Human Rights Lawyers · Full chronicle and history

The human rights organization Safeguard Defenders has released a new edition of the book 'The People's Republic of the Disappeared.' It includes first-hand accounts of secret detention under the 'Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location' (RSDL) system from Chinese rights lawyers, journalists, NGO workers, as well as Michael Kovrig, Cheng Lei, and Lee Ming-che, and offers a free PDF download.

The trial of Shenyang petitioner Fu Youling, charged with the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, has opened; the prosecution recommended a fixed-term prison sentence of two years.

The Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health Commission, and the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration jointly issued standards defining the scope of serious illnesses and criteria for identifying inability to care for oneself for temporary execution of sentences outside prison.

According to Twitter account @__Inty__, on October 15, 2026, Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was subjected to a door-to-door inspection by local police at a guesthouse in Xiamen, Fujian. His specific situation and the reason for the inspection remain to be further followed.

On September 17, it was circulated online that the Justice Bureau of Puan County, Guizhou Province, issued a notice requiring local lawyers, when handling cases related to cracking down on organized crime, to report to the county justice bureau for study and obtain approval before they can present defense arguments that involve changing the characterization of a crime, and demanding that all law firms strictly enforce this.

On August 1, 2026, Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng disclosed that when his family of three planned to travel to Hong Kong at a Shenzhen checkpoint, they were stopped and placed under exit controls by border inspection on the grounds that leaving the country might endanger national security, and they received no written notice.

In August 2026, prominent criminal defense lawyer Chen Youxi publicly pointed out that in multiple cases involving fallen officials, the case-handling authorities appointed legal aid lawyers to crowd out the lawyers retained by family members, effectively depriving the parties of their right to defense.

On July 8, 2026, the public interest organization Asia Lawyers Network released a report disclosing that the crackdown on lawyers in China has extended to the civil and commercial sectors, with lawyers frequently facing criminal prosecution by authorities using criminal charges to replace civil litigation when handling civil and commercial disputes.

On July 7, 2026, on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the 709 case, disbarred mainland human rights lawyer Liu Shuqing published a two-volume collection in New York, containing historical records of his handling of major public cases such as the New Citizens' Movement and the 709 case, as well as acts of civil disobedience.

After the case was accepted, it remained unhandled for a long time; Lin attempted suicide by slashing his or her wrist shortly afterward, and his or her lawyer says Lin was subsequently diagnosed with severe depression by a hospital.

In late June 2026, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress released the draft amendment to the Lawyers Law, with new clauses explicitly requiring practicing lawyers to support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist rule of law, and mandating that law firms establish grassroots Party organizations in accordance with the Party Constitution.

On June 10, 2026, Chinese independent feminist and human rights activist Li Qiaochu sent an inquiry letter, legally filing an administrative reconsideration against the Shandong Provincial Prison Administration for its inaction on the marriage application of Xu Zhiyong, who is incarcerated.

Kim Myeong-il said that lawyer Li Guisheng met with him again on June 9 and promised that no matter the cost, he would not give up defending him.

Kim Myeong-il said that after the prosecutor's office began questioning him, he wrote a letter and announced a hunger strike lasting two days because lawyer Lee Gwi-saeng was unable to meet with him.

China's Ministry of Justice announced the results of a crackdown on local law enforcement violations, saying it identified and corrected more than 66,000 problems and recovered economic losses of 30.7 billion yuan for businesses.

Rights lawyers and civic activists such as Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, and Wu Shaoping gathered in Xiamen, Fujian to discuss current affairs and the development of civil society in China, prompting a nationwide crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

From July 9, 2015, Chinese police (Public Security) carried out large-scale arrests, summons and detentions of over a hundred rights lawyers, rights defenders and their relatives across 23 provinces, an event known as the 709 crackdown.

In May 2011, the Xia Junfeng case entered the Supreme People's Court's death penalty review; afterward, academics and netizens launched a "stay the execution" solidarity campaign, though the exact launch date and the scale of hundreds of thousands of participants could not be verified.

On June 16, 2009, the court of Badong County, Hubei, found Deng Yujiao guilty of intentional injury in the first-instance ruling, but, taking into account such circumstances as excessive self-defense and voluntary surrender, exempted her from criminal penalty.

The night after the Yang Jia case occurred, his mother Wang Jingmei was first taken to the Datun Police Station in Chaoyang District, and was then sent by Shanghai and Beijing police to the Ankang Psychiatric Hospital of the Beijing Public Security Bureau in Shunyi District and forcibly detained. Her family only learned of her whereabouts four months later, and legal professionals pointed out that there was no regulatory basis whatsoever for sending her to a psychiatric hospital.