China Rights Lawyer Detained After Posting Pro-Democracy Appeal

BEIJING — On Wednesday, he posted an appeal to change China’s constitution, suggesting, among other things, that there might be a more democratic way to elect the country’s leader. By Friday morning, he was in police custody.

Yu Wensheng, one of China’s most prominent lawyers and political activists, was detained as he left his apartment building in Beijing to walk his 13-year-old son to school, according to his wife, Xu Yan, and two associates.

Yu, who has defied previous arrests and warnings for his outspoken appeals for political change, had already appeared to be on a new collision course with authorities. This week, he learned that his license to practice law had been suspended and that he would not receive a passport to travel abroad because he was a security risk — all of which he daringly disclosed on social media.

Yu’s latest appeal came on the eve of meetings this week by Communist Party leaders in Beijing where changes to the constitution were on the agenda. The changes, discussed behind closed doors in a meeting that ended Friday, could further consolidate the power of President Xi Jinping, who after the party’s major congress in October has as much political authority as any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

In his “open letter,” Yu said the title of president — one of many that Xi holds — had “no electoral significance” in China, and he called for party members to vote among many candidates rather than merely affirming an appointment of one.

Yu’s detention showed “that under Xi Jinping there is no room for questioning the supremacy of the party,” said Michael Caster, an acquaintance of Yu’s who is a rights activist with the group Safeguard Defenders.

Tellingly, Yu posted his latest appeal in Chinese on Twitter and Facebook, both of which are banned inside China’s internet filter, the Great Firewall. His accounts in China were long ago blocked, as are many other accounts critical of the government.

His wife, Xu, said he had anticipated a harsh reaction to posting a public letter the way he did, but she emphasized that the constitution being discussed gives citizens the right to express themselves. “So this was not illegal,” she said in a telephone interview.

By Friday evening, she was unable to determine his location, despite calling local police. Neither police nor the security services announced Yu’s arrest.

Patrick Poon, a researcher for Amnesty International in Hong Kong, said he feared that Yu could be subjected to harsh treatment in custody, as he was when he was arrested in 2014 and held for 99 days.

In prison, Yu endured 17-hour interrogations and physical abuse that left him with a hernia. Held under a special status known as “residential surveillance at a designated location,” he was not allowed to see a lawyer; nor was he formally charged.

Before his arrest Yu spent most of his career as an unassuming commercial lawyer, but he took the bold step of staging a public protest after prison officials refused to let him see a client who had been charged with expressing support for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

He has since supported efforts to help other lawyers swept up in a wave of arrests in July 2015 for defending critics of the government.