17/04/23 Xu Zhiyong’s dream is for China to become a democratic country that is “beautiful, free, fair and happy.” It is a simple wish, yet in the eyes of the authorities, his vision is dangerous and subversive. The 50-year-old human rights lawyer and champion of social equality was sentenced to 14 years in jail earlier this month, along with fellow activist and lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who was jailed for 12 years. Both were convicted of the crime of “subversion of state power.” The Communist party-controlled court has accused Xu of intending to overthrow the current regime by promoting his vision of “a beautiful China.” According to a court indictment, with a series of articles, blogs, websites and secret meetings, Xu, Ding and other activists were “seriously endangering national security and social stability.” But the government once felt very differently about Xu, and experts say Xu’s dramatic life symbolises the rise and fall of China’s ill-fated rights movement. Twenty years ago, Xu was a golden boy feted by the Chinese government and the state media. Along with fellow PhD law graduates Teng Biao and Yu Jiang, he successfully lobbied the national legislature to abolish rules on detaining and repatriating migrants after a young man was beaten to death in custody. The trio were hailed by the Ministry of Justice and state broadcaster CCTV as “the top ten legal figures of 2003.” The “Sun Zhigang incident” in 2003, named after the young man who died, marked the beginning of China’s rights defence movement. In the following years, Xu and Teng made it their mission to seek justice for the underprivileged. They and other lawyers set up the Open Constitution Institute, a non-profit legal aid centre, to provide free legal advice for people with grievances. Xu also campaigned for children of migrant workers’ education rights, investigated extralegal “black jails” which locked up petitioners and wrote research reports on social issues. He was showered with awards by the state media, and was named one of “Ten most outstanding young leaders” by a state-run magazine in 2006. But as Xu’s popularity grew, the authorities became increasingly wary. In 2009 the authorities closed Open Constitution Institute, accusing it of tax evasion. Xu, a lecturer, was taken into custody and barred from teaching. Upon his release in 2009, he said in an interview that his vision remained unchanged: “I dream of a country that has democracy, rule of law, equality, and justice … a simple and happy society.” […] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/ https://www.ucanews.com/news/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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