A Chinese court on Monday sentenced two prominent political activists to more than a decade in prison for "subversion of state power" – a charge often used to target critics of the government – after they attended a 2019 dissident gathering.
The Linshu County People's Court in the eastern province of Shandong handed down a 14-year jail term to Xu Zhiyong and a 12-year sentence to rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi.
Ding and Xu, the founder of the "New Citizens' Movement" campaign for government transparency, were detained after they attended a dinner with prominent activists in December 2019 in Xiamen, southeastern China.
"The jailing of Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi is tantamount to saying that the government's own constitution isn't even worthy to be used as toilet paper," Ding's U.S.-based wife Luo Shengchun said. "It runs entirely counter to their claim that we are citizens under the constitution and the rule of law."
"They are now being totally blatant about their barbaric behavior," she told Radio Free Asia.
Ding was taken away as part of a slew of coordinated and nationwide arrests of fellow Xiamen gathering attendees, including Zhang Zhongshun, Dai Zhenya and Li Shuai. In 2020, Luo reported that Ding had been tortured while in Shandong's Linshi Detention Center.
Hiding out
Xu, who also later penned an online essay calling on Chinese Communist Party supreme leader Xi Jinping to step down, went on the run after the meeting, hiding out in a friend's apartment in the southern province of Guangdong.
He was eventually tracked down by police via a nationwide facial recognition and surveillance camera system known as SkyNet.
His partner, the rights activist Li Qiaochu, was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Linyi city after she posted details of torture allegations made by Xu during his time in pretrial detention.
Xu stood trial behind closed doors in June 2022, as the authorities placed potential witnesses under house arrest and forced his legal team to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to Luo.
Like many detainees in subversion cases, both Xu and Ding have been denied meetings with defense attorneys or visits from family members for prolonged periods of time, which rights groups say is a major risk factor for torture and inhumane treatment.
‘Suffer for freedom, justice and love’
In statements prepared in 2021 in the event of their conviction, both men vowed to keep up the fight for a more democratic China.
"To be a true citizen is to be subversive. The pursuit of freedom and democracy is subversive,” his statement said. "I take it as a personal honor to suffer for freedom, justice and love."
Ding's statement foresaw "huge changes" in China's political landscape soon.
"Huge changes are about to happen in China," Ding predicted. "Even though I'm behind bars, I can sense strongly that a battle is unfolding between authoritarian rule and democracy."
"I'm convinced that rationality and non-violent resistance are the most stable path towards transformation in China," his statement said. "Neither personal doubts, setbacks nor physical torture will change what I believe in."
His wife, Luo, said that anyone “with ideals, talent and corsage gets sent to prison… Ding and Xu have always said that we don't need to be subversive because [the Communist Party regime] will subvert themselves."
‘Greatly encouraged’
Luo was greatly encouraged by the " Bridge Man" protest of Peng Lifa ahead of the Communist Party's 20th party congress in October 2022, and by the " white paper" protests in late November in which protestors gathered on the streets in more than a dozen cities across China to protest a deadly fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, rigid COVID-19 restrictions and the lack of freedom of speech.
"The Peng Lifa incident and the young people of the white paper movement have made me feel greatly encouraged," Luo said. For Xu and Ding, “they were a huge comfort."
Rights activists said the sentences were a “new low” for Beijing’s rights record.
“Their sentencing once again demonstrates the Chinese government’s hostility to peaceful advocacy of democracy and human rights, and marks a new low in the Chinese government’s human rights record,” Chinese Human Rights Defenders senior researcher Ramona Li said in a statement.
The group’s research and advocacy coordinator William Nee said the sentences were “a travesty of justice.”
“At every step, Chinese authorities have taken the wrong turn: from detaining them in secret, torturing them, falsifying witness testimony, putting them on trial in secret, and now this heavy sentence,” Nee said in a statement emailed to Radio Free Asia.
The New York-based group Human Rights in China said via its Twitter account: “The Chinese government's overreaction to gatherings of its citizens reveals its insecurity about the illegitimacy of the regime, and its fear of a unified citizens’ resistance.”
Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, called on the government to quash the convictions, citing allegations of procedural errors and mistreatment in custody.
"The cruelly farcical convictions and sentences meted out to Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi show President Xi Jinping’s unstinting hostility towards peaceful activism," Wang said in a statement on the group's website.
"Governments around the world should join in calling on the Chinese authorities to release the two lawyers immediately and unconditionally."
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.