A/HRC/48/28 Hu-Wun Chan was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison related to his involvement in protests in 2019 in Hong Kong. 25. It was reported in the media on 26 March 2021 that Mr. Shen Youlian, a human rights defender in Guizhou province in China, had been administratively detained for ten days. On 28 February 2021, Mr. Shen Youlian posted an open letter online that he had written to the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In the letter, Shen Youlian referred to his efforts to popularize the contents of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Guizhou. He stated that from 2005 onwards, he and other defenders in Guizhou had planned events for Human Rights Day, but that Chinese authorities had consistently suppressed their activism. The letter also described his experiences being detained by authorities in 2011, 2016, and 2019 for the planning of Human Rights Days events. He urged the High Commissioner to ask the Government to release his fellow activist, Mr. Chen Xi, who has been serving a 10-year imprisonment sentence since November 2011. 26. It was reported to OHCHR that Ms. Li Qiaochu, a human rights defender against gender-based violence and for labour rights, was detained on 6 February 2021 allegedly as a reprisal for meeting online with two experts from the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in September 2020. Ms. Li Qiaochu worked to publicize details of alleged torture inflicted on her partner, the detained rights activist Mr. Xu Zhiyong, and his colleague, lawyer Mr. Ding Jiaxi (see also CHN 4/202121). On 24 September 2020, Ms. Luo Shengchun, the wife of Mr. Ding Jiaxi, tweeted that she, Ms. Li Qiaochu, and a family member of one of the three detained staffers at the NGO Changsha Funeng in Changsha, Hunan province, had met with the two UN experts. Ms. Li Qiaochu is reportedly being held at a psychiatric hospital in Linyi, Shandong province, following detention at Linyi Municipal Detention Center, and is suffering from unaddressed health conditions and has no access to a lawyer. The residential complex where her parents live is reportedly under surveillance by plainclothes officers. 27. On 20 August 2021, the Government responded to the note verbale sent in connection to the present report, stating that “the information presented has arbitrarily used unconfirmed information, distorted China’s efforts in combating illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law, and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty”. The Government stated that law enforcement authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have taken actions solely against criminal acts and their actions have nothing to do with the background or the political position of the individuals involved in a case. 28. The Government rejected the “biased and groundless accusations made in the report against the Hong Kong National Security Law” and stated the law does “not affect the lawful exercise of rights and freedoms by Hong Kong residents, including criticizing the administration of the Government or the policies and decisions of officials, or freedom of information, academic freedom, policy research, general business activities and general engagement and cooperation with international organizations (including the United Nations).” The Government stated that the law “prohibits activities in which foreign countries or external elements use Hong Kong for purposes of secession, subversion, infiltration and sabotage” and that “has clearly defined the specific components of the crime of colluding with a foreign county or with external elements to endanger national security, and lawabiding people would not accidentally break the law.” 29. Regarding the Civil Human Rights Front, the Government stated the organization had allegedly violated the registration requirement under section 5 of the Societies Ordinance, which provides that unless otherwise specified, a local society shall apply to the Societies Officer (i.e., the Hong Kong Police) for registration or exemption from registration within 1 month of its establishment. Therefore, the Societies Officer had, as authorized under section 15 of the Ordinance, requested the organization to provide information, which it did not provide as requested. Its convenor, Mr. Figo Hu-Wun Chan, was sentenced (under section 17A (3) of the Public Order Ordinance (Cap. 245 of the Laws of Hong Kong) to imprisonment for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to “inciting others to knowingly take part in an 21 26 https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=36396.