A Prolonged 709: The Perseverance and Resilience of Li Yuhan, the “Lawyer’s Lawyer”
This article was originally published in Mang Mang magazine on November 20, 2023. The author, He Randong, has translated his work into English to be published by Human Rights in China. Today, we celebrate the release of Li Yuhan, a great Chinese human rights lawyer, on March 24, 2024 after six and a half years of imprisonment.
As a mother who once defended her son’s rights, a few years ago, Li Yuhan chose to embark on a more dangerous path: becoming a human rights lawyer. After representing Wang Yu during the 709 crackdown, she faced retaliation. Today, she has spent six years in detention and recently celebrated her 74th birthday. A delayed verdict from the “People’s” Court decided that she would have to wait another six months before returning home.
In the early summer of 2017, a human rights lawyer took a flight from Beijing to Changchun, Jilin Province. It seemed that she was just there to handle an ordinary case, which did not attract the attention of the authorities.
Li Yuhan, who was already in her sixties at the time, was a highly respected “big sister” in the circle of human rights lawyers. In the photo, she is seen with her hair loosely curled, her gaze fixed firmly ahead, embodying a spirit both unrestrained and resilient.
Changchun was not her destination. Several days later, she set out again. Upon reaching Baicheng, located on the northwestern border of the province, she switched to a taxi to evade the extensive digital surveillance system. If she were to purchase a train ticket online, guobao1 would be informed of her itinerary and proceed to intercept and harass her.
Ulanhot. It’s a small city located in eastern Inner Mongolia, desolate and sparsely populated. Because there is very little industry, the sky always presents a clean and deep blue, dotted with deep clouds. She was headed there to meet with one of her clients.
In 2015, two years before this meet, the Chinese government launched a shocking crackdown on human rights lawyers, later dubbed the “709 crackdown,” which startled both domestic and international observers. Over 300 lawyers, activists, and their families were summoned, detained, and tortured. Li Yuhan’s client was Wang Yu, another famous human rights lawyer and the first victim of this campaign.
In the early hours of July 9, 2015, dozens of police officers surrounded Wang Yu’s home in Beijing and abducted her to a secret detention facility, the location of which remains unknown to this day. A few hours earlier, her husband and son had been arrested at the airport.
More than a year after Wang Yu’s disappearance, she appeared on a television program broadcast by Chinese state media. Wearing a white T-shirt, she sat in a comfortable armchair against the backdrop of a large green lawn - a carefully arranged relaxing atmosphere. “I am in very good health now. During my detention, all my rights were well protected.” Wang Yu said to the camera.
It was subsequently revealed that Wang Yu’s televised appearance was nothing more than a shameful forced confession. In a report published in 2018, the human rights group Safeguard Defenders revealed how the Chinese government uses “threats, torture and fear” to coerce TV confessions.
As an exchange, Wang Yu was released shortly thereafter, but she was not free. She was forcibly returned to Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia, her hometown. Guobao rented an apartment for her, forced her to live there, and placed her under soft detention. Guobao lived right across the door from her room so that she could be monitored at all times. “Wherever we go, guobao will follow us,” Wang Yu said.
Li Yuhan decided to visit Wang Yu. This was a bold and dangerous decision. “That city is very remote and difficult to get to,” Wang Yu said about her small hometown. Guobao prohibited anyone from visiting her, threatening those who dared to come with ID card checks. Also traveling with Li was Wen Donghai, another courageous human rights lawyer.
In order to avoid the close surveillance of guobao, Li Yuhan hid herself under a hat and sunglasses. They initially hid in Wang Yu’s mother’s house. Shortly after, Wang Yu took guobao’s car to meet them, which led guobao to think that she was just visiting her mother. They relaxed their vigilance and continued to stay on the street. This is an easy job: Most of the time, they just rest in their cars, but sometimes they have to intercept some persona non grata, such as human rights lawyers, journalists and diplomats.
When Li Yuhan and Wang Yu met, they hugged each other. “For about two years, I was completely isolated from the outside world,” Wang Yu fell into memories. As she spoke, her emotions fluctuated slightly. “It has been two years. Just like seeing a relative for the first time in so long. It is very exciting.”
Their meeting exposed the Chinese government’s elaborate “hoax”, angering the authorities. The authorities quickly retaliated: A few months later, Li Yuhan was arrested in Shenyang. Prosecutors charged her with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “fraud.” She was subsequently detained for an extended period of time, during which time she was allegedly tortured. It was not until recently, six years later, in 2023, that the verdict was finally announced. Over the long years, one of her attorneys has passed away.
Li Yuhan refused to plead guilty and announced her appeal in court.
“The Path of Socialist Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics”
“It is impossible for them to admit that the verdict is wrong, and there is almost no possibility of changing the verdict.” Li Yuhan’s lawyer admitted that the appeal of the case “is no longer a legal issue.”
Chinese courts consider the reversal and remand rate as a crucial indicator for performance assessment. The judges cannot independently adjudicate cases. The Communist Party requires judges to follow its leadership during the trial proceedings to ensure that the verdict aligns with the party's will. The overturning of the court’s verdict is considered a challenge to the judicial authority of the party-state system. According to the 2022 National Judicial Statistics Bulletin released by the Supreme People’s Court, the rate of reversal in criminal cases on appeal was only 9%, a figure that has continued to decrease over the years. In politically sensitive cases, the chances of a successful appeal are virtually non-existent.
“However, from an ideal perspective, it is important to make our voices heard,” Li Yuhan’s lawyer said. “At least leave some mark.”
Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the CCP has amplified its rhetoric on rule of law, which was initially perceived as a sign of potential political liberalization in China. However, activists soon realized they were misled, as human rights lawyers across the country faced intensified crackdowns, peaking with the 709 crackdown but showing no signs of abatement to this day.
Nine days after Li Yuhan’s arrest, when Xi Jinping announced the establishment of the “Central Leading Group for Advancing Law-based Governance in All Areas” at the 19th National Congress, activists were already aware that the law was being used as a tool of repression rather than protection. This group, directly led by Xi Jinping, operates without oversight and transparency, positioning itself above both the administration and judiciary. “We must unwaveringly follow the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics,” the 19th National Congress Report declared, underscoring the prioritization of the Party’s control over legal reforms and judicial independence.
“The continued repression of lawyers will become the norm.”
Patrick Poon, Board Member of the 29 Principles, said to Mang Mang.
As China’s decades of economic growth begin to stall, creating a governance crisis, the Chinese government has reinterpreted the rule of law as “governing the country according to the law,” using legislation lacking in democratic principles to create a source of legitimacy for its authoritarian regime. However, human rights lawyers persistently adhere to the conception of the rule of law as a constraint on power, hoping to strengthen the foundation of citizens’ rights by achieving justice in individual cases.
“‘Governing the country according to the law’ is merely the use of unjust laws as a means of authoritarian rule,” Patrick Poon, Board Member of the British human rights organization 29 Principles, told Mang Mang. “The ‘construction of a rule-of-law country’ claimed by the Chinese government is only to maintain the dictatorship of the CCP, and is far from the spirit of rule of law demonstrated by democratic countries.”
“The 709 case is indicative; eight years later, we still see cases like that of lawyer Li Yuhan, who, after being detained for many years, is still given a heavy sentence, reflecting the authorities’ relentless stance against human rights lawyers,” he added.
In recent years, while the direct victims of the 709 crackdown have been released from prison, the campaign has not ended. The Chinese government has changed their strategy, becoming more covert–suppressing one lawyer at one time to prevent the formation of new networks of victim’s families. The powerful support actions by the “709 wives” have instilled fear in the authorities. Including Li Yuhan, some lawyers who defended the 709 lawyers have been imprisoned or disbarred.
A Persistent Woman
In 1949, Li Yuhan was born into an ordinary family in Fushun, Liaoning Province. Her father was a laborer, while her mother was unemployed. Growing up alongside the birth of the republic, her early experiences were closely intertwined with the trends of the times: during her middle school years, when the Cultural Revolution broke out, she joined the Red Guards and even took a revolutionary tour to Beijing, where she saw Chairman Mao in Tiananmen Square.
“Sending educated youth to the countryside for reeducation by poor and lower peasants is necessary.” In 1968, following Mao’s call for educated youth to go to the countryside, Li Yuhan went to the rural areas to do farm work, planting crops alongside farmers.
It wasn’t until two years before the end of the Cultural Revolution that she returned to the city. Initially trained as a barefoot doctor, she worked temporarily in a clinic. When the policies allowed educated youth to return to the city, she was officially reassigned and allocated to work in a local factory in Fushun.
China rebuilt the college entrance examination in 1977, but Li Yuhan did not secure a spot for the exam and thus did not participate. Unwilling to give up, she enrolled in a television university2 to study in her spare time while working at the factory. In the late 1980s, Li Yuhan resumed her self-study of law. “My mother is a very strong-willed woman, with an indomitable spirit,” said Mr. Ma, Li Yuhan’s son, who currently lives in Germany, in an interview with Mang Mang. He believed that his mother’s character was the reason for her choice to study law.
The work at the factory was strenuous, but Li Yuhan utilized her spare time after work to study. Later, she entered Jilin University to study law through adult self-study examinations. She passed the lawyer qualification examination in 1990 and began practicing a year later. According to statistics, there were just over 30,000 lawyers nationwide during this period.
Li Yuhan’s tranquil life was abruptly shattered in 1997. That year, Li Yuhan’s son experienced severe bullying at school: he was extorted for money and physically assaulted by several school bullies, leading to the development of mental illness that rendered him unable to attend school. Eventually, he was assessed by a hospital and classified as having a level two mental disability.
The father of one of the bullies, named Zhou Changjiang, was a local real estate developer. Li Yuhan approached him, seeking an apology and compensation, but he refused. When both the school and the police refused to intervene due to fear of Zhou’s influence, Li Yuhan began to seek justice for her son through legal action.
However, this enraged Zhou Changjiang, who began to retaliate against Li Yuhan and her family. He brought his own thugs to harass Li Yuhan’s son, resulting in Li Yuhan being forced to move with her son to Shenyang. However, Zhou Changjiang continued to harass them relentlessly.
After several beatings by the thugs, Li Yuhan’s husband, fearing further retaliation, urged her to stop seeking justice. When she refused, he chose to divorce her. The court awarded custody of the child to his father, but the son continued to live with Li Yuhan, as his father lost his job during a wave of layoffs and was unable to support the child.
Zhou Changjiang and his henchmen continued to haunt them, even as Li Yuhan’s son entered university. To escape the harassment, he enlisted in the military. However, Zhou Changjiang sent his lawyer to inform the military leadership about the son’s past mental illness. As a result, despite having received the third-class merit, he lost the opportunity to attend military school and be promoted, and was discharged two years later.
His mental illness often relapsed due to being triggered by Zhou Changjiang’s harassment, keeping Li Yuhan busy for years taking him to the hospital and helping him relax. Despite this, Li Yuhan persisted in pressing charges, and Zhou Changjiang’s retaliation escalated.
In the most serious incident, Li Yuhan was kidnapped by three thugs outside the Judicial Bureau and forced into a car. She managed to escape by chance, as a television crew happened to be filming nearby. However, the police released the kidnappers and refused to file a case, while the procuratorate made it difficult for her to press charges. In another incident, she was attacked from behind with a blunt object in the market, fracturing her ribs and injuring her head. Zhou Changjiang’s lawyer openly admitted to her that they were behind the attack and threatened to “blind your eyes and then wipe out your family.”
Video: A journalist from the New Northern TV station filmed the process of Li Yuhan being kidnapped. Li Yuhan submitted a copied video disc to the prosecutor’s office for appeal, but a few days later, officials from the prosecutor’s office told her that the disc had “gone missing.” Later, Li Yuhan copied the video again from the TV station.
“If you continue to press charges, we’ll find a place where no one is around, blind you first, and then wipe out your family.”
Zhou Changjiang’s lawyer said to Li Yuhan.
To evade retaliation, Li Yuhan had no choice but to borrow money to send her son abroad to study in Germany. However, she never ceased her efforts to defend her and her son’s rights.
The litigation dragged on for many years, with several judges being replaced, none daring to issue a verdict. Zhou Changjiang openly claimed that he and the court president and the public security bureau director were all “buddies.” Even after finally obtaining a favorable judgment, the compensation of over 40,000 yuan remained unenforced. Li Yongsheng, Li Yuhan’s younger brother, told Mang Mang that in 2017, after Li Yuhan had been detained, he attempted to help his sister enforce the compensation, but failed.
Zhou Changjiang did not respond to Mang Mang’s request for comment. As of the time of publication, according to the China Judgment Enforcement Information Disclosure Website, Zhou Changjiang has a total of 11 records of judgment default since 2015. However, according to a bidding notice publicly released on the Liaoning Construction Engineering Information Website, in 2017, a company led by Zhou Changjiang as the project leader won the construction qualification for a renovation project of a police station in Shenyang.
A Visit After More Than One Year of Struggle
Li Yuhan persevered in accusing the local government of illegal activities and inaction in Liaoning, which put increasing pressure on her lawyer work, making it impossible for her to continue practicing in Liaoning. In 2009, she was forced to relocate to a law firm in Beijing. Lawyer Wen Donghai jokingly remarked in an article reminiscing about Li Yuhan that she transformed into a “lawyer petitioner” in Beijing, persistently continuing her petitioning efforts.
Over the next few years, due to her continued petitioning, Liaoning police repeatedly came to Beijing to persecute her: beating her on the street or taking her to black jails in the Jilin liaison offices in Beijing.3 Even when she suffered from heart attack, she could not receive treatment, as the police continued to torture her.
When Li Yuhan arrived in Beijing, the “Weiquan (‘Protect Rights’) Movement” was just beginning. In early 2011, the Jasmine Revolution that erupted in Tunisia spread to China, with peaceful anti-government demonstrations erupting in cities such as Guangzhou. People were hopeful for the future. It was around this time that Li Yuhan, originally fighting for her own and her child’s rights, became a human rights lawyer, beginning to handle so-called “sensitive cases.”
“Some cases were about religious beliefs,” Wang Yu recalled, referring to Falun Gong cases. Some of Li Yuhan’s other clients included persecuted veterans and petitioners nationwide.
When the nationwide crackdown swept across the country in July 2015, Li Yuhan was not initially a direct target of the authorities. It wasn’t until a month later, when she bravely took on the case of the arrested lawyer Wang Yu, that she became involved. Wang Yu was one of the most prominent victims of the campaign, along with her husband Bao Longjun and their son Bao Zhuoxuan, all of whom were subjected to enforced disappearance.
In the early hours of July 9th, dozens of police officers surrounded Wang Yu’s home in Beijing. After cutting off water, electricity, and the internet, the police broke in, hooded Wang Yu, and took her to a secret detention location. She remains unaware of its whereabouts to this day.
Meanwhile, her son Bao Zhuoxuan was on his way to the airport with his father, hoping to begin a new chapter studying in Australia. However, they were intercepted at the boarding gate and subsequently disappeared together. According to a statistic from the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group,4 over the next four days, 114 lawyers and human rights activists were taken away, summoned, or interrogated nationwide.
Throughout the entire arrest process, Wang Yu never even received a formal legal document. She protested to the interrogating police that the whole operation was like a “bandit kidnapping” and refused to answer questions. Subsequently, she began to suffer torture.
“I’m telling you, don’t think you’re safe just because we haven’t arrested you yet. If we do, we’ll tear your family apart and destroy everything you have.”
The interrogating police said to Wang Yu.
Wang Yu recounted this experience in the book The People’s Republic of the Disappeared, which was published in the United States in 2017. The room where she was held had thick curtains blocking out any sunlight. The investigators deprived her of sleep for a continuous week and punished her by putting heavy handcuffs and shackles on her wrist and feet. Every day, she was forced to strip naked in front of surveillance cameras for inspection, which she found to be a great insult to women.
A few days later, Zhou Shifeng, the director of the Fengrui Law Firm where Wang Yu worked, appeared on CCTV to confess and attack her as “an idiot, making trouble.” The interrogator played the video for Wang Yu, but she remained unmoved. When the police tried to force her to confess on television, she vehemently resisted, even threatening to jump out of the window.
Wang Yu began to demand the appointment of a lawyer for herself. When she provided the names of some lawyers, the police told her they would arrest all of them. Later, even the interrogating officers couldn’t bear it and advised her, “Stop harming others. If you mention anyone, we’ll arrest them all.” While the police deceived Wang Yu by saying, “Now that you’re arrested, no one will care about you,” dozens of her lawyer colleagues were threatened and prohibited from representing her. Several lawyers who had already defended her quickly gave up under immense pressure.
In such a dire situation, Li Yuhan resolutely chose to represent Wang Yu. We do not know whether she realized at the time that it would bring her more than six years of imprisonment.
But as a human rights lawyer, Li Yuhan felt it was her undeniable responsibility. “If no one represents me, then who will? There might be no one else,” Wang Yu recalled Li Yuhan’s determination. She added that human rights lawyers all shared this view.
“He (Wen Donghai) said that he received a call from someone while he was on the train. They asked him, ‘Are you still daring to take Wang Yu's case?' He replied, 'What can I do? I’m also afraid.’”
Li Yuhan and lawyer Wen Donghai faced immense psychological pressure due to representing Wang Yu. Wang Yu described the situation when Wen Donghai first took on the case based on her recollection.
On the morning of July 11th, Bao Zhuoxuan was released and immediately taken to live with his grandfather in Tianjin. He retrieved his father's address book and began calling the lawyers listed in it in order to seek help for his parents. He had vehemently resisted when he was taken away at the airport, and had noted down a police officer's badge number. Now, he recited this string of numbers again, from which the lawyers and friends of the couple inferred that the police who arrested Wang Yu and other lawyers were from Hexi District, Tianjin.
Upon discovering Bao Zhuoxuan’s attempts to contact lawyers, guobao took him to Ulanhot. Subsequently, he was placed under even tighter surveillance after a failed attempt to leave China secretly.
Over the next year, Li Yuhan began shuttling frequently between Beijing and Tianjin. She visited the public security bureau and detention centers in Tianjin dozens of times to request meetings, but Wang Yu was detained under false names, making it impossible for Li Yuhan to inquire about her by name.
Once, Li Yuhan went to the detention center in Tianjin with several other lawyers and relatives of victims of the 709 crackdown to request a meeting. Li Wenzu and Wang Qiaoling brought their children, who ran around in the reception room of the detention center. Li Yuhan asked the police why the lawyers with complete three credentials5 couldn’t meet, and the police stalled, saying they had to consult their leader. Over an hour later, it was already lunchtime, but the police continued to make poor excuses, saying that the leaders were in a meeting that never seemed to end.
Someone said, “Even leaders need to eat, let’s wait for them!” They bought lunch and ate it in the reception room. By 2:30pm, the police said, “The leaders aren’t coming,” and because the relatives needed to drive back to Beijing with their children, everyone had to leave.
Li Yuhan also fearlessly challenged the authorities’ illegality. In an appeal submitted to the Tianjin Heping District Procuratorate, she demanded legal accountability for the media, including CCTV, for broadcasting Wang Yu’s confession videos.
Even though she couldn’t meet Wang Yu, Li Yuhan still hoped to visit her mother and son to provide some mental support to the family, but guobao always prevented it. On October 23, 2015, Bao Longjun and Bao Zhuoxuan received the Hope Award from the Tianen International Exchange Fund. Li Yuhan wanted to tell Wang Yu’s mother and son about this news and set off for Ulanhot. But on that morning, the police suddenly took Wang Yu’s mother to the police station for no apparent reason, just for idle chatter. The police politely made tea and brought fruit to her, and didn't send her home until late. Later, she learned that Li Yuhan had come to visit her that day.
Upon learning that Wang Yu’s mother had been taken away by the police, Li Yuhan chased after them to the public security bureau. She rushed into the building of the public security bureau, shouting “Mengmeng (Bao Zhuoxuan) won an award,” but she was eventually pushed out by the police.
In early 2016, when Wang Yu was transferred to a detention center in Tianjin, she felt the environment was becoming more relaxed. The police no longer interrogated her, but invited her to the management office for conversations everyday. The police continued to demand a TV confession from her and threatened her with her son in China. After countless sleepless nights, she compromised.6 In 2018, after three years of planned study abroad, Bao Zhuoxuan finally set foot on Australian soil, and then moved to the United States. At the time of the interview with Mang Mang, he was studying for a bachelor’s degree in sociology at a community college in California.
Wang Yu was released on bail on July 23, 2016, and after spending some time in Tianjin, the family returned to Ulanhot and moved into the house arranged by guobao. Every move she made was closely monitored: whenever she stepped out of the house, the nearby guobao would sound the alarm; even just going out to buy some vegetables, plainclothes police would follow her.
More than half a year later, when Li Yuhan finally managed to contact Wang Yu, she immediately embarked on the journey to “meet” her. During the more than a year that Wang Yu was detained, she had not been able to successfully meet with Li Yuhan even once. Wang Yu was completely unaware that Li Yuhan had been her lawyer.
They embraced, sharing infinite emotions from the past two years. However, guobao were still downstairs, making them nervous and leaving little time for reminiscing. Li Yuhan resumed her duties as a lawyer, having Wang Yu and Bao Longjun sign some new power of attorney documents to confirm their representation relationship–she feared that this couple would be arrested again after the expiration of their bail period. However, shortly thereafter, the suspected criminal in need of representation turned out to be herself.
After A Lengthy Detention, She Refused to Plead Guilty
When the police discovered that Li Yuhan had broken through their tight blockade and dared to challenge their authority so boldly, they arrested her angrily. On October 9, 2017, Li Yuhan’s 68th birthday, the police, under the guise of the “Melting Ice Action,”7 deceived her by claiming to address her long standing grievances from years of petitioning. When she appeared at the police station as arranged, she never walked out again.
Li Yongsheng, Li Yuhan’s brother, received a call from her on that day. Li Yuhan was hiding in the toilet, speaking hastily, informing him that the police were about to detain her and asking Li Yongsheng to pass on the message to her colleagues. By then, the police had already noticed something was odd and started knocking on the door. The call ended two minutes later.
Before her arrest, Li Yuhan used to have weekly phone conversations with her son in Germany to catch up on her own life, although she rarely mentioned her involvement in human rights cases. Her son stated that he didn’t notice anything unusual during their last few conversations.
Due to the heightened “stability maintenance” efforts surrounding the 19th National Congress, Li Yuhan’s lawyer friends didn’t pay particular attention, assuming she would be released after the congress ended. It wasn’t until she was criminally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and several attempts by lawyers to visit her failed that they realized the severity of the situation.
About two weeks later, two lawyers met with Li Yuhan at the detention center. According to Lin Qilei, one of the lawyers, Li Yuhan recounted the abuses she suffered: she was roughly pushed through the gate of the prison area by the police, nearly causing her to fall; since her arrest, she had not had regular meals or sleep; and she was unable to access the medication she needed long-term. When she came to meet with the lawyers, she needed assistance from her cellmates to walk.
In December, lawyer Li Baiguang described more details of the torture Li Yuhan endured in a briefing after another meeting: in winter, she was forced to take cold showers with icy water, and the fruits she purchased were intentionally placed in the toilet and urinated on. Two months later, Li Baiguang died from a mysterious liver disease.
“I really thought I would never see you again. I was really worried that they would persecute me to death!”
Li Yuhan told Lawyer Li Baiguang during the meeting.
An open letter, authored by Wang Yu and signed by 85 lawyers and human rights defenders, was sent to the Heping Branch of Shenyang Municipal Public Security Bureau, urging the cessation of torture and the immediate release of Lawyer Li Yuhan. When guobao found Wang Yu, she admitted it without hesitation. “She is my lawyer!” Wang Yu exclaimed passionately. Investigation by Mang Mang revealed that at least 20 of the signatories to this open letter had been disbarred,8 some imprisoned or exiled.
Li Yuhan’s detention was repeatedly extended by the courts, yet she never received any formal legal documents. By the time of her sentencing, she had been detained for over six years beyond the legal limit. More than a dozen lawyers had represented her.
Eventually, as the case no longer proceeded with investigations, the judges visiting her in the detention center merely pressured her to confess. “If you confess, you can go out,” the judge told her. “Once you confess, we can handle it easily. These matters are not within our control.”
According to Lin Qilei, Li Yuhan understood the deceptive nature of public power. As a former human rights lawyer, she had witnessed too many instances of authorities flagrantly violating the law. It was precisely because she adhered to the professional ethics of being a lawyer, and lawfully defended the rights of her clients, that she offended the government and faced such persecution. Now, the court was pressuring her to confess, but she refused to betray her conscience.
“Anyone with a bit of legal knowledge or common sense would think I haven’t committed a crime,” she told the lawyer. The prolonged detention had taken a toll on her health.
“But her spirit never collapsed,” the lawyer said.
The initial trial of Li Yuhan’s case took place in early 2021. In the indictment, Li Yuhan’s application for allowance for her disabled son was labeled as “fraud,” while passing through Tiananmen Square was deemed “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The lawyers pleaded not guilty, denying all charges, and argued that this was a “blatant trampling of civil liberties.”
Despite completing all legal procedures, the trial concluded without a verdict. The lawyer was unable to provide reasons, only stating that such actions were “against morality and trampled on humanity,” and they would continue to pursue legal action against the serious procedural violations by the authorities.
On October 25, 2023, Li Yuhan’s case was again brought to trial. With the assistance of two court bailiffs, she appeared in court for trial. Afflicted with multiple illnesses and unable to receive treatment for a long time, she could not walk without a cane.
Li Yuhan raised objections to the jurisdiction in court, accusing the court in Shenyang’s Heping District of illegal acts for over twenty years, yet now being judged by this very court. After her objection was rejected, she rose to leave the court. It was only after her brother, Li Yongsheng, persuaded her that she decided not to leave. “Even if they’re breaking the law, we still should go through this illegal procedure,” Li Yongsheng said to his sister.
Lawyer stated that the court even prohibited him from carrying water bottles and had court bailiffs follow them to the restroom. However, lawyer also mentioned that the court “seriously listened to Li Yuhan’s self-defense and the speeches of the lawyers.”
“I do not plead guilty. This is retaliation.”
Li Yuhan stated in her final statement.
Wang Yu also arrived at the courthouse but was denied entry, prohibited from observing court hearings. She mentioned that there were at least dozens of plainclothes guobao present, creating an atmosphere akin to martial law. However, upon the arrival of diplomats from various countries, guobao vanished in an instant.
Li Yongsheng initially intended to wait at the courthouse entrance for Wang Yu and several other friends who wished to observe the proceedings, but court police warned him not to linger. When he told them that he was invited by the judge to observe, the police “persuaded and pulled” him forcibly into the courthouse. Through the courtroom window, he saw Wang Yu had already reached the street outside the courthouse.
Except for Li Yongsheng, all of the observation seats were occupied by National People’s Congress deputies and members of the People’s Political Consultative Conference. Li Yuhan’s cousin was left waiting in the cold outside the courthouse.
Li Yuhan was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months of imprisonment on the spot. Human rights lawyers mocked this kind of sentence as “Imprisonment Duration Matches Pretrial Detention Period,” meaning the term of imprisonment for political prisoners is just slightly longer than the time they have been detained.
The court accepted all the charges by the prosecution while rejecting all the defenses made by Li Yuhan and her lawyers. However, after the trial, the presiding judge said to the lawyer, “Your defense today was very good; we all need to learn from you.”
The People’s Court of Heping District, Shenyang, did not respond to Mang Mang’s requests for comment. The judgment was not made public.9 Mang Mang obtained a copy of the judgment.
Dedicated to 709 lawyers, and lawyers’ lawyers, and lawyers’ lawyers’ lawyers.
How did Mang Mang report this story?
This report was based on interviews with 8 individuals connected to Li Yuhan over the past few decades, including her family, friends, clients, and lawyers. Some of them requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal from the Chinese government; one interviewee mentioned receiving warnings from multiple government departments and enduring immense pressure. Additionally, Mang Mang reviewed some materials about Li Yuhan, including public letters, lawyers’ appeals, and court documents.
Guobao, short for the Chinese term for “internal security agents,” is a special political police force under China’s police system, mainly responsible for suppressing dissidents.
In China, radio and TV universities offer higher education opportunities to adults who failed the college entrance examination or lost their learning opportunities due to various other reasons, through distance learning including radio, television and the Internet.
Arresting and repatriating petitioners is an important function of the province liaison offices in Beijing. Some liaison office hotels are used as black jails to detain petitioners.
The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group is a Hong Kong based human rights organization, mainly composed of legal professionals and legislators. After the enactment of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, the organization announced its dissolution on September 21, 2021.
The so-called “three credentials” refer to the annual registration certificate, the official letter from the law firm, and the client’s authorization letter. According to legal provisions, lawyers holding these three credentials are eligible to meet with clients.
In her confession video, Wang Yu also accused Zhou Shifeng of “not being a qualified lawyer” and “attacking and smearing the government... laying the groundwork for a color revolution.”
The "Melting Ice Action" refers to an occasion in which local governments set up a special working group to formulate targeted plans to resolve the backlog of petitions and promote the prompt resolution of petition matters.
As of the time of publication, among the signatories of this open letter, lawyers who have had their licenses revoked or cancelled include Wang Yu, Sui Muqing, Wen Donghai, Zhu Shengwu, Lin Qilei, Tang Jitao, Liu Shihui, Yu Wensheng, Liu Zhengqing, Liu Shuqing, Ren Quanniu, Ding Jiaxi, Xie Yanyi, Wang Qiushi, Li Jinxing, Qin Yongpei, Teng Biao, Liu Wei, Zheng Enchong, and Liang Xiaojun.
According to Chinese Law, judgments should be published on the China Judgment Documents Website within seven days after taking effect, but courts often do not publish judgments of sensitive cases in accordance with the law.