'Freed' human rights lawyer in China, Wang Yu, still under government control

Chinese activist Wang Yu's freedom still remains suspect even after her release on bail Monday when a video that captured her confessing to her alleged crimes circulated online.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong and Chinese media released versions of the video where Wang answered questions from an off-camera interviewer. Wang said in the video interview that she's been released on bail for several days. She expressed remorse for what she's done against the State as a human rights lawyer and then attacked her boss and director of Fengrui law firm, Zhou Shifeng, for using human rights cases for profit.

Authorities arrested Wang on July 9 last year as the government launched its nationwide crackdown against human rights defenders and activists. They detained her in an undisclosed location for six months before they transferred her to the No. 1 Detention Center in Tianjin, according to China Aid. Authorities also detained her husband for "inciting subversion of state power," charges slapped on political dissidents, and kept under government surveillance her parents and 16-year-old son.

Families of other detained lawyers and activists, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, dismissed Wang's video interview as something that was done under coercion.

"The only message the video interview sends out is that when you are in detention in China, you could be put in front of the camera to confess any time the authorities want," said Patrick Poon, China researcher for the human rights organization Amnesty International. "It seems that the Chinese government wants to discredit all the human rights lawyers and scare other lawyers away from taking human rights cases."

Zhao Wei, the youngest human rights activist detained, also reportedly "confessed" to her crimes and was released on bail on the eve of the first year anniversary of the political crackdown. However, Zhao's husband said she's still missing after failing to find her.

"Many people think: 'China is rich, China is developing quickly, China has tall buildings, wide highways, fancy cars,'" The Guardian quoted Wang as saying three years ago. "They don't know that Chinese people are like animals that don't have any basic rights."