Last
year, China detained at least 940 Chinese citizens working on human and
civil rights—a 72% increase from the year before, according to new data
from the advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders. The
figure demonstrates what critics say is a worsening government crackdown
on the country’s civil society.
Authorities
are targeting not just outspoken activists but moderate
environmentalists, lawyers, writers, and artists—people that the Chinese
communist party hasn’t traditionally seen as threats. That included Xu
Xiao, a book and culture editor; Xu Nailai, a disabled petitioner who was detained with his 8-year-old daughter; Guo Yushan, the head of a think tank; and Pu Zhiqiang, a leading lawyer who represented dissidents such as artist Ai Weiwei.
The
data, based on information from human rights groups working in the
mainland, are not meant to be a comprehensive picture of all detentions,
the organization said, but they serve to illustrate year-on-year
increases. The list includes instances of detentions that have
lasted for five days or more:
More
worrying is the possibility that this crackdown is not just a phase or a
reaction to events such as pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. In
November, president Xi Jinping declared that “a new normal
of China’s economy has emerged,” referring to a period of slower but
healthier economic growth. But critics including Hu Yong, a commentator
on Chinese internet, believe that a tightening intellectual space is also a core part the government’s vision of a new normal for the country.
After the October disappearance of an editorial assistant who had worked for a German news agency, one Chinese news assistant described a new level of suppression in an interview with the Asia Society last month: “The Party has long grabbed anyone with rebellious political views, and now it has finished grabbing the ones with modest views. Now it’s coming for anyone who speaks at all.”
