JULY 31, 2015 7:00 AM July 31, 2015 7:00 am
On the night of July 11, the police in Guangzhou came for the human rights lawyer Ge Wenxiu. They threatened to break down his door. Publish Date July 31, 2015.
Three weeks after the Chinese authorities began a sweep of human rights lawyers around the country, photographs and video have emerged of some of the raids that have so far netted more than 200 people, according to human rights groups.
They show arguments between the lawyers and security personnel, often at the entrances of the lawyers’ homes in the dead of night, as well as broken masonry and ironwork after forceful entry by police officers who, the lawyers said, often did not have detention or search warrants.
Here’s what it was like for Ge Wenxiu, 54, a lawyer, and He Yanyun, 26, a legal assistant, who were taken away by State Security and police officers from their homes in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Both men were questioned and released, although Amnesty International estimates that 26 of the 230 taken in remain in detention, in what may be the Chinese state’s largest crackdown on rights lawyers in decades.
In an interview, Mr. Ge said about that 15 or 16 State Security and police officers first banged on his front door at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11.
“I ignored them,” he said. “Then they came back at 11:30 and banged again and shouted.
“I couldn’t not open the door. They said if I didn’t open they’d use an electric saw to cut it open.”
After that, he said, things went fairly well: “They didn’t hit me after I opened up. I have to say their attitude was pretty civilized.”
Mr. Ge said the police presented a summons. He was taken to a police station and released at 4 a.m., after four hours of questioning about his activities. The lawyer had been involved in early legal representation of a prominent civil rights campaigner, “Super Vulgar Butcher,” Wu Gan, who was arrested in May.
Elsewhere in Guangzhou, as the raids continued around the country, at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, State Security and police officers knocked on the door of He Yanyun’s apartment.
Here is a photograph of the officers demanding entry, taken by Mr. He:
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