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Once a week, Chinese activists Sofia Huang Xueqing and Wang Jianbing gathered friends and acquaintances together, mostly just for a chat.
In Wang’s one-bedroom apartment in downtown Guangzhou, attendees will share experiences working in China’s non-governmental sector to be LGBTQ or to maintain mental health when marginalized by the Chinese Communist Party’s vision of society.
Sometimes the band just watches a movie, goes hiking or plays mahjong or a board game. It had to be a safe and inclusive space for us to support each other or talk openly about ideas banned from public discourse by state censors.
Now, in part because of these gatherings, Huang and Wang are facing charges of “inciting subversive activities of state power.”
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Nearly nine months after they disappeared, the “xuebing” case – a merger of their names used by their supporters – has become an example of how far the Communist Party will go to stifle ideas other than its own. Now, 33 years after crushing a demonstration in Tiananmen Square, authorities are making sure such moves never begin.
Beyond the high-profile campaign to crack down on public advocacy by pro-democracy activists and human rights lawyers, the Chinese security state is increasingly devoting vast resources to managing the privacy of socially active people with views it considers problematic.
Human rights activists criticized UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s visit to China last week, where she criticized only the Xinjiang mass internment campaign. Supporters of Huang and Wang expressed disappointment that Bachelet spoke at Guangzhou University, just minutes from where Wang lived, and praised “the movements and actions of young people challenging discrimination, injustice and inequality,” but did not raise the case publicly.
Since the couple was detained in September 2021, the day before Huang flew to Britain to study, Chinese police have questioned dozens of people who attended weekly gatherings, sometimes traveling across the country to track or gather people. on the street. , close friends of the couple said in interviews with The Washington Post. The interrogation usually lasts 24 hours.
Those who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals said there was no reason to consider the meetings subversive. However, during the interrogation it became clear that this was the conclusion of the police. A friend said that interrogators used photos from events in early 2021, which suggests that they observed the group for more than half a year before detaining Huang and Wang.
The police, who described the meetings as an attempt to undermine the state, were “complete fabrications,” said a close friend of Huang’s who attended the rallies. “These are full bulls — coming from their own paranoia.”
“We just became friends and talked about topics ranging from how hard it is to be gay or how many nights of insomnia we had this week and how hard it is to find a job,” she said.
Neither the national nor the Guangzhou branches of China’s Ministry of Public Security responded to faxed requests for comment.
The non-transparency of China’s legal system, especially in cases involving national security, means that the exact nature of the prosecutors’ case against Huang and Wang is still unclear, even for their lawyers. Wang’s lawyer was able to meet with him for half an hour in April for the first time. Huang’s lawyer’s request to meet with her client or see the prosecutor’s case against her was rejected, citing coronavirus prevention measures.
Both have previously worked on issues considered sensitive by the Chinese state. A well-known feminist, Huang went from journalism to activism in the #MeToo movement, as she supported women with stories of sexual harassment and assault. Wang worked for labor rights NGOs to support workers suffering from work-related illnesses.
It is not clear to what extent their activity is also considered to be the reason for the accusation of subversive activity. In 2019, Huang was detained for three months after writing articles about protests in Hong Kong against the imposition of a stifling national security law on Beijing. However, friends say police seem to be primarily interested in the nature of the weekly meetings, as well as all the international events they have attended, or the foreign funding they may have received.
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese security state has stepped up efforts to prevent dissent before it takes root. The gaps in surveillance that have allowed previous generations of activists to enter are increasingly being filled by new campaigns urging police to be vigilant against any signs of emerging threats to national security and social stability.
In previous administrations, movements often managed to gain some public power before arrests. When the Chinese military bloodily ended the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square 33 years ago before Saturday, his legacy lived on figures such as Liu Xiaobo, who helped write and promote a manifesto known as Charter 08, which in 2008 called for an end to one-party management.
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After thousands of signatures were collected, Liu was jailed for “inciting subversion” – the same crime Huang and Wang were accused of – shortly before winning the Nobel Peace Prize. His death from liver cancer in 2017, while under the watchful eye of Chinese security agents, sparked an outpouring of grief from liberal Chinese.
Later, the rights movement largely abandoned calls for democratization in favor of the requirement of fundamental civil liberties for the oppressed. Lawyers and activists defended victims of forced deportation and HIV spread by unclean needles or practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Again, these efforts were crushed by repression, which ended with a large-scale campaign launched on July 9, 2015, when dozens were detained overnight.
Since then, the government has sought to protect itself from the re-emergence of older movements as well as the arrival of a younger generation such as Huang and Wang, which focuses more on preserving personal dignity and individual well-being.
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Lawyers are now struggling to handle sensitive cases because of the increasingly delicate control system set up in recent years, according to Mina Huang, a Chinese human rights lawyer. She also worries that normalizing data monitoring during the pandemic will worsen the situation.
“The work done by Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing was very meaningful. This has given young people space to realize this era and our situation, “she said. “The accusations against them are typical of the oppression of young activists. Authorities fear the younger generation will become more active. “
According to friends of the couple, the idea of starting a movement is far from their mind when attending meetings at Wang’s apartment. Many, including Wang, struggled with depression and anxiety at a time when civil society was under attack.
During tea, wine and fruit provided by Wang, they would discuss their personal struggles along with the issues of the day. “It was not a question of how to answer. It was about finding out what was going on. Because we didn’t think we had a place to do something, “said a friend.
Another friend complained about the authorities’ unexpected intolerance of communities working outside his control. “But not every meeting is for the CCP. It’s not all about you guys. “
Pei Lin Wu from Taipei contributed to this report.
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