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He Randong, Cheng Wanqiu

We are two independent journalists who currently reside in China. We have conducted interviews with nine colleagues and friends of Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan; through their recollections, we gradually gained a general understanding of the experiences of Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan. To maintain anonymity for our safety, in this article, we will refer to ourselves as He Randong and Cheng Wanqiu. 

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As summer approached in Beijing, He Randong had a dream about his friend, human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and his wife, Xu Yan, both of whom had just been taken away on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble" on April 13th.

In his dream, this couple were released, and He was sitting opposite Yu, sharing with him some of the things that had happened during his detention. When he woke up, He discovered that he had thrashed so violently in his sleep that he injured his knee, which would continue to ache faintly for two days. Then, he realized that neither Yu and Xu had been released, and they were even deprived of their right to meet with a lawyer. This dream sparked a desire to write about this couple and share their story with the world.

Yu Wensheng is a 55-year-old human rights lawyer who has been arrested three times. The first time was in 2014, when he was imprisoned for 99 days and subjected to torture, resulting in lifelong disabilities, for defending Beijing citizens who supported the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, also called Occupy Central with Love and Peace. The second time was in 2018, when he was sentenced to four years in prison for inciting subversion of state power by publishing a proposal for Constitutional Amendment aimed at promoting democratic reforms in China.   

The third time was recent: on April 13, 2023, Yu was intercepted and taken away by plainclothes police on the subway while on his way to the German Embassy in China at the invitation of the EU delegation. This time, his wife was also arrested.

Initially, their friends remained relatively optimistic, believing that the interception was merely to prevent their meeting with EU's diplomats. In the past, there had been some instances where human rights defenders were briefly summoned for 24 hours from the embassy area and subsequently released. However, after 24 hours, Yu and Xu remained uncontactable. After 48 hours, the police visited their residence and informed their son that both of them were criminally detained on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." They are currently being held at the Shijingshan Detention Center.

Foreign media reports indicate that when asked about Yu and Xu, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin did not directly address their situation and instead stated that "the Chinese authorities handle cases in accordance with the law." At the same time, the official website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not display this information in the transcript of that day’s press conference.

All the lawyers representing the couple have been denied access to meet with them. Yu's lawyer visited the Shijingshan Detention Center, but was refused entry by the police, citing incomplete procedures. On May 30th, Li Guobei, Xu's lawyer, revealed that her charges had been expanded to include "inciting subversion of state power." When the lawyer attempted to meet with Xu at the scheduled time, the police impeded the meeting by conducting an impromptu interrogation, preventing the lawyer from seeing Xu. On June 21st, the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Group disclosed that the investigating authorities, claiming the imminent addition of new charges related to endangering national security against Yu, once again rejected the lawyer's request to meet with him.

I. 

Before their arrest, Yu and Xu lived in the suburb of Shijingshan District in Beijing, where a central green area with pavilions and artificial ponds separates the streets from their apartment. Upon entering, guests would be greeted by a large floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, allowing warm sunlight to illuminate the interior and casting a gentle glow on some faded wedding photos on the windowsill. As their house was still undergoing renovations, it served as a temporary residence with minimal furniture and decorations, aside from few sofas and a table.

When guests visited, Yu and Xu would bring out fresh fruits and Russian candies wrapped in purple paper on the table. Yu and his friends would engage in lively conversations, and Xu would quietly sit beside him, listening with a smile, rarely sharing her own experiences or expressing her opinions. As an exception, when Yu talked about his four years in prison and expressed remorse for the impact it had on his wife and son, Xu couldn't help but shed tears, turning her head to apologize to the guests with a self-deprecating laugh.

Their teenage son seemed to be nonexistent, hiding away in his bedroom on the second floor, hardly making any sound. In the eyes of Yu’s friends, he was a sunny and cheerful boy, but after witnessing his father be violently summoned twice, he fell into severe depression and became withdrawn. At his worst moments, he needed to set up a tent inside his room to find solace and sleep. [Editor's Note: in China, a summons is a measure whereby the police can detain any citizen for up to 24 hours for any reason, typically for questioning. The police may convert a summons to criminal detention at a later point.]

Yu never shared with us his complete experience of how he became a human rights lawyer. He mentioned that his father was a senior military officer who would bring back Hong Kong and Taiwan newspapers and neican (internal reference reports) meant only for high-ranking officials. His father forbade him from seeing these materials, but he would secretly read them with a flashlight at night, leading to a habit of insomnia from a young age.

These neican were different from the publicly disseminated news used for propaganda and glorifying the Chinese government. They delved into many societal dark sides and external evaluations of China. Yu jokingly said that he was among the first to break through the Great Firewall. At that time, China did not have the same level of firewall to block foreign websites, but accessing so-called neican was much more challenging than using VPN techniques to visit foreign websites, such as Google or Facebook. Perhaps these materials subtly influenced him, leading to a growing distaste for social injustice and a pursuit of values including freedom and democracy.

In 1999, Yu passed the judicial examination and became a corporate lawyer, earning a substantial income. However, in his spare time, he occasionally took on cases about human rights. He described this as driven by his ideals.

The real change in Yu occurred in 2014, when he met some lawyers dedicated to human rights work at a gathering in Beijing. These lawyers specialized in assisting victims of forced evictions, practitioners of Falun Gong and Christians persecuted due to their faith.

A few lines from the Bible were frequently quoted by Chinese Christian dissidents: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."(Matthew 7:13-14)

Eight years later, in the summer of 2022, a few months after their release from prison, the couple were formally baptized and became Christians. We do not know if, in that moment, Yu would have thought of the lines from the Bible or reflected upon himself entering that narrow gate back in 2014, embarking on the rugged and thorny path of being a human rights lawyer.

In the second half of 2014, Yu became close friends with another lawyer named X at a legal seminar organized by Beijing lawyers. We met with X, a human rights lawyer as brave as Yu, who requested to remain anonymous due to concerns about retaliation from the government. An assistant from Lawyer X's law firm introduced Yu, praising him for his integrity, commitment to the rule of law, democratic ideals, and immense passion for helping vulnerable groups in society.

Soon after, Yu went to Mudanjiang, a small city in northeastern China, to represent some arrested practitioners of Falun Gong. In China, Falun Gong is classified as a suppressed "cult." Arrested Falun Gong practitioners face illegal restrictions on their right to litigate. Local detention centers prohibit all detained Falun Gong practitioners from meeting with lawyers.

"Utterly evil," Lawyer X exclaimed angrily. Several lawyers, including Lawyer X, held up banners demanding lawful visitations outside the detention center. As a result, they were detained by the police for over ten hours and had no choice but to leave the city.

Yu didn't join them in holding up the banners. He opted for a different strategy: after being denied a visit, he boldly entered the detention center without permission. Among all the present lawyers, he was the only one who managed to enter the detention center and successfully meet with the detainee.

After Yu lost his freedom, Lawyer X had been worried about Yu's son. However, when recalling this experience, Lawyer X couldn't help but burst into laughter and said, “It was too bizarre. The detention center was guarded by armed police, and we all felt that you, Lawyer Yu, were amazing. Everyone thought you were so amazing.”

In the autumn of 2014, the Umbrella Movement erupted in Hong Kong, demanding real universal suffrage. During a gathering of human rights activists in Beijing, they raised banners with slogans such as "Embrace Freedom in the Storm" and "Support Hong Kong." Not surprisingly, a few days after the photos were uploaded on social media, most of them were arrested.

Yu became the lawyer for Zhang Zonggang, who was one of those arrested. Alongside several other lawyers, he went to the detention center to request a meeting with the detainee. When their requests were denied, Yu and another lawyer chose not to leave and instead staged a sit-in protest outside the detention center.

It was October in Beijing, and the temperature was dropping. On that day, a cold rain started to fall, but they persisted. Beijing citizens who heard the news brought food, warm coats, and sleeping bags to them.

Officials from the detention center came out and told them that their sit-in protest was "useless" and that they would not be allowed to meet the following day, as it would be the weekend. They continued their protest until midnight, but were eventually forced to leave. The next day, Yu publicly shared his experience on social media.

Lawyer X remembered that during that time, many lawyers would stage sit-in protests when denied visitations, but Beijing was different. X said, “Imperial city (Beijing) is the capital of an authoritarian country. It's much authoritarian than other places.”

Just two days later, Yu faced retaliation from the police. The D&H Law Firm, where he worked, was raided by the police. They searched the office, took away several of his colleagues, and laid in wait at the firm to take him away when he arrived.

After his detention, Yu was also denied meeting with his lawyers. Due to his refusal to confess, two weeks later, the police started to torture him. He recounted his experiences of being tortured: The torturer handcuffed his hands behind the back of the interrogation chair. The iron interrogation chair was tall and large, with sharp edges. Yu couldn't bend his hands behind it, so the torturer forcibly twisted his hands, applied handcuffs, and tightened them to inflict pain. This torture was repeated three times, and Yu described it as a living nightmare, making him wish for death.

The political climate in China at that time was more relaxed than it is now, and Yu received a significant amount of support. Soon, including him, most of those arrested were released on bail. In total, Yu was detained for 99 days.

The lasting effects of the torture continue to afflict him today. The interrogation chair caused damage to his peritoneum, resulting in a small intestine hernia. Upon his release, he had to undergo surgery and was hospitalized, but the police refused to take responsibility for it. The nerves in his right wrist were severed, leaving him unable to write properly and lift heave objects to this day. The psychological trauma is equally enduring, as nightmares about the torture continue to haunt him.

The terrifying experiences did not make Yu retreat. Instead, they strengthened his pursuit of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. In 2015, he began representing Falun Gong cases more frequently and steadfastly defended their innocence. At times, he even achieved non-prosecution outcomes for the Falun Gong practitioners he represented.

"They [Falun Gong practitioners] advocate truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. They do not use violence or seek to overthrow the government. Why should their faith be suppressed? Why should they be persecuted?" Yu sharply questioned.

However, the political climate began to deteriorate. In the early hours of July 9, 2015, the Chinese authorities launched the "709 Crackdown" against human rights lawyers. Many lawyers, including Lawyer X, were violently summoned and subsequently held in secret detention, with no information about their whereabouts. The atmosphere of terror spread across cities where human rights lawyers were active, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Yu took the lead in fighting back. He issued public statements and began the process of suing the Ministry of Public Security.

A few days later, on the night of August 6, the police arrived at Yu's residence and tried to summon him to the police station. When he refused, they brought a power saw and proceeded to destroy his steel anti-theft door. Several hours later, the door was sawed open, and the police barged in, handcuffing Yu's hands behind his back before taking him away. Xu and their son, who was under 10 years old at the time, witnessed the whole ordeal and experienced tremendous shock.

Yu was detained at the police station for 24 hours, with handcuffs on the entire time. Shortly after regaining his freedom, he became the defense lawyer for arrested lawyer Wang Quanzhang. Subsequently, Yu was subjected to frequent harassments by guobao. Guobao, also known as "internal security agents," are specialized political police within China's police system, similar to the KGB in the Soviet Union or the Stasi in East Germany. The plainclothes guobao even openly parked several vehicles near his apartment.

Despite overcoming numerous obstacles to reach Tianjin where Wang was secretly detained, Yu never met with Wang. It wasn't until 2018 that Wang was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after a closed-door trial in court, and by that time, Yu had already been incarcerated again.

After 1 year and 9 months, Yu failed to pass the annual review required to maintain his law license. It was one of the ways the authorities restrict human rights lawyers—lawyers who were rejected during the annual review couldn't continue their lawyer’s work. As a result, Yu had to resign from the D&H Law Firm and had his law license revoked shortly afterward.

A few days after Yu Wensheng’s release in March, 2022, Wang Yu and Bao Longjun visited this couple. Lawyers Wang and Bao are two of most prominent victims of the 709 crackdown.

II.

While Yu was disbarred, Chinese President Xi Jinping was preparing to amend the constitution at the National People's Congress in March, 2018, seeking to abolish term limits for the presidency and hold unlimited power.

Yu responded with a more active stance. In the early hours of January 18, 2018, he published an open letter online addressed to senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, calling for constitutional amendments, including demands for competitive presidential elections and the abolishment of one-party rule by the Communist Party. However, his suggestions were in a direction that the authorities could not tolerate.

During lunchtime on the same day, Yu gathered with some friends from the legal community. He shared his open letter and asked, “This shouldn't cause any trouble, right?”

One lawyer who was present at the gathering recalled saying, "You probably won't have any trouble before the Spring Festival." He believed that the police generally refrained from making arrests during the Spring Festival, and with the persecution of lawyers during the 709 Crackdown having just ended, the Chinese government might not stir up too much commotion. "I thought they would exercise some restraint and take a break," he added. Liang Xiaojun, One of Yu's former colleagues, jokingly remarked that losing his license was a complete relief, and he encouraged him with a mocking quote often associated with Xi Jinping: “roll up sleeves to work hard.”

The following morning, as Yu accompanied his son to school, over a dozen police surrounded him and verbally summoned him. When he refused, the police resorted to force. Yu fiercely resisted, according to the official Chinese news report. It described him kicking and biting two police, but he was eventually subdued. He was criminally detained on charges of “obstructing public duties.”

The assault on the police was merely an excuse; the police deliberately provoked him to find a reason for summoning him. When the procuratorate approved Yu's arrest, the charges against him changed to "inciting subversion of state power." He was taken away from Beijing and detained in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, far away from Beijing. It was a common tactic used by the Chinese government since the 709 Crackdown: detaining dissidents who live in Beijing in remote locations, making it more difficult for their families and lawyers to visit or meet, and avoiding potential disruptions from foreign journalists and diplomats.

To prevent human rights lawyers from defending Yu, the authorities appointed two "legal aid lawyers" who were loyal to the government, occupying all available slots for lawyers. Initially, Yu refused this unlawful appointment until the police used the safety of his wife and son as threat to force him to accept.

At the end of that year, China did indeed amend its constitution, but not in the direction Yu had hoped for, towards more democracy and freedom. Instead, it strengthened authoritarianism by abolishing Xi’s presidential term limits.

Two years later, in 2020, Yu was sentenced to four years in prison. It was only after the first trial that Yu had the opportunity to meet with Xu and the lawyer she had entrusted to represent him. Soon after, he was transferred to a prison in Nanjing to serve his sentence.

In prison, Yu had very limited access to sunlight and outdoor activities. The prison imposed restrictions on his shopping allowance, resulting in inadequate meals, which only improved after his hunger strike protest. Additionally, the prison deliberately cut off the hot water supply in his cell area as a means to punish him. The cold and damp winter in southern China aggravated his old hand injury by torture, to the point where he struggled to fold his own blankets.

Outside the prison, Xu Yan, Yu’s wife, tirelessly campaigned and advocated for Yu's right to visitation and sought to improve his situation.

He Peirong(left) and Xu Yan together. /Photo courtesy of He Peirong.

III.

Xu Yan wrote the following bio on Twitter: "Wife of Martin Ennals Award laureate lawyer Yu Wensheng; Christian... The only human rights lawyer's wife summoned on charges of inciting subversion of state power... Once met with approximately 18 foreign diplomats alone, appealing for international support." 

On December 10th, 2022, on International Human Rights Day, Cheng Wanqiu saw on Twitter that Xu had been unlawfully detained by guobao. The plainclothes officers prohibited her from leaving her home to participate in embassy activities and even refused her requests to go out for dental appointments and purchase essential feminine hygiene products. When she attempted to force her way out, the plainclothes officers violently shut the door, causing injuries to her body.

Cheng admired Xu's courage in exposing the misconduct of guobao and even felt that she was somewhat audacious. However, when Cheng finally met Xu in person, she was surprised by her tenderness. During their last farewell, Cheng embraced Xu, and even now, the thought of that soft, warm hug brings tears to Cheng’s eyes.

At the turn of the century, Xu and Yu met on a Chinese social media platform called QQ. At that time, the internet was not yet widely accessible in China. According to statistics from the Chinese Cyberspace Administration, the number of internet users in China was 16.9 million in 2000.

Yu said that they hit it off online. Soon, in 2002, they got married. About 3 years later in November 2005, Xu gave birth to their son.

After marriage, Xu became a housewife. In China, housewives often become socially disconnected and gradually lose common ground with their husbands, leading to fading emotions. However, Yu and Xu's relationship did not grow distant over time. Instead, it remained sweet, like first love. In the autumn of 2022, while moving to their new apartment, Xu found an old photograph of herself holding a bouquet of red roses, looking young and slender.

Xu tweeted an old photo on Twitter, marveling at how slim she had been back then. Yu retweeted her post and commented, “20 years have passed, and you are still as beautiful as when we first met!”

Although her appearance has changed, she is still beautiful and gentle. Moreover, through the process of fighting for her husband’s rights alone, she has grown stronger and become like a thorny rose.

We interviewed Hu Jia, a well-known Chinese human rights activist and recipient of the 2008 Sakharov Prize, who is a close friend of Xu's. Hu told us that when he first met Yu, Yu talked about human rights and the cases he was involved in with great pride. Xu, on the other hand, had more of a supporting role, “with a very rigid attitude, just listening to Yu.”

Their peaceful life was broken when Yu was first detained and subjected to torture in the detention center, while Xu faced immense pressure outside as she campaigned for her husband. The police threatened her, stating that if she sought assistance from human rights lawyers or spoke out publicly, Yu would face a heavier sentence.

Xu wavered at times, considering whether to entrust her husband's case to a familiar lawyer or to obey the police's orders in exchange for his early release. To strengthen her resolve, Lawyer X and other friends frequently visited her, explaining the risks and encouraging her to persist. X also accompanied her for interviews with foreign media.

In the end, Xu did not succumb to the authorities. The police used various pretexts to prevent human rights lawyers from representing her husband, so Xu sought out other lawyers and ended up appointing seven in total. When Yu returned home with injuries all over his body, Xu decided that she would no longer believe the police's words.

During Yu's second arrest, Xu still frequently felt fear. The police summoned her three times within two months, accusing her of being involved in "inciting subversion of state power." Every time she returned from the police station, Xu would call Lawyer X, and when X arrived at her home, Xu would hold onto X and cry uncontrollably.

But her resistance became braver and more resolute.

She still dared not go to Jiangsu alone; each time, she would ask other lawyers, activists, or petitioners to accompany her. This was both to prevent herself from being quietly taken away and to have someone help take photos and share them on social media to amplify their influence.

Hu vividly remembers a day in 2018 when Xu asked for his help to drive together to Xuzhou. To ensure a smooth journey, Hu deceived guobao who were monitoring him 24/7, telling them that he was going to help a friend resolve some troubles. At 4 o'clock in the morning, Hu and Xu met up with others and drove over 700 kilometers to reach Xuzhou in Xu's car. Hu’s guobao discovered that he had left Beijing by tracking his mobile phone signal. They angrily called him to ask where he had gone, but received no response.

They first deposited money into the detention center so that Yu could purchase food and daily necessities. Then they arrived at the entrance of the detention center and shouted slogans of "Free Yu Wensheng." The armed police guards, who were stationed at a high position, descended and surrounded Xu's car with batons, demanding Xu delete the recorded video. Xu, facing the armed police for the first time, was not intimidated in the slightest and calmly negotiated with them. In the end, the armed police had to allow them to leave.

Then, they attempted to meet with the government-appointed lawyers and filed complaints with the local lawyers' association. They also drove to Nanjing to lodge complaints with the Jiangsu Provincial Judicial Bureau and the courts. However, the lawyers and officials all hid and no one dared to come out and meet them.

"These 'legal aid lawyers' are just figurehead... They hide in the dark and dare not come out to meet the family members," Hu, still filled with anger, recalls the lawyers and judges who were obediently serving the Chinese Communist Party like puppets.

Initially, Xu struggled to articulate her points and would only mention that their family's source of income was cut off after Yu's imprisonment when speaking to foreign diplomats. But later, she learned to organize her thoughts and convey more information within the limited time available. On May 24, 2018, Xu met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and took a photo together. That same autumn, Yu received the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

On Yu's birthday, Xu organized a dinner with friends to celebrate. Each friend held a piece of paper with a Chinese character written on it, spelling out "Yu Wensheng, Happy Birthday" when assembled. During Yu's four years in prison, four photos were taken with this arrangement.

In addition to her husband, Xu began to pay attention to other persecuted dissidents. In 2018, when Wang Quanzhang's wife Li Wenzu was illegally detained at home, two female petitioners who went to visit her were beaten by guobao. Xu called an ambulance for them. When lawyer Lu Siwei, who attempted to defend Yu, had his license revoked, Xu went to Sichuan Province to show her support at the hearing. The day before she departed, guobao came to her home and insulted her, accusing her of "reporting to foreigners" and being a traitor to the country. Despite the pressure, Xu stood firm and arrived in Sichuan as planned.

After Yu's conviction in 2020, Xu began to regularly visit him in prison, making monthly trips between Beijing and Nanjing.

Human rights activist He Peirong, who used to reside in Nanjing, became close friends with Xu. Due to constant harassment and restrictions from the government, she has since left China and resettled in Thailand.

Sometimes, Xu would fear that the police might suddenly rush into her hotel room. In those instances, He would stay with her in the hotel overnight. To avoid detection, she bypassed surveillance cameras and entered the elevator through the hotel's back door. The hotel rooms were warm during the winter, and they would have meals together, chatting about daily life, with Xu's conversations often revolving around Yu.

"I think she's very cute. She always finds reasons (that make her scared) to ask me to come over. She's really a simple person," He said. “I consider her one of my few friends and the last person I helped before leaving China.”

After each visit, Xu would hold up banners outside the prison or take some photos and videos. He jokingly claimed to have excellent covert photography skills, so Xu would always ask for her help. One time, when Xu was recording a video and the guards noticed, they wanted to confiscate her phone. Xu responded by asking, "What are the regulations that prohibit recording?" Afterwards, He remarked that Xu truly lived up to being a wife of lawyer.

Behind Xu's understanding of the law and commitment to human rights is her relentless work ethic. After Yu's second imprisonment in 2018, Xu began studying law on her own. She took the judicial examination twice in 2021 and 2022. Although she did not pass on both occasions, her friends greatly admire her spirit.

"(Xu) has shown the power of women. She used to play a supporting role, but now she has become the leading figure charging forward," said Hu, “The power that comes from love is truly formidable.”

After Yu's release, Xu's main focus was to make up for the 4 years of separation as much as possible. Her Twitter content shifted from human rights activism to everyday normal life: Yu learned to cook by watching TV in prison and made braised chicken wings for their son's 18th birthday; their son obtained his driver's license, and under their guidance, he drove for the first time; they exchanged flowers and chocolates on their wedding anniversary and each other's birthdays…

However, Xu could never fully return to peace. The strength she exhibited made her a target of persecution by guobao. In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly persecuted the spouses or partners of political prisoners who advocate for their release, rendering them without support.

IV.

For Yu, his release was merely a transition from a "small prison" to a larger prison with pervasive restrictions. It is a common practice for guobao to isolate dissidents from society and deprive them of employment and income even after serving their prison terms.

Once a lawyer with strong linguistic abilities, Yu initially struggled to speak fluently after his release. He was effectively stripped of his right to work. Guobao negotiated with him, offering a substantial amount of money and stable employment if he agreed to certain conditions, including voluntary silence. He refused. As a result, guobao approached his friends and requested that they not employ him. A donation of $500 HKD (approximately $64 USD or £51 GBP) from Hong Kong was also frozen by the bank under the instructions of guobao. He could only rely on the savings he accumulated during his time as a commercial lawyer to sustain his livelihood.

Yu has a very strong sense of insecurity. Witnessing the Chinese government's intensified crackdown on civil society and the increasing restrictions on freedom of speech after his release, he lost faith in the law. He worried that if China were to descend into turmoil, he and his wife might be caught up in it, even to the point of losing their lives on the streets. Furthermore, as Chinese government moved further down the path of authoritarianism, he saw no hope for reform.

He once saw human rights lawyers as a buffer in social conflicts: when there is a confrontation between the government and human rights defenders, human rights lawyers serve as a cushion to prevent more intense confrontations. "But they have arrested these human rights lawyers, wiped them out, revoked their licenses. Some even more cruel things, I think there will be more and more," Yu said.

The sense of despair led Yu to hope to leave China, but both the couple were restricted from exiting the country. This is also a new trend in recent years by the Chinese government in persecuting dissidents. They are left without jobs and income, forced into poverty by guobao. However, when they arrive at the airport or border crossings, they are told that, based on "national security" grounds, they are under the exit bans.

A report published by the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders in April 2023 stated, "China has been expanding its use of exit bans under Xi Jinping. Exit bans have become one of the many tools used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as part of broad efforts to tighten control over all aspects of people’s lives." The report estimates that exit bans, excluding ethnicity-based cases, likely number in the tens of thousands.

"Perhaps you could consider Yunnan (smuggling)?" He once semi-seriously asked Yu. Yu replied, “I don't want to use that method. I will leave only when I can depart China freely though legitimate means someday.”

Despite being trapped in China, Yu continues to publicly speak out for China’s human rights. In the fall of last year, during a small seminar on the death penalty held at the French Embassy, Yu made a brief speech during the sharing session. He mentioned the continued existence of the organ harvesting chain from executed prisoners in China. During his time in the detention center, he had been locked up with death row inmates. Although China officially stopped using organs from executed prisoners as a source in 2015, he still witnessed some death row inmates signing "voluntary" organ donation documents under police persuasion in order to provide financial support for their families.

On March 1 this year, Yu posted a tweet on his one year of release on Twitter. In a video, he stated, "Facing China's ten-year retrogression in human rights and rule of law, facing tyranny, we resist. Although our strength is weak, we persist, unwavering, in upholding freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, striving for a better future China!" When on April 10th, human rights defenders Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to 14 and 12 years in prison, respectively, Yu publicly expressed his support for them, ignoring the warnings from guobao.

Finally, the Chinese government could not tolerate them any longer. On April 13th, 2023, during a visit by an EU delegation to China, Yu and Xu were invited to the embassy. They were surrounded by plainclothes officers in the subway car, demanding that they go home. After refusing, the plainclothes issued a verbal summons and forcibly made them get off the subway. Xu's last video showed them sitting in a police car. Subsequently, her phone remained switched off for a long period of time.

48 hours later, the police informed their son that Yu and Xu had been criminally detained due to suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Their residence was searched by the police without showing a search warrant, and the police did not lawfully issue a detention notice to their son or other family members.

Another political prisoner who was detained in the same prison in Nanjing as Yu, once had a phone call with Yu after being released. Yu told him that being in prison was not so terrifying, but he was just worried about Xu being alone outside. However, this time, the couple was arrested simultaneously, leaving only their severely depressed son under close police surveillance.

To prevent their adult son from consulting a lawyer, guobao assigned a community worker to sit outside Yu's home to monitor him. Yu and Xu’s friends who went to visit or donate money for their son were subjected to full-scale surveillance and intimidation by guobao, and one human rights lawyer was taken to the detention center to make a statement. It was not until 37 days after their formal arrest that other family members of Yu and Xu appointed lawyers for them, but so far, the lawyers have been unable to meet with them. [Editor's Note: In China, the police may detain individuals without any judicial oversight for up to 37 days before they are required to issue an official arrest notice.]

This time, Hu was also unable to help them. He has been effectively deprived of all his freedoms, even though he has not been arrested or sentenced under the law. He is detained to his home, can only travel with vehicles provided by his assigned guobao, and is followed by at least one plainclothes officer wherever he goes.

In democratic countries, most people believe that freedom is just like air and water. But freedom is not free. In authoritarian China, human rights defenders who strive for freedom face various forms of brutal persecution, even extending to their families. However, they never give up. Despite imprisonment, forced disappearance, or silently persevering in fear, they believe that one day, light will prevail.

"I believe that the future of China is bright," Yu once said.

***

This article was originally published on July 10, 2023, and updated by the authors on September 27, 2023.