(Japan – July 10, 2025) The 10th Anniversary commemoration event of the “709 Crackdown” and the 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day took place on July 9, 2025, at the University of Tokyo. The event was co-organized by ChinaAid, China Change, Humanitarian China, Human Rights in China, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, the Taiwan Support China Human Rights Lawyers Network, and the Asian Lawyers Network, which is based in Japan. It honored the outstanding contributions of Chinese human rights lawyers in promoting the defense of human rights and advancing the rule of law.
This year’s two honorees included Chinese human rights lawyers Lu Siwei (currently imprisoned) and Li Guobei.
Mr. Zhou Fengsuo from Humanitarian China presented the 2025 China Human Rights Lawyers Award.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, delivered the opening address. Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, joined virtually. A 35-minute documentary on the 709 Crackdown premiered, featuring testimony from 12 detained lawyers describing their arrests, interrogations, surveillance, trials, and the resistance efforts of their defense attorneys. Speakers included representatives from the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Japan Federation of Bar Associations, U.S. lawyers, the Taipei Bar Association, and prominent human rights lawyers Li Fangping and Li Jinxing (Wu Lei).
The event in Tokyo was highly successful, thanks to collaboration among all parties. Ms. Cao Yaxue, editor-in-chief of China Change, one of the hosts, expressed special thanks to the indispensable participation and support of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. The presence of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers is of great significance.
On July 9, 2015, Chinese public security authorities launched a massive operation across 23 provinces involving arrests, summons, criminal detentions, enforced disappearances, and interrogations targeting over a hundred lawyers, rights activists, petitioners, and their family members, known as the 709 Crackdown.
The 709 incident is seen as a day of suffering for China’s human rights lawyers. After internal discussions of Chinese Human Rights Lawyers, July 9 was designated as China Human Rights Lawyers Day to honor those human rights lawyers who have made significant contributions to China’s human rights cause.
Past Recipients include:
- 2018: Gao Zhisheng, Wang Quanzhang
- 2019: Tang Jingling
- 2020: Xu Zhiyong
- 2021: Chang Weiping, Ding Jiaxi
- 2022: Xie Yang, Qin Yongpei
- 2023: Tonyee Chow Hang-tung (Hong Kong), Yu Wensheng, Zhou Shifeng
- 2024: Zhang Zhan, Li Yuhan
Congratulations to lawyers Lu Siwei and Li Guobei, recipients of the 2025 China Human Rights Lawyers Award.
Award Citation for Lawyer Lu Siwei
Under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, justice is often silenced, and conscience is often suppressed. However, there are always those who speak out for the voiceless — lawyer Lu Siwei is one of them. With courage, deep legal expertise, and unwavering moral conviction, he has strived to make rights on paper a reality in people’s lives.
Lu Siwei has long represented sensitive human rights cases, not afraid to take on cases deemed “off-limits” by the authorities, including the “Hong Kong 12,” the Chengdu activists who had attempted to attempted to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre, and cases of human rights defenders Yu Wensheng and Qin Yongpei. He openly challenged torture, arbitrary detention, and other abuses, always placing conscience above personal safety.
Despite ongoing surveillance and harassment, Lu Siwei never wavered. His residence was monitored by authorities, and he was repeatedly obstructed from defending clients. In 2023, while trying to reunite with his family in Laos, he was arrested and charged with “illegal border crossing.” Even behind bars, he held firm to his beliefs, demonstrating extraordinary courage and firm commitment to the rule of law and civil society in China.
Lu Siwei’s hard work has earned widespread respect from peers at home and abroad, and his experience has drawn greater international attention to the worsening human rights situation in China. Since his disbarment in 2021 and imprisonment in 2023, he has become a symbol of the struggle of many ordinary Chinese citizens for freedom and justice. His name now represents the unyielding spirit that persists through fear and darkness.
Lu Siwei is expected to be released this August after completion of his sentence, but this does not signify that threats against him are over. We call on the Chinese government to unconditionally release Lu Siwei and ensure his safe reunion with his family.
Today, we are very honored to present the China Human Rights Lawyers Award to lawyer Lu Siwei for his invaluable contributions to the defense of human rights, the rule of law, and social conscience in China. He is a source of inspiration for us, reminding us that personal courage can sustain the hope of justice even in the darkest times.
Award Citation for Lawyer Li Guobei
Today, we are very honored to present the China Human Rights Lawyers Award to a brave and resilient defender of justice — lawyer Li Guobei.
Though she may not often be in the spotlight, her name is engraved into some of the toughest human rights cases in China. Since speaking out in 2014 for lawyers detained and tortured in Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang, her fate has been tightly tied to China’s human rights struggle. From that moment on, she chose to face risk and pressure in the name of justice, forging a remarkable career as a lawyer under intense pressure.
In the 2014 Cao County case, she fearlessly defended persecuted Christians, upholding religious freedom. During the major 709 crackdown in 2015 on rights lawyers, she courageously stepped forward and provided legal assistance to young paralegal Gao Yue, she compassionately and firmly supported Xu Yan (wife of detained lawyer Yu Wensheng), and fought for lawyer Zhang Wenpeng’s right to meet with lawyers — waiting outside the detention center all day just to stand with him.
In recent years, she has continued to defend those who dare to speak out. She has represented women’s rights activist Li Qiaochu and “White Paper Movement” documentary director Chen Pinlin, using her legal expertise and courage to challenge procedural injustices and advocate humane treatment for her clients. She exposed how Chen Pinlin was deprived of sleep and fresh air in detention and courageously condemned the court’s illegal obstruction of lawyer rights.
Today, she is once again on the frontlines. Despite mounting pressure and threats, she still exposed the humiliation and abuse suffered by her client, lawyer Xie Yang, during judicial proceedings. The wake-up calls by her are not just for Xie Yang, but for the dignity of China’s entire legal profession and the baseline of the rule of law.
But the path of rights defense work is never smooth. In 2014, Beijing authorities refused to renew her law license due to her advocacy, prompting her to go on a hunger strike, eventually winning it back. During the 709 crackdown, she was banned from leaving the country for “national security” reasons. This year, the Biyi law firm she heads faced unreasonable delays in annual review. Yet she did not back down, and continued to speak out despite intimidation.
Lawyer Li Guobei represents countless female human rights lawyers who, with wisdom, fearlessness, and resilience, protect the faint but precious light of justice, within high walls and hostile courts. Her actions remind us that even in darkness, there are those who choose to stand for justice and dignity. That ray of light will pierce the long night.
Let us draw strength and hope from her unwavering courage. May her perseverance inspire us to continue safeguarding the ideals of rights and justice in China and around the world.
(Note: The original YouTube livestream link was disrupted about 16 hours before the event, but the organizers have the entire footage of the 709 10th Anniversary Commemoration event and 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day)
(China Aid Association)
