Sichuan human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was arrested while on bail, prior to the end of his trial

(Sichuan Province, October 10, 2024) – Sichuan human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was arrested while on bail, prior to the end of his trial. According to human rights lawyer Wang Yu, three uniformed police officers knocked on the door of Lu Siwei at around 3:00 p.m. Beijing time on October 10th without making clear of their intend. Mr. Lu asked them to show their ID, but he never got a response.

Zhang Lei, a human rights lawyer, confirmed on his social media platform WeChat that Mr. Lu Siwei had been arrested.

According to Zhang Lei, “It’s obvious that they are retaliating!”

The Arrest

Sichuan human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was planning to travel to the U.S. in July 2023 to reunite with his family when he was arrested on his way to Laos (Laos), where he was detained for two months and then deported back to China. The news is unsettling and demonstrates the Chinese government’s determination to pursue dissidents outside its borders, which it has been able to do in a country as vulnerable to Beijing’s pressure as Laos.

Lu Siwei, who is suspected of “sneaking across the border,” was released on bail after a month in the Chengdu detention center, where he has been living in a residence designated by the authorities. Downstairs in Lu’s residence, eight or nine people work shifts every day to monitor him around the clock, and he is followed when he goes out. If he wants to leave Chengdu, he must apply to the government security and police officers and get approval before he can book a ticket.

He lost his job and was impeded from finding a new one.

His wife, Zhang Chunxiao, and young daughter fled to the U.S. first. Zhang Chunxiao had disclosed that Lu’s bail pending trial would end on October 27 of this year; however, on July 19 of this year, Lu was summoned to the Baohe police station to make a statement, and was subsequently told that his case would be transferred from the Chenghua District Public Security Bureau to the Procuratorate of Chenghua District for review and prosecution.

General background

In December 2019, Lu Siwei was summoned and banned from leaving the country after he was accused of involvement in the “Xiamen Gathering Case” when he attended a private gathering of human rights lawyers and dissidents. Two years later, in January 2021, he gained notoriety when he defended 12 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who attempted to flee Taiwan by boat. In retaliation, the provincial judiciary subsequently revoked Lu’s license to practice law.

Prior to this high-profile case, Lu was a well-known human rights lawyer in China who had handled a number of sensitive cases involving political dissidents, including the “June 4 Wine Case,” the “709 Case,” and the “Incitement Case” against lawyer Yu Wensheng. Few people are willing to take on these cases.

CCP’s Long arm of Transnational Repression

The fact that Lu Siwei was arrested after being released on bail and then prosecuted shows that Chinese human rights lawyers are at great risk. Even if they flee abroad, they still risk deportation. Governments in Southeast Asia are often pressured by Beijing to return highly vulnerable people to China.

These individuals face the risk of arbitrary detention, unfair trial, torture, forced disappearance, and other abuses in China. In 2015, bookseller Gui Minhai was enforcedly disappeared in Thailand and reappeared in China without a passport. In August 2022, pro-democracy activist Dong Guangping disappeared from Vietnam only to be imprisoned in China. In August 2023, activist Yang Zewei was reportedly arrested in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and subsequently held in a Chinese detention center.

Under Xi Jinping, China’s most iron-fisted leader in decades, Chinese authorities have aggressively expanded their sphere of influence beyond its borders, the so-called “long arm of transnational repression”. Through his powers, the CCP has set up police stations in foreign countries, offered bounties for critics fleeing overseas, pressured overseas Chinese to induce them to become informers, and ensured that former Chinese in the diaspora return to China to be detained or deported. The United States has stepped up regulation and legal penalties for Chinese government agents in the United States.