As millions of Chinese families gather this week to celebrate the arrival of the year of the tiger, Luo Shengchun is awaiting news of the fate of her husband, Ding Jiaxi, a human rights lawyer. “It’s the third year that our family hasn’t celebrated the Chinese new year. I don’t know what celebrating new year means now,” said Luo, who now lives in self-imposed exile in New York. “It’s beyond devastating for my family. My husband has not done anything illegal. Why did they deprive us of a normal life?”
Ding was detained on 26 December 2019 and charged with subversion of state power on 20 January last year. Last February, Amnesty International
raised the alarm over reports of torture.
Before Christmas, Luo was told that her husband and another activist, Xu Zhiyong, who was arrested in 15 February 2020 after two months on the run, might finally be sentenced sometime between Christmas and the new year, a tactic often deployed by the authorities. It didn’t happen.
