Wang Jianbing’s and Huang Xueqin’s appeal rejected without due process

In a decision dated 10 September 2024, the Guangdong Provincial High Court rejected human rights defenders Wang Jianbing’s and Huang Xueqin’s appeal and upheld the original verdict. However, the court failed to give advance notice to the lawyers of both human rights defenders regarding its decision to not convene a trial to consider their appeal, and its plan to announce the verdict on 10 September.

The verdict was delivered to Guangzhou Municipal No. 1 Detention Centre on 12 September. On 13 September, one of Huang Xueqin’s defence lawyers found out about the verdict when he met the woman human rights defender at the detention centre. In the afternoon of 12 September, one of Huang Xueqin’s lawyers telephoned the responsible judge at the Guangdong High Court to request for an open trial to consider the appeal, on the basis that new testimonies from new witnesses have been collected and submitted to the court. However, during the phone call the judge did not inform the lawyer that a verdict had already been reached.

Article 202 of China’s Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that verdict announcements are all to be conducted publicly, and that verdicts must be delivered to the defendants and their defence lawyers at the same time. In an official notice issued in 2019, the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Justice have instructed courts to inform defence lawyers in a timely manner of important procedural decisions, including decisions to not convene a trial to consider appeals and to announce verdicts. The Supreme People’s Court’s 2021 interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law further clarifies that if a court decides to announce a verdict at a set time, it must notify all parties, including defence lawyers, the time and location of the announcement ahead of time. Once the announcement is completed, the written verdict must be immediately sent to the parties.

19 September 2024 marks three years since Wang Jianbing and Huang Xueqin were arbitrarily detained.

On 22 September 2023, human rights defenders Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were tried at the Guangzhou Intermediate Court, Guangdong Province. The trial ended in the afternoon on the same day. The verdict, which was not delivered, will be announced by the court at a later, unspecified date.

Huang Xueqin (黄雪琴) is a journalist and woman human rights defender from Guangdong province. She has worked to promote women’s rights, and to document and expose sexual harassment against women and girls in the workplace and in educational institutions. She was also previously detained from October 2019 to January 2020 after she published writings about the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Wang Jianbing (王建兵) is a labour rights and disability rights defender originally from Gansu province. After graduating from university in 2005, he began to work in the non-profit sector promoting youth education and rural development. In 2014, he joined an NGO in Guangzhou and implemented projects to promote youth development and empowerment of people living with disabilities. In 2018, he began to advocate for the rights of workers with occupational diseases through legal and community support. He is also a strong supporter of China’s #MeToo movement.

The two human rights defenders are accused of “inciting subversion of State power” under article 105(2) of the Criminal Law of China. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison. However, article 105(2) allows the court to impose a sentence of more than five years, without an upper limit, if the judges deem the offence to be “major” or if they consider the defendants to be “ringleaders”. The Criminal Law does not define or give further clarification as to the terms “ringleader” or “major”.

On the day of the trial, the courthouse was heavily guarded by security officers. Foreign diplomats who attempted to observe the trial, which was nominally public, were barred from entering the court. Family members of both defenders were able to observe the trial.

According to the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate’s indictment of the two human rights defenders, the prosecutors accused Huang Xueqin of publishing articles or making comments online that “misrepresented”, “attacked”, and “slandered” the Chinese government. The prosecutors also accused Huang Xueqin of participating, and inviting others to participate, in online workshops on non-violent movements. Similarly, the indictment also accused Wang Jianbing of publishing or reposting articles online that criticised the Chinese government and of attending an online workshop to discuss non-violent movement while he was studying in the UK. Finally, the prosecutors accused both defenders of organising regular gatherings at Wang Jianbing’s residence in Guangzhou to discuss social issues.

Defence lawyers representing the two human rights defenders argued in court that the activities in question do not constitute “inciting subversion of State power”.

Ahead of the trial, Front Line Defenders joined more than 30 other civil society organisations around the world in a joint appeal calling on the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing.

Front Line Defenders reiterates its concern at the ongoing trial of the Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing since it believes that the detention and charges against them are an act of reprisal for the peaceful and legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of assembly and association.

On 1 April 2022, human rights defender Wang Jianbing was allowed to have a video call from the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Centre with his lawyer for the first time since he was detained in September 2021. On 6 April 2022, his lawyer was allowed to review some of the case files at the municipal procuratorate’s office in Guangzhou.

Wang Jianbing told his lawyer that he was previously detained in solitary confinement at an unknown location for about five months and was subjected to prolonged interrogation. During this period of secret detention, he ate irregularly and suffered from depression. The human rights defender said that his health condition has slightly improved in the past month, after he was transferred to the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Centre.

In early April 2022, the United Nations published a communication sent in February 2022 by several UN human rights experts to the Chinese government, raising concerns about the detention of Wang Jianbing.

Today marks 80 days since woman human rights defender Huang Xueqin and labour and disability rights defender Wang Jianbing were both taken by local police from Wang Jianbing’s residence in the city of Guangzhou, in southern China, on 19 September 2021. Between late October and early November 2021, Huang Xueqin’s and Wang Jianbing’s families respectively received a formal arrest notice, dated 27 October 2021, indicating that they were arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of State power” under the law of the People's Republic of China, and are detained in Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Centre.

Download the urgent appeal.

Huang Xueqin (黄雪琴) is a journalist and woman human rights defender from Guangdong province. She has worked to promote women’s rights, and to document and expose sexual harassment against women and girls in the workplace and in educational institutions. She was also previously detained from October 2019 to January 2020 after she published writings about the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Wang Jianbing (王建兵) is a labour rights and disability rights defender originally from Gansu province. After graduating from university in 2005, he began to work in the non-profit sector promoting youth education and rural development. In 2014, he joined an NGO in Guangzhou and implemented projects to promote youth development and empowerment of people living with disabilities. In 2018, he began to advocate for the rights of workers with occupational diseases through legal and community support. He is also a strong supporter of China’s #MeToo movement.

Wang Jianbing had originally planned to accompany Huang Xueqin to Shenzhen where she was to travel onwards to the Hong Kong airport for a flight on 20 September 2021 to the United Kingdom for her graduate studies. In the afternoon on 19 September 2021, Guangzhou public security officers arrived at Wang Jianbing’s residence and took both him and Huang Xueqin into custody. The police also searched the two defenders’ residences and confiscated their personal belongings.

The grounds for their detention appear to be connected to multiple private gatherings at Wang Jianbing’s residence. Following Wang Jianbing and Huang Xueqin’s detention, local police in Guangzhou and in other provinces repeatedly visited and interrogated more than 40 of their acquaintances. During these interrogations, the police reportedly demanded the acquaintances to confirm the identity of people who had gathered at Wang Jianbing’s residence, to testify that the discussions at these gatherings were political in nature, and to sign pre-written testimonies falsely accusing the two human rights defenders of attending political assemblies that “subvert State power.” Many of them also had their electronic devices searched and data copied by the police.

In the weeks between the two human rights defenders’ arrest and the issuance of the formal arrest notice, neither of their families had received any legal notices confirming their arrest, their whereabouts or the charges against them. Wang Jianbing’s family visited multiple police offices in Guangzhou in an attempt to locate him, without success. They then submitted complaints to the district, municipal and provincial public security offices without receiving any meaningful response. When the family submitted complaints against the police to the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate, on 30 September 2021, the office refused to intervene. Also, the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau has so far rejected twice, in October and November, Wang Jianbing’s lawyer’s requests to meet with the human rights defender and to have him released on bail.

On 30 September 2021, three unidentified persons, suspected to be state security officers, summoned Wang Jianbing’s family for interrogation at a police station without showing any official identification or warrants. They told the family that the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau is responsible for the arrest of Wang Jianbing, but they could not reveal the charges against him nor the location of his detention. They ordered the family to stop contacting government offices and warned them not to conduct public advocacy.

The latest research published by Front Line Defenders and partner organisations highlights the systematic misuse of vague national security provisions in order to arbitrarily detain human rights defenders for their peaceful activities.

Front Line Defenders believes the detention and charges against Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing are a reprisal for their peaceful and legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of assembly and association.