Xia Lin
Xia Lin is a human rights lawyer who has represented artist Ai Weiwei and fellow HRDs Pu Zhiqiang, Guo Yushan and Tan Zuoren, who was jailed after documenting the poor construction of buildings which contributed to the death toll in China's 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province.
Human rights defenders in China work in an extremely hostile environment and under President Xi Jinping they have seen the space in which to operate further restricted. Chinese HRDs are active in many spheres, and they include lawyers, journalists, academics, transparency campaigners, housing and land rights activists, bloggers, writers, HIV/AIDS activists and those promoting the rights of ethnic minorities. Regardless of the issues they work on, HRDs who highlight abuses, challenge the authorities or network to support detained colleagues all face reprisals from the government. These range from almost daily harassment and intimidation of family members to detentions, disappearances, torture and imprisonment.
