Two detained in China's crackdown on human rights lawyers placed under 'residential surveillance'

Two people who were detained by police during the sweeping crackdown on human rights lawyers and advocates over the weekend have been placed under residential surveillance – a form of police detention that can last up to six months.

The Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said as of Monday afternoon, 114 people had been detained, summoned, questioned or were missing, but 92 had been released.

Ge Ping, or Gou Hongguo, a Christian businessman, was on Saturday placed under residential surveillance at an unknown location, accused of “seeking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a police document circulated online showed.

Lawyer Xie Yang, who was taken away on Saturday, was on Monday placed under residential surveillance on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, Amnesty International says.

People’s Daily on Sunday said the crackdown on lawyers was coordinated by the Ministry of Public Security. It condemned rights lawyers for drawing a public outcry over the fatal shooting of a man called Xu Chunhe by a policeman in Qingan, Heilongjiang, in May. Xie represented Xu’s mother and was at the time attacked by a gang of unidentified men.