European Union diplomats were denied access to a courtroom in Suzhou on Wednesday as they attempted to monitor the start of the trial of two Chinese human rights activists who were detained last year as they were on their way to meet EU officials in Beijing.
“It is deeply regrettable that EU representatives from diplomatic missions accredited to China were denied access to the courtroom. This denial undermines confidence in the requirements of a fair trial in China,” said Nabila Massrali, the bloc’s spokeswoman for foreign affairs.
Yu Wensheng, a prominent human rights lawyer, and his wife Xu Yan were arrested on April 13, 2023. The trial is taking place in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, a city 110 km (68 miles) west of Shanghai.
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“The EU reiterates its previous concerns about the welfare of Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan and calls for their immediate release,” Massrali said.
The EU, it added, demanded “immediate clarification from the authorities about the sudden and inexplicable arrest by police of two lawyers, Wang Yu and Yang Hui, who also tried to attend the trial”.
Yu has spent years in prison. He was arrested in 2018, hours after he wrote an open letter calling for constitutional reform in China, including multi-candidate elections. Xu said at the time that her husband was subsequently investigated and charged with inciting subversion of state power. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2020, but was released from prison in 2022.
In April 2023, the couple were due to meet senior EU diplomats who had travelled from Brussels. Josep Borrell, the EU’s de facto foreign minister, was originally due to be part of that delegation but had to postpone his trip after testing positive for Covid-19.
According to a letter later sent to Chinese authorities by a group of United Nations special rapporteurs, the pair were stopped by plainclothes police officers as they tried to board the subway en route to the EU office in Beijing.
Yu and Xu were formally arrested on April 15. According to a video posted to Xu’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, they were detained for “picking fights and causing trouble.” The charge has been widely criticized as one that can be used to silence dissent.
This charge is known as a mass crime or “pocket crime” and is used by Chinese authorities against human rights activists and dissidents for a wide range of behavior.
According to the UN rapporteurs, Yu’s brother was shown an arrest warrant on May 21, 2023, detailing the charges. However, he was not allowed to copy or photograph the warrant.
The couple were repeatedly denied access to their lawyers for most of 2023, the letter said. Xu Yan was finally allowed to meet with lawyers in December, and she told them she had begun a hunger strike in October due to the repeated lack of access to a lawyer.
The UN representatives said they were “appalled” by the couple’s “alleged arbitrary detention” and expressed “deep concern” about the “conditions of their detention”.
At the time of the arrests, three other human rights lawyers involved in the EU meeting – Wang Quanzhang, Wang Yu and Bao Longjun – were under house arrest, according to Brussels.
China’s Foreign Ministry has previously said that “Chinese authorities handle cases according to law.”
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook page and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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