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| Lawyer Zhou Shifeng |
Zhou Shifeng, a key figure in the 709 crackdown and former director of Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, has faced a series of challenges in the past year, including the permanent ban on his WeChat account, travel restrictions, and obstacles to meeting with friends.
July 9th marks the 11th anniversary of the 709 crackdown. Zhou Shifeng, a key figure in the 709 case and former director of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, has faced a series of challenges in the past year, including the permanent ban on his WeChat account, restrictions on his travel, and obstacles to meeting with friends. Several human rights lawyers familiar with Zhou Shifeng told this station that even after his release from prison, he remains under surveillance, with his basic communication, litigation, and personal freedoms restricted.
On the eve of the 11th anniversary of the 709 crackdown, Mr. Wang, a human rights lawyer familiar with Zhou Shifeng's current situation, told this station on Wednesday (July 8) that Zhou Shifeng's WeChat account was permanently banned again on July 2, and all social functions, including one-on-one chat, are unavailable. Mr. Wang said that this is the fifth WeChat account of Zhou Shifeng to be permanently banned in the past year: "Zhou Shifeng's first three WeChat accounts were banned because he exposed cases of political persecution perpetrated by Sun Lijun's political gang in his WeChat Moments, saying that this gang still has a lot of influence in the political and legal system, and he also provided a lot of evidence."
Zhou Shifeng then filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Internet Court. The court accepted the materials but did not issue any legal documents for six months. He then reported the matter to the Central Inspection Team, and the Beijing Internet Court replied that the review had been terminated, which effectively deprived him of his right to sue. When he reported it again later, the court said that the matter had been "completed."
WeChat accounts were blocked one after another.
Mr. Wang, who had met Zhou Shifeng not long ago, said that Zhou Shifeng had suspected that the blocking of his WeChat account was related to the cyber police department of Anyang Public Security Bureau in Henan Province, and wrote to relevant officials of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Provincial Political and Legal Committee to report the situation: "The letter was then forwarded to the Anyang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, and then to the discipline inspection department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, but no formal reply has been received to date."
Zhou Shifeng registered multiple WeChat accounts. Starting with his fourth account, he stopped posting on Moments and liking posts, but the account was still permanently banned. He subsequently filed lawsuits with the Nanshan District Court of Shenzhen and the Beijing Internet Court. Mr. Wang said, "The court's online case filing system requires information such as 'the defendant's legal representative or principal's mobile phone number,' 'landline phone number,' and 'identification type.' This information involves the personal information of Tencent's legal representative, which ordinary citizens cannot obtain, and ultimately the case was rejected."
When contacted by this station, Zhou Shifeng confirmed the above situation, saying, "My five WeChat accounts were blocked without cause and there is no legal recourse, which has deprived me of the tools to maintain basic communication with society. These are basic facts, and I am very grateful for the concern shown to me by all sectors of society and all my friends."
Zhou Shifeng is one of the key figures sentenced in the 709 crackdown. In July 2015, Chinese authorities launched a massive crackdown and summons of human rights lawyers, legal professionals, and related individuals, an event later known as the 709 crackdown. Zhou Shifeng, former director of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, was sentenced to seven years in prison. After his release in September 2022, he remained under long-term restrictions.
Meeting friends is hindered and travel is restricted.
Another human rights lawyer in Beijing, Mr. Li, told reporters that Yu Wensheng, a former lawyer and participant in the 709 crackdown, planned to visit Zhou Shifeng in his hometown of Anyang after his release from prison, but the two ultimately failed to meet. Mr. Li said, "Yu Wensheng and Zhou Shifeng have been friends for many years and had arranged to meet in Anyang long ago. The day before Yu Wensheng arrived in Anyang, Beijing state security officers rushed there and forcibly prevented the two from meeting. This is not only a restriction of personal freedom, but also a severing of one's most basic friendship."
Mr. Li stated that it is currently difficult for outsiders to directly contact Zhou Shifeng, and they are unaware of his current situation and feelings. He said that Zhou Shifeng had previously reported to the Central Inspection Team that the 709 crackdown was a political persecution case orchestrated by high-ranking officials in the political and legal system, such as Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua, and that he was a victim, yet relevant departments still monitored him.
Another human rights lawyer, Mr. Zhang, who is familiar with Zhou Shifeng's rights activism, told this station that Zhou Shifeng has been submitting materials to multiple inspection teams and the procuratorial system over the past year, reflecting the lingering problems of the political poison of Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua in the political and legal system. Mr. Zhang said that Zhou Shifeng has reported related issues to the 16 inspection teams dispatched nationwide in the sixth round of central inspections, as well as to the inspection team dispatched by the Supreme People's Procuratorate to the Tianjin Procuratorate, the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee, and other departments, reflecting the problems in the Tianjin political and legal system.
Accusations against legacy issues of the political and legal system
Mainland human rights lawyer Mr. Zhang believes that the 709 case is not an ordinary case, but a fabricated case created by the political clique of Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua: "Last June, after the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Procuratorial Investigation Department was established, he immediately filed a complaint with the department and the Complaints Department as a core figure in the 709 crackdown. This April, just after the seventh round of central inspections began, he wrote nine more sets of complaint materials, reflecting that the political poison of Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua is still rampant."
According to statistics from the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group and other long-term human rights organizations, during the "709 crackdown" that began on July 9, 2015, Chinese police detained, summoned, enforced disappearances, or interviewed 319 human rights lawyers, legal assistants, human rights defenders, and their families in more than 20 provinces. Among them, 36 people were subjected to long-term detention, secret detention, or enforced disappearances, and more than 10 core lawyers and human rights activists were charged with "subversion of state power" or "inciting subversion of state power" and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 8 years.
Eleven years after the incident, the vast majority of those who were initially taken away, summoned, or briefly detained have been released or served their sentences, but they still face ongoing stability maintenance, surveillance, travel restrictions, and occupational repression.
Yu Wensheng, a follow-up to the 709 crackdown, was prevented from leaving the country.
In early June this year, Yu Wensheng and his family of three planned to travel from Shenzhen to Hong Kong for tourism, but were intercepted by the authorities at the Luohu Port. Yu Wensheng wrote on the X platform: "On June 9, my wife, son and I arrived in Shenzhen. My wife and son originally wanted to travel to Hong Kong, but my wife and son were told by border control that 'leaving the country may endanger national security' and were prohibited from leaving the country and were briefly detained. Currently, all three of us are prohibited from leaving the country."
