Chinese dissidents again threatened with government imprisonment

China has stepped up pressure on a number of prominent dissidents in recent weeks, as local prosecutors decide whether to impose prison sentences on human rights lawyer Lu Siwei and police repeatedly threaten to re-arrest citizen journalist Zhang Zhan.

Some human rights activists say the renewed threats against Lu and Zhang are part of a broader government campaign to intensify its crackdown on activists and human rights lawyers.

“Beijing is trying to warn dissidents that if they try to defend the rule of law or freedom of expression, they could be arrested or jailed,” Bob Fu, founder of the Texas-based human rights group ChinaAid, told VOA by phone.

Lu’s wife, Zhang Chunxiao, who now lives in the U.S., tells VOA that Chinese police in the southwestern province of Sichuan have imposed strict restrictions on her husband since he was released on bail in October. He is under 24-hour surveillance and is not allowed to leave the city of Chengdu without permission.

“Authorities have deployed eight to nine people to monitor him around the clock and he is always followed, whether he takes the subway or gets into a taxi,” she told VOA by telephone.

Lu, a prominent human rights lawyer who has handled several high-profile cases, attempted to flee China last July and reunite with his family in the United States by traveling through Southeast Asia. Despite having a valid U.S. visa and a Chinese passport, he was arrested and detained by Laotian police and later deported back to China.

According to Zhang, the constant surveillance makes Lu feel isolated and suffers from severe mood swings.

“Almost everyone around him, including his friends and family members, have cut off contact with him, leaving him in a very bad mental state,” Zhang added.

In addition to the surveillance and restrictions on his movement, police told Lu last month that prosecutors in Chengdu were reviewing his case and would later determine whether or not to charge him with a crime.

Zhang says she hopes authorities will not charge her husband with a crime and will restore his basic rights and freedom. However, some analysts say there is a high probability that Lu will be found guilty and given a prison sentence.

“Given that the conviction rate in China is over 99%, I think Lu will likely be prosecuted for a crime,” Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, told VOA by phone.

Fu from Texas said Lu’s experience is a typical example of China’s cross-border repression and that Beijing is preparing to prosecute him.

“His case shows that under the rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping, even a peaceful human rights lawyer abroad would be arrested if he tried to reunite with his family in the United States,” he told VOA.

In a written response, the Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing strictly abides by international law and fully respects the law enforcement sovereignty of other countries.

“There is no transnational repression,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told VOA.

Forced separation of the family

While Lu faces the threat of persecution in China, his family has also been forcibly separated since his wife and children moved to the U.S. in January 2022. Zhang says Lu’s detention and deportation back to China has prompted her to learn how to advocate for him, something she was not used to.

“I was a very quiet person living a simple life, but since his arrest last year, I had no choice but to stand up for him,” she told VOA, adding that she did so out of her instincts as a wife, despite the work being difficult for her.

“My child is still young and my husband also needs my emotional support, so I have to become stronger,” Zhang said.

ChinaAid’s Fu said Zhang’s experience mirrors a situation faced by family members of other Chinese dissidents.

“The pain that such forced separation causes to the families of Chinese dissidents is indescribable and it is a tragedy created by the Chinese government,” he told VOA.

Lifelong threats from the Chinese government

While Lu awaits his fate, Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan has been repeatedly threatened with re-arrest by police since her release in May.

Zhang, who was sentenced to four years in prison for reporting on the first lockdown in Wuhan during the COVID-19 pandemic, shared in a June 9 post on messaging app WeChat that Shanghai police had warned her she would be jailed again if she crossed certain “red lines” again.

In another video she posted to YouTube in July, Zhang said authorities had confiscated her passport and that she still knows she may be being tracked.

Despite the recurring threats she faces, Zhang continues to campaign for the release of other Chinese dissidents who have been taken away by police in recent weeks.

Freedom House’s Wang said that as long as Zhang continues to advocate for freedom and the rule of law, she will likely continue to face intimidation and harassment from police.

“Surveillance and threats of re-incarceration will always be with her, probably for the rest of her life,” she told VOA. “These cases show that the costs of dissent are not limited to the formal time these dissidents spend in prison.”

Wang adds that it also shows how threats to dissidents are increasing under Xi Jinping and are often “all-encompassing.”