Chinese legal activist’s girlfriend charged with inciting subversion of state power

Friends say Li Qiaochu is in poor health and is being charged because of her relationship with Xu Zhiyong, who is also awaiting trial

Prosecutors in Shandong province say Li posted subversive articles online on Xu’s instructions with the aim of ‘overthrowing the socialist system’

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Li Qiaochu was detained in February last year. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:30pm, 18 Mar 2022

The girlfriend of the prominent Chinese legal activist Xu Zhiyong is facing trial for “inciting the subversion of state power”, according to an indictment issued by prosecutors.

Xu, a former lawyer, is one of China’s most well known and vocal legal activists and is being held in Linyi, a city in the eastern province of Shandong, awaiting trial for “subversion of state power”.

His girlfriend Li Qiaochu has also been in detention since February last year. An indictment issued last month alleged that under Xu’s instruction, Li published a large number of Xu’s subversive articles online in September 2019 with the intention of “overthrowing the socialist system”.

It went on to say the “facts and evidence” of Li’s crimes have been verified and she should bear her criminal responsibilities.

The indictment also said that Xu’s case will be handled separately.

Xu, 49, was arrested in February 2020 in the southern city of Guangzhou, after he organised a meeting with fellow civil rights lawyers and activists in the southeastern coastal city of Xiamen about three months earlier to discuss democracy in China.

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