This documentary offers, for the first time, an authoritative overall account and analysis of the 709 Crackdown on human rights lawyers in China that began ten years ago in 2015, covering all aspects of the incident: arrests, smear campaign, torture, forced confession, trials, and more.
Eleven lawyers appear on camera: Wang Yu, Bao Longjun, Zhou Shifeng, Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang, Xie Yanyi, Jiang Tianyong, Sui Muqing, Chen Taihe, Xie Yang, Chen Jiangang; rights activist Wu Gan; and three 709 lawyers’ wives: Wang Qiaoling, Li Wenzu, and Yuan Shanshan.
The film also explains the intrinsic logic of the Chinese Communist Party’s suppression of lawyers and rights defense citizens against the backdrop of a rapidly changing China in recent decades.
Through a diverse montage of human rights lawyers, it reveals the true scope of the crackdown that’s still ongoing to this day with no relief in sight.
The 709 Crackdown is a sign of the direction the CCP has been taking China in recent decade, and it also serves as a barometer of China’s future as a country.