Pompeo recalls China's '709 Crackdown' demands justice for detained human rights activists

On the day marking fives years of the autocratic crackdown on the human rights activists and lawyers by Chinese Communist Government, US Secretary of the state Michael Pompeo has called out for the justice of the lawyers who defended the victims of the human rights violations.

READ | US 'Titanic' Hit 'Covid' Iceberg; Pompeo Holding 'China' Balloons To Fly Away: Mouthpiece

READ | 'China Never Intended To Challenge Or Confront US': Xi Jinping's FM's Stunning Climb Down

What is 709 Crackdown?

July 9 2020, marks the fifth year of the Chinese autocratic crackdown on the human rights of its citizens. Known as the 709 Crackdown for it began on July 09 (7/09) of 2015, it was a nationwide crackdown on Chinese lawyers and human rights activists who questioned and stood against the autocratic Chinese Communist Regime. More than 200 people were detained and held incommunicado for three years on the charges such as 'subversion of state power'. Among them was Wang Quanzhang who was arrested in August 2015.

After his arrest, the authorities notified his wife about the arrest but refused to divulge any information on where he was being held. The detained activists were neither allowed any access by family members nor given the facilities of a lawyer to present their case. By summer 2017, all the lawyers and activists arrested during the 709 Crackdown had either been released or sentenced to prison but Wang Quanzhang's whereabouts remained unknown.

It is said that those who were either released or sentenced were made to forcefully confess in court or television. According to reports, Wang's wife believes he must have refused to forcefully confess hence detained even after others were released. It was after three and a half years he was put on a trial in December 2018 for the subversion of state power.

READ | Did China's Government Try To Exploit Covid Outbreak? US Lawmakers Seek Probe To Find Out

READ | 'Beijing Fears Own People's Free-thinking': US Slams China Over Anti-Xi Professor's Arrest

Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng based in Beijing represented Wang Quanzhang's case along with several others who were held during the 709 Crackdown. However, he too was arrested in January 2018 and was also charged with obstructing the duties of public officers. He had previously circulated an open letter calling for reforms to China’s constitution and said President Xi Jinping’s regime amounted to “totalitarian rule.” He was barred from practising as a lawyer just days after being arrested. 

In May 2019, Wensheng's wife revealed that he was being secretly tried at the Xuzhou Municipal Intermediate Court and that the authorities informed neither her nor the two lawyers she had retained for him. On 17 June 2020, the Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangsu province sentenced him to four years imprisonment and deprivation of political rights for three years following the conviction.