
Patrick Poon, a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, said, “The Chinese government doesn’t want people to remember these cases, and they want to bury the cases through secret trials and impose lengthy prison sentences against the activists.”
Despite Luo’s full-time job as an engineer, she has testified before the US Congress and spoken about the persecution of Chinese dissidents at events and award ceremonies around the world, according to VOA.
She thinks that these efforts allow her to become part of the global community that tries to counter China’s authoritarian rule.
“The Xiamen gathering has led me to this path,” Luo said.
Other Chinese dissidents’ wives say the experience of becoming “accidental human rights defenders” has helped them understand a side of China they didn’t know about.
Chen Zijuan, the wife of detained Chinese human rights lawyer Chang Wei-ping, said, “This experience has completely changed the trajectory of my life, essentially wiping out all the achievements that I’ve made in China over the last 30 years.”
Following their detention, Chen went into self-imposed exile with her son in the US last year after experiencing repeated threats and harassment from local authorities for advocating for her husband’s release.
“I don’t regret making this decision because the experience of becoming an activist helps me realise what China is really like,” she said.
“I used to not know about the Chinese government’s persecution of human rights lawyers during the 709 Mass Arrest in 2015 and the Tiananmen Square Massacre,” Chen said. “Since I started to advocate for my husband, I’m no longer blinded by Beijing’s brainwashing,” Chen added.
She further hopes that other Chinese dissidents’ wives can join her in advocating for people facing persecution in China. Moreover, Luo vowed to keep speaking up for all “prisoners of conscience” in China, according to VOA.
“All of my friends support my efforts because this is an important step to ensure all prisoners of conscience in China won’t die in detention. I hope to see all of them walk out of the prison alive,” she said.