Chinese Rights Lawyer’s Wife Seeks Support in Japan; Sophie Luo Calls for Beijing to Free Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong

By Shiomi Kadoya / Japan News Staff Writer

6:00 JST, October 25, 2024

“I know my husband didn’t do anything against the law,” said Luo Shengchun, wife of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, during her recent visit to Japan. She called for support for the release of her husband and “all the prisoners of conscience” in China.

Ding, 57, is now serving a 12-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power” after being taken into custody in December 2019, along with leading legal scholar and rights advocate Xu Zhiyong, 51, who was detained in February 2020 and was sentenced to 14 years in prison on the same charge. Xu and Ding in the early 2010s led the New Citizens Movement, which promotes citizens’ rights that should be protected under the Chinese Constitution.

“Through my family’s story, I want people to know what’s really happening in China,” Luo, 56, said in an interview with The Japan News during her visit to Tokyo in September and an online follow-up interview this month from her current home in Washington.

Luo, who goes by the name Sophie Luo in English, is a trained engineer. While working for a global railway company, she moved from China to the United States in June 2013 following Ding’s first detention by the Chinese authorities for his activism. She brought with her their two daughters, then aged 11 and 16.

“I made the difficult choice of leaving China to protect our daughters and avoid being held hostage,” Luo said. Xi Jinping had just assumed power as the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012 and became China’s president in March 2013, tightening control over human rights defenders.

The family was reunited in 2017 when Ding visited the United States after completing his 3½-year-sentence. Two months later, however, Ding went back to China, saying his mission was there. “It was such a difficult time. I desperately wanted him to stay,” Luo recalled. “He was already with us. Our family could’ve started a beautiful new life together.”

Their close friends gathered at Luo’s home to convince Ding to stay, but he was determined to go back. According to Luo, Ding wanted to promote “a peaceful conversion of China into a democratic country by advocating that people practice their rights as written in the Chinese Constitution.”

Once back in China, he was placed under strict surveillance. He was stopped from traveling to the United States in the spring of 2018 to attend one of their daughters’ graduation ceremony.

On Dec. 26, 2019, he was taken away by the security authority for arranging with Xu a small private gathering of activists in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen to discuss current affairs earlier that month. Other participants were also detained. Xu went into hiding but was taken into police custody in February 2020. They were held incommunicado until their official arrests in June 2020. In April 2023, Ding was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Xu to 14 years. During the detention period, they have been subjected to various forms of torture and mistreatment including prolonged sleep deprivation, loud noise harassment, food and water restrictions and no exposure to sunlight, according to Luo.

Sunny smile

Luo and Ding first met in August 1992 when they were both studying science at a graduate school in Beijing. Luo said she instantly fell in love with Ding’s “sunny smile.” At the time, Ding was also studying law on his own because he wanted to “speak up for those who are not able to speak for themselves and to defend the rights of those who are deprived of them,” Luo recalled.

The two married about a year later. Ding passed the bar exam and worked as a successful commercial lawyer. He turned to activism after meeting Xu and spending eight months in the United States as a visiting scholar in 2012, researching the development of democracy in various countries. According to Luo, Ding was very excited to access a wealth of information on an uncensored internet. After returning to China, Ding devoted himself full-time to the New Citizens Movement with Xu, which advocates for citizens’ rights and fights corruption.

At the time, Luo kept her distance from Ding’s activism, focusing on her own work and raising their daughters. However, she gradually started to speak out for her husband and other human rights defenders detained in China after moving to the United States. Since Ding’s 2019 detention, Luo has been actively campaigning for his release, testifying at hearings of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China and delivering speeches at international human rights conferences.

In May this year, Luo left her long-term professional job at the railway company to launch a new NGO focusing on building a global network among the Chinese diaspora to advocate for citizens’ rights in China, following in her husband’s footsteps.

“My focus is on ‘citizens’ because a citizen has rights and responsibilities. Any citizen in any country should be able to vote, have a voice and have a political position,” Luo said. “In China, citizens are under tight control by the Communist Party, and people have no rights and freedom of speech at all.”

In February 2021, Xi proudly declared “complete victory” in China’s fight to eradicate extreme poverty. However, the humanitarian situation in China remains grave with many activists detained and human rights lawyers’ licenses revoked. “People are able to survive, but they have no rights. They can eat, they can work, but they have no voice,” Luo said.

Networking among Chinese diaspora

Looking back on her trip to Japan, Luo said, “The trip gave me lots of confidence to continue to find more Chinese in different countries, to unite them and to work together.”

During her weeklong visit to Tokyo and Osaka, she gave a lecture, held meetings with the Chinese diaspora, students and local residents and met with diplomats from various countries.

While Luo tries to influence Chinese overseas to eventually bring change in China, she says she advises her friends remaining in China to “just keep quiet, to be safe and to be healthy” until “the time is ready,” to avoid more people sacrificing their freedom like her husband.

Chinese authorities have not disclosed to Ding’s family the text of the court’s ruling against him. Luo can only communicate with Ding through letters screened by the Chinese authorities. Despite this difficult situation, “He is in good spirits and remains very positive,” Luo said. “But I really worry about his health.”

Ding’s absence is painfully felt by his family. But Luo too, insists on staying positive. “It’s a nightmare, but I try to see it year by year, day by day, and try to treasure each day, by studying, by socializing, by doing sports to keep myself healthy mentally and physically.” Luo said this was her way to resist bowing to Beijing’s pressure. “By being happy, strong and healthy, we are defeating them. I will not just be sad and anxious.”

“I am always dreaming that, someday, Jiaxi will open the door and come home with his bright smile,” Luo said. “I am confident that justice will prevail.”