‘709’ human rights lawyer Wang Yu taken away by Chinese police while trying to enter US embassy in Beijing
- Wang had refused to provide Chinese police with identification as she tried to enter the embassy for a Women’s History Month seminar
- She was the first lawyer to be swept up in Beijing’s nationwide clampdown on lawyers and activists in 2015
Prominent “709” Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Yu was taken away by police outside the US embassy in Beijing on Wednesday night, after she refused to identify herself to officers.
Wang was the first lawyer to be swept up in Beijing’s nationwide clampdown on lawyers and activists launched on July 9, 2015, in what critics said was an attempt to stymie China’s emerging rights defence movement.
Her detention on Wednesday was confirmed by both Wang’s husband, Bao Longjun, and her friend Tang Zhishun, a Beijing-based land rights activist who had accompanied Wang to a seminar at the embassy.
Tang said that as he and Wang went through a checkpoint outside the embassy at about 6.25pm, Wang told Chinese police she had not brought her identity card with her.
“The police then took her away and handcuffed her behind her back, dragged her to a police car and took her to a police station,” he said. “The whole thing happened within a few minutes.”