Submission to the report on the protection of lawyers. The Rights Practice. December 2021 As stated in answer to Question 5 above, the system of license renewal is a form of interference and harassment by the State authorities of the Chinese legal profession. Since the ‘709’ Crackdown in July 2015, Chinese lawyers and their families have continued to be denied access to their clients, harassed by State authorities, subjected to surveillance, arrested, detained under ‘residential surveillance in a designated location’ (RSDL) and sentenced to long prison sentences. Rights lawyer Chang Weiping (常玮平) was disappeared on 22 October 2020 and detained by Baoji city security officials, under RSDL for “inciting subversion of State power,” a national security offence. He had released a video describing torture and ill-treatment he had been subjected to while under RSDL in January 2020. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders raised concerns about Chang’s case in December 2020, and called for his release. She stated that his case “epitomised China’s efforts to silence lawyers who spoke out about human rights.”31 The call was endorsed by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Chang’s whereabouts remain unknown. On 5 August 2021, lawyer Xu Zhiyong (许志永) was formally charged with “subversion of State power”.32 He has been detained since February 2020. On 7 March 2020 his family were notified that he was being held under RSDL and was suspected of “inciting subversion of State power”. He, along with a group of other rights lawyers and defenders, including Chang Weiping, had held a gathering in Xiamen on 7 and 8 December 2019. He was held under RSDL and his whereabouts were unknown until 19 June 2020. He had no access to a lawyer until 21 January 2021, via video call. He told his lawyers that he was subjected to torture while under RSDL. His case has been raised multiple times by the UN. In April 2021, eight UN Special Procedures, including the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, raised his case in a communication to the Chinese government.33 Lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) has been detained since 26 December 2019, having also taken part in the gathering of lawyers in Xiamen in December 2019. He was also held incommunicado under RSDL for six months, and not until August 2021 formally charged with “subversion of State power”, having initially been charged with the lesser offence of “inciting subversion of State power”. He told his lawyer that he was subjected to torture while under RSDL.34 Neither Chang, Ding nor Xu have yet been tried. Many other rights lawyers, and their families, have been subjected to harassment, surveillance and restrictions on their movement. For example, in June 2020, rights lawyer United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR). “China: Shock at continued crackdown on human rights defenders and lawyers – UN expert” 16 December 2020. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26612&LangID=E 32 Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “Xu Zhiyong”. 22 October 2013. https://www.nchrd.org/2013/10/prisoner-ofconscience-xu-zhiyong/; Amnesty International. “Urgent Action: Prominent Legal Scholar Indicted For Subversion”. 25 October 2021. https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASA1749122021ENGLISH.pdf 33 Eight UN Special Procedures, “Eleven human rights defenders sentenced of 10 years up to life in prison in connection to the defence of human rights and/ or exercise of public freedoms”. 28 April 2021. https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26337 34 Amnesty International. “China: Further details: Charged with subversion, torture details revealed: Ding Jiaxi”. 10 February 2021. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/3670/2021/en/; Frontline Defenders, “Ding Jiaxi faces health concerns”. October 2021. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/ding-jiaxi-faces-health-concerns 31 8