Li Wenzu
来自China Digital Space
李文足
Li Wenzu is a rights activist and wife of "quintessential rights lawyer" Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), the only of the hundreds of rights lawyers and activists detained in the "709" or "Black Friday" crackdown in 2015 still believed to be detained in April of 2018. To mark the 1,000th day since her husband's disappearance, Li embarked on a 60-mile walk from Beijing to Tianjin, where Wang was believed to be detained, to seek information about her husband's situation. Along her walk, Li was stopped by authorities and returned to Beijing, where she was put under house arrest.
Beginning on Friday July 9, 2015, hundreds of rights lawyers and activists were detained and interrogated across China amid a broader long-running crackdown on civil society by the Xi Jinping administration. The roundup, which came to be known as the "709" or "Black Friday" crackdown. Wang Quanzhang, a lawyer with the Fengrui Law Firm and known for taking on sensitive torture cases, was detained in August while in hiding following the initial detentions. His lawyer Li Zhongwei (李仲伟) confirmed that he had been planed under criminal detention for suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “inciting subversion of state power”—catch-all charges commonly used in the persecution of activists in China.
Following dozens of releases, trials, and sentencings—including some for lawyers who had attempted to aid in securing the release of initial detainees—Li's husband Wang remained the only lawyer still believed to be in detention, having been incommunicado after more than 1,000 days.
