Second Hong Kong film on mainland China’s ‘709’ human rights crackdown shows lives of families seeking asylum in US
Documentary produced by two local journalists marks third anniversary of July 9 round-up in 2015 that involved more than 300 people
On a late summer night in 2017, a Chinese asylum seeker sat alone on the stairs of her home in California, battling insomnia and depression, thinking to herself that perhaps her troubles would end if she died in a car crash.
Jin’s plight and thoughts, along with other untold stories of how several “709 wives” escaped China with their young children to seek asylum in the US, are documented in a film produced by two independent Hong Kong journalists to mark the third anniversary of the crackdown in July 9, 2015.
More than 300 human rights lawyers, activists and their family members have been arrested, detained, prosecuted or imprisoned over the past three years.
Jiang was convicted and jailed for two years for “inciting subversion of state power” in 2017 – nine months after he was secretly arrested.