Li Qiaochu (李翘楚)
Li Qiaochu (李翘楚) is a feminist, researcher, and human rights defender who has advocated for the rights for workers, migrants, women, and human rights defenders detained in China. After the Beijing authorities began to forcibly evict migrant workers from their residences in the winter of 2017, she along with other academics, civil society organisations, and volunteers collected and disseminated information to help the evicted migrant workers to secure new jobs and find affordable accommodation. Li Qiaochu also actively supported various #MeToo campaigns by compiling data, writing analyses, and posting them online. During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, she joined a team of volunteers to provide free masks to sanitation workers and help women suffering from domestic violence during the pandemic. When public security officers began to detain and target human rights defenders associated with a private gathering that took place in December 2019 in Xiamen, Fujian province to discuss rule of law and reforms in China, she started to campaign online for the release of her partner Xu Zhiyong and other human rights lawyers facing reprisals from the authorities.
Many of China’s most prominent and most stringently prosecuted defenders have worked to protect the health and well-being of victims of physically harmful government and corporate practice, including forced abortion, food health scandals, environmental pollution, and corrupt or negligent government action leading to preventable loss of life. Other Chinese HRDs work to protect the economic rights of Chinese citizens, advocating for victims of property appropriation, forced demolition, and violation of labour contracts.
