By David Volodzko
Last week China accused the European Union of prejudice and ignorance for pronouncing concerns about the rights of Chinese lawyers. Stavros Lambridinis, the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, visited China, and in a subsequent press release expressed “strong concern about the recent arrests, detentions and summons of hundreds of human rights lawyers and activists.”
Among these is the case of a middle-aged woman named Wang Yu.
In 2008 Tianjin train officials barred Wang from boarding a train, despite her having already purchased a ticket. When she remonstrated, they beat her. Months later it was she, rather than her attackers, who was sent to jail for two and a half years.
The torture and slavery she witnessed in prison inspired her to become a defender of human rights, but to defend the legal rights of Chinese citizens is to become an enemy of the Chinese state. Last July her electricity was cut and she quickly texted friends that she could hear someone trying to break into her home.
State police had come in the night, presumably in boots and black shirts, and stolen her away without informing relatives whether she was alive or dead. They also lied to neighbors about their activity, telling them they were arresting a drug addict.
When Wang’s boss, Zhou Shifeng, requested an explanation, police arrested him too, along with his associates, and hundreds of other human rights lawyers. State media claimed police had successfully destroyed “a major criminal gang.”
What had Wang done that was so harmful?
Read the full story at The Diplomat