The ninth anniversary of the 709 Crackdown

The 709 Crackdown

The ’709 Crackdown’ refers to the large-scale arrests of Chinese rights defence lawyers and activists that began on July 9, 2015, involving nearly 300 lawyers and human rights defenders who were summoned nationwide, with some individuals summoned multiple times. During the initial arrest, 15 lawyers were detained. By early 2017, most of them were released on bail with the focus shifting to five lawyers in particular.

Immediately following the arrests, and before the families of the detained received any legal notice, a state media smear campaign began. It presented a narrative of Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, a firm famous for handling human rights cases, and lawyers connected to it, being a “major criminal gang” led by Zhou Shifeng, its director. The narrative was presumably spread to propagate that the ‘709 Crackdown’ was a legitimate legal action for the lawyers’ engagement in “unspeakable criminal acts.”

In the past year and a half, some lawyers detained during the ‘709 Crackdown’ came forward to share their experiences. Their testimonies provide new insight into fair trial violations during the trials and detention of the lawyers.

Ongoing concerns

All these facts and the details surrounding the arrests and detention of the involved lawyers continue to deeply concern the signing organizations. The Chinese authorities’ suppression of rights defence lawyers since 2015 has not been limited to the 709 arrests and trials. Today, lawyers in China are exposed to similar actions by the state. These ongoing concerns about China’s compliance with its international human rights obligations under the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers were highlighted in several NGO submissions by the undersigned organizations to the Universal Periodic Review of China, that took place in  January 2024. China regrettably dismissed 30% of the recommendations received in the UPR session, among them recommendations related to human rights defenders and lawyers.

We call on the Chinese authorities to:

• Put an end to its crackdown on human rights lawyers and defenders;
• Put an end to the unlawful detention and torture of human rights lawyers and defenders;
• Conduct an independent investigation in relation to the allegations of torture and hold those responsible to account;
• Put an end to other ill-treatment to which the 709 lawyers were subjected;
• Amend laws and regulations, including national security legislation, its Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, to bring them into full compliance with international human rights standards, and meaningfully cooperate with the United Nations human rights bodies to that end; and
• Ensure that the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers are respected, and that lawyers are able to assist their clients without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference and without threats of prosecution or administrative sanctions for any actions they take in accordance with internationally recognized professional duties, standards and ethics.

Find the full statement here.

Find a Chinese version here.