Taipei, Taiwan —

Chinese authorities have been “collectively punishing” the families of human rights defenders in recent years, a US-based human rights group said, warning that the persecution appeared to be part of “state policy”.

Authorities have detained the children of detained human rights defenders, sent them to mental hospitals or orphanages, forced school-age children to drop out of school, imposed exit bans on children and imprisoned human rights defenders, China Human Rights Defenders said in a new report. family members of some human rights activists.

Xia Lei, director of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders Organization, said at an online press conference on April 11 that the collective punishment of the families of Chinese human rights defenders is “completely illegal and violates various international human rights laws and conventions.”

“The most heartbreaking part is [how the Chinese authorities are] The experience of causing so much pain to the children of human rights defenders and watching their parents grow up being abused leaves them with long-term psychological scars,” she added.

VOA has contacted China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but has not yet received a response. During the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council in January, China’s top diplomat in Geneva said Beijing was committed to “protecting the rights of specific groups” and “the development of children.”

Forced to drop out of school

As part of collective punishment against the families of human rights activists, some have been subject to repeated forced evictions, while schools have repeatedly turned away their children under pressure from local authorities.

Wang Quanzhang is a well-known human rights lawyer who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for subversion of state power during the “709 Crackdown” in 2015. Wang Quanzhang has been evicted by landlords or hotels more than a dozen times since last year. April. He described the forced deportations as part of a retaliation by Chinese authorities against him and his family.

The 2015 crackdown is known in China as the “709 Crackdown” because it began on July 9, 2015. Since that day, authorities have targeted independent legal advocates and arrested hundreds of lawyers.

“The authorities think our community has been trying to humiliate them, so they want to use every means at their disposal to punish human rights lawyers,” Wang told VOA by phone.

Wang said that in addition to forced expulsions, his 11-year-old son was refused admission to school several times last year. “We were forced to move to new places frequently last year and it was difficult for my son to stay in the same school long enough,” he said, adding that some schools would reject his son due to pressure from the school. authorities.

Last year, Wang tried to send his son abroad, hoping to protect him from harassment.

“Last October, when we tried to leave China, customs officials stopped my son and the daughter of another human rights lawyer and said they were not allowed to leave China because they could pose a threat to national security,” he said.

Wang and his family have since moved to the southern province of Guangzhou and are trying to get their son into a private school recommended by a friend.

“Just a week later, nearly 20 people suddenly showed up at the college to conduct an ‘inspection,’ and under their repeated harassment, the college was forced to move to a more secluded location,” Wang said.

Since it’s unclear when his son can return to school, Wang is signing him up for some online classes to make sure he’s still learning something. “The authorities know my son is my greatest weakness, so they try to make it difficult for him to go to school in the hope that this will stop me from criticizing them,” he told VOA.

In addition to Wang’s son, other children of detained human rights activists have also suffered persecution at the hands of Chinese authorities. According to CHRD, the 11-year-old son of detained Chinese activist He Fangmei has been sent to a foster home since her detention in February 2021, and her two daughters, then 4 years old and 1 month old, were left in Foster home. Despite repeated pleas from relatives, he was admitted to a mental hospital.

Meanwhile, Yu Zhenyang, the 19-year-old son of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan, has been briefly detained twice since November and attempted suicide.

Rights activist’s family detained

In addition to targeting children as part of collective punishment of Chinese activists, Chinese authorities also detain or impose strict controls on family members of imprisoned activists, the CHRD said.

Wang Li, the wife of imprisoned Chinese artist Wang Zang, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in December 2022 after asking authorities to release her husband.

In addition, Voice of America previously reported that several family members of detained Chinese activist Peng Lifa have been placed under strict surveillance. Peng Lifa is known for hanging a protest banner on a bridge in Beijing calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a “traitor to the country.”

In its report, the organization called on China to “immediately cease all harassment and extrajudicial detention of family members of human rights defenders.” CHRD also called on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to issue a strong statement on the government’s human rights violations and to provide regular updates on the progress of dialogue with officials.