<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/ice-arrests-human-rights-lawyer-wu-shaoping-fled-chinese-crackdown>
"A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he
would face persecution.
Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights
lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in
2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision.
In the US, he found work as an Amazon courier while remaining active in China’s
embattled human rights community.
On Wednesday, Wu was stopped by ICE officers the Mount Holly Springs borough in
Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, while delivering parcels.
According to an account relayed through Shi Minglei, a friend who spoke to him
in detention on Thursday, ICE officers asked Wu to provide proof of his
citizenship. Wu presented proof of his pending asylum application and explained
that he had entered the country legally.
However, ICE agents arrested him and took him to a detention facility in
Pennsylvania. The facility and the Department of Homeland Security did not
respond to an immediate request for comment outside of US working hours.
Human rights groups have also raised concerns about Bai Zhaodong, a Chinese
investigative journalist detained in Thailand. The Chinese foreign ministry
confirmed to
Reuters this week that China had submitted an extradition
request for Bai, saying he is suspected of extortion and bribery by a
non-public servant.
Wu started his career as a commercial lawyer but later became involved in human
rights circles as a loose collective of scholars, lawyers and activists
interested in political and legal reform emerged in the 2010s.
He took on sensitive cases involving religious minorities and political
dissidents, the type of work that has resulted in many lawyers disbarred or
harassed.
“He hoped that Chinese people could enjoy freedom and democracy, and did not
like the way that China’s authoritarian system oppressed the common people,”
said Wu’s wife, Li Caoliu, who lives in the US with him.
In December 2019, Wu attended a meeting of human rights defenders in the
southern city of Xiamen. Several attendees were later arrested in a sweeping
crackdown, including Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, China’s most prominent human
rights lawyers. They remain in prison on convictions of subversion of state
power.
Wu fled China soon after that meeting."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
