Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have refused to allow activists held for supporting the country's embattled legal profession to see lawyers, citing concerns over 'harming state security,' lawyers and fellow activists told RFA.
Police in Guangdong's Zengcheng city detained Liu Yajie （also known as Liu Jinlian), Huang Xi, Wei Xiaobing and Huang Yongxiang after they created campaign T-shirts calling for the release of detained human rights attorney Wang Yu.
Liu Yajie was initially held on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a public order charge, but her lawyer said he had been denied permission to meet with her in detention on the grounds that such a meeting would "harm state security."
While Huang Xi has since been released, the decision to deny the activists meetings with th sparked concerns that the authorities may be preparing to bring more serious subversion or state secrets charges against the activists.
Chen Keyun, lawyer for Huang Yongxiang, said he was turned away when he tried to visit his client in the Huadu detention center in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, on Sunday.
"A case of picking quarrels and stirring up trouble shouldn't have to go through such procedures," Chen told RFA on Monday. "They didn't tell me much, but they did say that matters of national security were involved."
Chen said he had refused to apply for permission to visit Huang from the state security police, however.
"To ask the state security police for permission is a joke," he said. "I went to the state prosecutor and made a complaint about the detention center instead."
He added: "I think we can be sure that this is linked to their support for the lawyers."
He said he wasn't optimistic that his complaint would succeed, however.
The activists were detained last month, and Liu Yajie's lawyer Liu Zhengqing has told RFA that he held a very brief meeting with her that was terminated after just two minutes by police.
Detention center authorities sometimes limit or deny access to lawyers on the basis that the meeting will "harm state security," but the public order charge of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" isn't in that category.
As of Sept. 4, at least 284 lawyers, paralegals and assistants and other activists or family members had been detained, placed under house arrest or otherwise had their movements restricted in an ongoing crackdown, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website.
Torture and mistreatment
Nineteen people, including 12 lawyers, remain in criminal detention or are being held under "residential surveillance" in undisclosed locations, which is associated with a high risk of torture and mistreatment, rights groups say.
The crackdown began with the midnight detention of top rights attorney Wang Yu, her husband and son, as well as fellow rights lawyers and other employees of the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm on July 9-10.
Several lawyers have since been released from detention or questioning but have been prevented from leaving the country, the CHRLCG said.
Friends of the Zengcheng activists said their detentions are likely linked to T-shirts they had printed with Wang Yu's photograph on it, calling for the lawyers' release.
Calls to released activist Huang Xi's cell phone rang unanswered on Monday, and a friend of his surnamed Zhou said neither he nor the family had heard from him in spite of his release.
"We're not sure of his status right now," Zhou said, adding that Liu Yajie's situation looked worse than the other activists.
"It was her signature on a parcel of those T-shirts," he said. "Maybe Huang Xi was released because he didn't really play much of a role in that."
Liu Zhengqing told RFA on Monday that the authorities had no good reason to deny the activists access to their lawyers.
"We shouldn't need to apply ... to the state security police," Liu said. "Even if we did apply, they wouldn't let us meet with them."
"They told me it was because they sent out those T-shirts."
Chen agreed. "We shouldn't need permission from anyone under current Chinese law [to visit our clients]," he said.
"Secondly, [my client] hasn't done anything to harm national security," he said. "All he did was put on a T-shirt and post it online."
Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie .