Li Qiaochu, a human rights activist detained for nearly three years in China, has gone on trial in Shandong province charged with “inciting subversion of state power”.

On the eve of the trial, the chairs of the US congressional commission on China called for Li’s unconditional release, citing reports that the labour rights and feminist activist needed urgent medical treatment.

Li’s charges carry a sentence of up to five years, or potentially longer if she is deemed a ringleader.

Previously employed in Tsinghua University’s sociology department, Li had worked as a researcher and activist since at least 2017, when she worked with other volunteers to support migrant workers who had been evicted from their homes in Beijing in 2017. She later supported various MeToo campaigns and helped Xu maintain the website Beautiful China, where they published articles about China’s civil rights movement.

  • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
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    11 months ago

    Being a human rights activist in China that highlights Chinese wrongdoings takes some enormous fucking balls.

    • spudwart@spudwart.com
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      11 months ago

      China is likely perpetually at the boiling point of a social uprising, but they just have so much power and so strong of a boot that they can keep pushing it down.

      But as the saying goes. “They have to be lucky every time, We only have to get lucky once.”

      • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        We need to be lucky every single time, otherwise the power that replaces it is as corrupt if not worse than the last one

        • spudwart@spudwart.com
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          11 months ago

          Yes, it’s a cycle.

          But the point is that if its this persistent, then at some point it will start slipping through the cracks. They’ll either bend or break

      • Quokka@quokk.au
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        11 months ago

        There are often many riots and protests going on in China, but so little gets reported out.