“Our ideals have become clearer, and our dream is political. The Citizens’ Movement calls on everyone to act like a citizen. When [this movement] becomes stronger, China’s transformation will lead us to a positive future.” That positive future – or the courage to imagine a “beautiful China” – is now hanging by a thread, as the speaker of those words, Dr. Xu Zhiyong, has been on a hunger strike since October 4.
Xu, 51, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, has been wrongfully imprisoned for nearly five years. He has protested his inhumane treatment including the authorities’ use of other inmates to constantly threaten, bully, and psychologically break him; Xu must seek their approval even for something as basic as using the toilet.
During a visit by his family on October 29, Xu – who was seen with a forced-feeding tube – promised to suspend his hunger strike. Since then, his conditions have been unclear. Reports from October said he had lost about 6 kilograms in just 20 days.
Xu may be an idealist, but he is a battle-hardened one. In 2003, he and two others used a public letter to successfully push for an end to China’s abusive detention system for internal migrants, effectively starting what became known as China’s “rights defense” movement. In that decade, Xu championed for migrant children’s equal rights to education, urged the government to make officials’ assets public, and exposed the network of “black jails” used against China’s “petitioners.” He also established a civil society organization, Gongmeng, and when that was shut down, started an informal network of activists known as the New Citizens Movement.
Xu’s story exemplifies the growing obstacles to a rights-respecting China. The authorities detained him in February 2020 after he published an essay urging President Xi Jinping to step down. In April 2023, Xu and fellow activist Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to 14- and 12-year sentences, respectively. This is Xu’s second time in prison, having served four years between 2013 and 2017 for “gathering crowds to disrupt public order.”
Amidst the growing crackdown in China, Xu’s long and grueling sentence seems to have fallen between the cracks. But governments concerned about his well-being and unjust sentence should press for his immediate release.