A humanitarian activist called for increased global action against human rights violations in China at a Georgetown University Lecture Fund event April 8.
Sophie Luo — an advocate who is the wife of lawyer Ding Jiaxi, a civil rights activist arrested in China in 2019 and convicted in 2023 for subversion of state power — urged the international and overseas Chinese community to pay greater attention to the deterioration of legal protections under China’s president, Xi Jinping. Ding, along with fellow lawyer Xu Zhiyong, were leaders of the New Citizens’ Movement, which advocates for a peaceful transition to a constitutional government that protects civic rights and prevents abuses of power.
Luo said Ding chose to be a lawyer to advocate for those who lack the ability to do so themselves.
“For him, it’s so natural, because he always wants to speak for the voiceless,” Luo said at the event. “When he wants to be a lawyer, his original intention is to speak for the voiceless.”
In 2019, Ding was arrested in Xiamen, China, after meeting with other human rights activists to review ongoing human rights issues, trade wars and protests. In 2023, the government sentenced Ding and Xu to 12 and 14 years in prison, respectively.
Luo said Ding’s arrest surprised her and was personally devastating.
“I was totally shocked,” Luo said.
“Our life in Beijing was just so peaceful and beautiful, and I never thought my husband will be taken away by the police,” Luo added.
Luo, a former engineer, moved to the United States in 2013 after Ding’s first arrest, which was also for his work with the New Citizens’ Movement. She has since shifted her focus away from her engineering career towards freeing her husband and advocating for the New Citizens’ Movement to the overseas Chinese community.
Luo said the differences between Ding’s trial after his 2019 arrest and the trials following the Chinese government’s 2013 arrests of human rights lawyers demonstrate the deterioration of legal protections in the country.
“This time, the court is completely closed door,” Luo said. “Court is a secret trial with only the lawyer and no witness at law. The funky thing is, none of the witnesses they put into the verdict, document they put into the indictment, none of them call to the court. It’s a secret trial and the secret verdict and in the end, the judgment documentation do not give to our family members.”
Luo said that after Ding’s arrest, she was unable to visit her husband and had to hire legal counsel.
“After my husband was taken away, I even didn’t know I’m not able to see him until he goes to the court and then I need to hire a lawyer and need to go through the legal process, which totally out of my imagination,” Luo said.
Over the last two decades, China has reportedly failed to enact rule of law in its corrections system, including by using torturous practices and mistreating prisoners, despite a commitment to judicial independence from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Thomas Kellogg, the executive director at the Georgetown University Law Center’s Center for Asian Law who moderated the event, said the Georgetown community should do more to support victims of human rights abuses.
“The first thing that all of us can do is show up, to be there for people like Sophie Luo, who is obviously suffering immensely over the fact that her husband has suffered and has been sentenced to 12 years in prison,” Kellogg told The Hoya. “And that’s just one of many ways. The flourishing of exile human rights activism across the United States and here in Washington, D.C., gives the Georgetown community so many opportunities to engage.”
Luo believes that change in China can only come from international pressure. Numerous human rights activists have fled China following the 2015 “709 crackdown” on human rights lawyers in mainland China and the passage of a 2020 national security law in Hong Kong that restricted anti-government demonstrations.
Luo said she has started an organization advocating for civic education outside of China to increase engagement with civil rights in the overseas Chinese community.
“The mission of my organization is to empower every citizen, every Chinese citizen, especially, to be a citizen with dignity and the sense of responsibility,” Luo said.
“If you try to avoid politics —- the politics will find you,” Luo added. “That’s my experience. So we have three platforms: civic education, empowerment and mutual support, and citizen connection and citizens rights protection. Try to continue what Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi did outside China.”
Kellogg said Luo offers an example of perseverance and an alternative to political disillusionment.
“I think the key in moments like this is to not see the incredible sacrifices that people like Xi Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were making and become disenchanted,” Kellogg said.
“And one reaction to that is to throw up your hands and say, ‘there’s nothing I can do,’” Kellogg added. “And I think that the example that Sophie Luo provides us is to say, ‘Look, I’m going to keep going. I’m going to find ways to be active.’”
Bella Villarin (CAS ’28), who attended the event, said she appreciated the discussion of human rights from an international perspective, given the focus on domestic issues in her classes in the College of Arts & Sciences.
“For me, being in the College, I don’t have as much access to international issues or learning about international affairs as much and so I definitely wanted to learn more about human rights in China,” Villarin told The Hoya.
“I think this was super great insight to hear from a first person perspective too, especially because, being in America, sometimes we may not get as much information or communication from people on the ground,” Villarin added. “So I just think it was really insightful.”
Luo said she will continue to spread awareness about political prisoners in China despite opposition from the Chinese government.
“They don’t want people to know them,” Luo said. “Today, I insist to show their pictures on the screen. I just want every one of you to know them, to know their name, to know their ideas.”
