Marking the 10th Anniversary of the 709 Crackdown and Condemning the People’s Republic of China’s Global Crackdown on Lawyers

The New York City Bar Association (City Bar) marks, with lament, the 10th anniversary of the “709 Crackdown.” Over the last decade, the term “709 Crackdown” has evolved to mean the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) persistent and dogged attack on the systems of adversarial representation that define the universal practice of law.

The term “709” refers to July 9, 2015, the date on which the PRC government first initiated a dramatic attack on human rights activists, criminal defense attorneys, and other attorney and non-attorney advocates representing clients and causes unpopular with the government.[1] Throughout the month of July 2015, the PRC arrested, detained, held incommunicado, disappeared and/or tortured over 300 individuals who subsequently either waited to be charged with vague violations such as “stirring up troubles,”[2]  or were detained but then not charged at all.

Lawyers detained in the initial 709 Crackdown were subjected to extreme methods of intimidation, persecution, interrogation and torture including:

• forced disappearance;
• solitary confinement;
• forcing detainees to take unidentified medication for months;
• verbal abuse;
• physical violence;
• forcing detainees to stand or sit motionless for 9-16 hours a day;
• starvation;
• threats of harm to loved ones;
• “body sandwiching;” and
• deprivation of communication with family members while serving time in prison.^[3]

In 2023, the New York City Bar Association first called attention to the “709 Crackdown 2.0,” a renewed assault on lawyers and activists that was marked by secret trials and arbitrary detentions of known human rights lawyers who had represented clients in the PRC—among whom were lawyers Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong and Chang Weiping.[4]

The City Bar noted with alarm the anticipatory and arbitrary detention of other lawyers, including Yu Wensheng, Yang Yu and Zhou Zifeng, which apparently was effectuated specifically to prevent them from meeting with members of an international delegation led by the German foreign minister.[5]

The City Bar also noted with extreme alarm the PRC’s new extraterritorial targeting of lawyers operating outside of mainland China as part of its 709 Crackdown 2.0.[6]  This included a crackdown on lawyers in Hong Kong, and detention of lawyers residing outside of China, such as Lu Siwei, who was apprehended in Laos, forcibly returned to the PRC, and then sentenced to prison.[7]

As part of its “Global 709 Crackdown,” the PRC is continuing to harass and target lawyers representing individuals unjustly detained by the Chinese government under mainland China’s and Hong Kong’s ill-defined and draconian national security laws.  In 2023, a member of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai’s United Kingdom-based legal team, Tatyanna Eatwell, as well as Jimmy Lai’s son, Sebastien, were repeatedly interrupted while speaking at the United Nations by the PRC’s delegate.[8] Lai’s legal team has also been followed by an unknown individual while at the United Nations.

Since then, Lai’s legal team—and the legal team’s families—have received hundreds of threats, including threats of dismemberment, rape and death.[9]  These lawyers have also been subjected to extreme forms of harassment, including attempted hacks of their bank accounts, emails and Whatsapp messages, and “privilege phishing.”

The City Bar calls upon all governments to denounce the PRC government’s persecution of lawyers as violating the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, among other international human rights standards.

The City Bar further calls upon the European Union[10] and all signatory states to the Council of Europe’s recently adopted Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer[11] to afford the utmost protections to lawyers—especially those targeted by the PRC’s ongoing campaign.

About the Association
The mission of the New York City Bar Association, which was founded in 1870 and has over 20,000 members, is to equip and mobilize a diverse legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice in support of a fair society and the public interest in our community, our nation, and throughout the world. www.nycbar.org.