US, Germany and France urge China to free a human rights lawyer and his wife accused of subversion

BEIJING — The United States, Germany and France have called for the release of a Chinese human rights lawyer and his wife who were sentenced to prison this week for alleged subversion.

On Tuesday, a court in Suzhou sentenced lawyer Yu Wensheng to three years' detention and his wife, Xu Yan, to one year and nine months after finding them guilty of inciting subversion of state power.

“These sentences demonstrate (China's) continuing efforts to silence those who speak out for human rights and the rule of law,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement Friday. He said Yu and Xu should be immediately and unconditionally released.

The European Union and the German and French foreign ministries also issued statements calling for their release.

Yu had been vocal in defending the rights of other human rights lawyers during a crackdown in 2015, when Chinese authorities started arresting well-known rights defenders.

He wrote an open letter addressed to the top national offices, urging them to investigate the Public Security Ministry and saying that police were “creating an atmosphere of terror in the country, flagrantly violating the criminal law, and conducting acts against humanity.”

Yu was arrested and served a four-year sentence on charges of subverting state power, and Xu openly advocated on his behalf. He was released in 2022.

In April last year, Yu and Xu were taken by police while they were on their way to the European Union delegation in Beijing.

They were later taken to Suzhou, where their sentences were handed down by the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court. It is unclear why they were moved from Beijing to Suzhou. Calls to the court were not answered.

Yu and Xu's son, who turned 18 just before their detention, has faced "a serious deterioration of his mental health" since his parents' arrest and currently suffers from depression, Amnesty International said.