709 crackdown

709 Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers
Native name 中国709维权律师大抓捕事件
English name709 Crackdown
DateJuly 9, 2015 (2015-07-09)
LocationBeijing, Mainland China
TargetHuman rights lawyers, civil rights defenders, activists
Organized byXi Jinping Administration, Chinese Communist Party; Ministry of Public Security
OutcomeRepression of Chinese civil society and arrest of hundreds of human rights lawyers, disbarment
Arrests300+
ChargesSubversion of state power, picking quarrels and provoking trouble

The 709 Crackdown (Chinese: 中国709维权律师大抓捕事件; pinyin: Zhōngguó 709 wéiquán lǜshī dàzhuābǔ shìjiàn; lit. 'China 709 mass arrest of civil rights lawyers incident' or 709案 '709 Case' for short) was a nationwide crackdown on Chinese lawyers and human rights activists instigated during the summer of 2015. It is known as the "709 crackdown" as it started on 9 July 2015.[1]

Yaqiu Wang of Human Rights Watch commented that "the 709 crackdown dealt a terrible blow to China's rights-defense movement, which significantly contracted as rights lawyers were jailed, disbarred or placed under surveillance".[2]

  1. ^ Sudworth, John (22 May 2017). "Wang Quanzhang: The lawyer who simply vanished". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  2. ^ Green, David (26 December 2018). "Chinese rights lawyer fires his own state-appointed lawyer in a dramatic court appearance". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2018.