China rights activists on trial in Guangzhou amid crackdown

[July 23, 2015]  By James Pomfret
 
 HONG KONG (Reuters) - A closely-watched trial of three Chinese rights activists resumed on Thursday in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, amid an unprecedented crackdown by authorities on human rights lawyers across the country.

The area around Guangzhou's intermediate People's Court was blocked off by scores of police, with foreign journalists and a small group of Western diplomats barred from the courtroom.

Several supporters of the defendants - Tang Jingling, Wang Qingying and Yuan Xinting - were taken away by police according to witnesses and diplomats on the scene.

Well over 200 people have been detained or questioned since the crackdown began in July, according to the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group.

Tang, 44, a prominent human rights lawyer, was arrested last summer and now faces a charge of "inciting subversion of state power", that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

The men distributed books such as Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy" and "Self-Liberation", police said. They also accused Tang of "instigating others to participate in the non-violent 'Citizen Non-cooperation Movement'."

The trio were known as the "three gentlemen of Guangzhou"; part of a once vibrant community of activists in the southern Chinese city that has been targeted by authorities in recent years. Another Guangzhou rights leader, Guo Feixiong, has been detained for over a year and faces prosecution for his work.

The U.S. government said in a statement that it was "deeply concerned" at what appeared to be a systematic pattern of arrests and detentions of rights defenders who "peacefully challenge official Chinese policies and actions".

Last month, legal proceedings were suspended when the three dismissed their lawyers after the court rejected requests to call witnesses and to keep Communist Party members off the bench.

One of the lawyers for the activists, Sui Muqing, has since been detained in the ongoing crackdown.

Tang's wife and another defense lawyer weren't immediately reachable on their mobile phones for comment.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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