Case History: Liang Taiping
On 29 June 2016 human rights defenders Ms Xu Caihong, Messrs Li Wei, Ma Xinli, and Liang Taiping were released on bail in Beijing. Messrs Zhao Changqing and Zhang Baocheng remain detained incommunicado.
On 31 May 2016, human rights defenders Messrs Zhao Changqing, Zhang Baocheng and Ms Xu Caihong were detained by police in Beijing. It is believed their detentions are linked to a private commemoration they held ahead of the 27th anniversary of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989. Four other human rights defenders who attended the event remain out of contact.
Liang Taiping is a Hunan-based poet and human rights defender who has campaigned for the release of fellow HRDs and in support of the Occupy Central protests which swept Hong Kong in 2014 and a result of which he got fired from his job.
On 29 June 2016 human rights defenders Ms Xu Caihong, Messrs Li Wei, Ma Xinli, and Liang Taiping were released on bail in Beijing. Messrs Zhao Changqing and Zhang Baocheng remain detained incommunicado.
Xu Caihong is a Beijing-based human rights defender who has been detained numerous times over the past number of years because of her activism. She has assisted people who have travelled to Beijing to petition the central authorities following violations of their rights and has previously participated in commemorations of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Li Wei served two years in prison from 2013-15 due to his involvement with the New Citizens Movement which campaigned for greater transparency among Chinese Communist Party officials, greater equality within the education system as well as for Constitutional Government. In 2012 and 2013, he participated in a number of small protests in Beijing calling on Chinese officials to reveal their personal assets and was subsequently arrested and jailed.
Ma Xinli is a human rights defender who was involved with the New Citizens Movement and was detained for nearly a year in 2013 for calling on Chinese Communist Party officials to publicly disclose their assets. He was released on bail in February 2014.
Liang Taiping is a Hunan-based human rights defender and poet who has previously campaigned for the release of fellow human rights defenders and in support of Occupy Central protesters in Hong Kong.
Zhao Changqing is a human rights defender who has been imprisoned four times, totalling 11 years, as a result of his activities promoting democracy, rule of law and human rights. Zhao Changqing was jailed for four months after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Bejiing in 1989. In the immediate aftermath of the crackdown, he collected evidence detailing the army's killing of protesters before he was stopped by soldiers who searched him, found his notes and beat and detained him. In 1998 he wrote an open letter to the National People's Congress calling on the Chinese Communist Party to follow in the footsteps of Taiwan and make the transition to democracy and safeguard human rights.
Zhang Baocheng is an active participant in the New Citizens Movement. In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison because of his participation in demonstrations.
While Front Line Defenders welcomes the release on bail of Xu Caihong, Li Wei, Ma Xinli and Liang Taiping, it urges the authorities in China to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defenders Zhao Changqing and Zhang Baocheng and drop all charges against them, which it believes are motivated directly by their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities.
