China’s Human Rights Activists Under Scrutiny

Beijing
Mass arrests: In one of the biggest crackdowns on civil society groups in decades, Chinese authorities have detained and questioned at least 238 lawyers and human rights activists over the past two weeks. At least 20 activists remain incarcerated, and the whereabouts of six of them are unclear. Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights. Watch, said those still in custody were being denied lawyers and faced torture. Under President Xi Jinping, says Chinese law expert Keith Hand at the University of California, the Communist Party has shown a new determination “to marginalize any potential threats” to its power.