Back حركة ويكوان Arabic Moviment Weiquan Catalan Weiquan-Bewegung German Mouvement Weiquan French Gerakan Weiquan ID Movimento Weiquan Italian ਵੀਕੂਏਨ ਲਹਿਰ Punjabi ویکوئین تحریک PNB 中國維權運動 Chinese
| Weiquan movement | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 维权运动 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 維權運動 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | protect rights movement | ||||||
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| Rights |
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| Theoretical distinctions |
| Human rights |
| Rights by beneficiary |
| Other groups of rights |
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The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, has organized demonstrations, sought reform via the legal system and media, defended victims of human rights abuses, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, and defending the rights of other lawyers facing disbarment or imprisonment.[1][2]
Individuals involved in the Weiquan movement have met with occasionally harsh reprisals from Chinese government officials, including disbarment, detention, harassment, and, in extreme instances, torture.[2] Authorities have also responded to the movement with the launch of an education campaign on the "socialist concept of rule of law," which reasserts the role of the CCP and the primacy of political considerations in the legal profession, and with the Three Supremes, which entrenches the supremacy of the CCP in the judicial process.
According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Xi Jinping has "started a broad and sustained offensive on human rights" since he became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012.[3] Since taking power, Xi has cracked down on grassroots activism, with hundreds being detained.[4] He presided over the 709 crackdown on 9 July 2015, which saw more than 200 lawyers, legal assistants and human rights activists being detained.[5][6] The HRW also said that repression in China is "at its worst level since the Tiananmen Square massacre."[7]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ssrnwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
HRW Thin Icewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "China: Events of 2017". World Report 2018: Rights Trends in China. Human Rights Watch. 9 January 2018. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
- ^ "China widens crackdown against grassroot activists". Financial Times. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ^ Sudworth, John (22 May 2017). "Wang Quanzhang: The lawyer who simply vanished". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ^ "Chinese dream turns sour for activists under Xi Jinping". Bangkok Post. 10 July 2014. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
- ^ Withnall, Adam (17 January 2019). "Repression in China at worst level since Tiananmen Square, HRW warns". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.