Detained Christian human rights defender Li Heping should be released, academic friend says

An academic friend of detained Christian human rights lawyer Li Heping calls for his release as China marks one year since its nationwide political crackdown against rights defenders.

"It is time Li Heping and his fellow rights lawyers were released," wrote Terence Halliday, a research professor for American Bar Foundation and co-author with Sida Liu of an upcoming book "Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work," in an article released by China Aid on Friday, July 8.

In addition, Halliday calls for the communist state to turn its back on "violence and fear, torture and disappearances" of which his Chinese friend Li is a victim. Li disappeared July 10, 2015 when the government launched its "709" clampdown against rights defenders and arrested at least 200 human rights lawyers and activists. Halliday counted 365 days since family members, lawyers, or diplomats last saw Li.

More than abandoning its current route, Halliday urges China to take on Li's opposite path that's characterized by "justice and equality, peace and forgiveness, constitutionalism and the rule of law."

"Li Heping loves China and its people," recalled Halliday. "His vision of China would replace violence by love, arbitrary power by rule of law, brutal repression with forgiveness, authoritarian law with just law, unequal treatment with equality before the law."

However, this may be asking for too much especially when a Chinese security agent once referred to Li as someone Beijing considered as more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden, as revealed by a previous article the academic wrote for The Guardian.

Halliday saw Li's Christian faith as playing a crucial role in his passionate fight for equality and justice. Considered as among the country's pillar of civil rights, Li rose to prominence from being a farmer's son to a human rights lawyer who championed the weak and disenfranchised.

"God commands us to understand justice in this world," he quoted Li as telling him.

Li also said, "All sinners are created by God and in the image of God all sinners have dignities and rights that should be protected."