Beijing
China is putting two prominent civil rights activists, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, through closed-door trials this week for state subversion, sources reported.
With the security situation and secrecy in mind, no one was allowed to attend Xu’s trial held in Shandong province on Wednesday. So far, no information relating to the court proceeding has been made public.
Xu, 49 is one of China’s most prominent activists and human rights advocates. He was a co-founder of the now-banned legal aid center Open Constitution Initiative and the New Citizens Movement, a nongovernmental group advocating for civil rights, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
From 2014 to 2018, Xu served four years in prison for  gathering a crowd to disrupt public order  after a series of small-scale protests by members of the nongovernmental New Citizens Movement, an initiative he cofounded in 2012 to develop civil society in China within the confines of the one-party political system.
Besides Xu, Ding’s case is scheduled to be heard in the same court on Friday.
Ding Jiaxi, 54, is a lawyer and a prominent figure within the New Citizens Movement which campaigned for greater transparency among Chinese Communist Party officials.
Earlier this month, a municipal court in Shandong issued a notice to the defence lawyer of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi, inviting the lawyer to a pre-trial meeting. The notice indicated that the case of Ding Jiaxi, who is charged with subversion of State power, involves a large amount of evidentiary materials and is major and complicated.
