(LifeSiteNews) — A recent report published by Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), a group of international and Chinese NGOs, on April 15 pointed out that the Chinese communist government is punishing the children of “human rights defenders” in the country amid an escalating clampdown on civil society.
The report, forming part of the series of CHRD yearly reports regarding the plight of human rights advocates protesting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) titled “If I Disobey, My Family Will Suffer,” describes Chinese authorities’ persecution of these human rights advocates and their family members as “acts of collective punishment.”
“While this report focuses on 2023, Chinese authorities have used these tactics for decades, inflicting tremendous harm with impunity,” the report stated.
“Seeking redress often triggers more police harassment, brutality, and baseless legal prosecutions,” it elaborated.
The report, premised on the testimonies from various people impacted by the Chinese government’s collective punishment in 2023, removed some identifying details to shield informants from official reprisals.
Chapter 1 of the report details the various methods used by the Chinese authorities on the children of dissidents, such as:
- Abuse of Rights of Defenders’ Children
- Criminal Proceedings against Defenders’ Family Members
- Denying Families’ Access to Detained/Jailed Defenders
- Obstructing Families’ Communication with Overseas Activists
- Enforced Family Separation with Exit Ban
Besides collectively punishing dissidents and their families, the Chinese government also resorts to several other methods to silence them. An excerpt from the reports reads:
“The report draws attention to the government’s practice of collective punishment alongside a gamut of other tools of intimidation, harassment, and persecution – such as censorship, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual violence and harassment of women defenders, for the purpose of silencing, intimidating and punishing human rights defenders.”
Notably, “the Chinese Communist Party’s collective punishment of human rights defenders’ families is an informal or hidden policy carried out by government authorities,” the report quoted one activist as testifying.
Moreover, the report then alluded to the case of He Fangmei, a jailed campaigner for vaccine safety and for victims of defective vaccines. In He’s case, her young children were put in the Henan Xinxiang Gongji Psychiatric Hospital, after she and her husband were detained by Chinese authorities in 2020.
He gave birth to a daughter in February 2021 but was forcibly separated from her newborn, the latter who “was left at the psychiatric hospital with her other children,” as per the report. The report continues that He’s son “was moved into foster care, without his parents or any next-kin relatives’ consent, at the home of a local informant, who had been reporting to police on the family.”
Besides, He’s two daughters remained in the psychiatric hospital “despite the relatives’ plead to have them released.”
According to a Chinese language report from the Rights Defense Network, although He had entrusted her children to her sister’s care, the psychiatric hospital where her children were at refused He’s sister’s request to visit the children, citing orders from the Chinese government.
At the point of writing, He’s two girls have “gone missing from the Hui County Chengguan Town mayor’s office since the psychiatric hospital officials dropped them off there on April 1, 2024,” the same report noted.
In a separate case, family members of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang allegedly experienced major “harassment and intimidation” during Wang’s detention and even after Wang’s release.
Strikingly, the report declared that “ever since the Chinese government launched an unprecedented campaign of detentions and arrests against human rights lawyers in 2015,” Wang and his family members have not been spared from the ire of the increasingly repressive Chinese regime.
Even worse still, the Chinese government went so far as to deny Wang’s son from having an education, as Chinese language reports by the Rights Defense Network corroborated.
Years of facing intimidation from the Chinese authorities made life so unbearable for Wang and his family. Wang eventually made a YouTube video detailing his plight.
“ … the harassment against our family has been non-stop (since 2015). Twenty-four hours a day, a large number of unknown people besiege us, follow us, take our pictures, harass us, and intrude into our daily lives. My family was forcibly evicted many times. Our water, electricity, and gas has been shut off. What’s worse is that, when we eventually found a school for my son, soon the school was visited by the police, who questioned the teachers and harassed them. After just one day, we were told that my son could no longer go to that school. My son has shown symptoms of psychological trauma since then … ”
The CHRD report then cited Li Wenzu, Wang’s wife, as admitting that continued government persecution took its toll on her child, whose name is Quanquan:
“One night, we were woken up by violent kicks on the door at the place of a friend who took us in. Quanquan was so frightened he held on to me tight, his body shaking uncontrollably, sobbing ‘I’m so scared … ’ Police rushed in, demanded to search the place, saying they were looking for ‘drug users.’ When we finally found another rental, police broke in after midnight, screaming that the child must get up and everybody must leave, while they smashed things, threatening to beat us if we refused to get out. On the next morning, Quanquan was still in a shock, he had nose bleeding, high fever, and was practically in a state of collapse. He has since suffered a splitting headache, which at times prevented him from reading, forcing him to stay in bed. It’s likely due to the tremendous stress. We all suffer from PTSD.”
Dissidents who try to escape the intimidation of the Chinese authorities by going overseas, the report elaborated, have had to face exit bans, a trend that rights groups have acknowledged has increased in recent years as authoritarian leader Xi Jinping tightens his rein on power.
Wang Qiaoling, a human rights lawyer and advocate, previously wrote about her experiences as a mother while dealing with the Chinese government’s persistent attempts to prevent her children from receiving sufficient education. She expressed her sadness at the government’s persecution of her family:
“I had never thought that having a stable home, or children going to school, would be a luxury. I thought for a moment and replied, ‘Everything is in God’s hands. If God allows it, we will be able to stay. If we are forced to move again, God will open another door for us.’”
In another article, Wang detailed how her son Zeyuan was unable to leave China for further education due to exit bans placed on her family by the Chinese authorities:
“I asked again, ‘Have those schools you applied to responded?’ Zeyuan said, ‘A few of them said they would give me an offer if I provided some additional materials, but I didn’t follow up.’ I was flabbergasted, ‘Why not?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Mom, forget it. Even if I get an offer, I can’t get a passport and go.’”
For years, the Chinese communist government has been slammed by both domestic and international voices for repressing and breaching human rights, particularly in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet as well as in the former British colony of Hong Kong in recent times.
On its end, Beijing has repeatedly dismissed claims of its alleged violation of human rights, saying instead that such allegations form part of an international smear campaign to undermine its international reputation and obstruct China’s development.