Chinese rights advocate Xu Zhiyong on trial for state subversion amid secrecy and tight security
China is putting two of the country's most prominent civil rights leaders, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, through closed-door state subversion trials this week amid tight security.
No family members or supporters were allowed to attend Xu's trial held in the Linshu County People's Court in Shandong province on Wednesday morning.
The activist's legal representatives declined to comment. It is understood the lawyers have been asked to sign confidentiality agreements barring them from speaking to the media or risk severe consequences.
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The trial ended early on Wednesday evening and no information relating to the court proceeding has been made public. A verdict will be announced at a later date.
Ding's case is scheduled to be heard in the same court on Friday morning.
Xu, 49, and Ding, 54, have been long-standing advocates for civil rights, making them frequent targets of the state. In recent years, China has zeroed in on organised political activism in all forms, including moderate dissidents, to effectively wipe it out.
The pair have been held behind bars for more than two years. They were arrested soon after attending an activist gathering in southern Fujian province in December 2019.
Xu Zhiyu, the sister of Xu Zhiyong, was taken away by more than a dozen unidentified men around midnight from a hostel the night before her brother's hearing.
"We are now on a highway heading back home [to Henan] ... they won't even make a stop for me to use the toilet, drink water or eat," according to a video clip filmed by Xu Zhiyu that was seen by the South China Morning Post.
Xu said the men had split into two vehicles and rushed her away from Shandong province overnight, adding that she had been deprived of basic survival needs for more than nine hours by the time the trial of her brother began on Wednesday morning.
According to an indictment issued by the municipal prosecutor's office in Linyi last year, Xu was charged with subverting state power for leading a "citizens' movement" together with Ding.
Under the Chinese criminal code, the maximum penalty for subverting state power is life in prison.
The two are accused of recruiting a network of people to produce an "illegal" documentary, set up websites and publish subversive articles, and of organising "secret meetings" for the purpose of overturning the state.
Formerly a legal scholar and rights lawyer, Xu was first arrested in 2013 and sentenced to four years in jail a year later for "gathering crowds to disrupt public order" after campaigning against corruption and the death penalty and for the education rights of migrant workers' children.
He was released in 2017 but was detained again in February 2020 after months of hiding in Guangzhou following a gathering with fellow dissidents and human rights lawyers in Xiamen, Fujian province.
The 2019 Xiamen gathering implicated a number of human rights lawyers, civil rights activists and dissidents, including Xu's partner Li Qiaochu.
Li was accused of disseminating a large number of articles written by Xu online in September 2019 with the intention of "overthrowing the socialist system", according to an indictment paper issued against Li.
"Qiaochu has been active in speaking out against the injustice endured by Xu Zhiyong and has been a staunch supporter of Ding's family in fighting for his legal rights, as a result of which, she has suffered from abuse in prison now," said Teresa Zhao, a close friend of Li Qiaochu.
"What happened to Qiaochu is closely related to Xu. Her crime was about her collecting evidence against the authorities for incriminating Xu," said Zhao, who lives abroad.
"We believe that both Xu Zhiyong and Li Qiaochu, as well as their co-workers, are innocent, and we hope they will be released soon. Regarding Qiaochu's case, her mother hopes she can be granted medical parole as soon as possible."
Pen America, a New York-based literature and human rights group, criticised the trial against Xu.
"Xu has not committed a crime. He is a leading public intellectual using his words to try to hold the Chinese government accountable to Chinese citizens. Yet, he faces life in prison, following a rushed trial marred with due process violations after nearly 2½ years in arbitrary detention," said Liesl Gerntholtz, director of Pen.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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