‘A darkness worse than the virus’: why a Chinese former prosecutor chose to harbour a dissident
- Communist Party critic Xu Zhiyong was arrested in the farmhouse of lawyer Yang Bin after being on the run
- Yang had been a true believer in the party’s ability to reform but that all changed this year
Lawyer Yang Bin paid a heavy price for sheltering prominent Chinese civil rights activist Xu Zhiyong in her house for a week.
Since Xu was taken away by police from her home on February 15, there have been four cameras installed in the alleyway outside Yang’s home to monitor everybody who comes and goes.
The former prosecutor has also not been able to take up a job offer at a Beijing law firm. The Beijing Lawyers Association has not approved her application and her lawyer’s licence was suspended recently because she had not practised for a year.
Yang said all these hardships were linked to her daring move to shelter Xu.
Six of the participants were later arrested and Xu, 47, had been hiding in various places for two months by the time he arrived at Yang’s farmhouse in Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province.