New Citizens Movement

Editor’s note: Xu Zhiyong , a key advocate of the New Citizens Movement, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on January 26 for “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.” Xu was originally detained in July 2013 after being subjected to four months of house arrest in connection...

Prior to the start of the 12th National People's Congress, the lawyers of Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, Zhao Changqing , and other activists—who have been prosecuted for their participation in the New Citizens Movement—as well as domestic intellectuals, business people, and journalists, jointly issued an...

Four participants of the New Citizens Movement— Ding Jiaxi ( 丁家喜) , Li Wei ( 李蔚 ), Zhang Baocheng ( 张宝成) , and Yuan Dong ( 袁冬) —were tried in two separate trials on Monday, January 27 at the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court. The proceedings marked the end of a series of trials of citizen...

Today the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Xu Zhiyong (许志永), a leading advocate of the New Citizens Movement, to four years’ imprisonment for “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place,” one year short of the maximum penalty for the charge. Xu was tried last...