International Pressure on CCP to End Clampdown on Human Rights Lawyers

Western governments, lawmakers, and human rights organizations have called on China to end the continuing suppression of rights defenders in China on the ninth anniversary of the Chinese communist regime’s large-scale clampdown on human rights lawyers and activists. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China chairs urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to seek accountability, including sanctions, for Chinese officials responsible for their torture and arbitrary detention. “Human rights lawyers detained during the #709Crackdown must be allowed to travel without restrictions,” the commission wrote in a July 9 post on social media platform X. In 2015, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated a nationwide campaign targeting human rights lawyers, activists, and their families. Beginning on July 9 of that year, more than 300 lawyers and activists across the nation were arrested, in what later became known as the “709 Crackdown,” or simply “709.”...