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In December 2019, a number of human rights activists met in the southeastern city of Xiamen for a dinner and discussion of social issues. From the 26th of that month, and over the weeks that followed, Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong until they re-surfaced in government detention.
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“The Xiamen crackdown epitomizes the Chinese authorities’ all-out assault on civil society and the cruelty with which they treat peaceful rights advocates,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China Director.
At least five other activists were also targeted and detained for their affiliation with the gathering. In the months that followed, all seven activists were reportedly held in “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), a form of secret incommunicado detention that places detainees at increased risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
“Over the past five years, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi – along with several of their companions – have endured arbitrary detention, torture and unfair trials merely because they attended a private gathering and discussed the civil society situation and current affairs in China.”
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Both Ding and Xu have been the subject of recommendations to Chinese authorities by multiple governments and by UN officials, including High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Yet concrete actions to demand access to these individuals or to increase the consequences to Chinese authorities for their crackdown on human rights defenders have not materialized.
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“The Chinese authorities must immediately release Ding and Xu and stop punishing all those who participated in the Xiamen gathering. The grim picture painted by their continued imprisonment should galvanize international condemnation for China’s crackdown on civil society,” Sarah Brooks [from Amnesty] said.
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