Event Announcement: Marking the 10th Anniversary of the 709 Crackdown in China and the 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day on July 9th, 2025

Event Announcement: Marking the 10th Anniversary of the 709 Crackdown in China and the 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day on July 9th, 2025

July 1, 2025

Ten years ago, beginning on July 9th, the Chinese authorities launched a large-scale crackdown on human rights lawyers and rights defenders, arresting over 20 lawyers and their associates, placing them under the notorious “Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location” where they were subjected to physical and psychological torture. Meanwhile, the police interrogated and threatened nearly 300, mostly lawyers, across the country to suppress support for their detained colleagues. Eventually nine were tried for “subversion.” In the years since, nearly 50 human rights lawyers have been disbarred, effectively smothering a group of lawyers who have fought to uphold the law in China. 

The events of 2015 were part of an intensified cleansing of civil society activities writ large that included the New Citizens Movement, dissidents, human rights defenders, house churches, internet opinion leaders, journalists, as well as academics. What united these diverse groups was the struggle for a fair and just China; and human rights lawyers, though small in number, were the connecting node of them all, as they worked through the often unscrupulous judicial system firmly in the grips of the Communist Party.

Even a decade after the 709 arrests, the crackdown on Chinese lawyers is still ongoing. More lawyers have been imprisoned since 2015. Routine surveillance, restriction on movement, censorship, more disbarments, and impediment of rights to normal practice continue to plague many lawyers in their lives.

This year, eight civil society groups, joined by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), mark the 10th anniversary of the 709 Crackdown on human rights lawyers and the 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day. We are pleased to gather a group of distinguished speakers from around the world to share our thoughts, to renew our support for Chinese human rights lawyers, to recognize their work in the broader context, and to keep alive the hope that truth and justice will prevail.  

Date and Hours

Tokyo: July 9th, 8:00 – 10:30 pm

China & Taiwan: July 9th, 7:00 – 9:30 pm

Central Europe Summer Time: July 9th, 1:00 – 3:30 pm

U.S. EST: July 9th, 7:00 – 9:30 am

Organizers

International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE)

U.S.: China Change, Human Rights in China, Humanitarian China, ChinaAid, Alliance for Citizens Rights

Japan: Asian Lawyers Network

Taiwan: Judicial Reform Foundation, New School for Democracy

U.K.: 29 Principles

Venue /Streaming

Streaming (Click Here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlgoISoqebE&ebeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fchinachange.org%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

The event will be held at University of Tokyo, Komaba campus, International Education Building, Room 314

Map link https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/campusmap/cam02_01_05_j.html

Opening Remarks

Baroness Helena Kennedy is the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), King’s Counsel (KC), and member of the UK House of Lords. IBAHRI has supported human rights lawyers on the world stage through statements, UN intervention, social media engagement, letters, in-person meetings, and awards.

New Documentary: The 709 Story

Built on recent interviews and research, this 35-minute documentary features a dozen or so 709 lawyers and 709 wives, presenting a comprehensive outline of the 709 Crackdown: arrests, interrogation, torture, trials, and the aftermath against the political backdrop in China.

Speakers

Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Roman Zavrsek is the First Vice-President of The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). He is the founder and managing partner at the law firm Završek & Šnajder L.L.C. in Slovenia, specializing in civil and commercial law as well as human rights law. He was the President of the Slovenian Bar Association from 2012 until 2021. Previously he chaired CCBE’s Platform for Exchange, Cooperation and Outreach (PECO) Committee. 

Yohei Suda is an attorney at law in Japan and the State of Washington, USA. He is currently the Chairperson of the International Human Rights Committee of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA). He also teaches international contract law at University of Tokyo, Komaba campus, to students of international relations.

Terrence Halliday is a Research Professor Emeritus at the American Bar Foundation and a specialist in the globalization of law. One of his main avenues of research has been lawyers’ fights for basic legal freedoms in past and present struggles for political liberalism around the world. For the past fifteen years his research has focused on China’s criminal defense and rights’ lawyers as well as international efforts to influence China’s adherence to international human rights norms.

Li Fangping started practicing law in China in 1995. From 2003 up to the 709 crackdown, he has been a leading human rights lawyer in areas of anti-discrimination, political dissent, and religious freedom. He represented a wide range of clients, including Chen Guangcheng, barefoot lawyer fighting against brutality in birth control; Hu Jia, dissident and the 2008 Sakharov Prize recipient; Zhao Lianhai, parent and activist in the case of melamine-contaminated infant milk powder; Ilham Tohti, Uyghur scholar who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014; Tibetan Buddhist leader Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, and many more. He will present a brief history of China’s judicial reform over the last three decades.

Li Jinxing started practicing law in China in 2003. He represented numerous clients from prominent dissidents to high-profile entrepreneurs. He founded Xi Yuan Network (similar to the Innocence Project in the U.S.) and the initiative of “Saving the Innocent”, working with like-minded lawyers to provide legal assistance to victims of major wrongful convictions. He will speak from his experience as a lawyer about the nature of China’s judicial process, as well as the predatory persecution of private entrepreneurs in recent years.

Tomoko Ako is Professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include empowerment of socially vulnerable people such as migrant workers, HIV/AIDS positives, women, elderly people, children, and ethnic and sexual minorities, with a particular focus on China. Recently, she has been involved in research projects on civil society and social media, and action research on business and human rights in China and Hong Kong. Ako also serves as the Executive Director of the Asia Lawyers Network, a civic group in Japan advocating for lawyers.

Weng Kuo-yen is a lead attorney at Cogito Law Office in Taipei, Taiwan, and chairman of the human rights committee of Taipei Bar Association. He specializes in cases concerning human rights, administrative relief, teachers and education law, constitutional review request, and protection of persons with physical or mental disability.  He is a co-founder of Taiwan Support China Human Rights Lawyers Network.

Patrick Poon is a veteran advocate for human rights lawyers in China. Among the many activities during his years in Hong Kong, Patrick was the first executive secretary and a long time board member of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group that pioneered outside support for embattled human rights lawyers as they emerged on the scene in early 2000s. The work of the Concern Group that included documentation, global outreach, and assistance to lawyers since 2007 was both foundational and priceless. However, it disbanded under pressure in September 2021 after the national security law went into effect in Hong Kong. This year we pay tribute to the Concern Group by having Patrick tell the origin story of the Concern Group.

Moderator

Yaxue Cao is the founder and editor of China Change. Launched on June 4th, 2013, the website has endeavored to bring news, commentary, and interviews in the areas of human rights, rule of law, and civil society to audiences outside China.

China Human Rights Lawyer Award

Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of Human Rights in China and president of Humanitarian China, will announce the recipients of the annual China Human Rights Lawyer Award.