Li Qiaochu (; born 13 January 1991 in Beijing) is a Chinese labor and women's rights activist and researcher on labour issues. She was detained by authorities for four months in the first half of 2020 and again in February2021, in both cases on national security charges. These were due to her connection with activists, including her partner Xu Zhiyong, who had secretly met in the southeastern city of Xiamen in December 2019 to discuss "democratic transition in China".
Education and career
After completing her undergraduate studies at Renmin University, Li obtained a master's degree in public policy from the University of York in 2015. Later she worked as a research assistant at Tsinghua University, where her work included an analysis of China's pension system and research on the rights of migrant workers.
Activism
In 2017, Li worked with other volunteers on finding free or cheap housing for thousands of migrant workers who had been evicted by authorities in Beijing during a particularly cold winter. In 2018, she compiled data on cases of sexual harassment and drafted reports in support of the Me Too movement in China. She also took part in efforts against the 996 working hour system.
On 24 January 2020, Li criticized in a Twitter message on occasion of the Lunar New Year the alleged underreporting of the number of deaths by the Chinese authorities in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling to "remember the pain [and] the lives that left us without even being tallied", and writing: "Let’s use civic engagement to pursue those responsible for trampling lives." She joined a volunteer team to distribute free masks to sanitation workers, and helped pregnant women in quarantine areas to obtain medical care. She also worked to support victims of domestic violence, which spiked in the wake of pandemic lockdowns in central China.
In early 2020, Li publicized an essay by her partner, legal activist and former university lecturer Xu Zhiyong, which called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to resign over alleged incompetence in particular with regard to his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Four-month detention and 2021 arrest
On 31December 2019, Li was held for 24hours, while being handcuffed, in Haidian District for questioning regarding Xu. Along with other human rights activists, Xu was wanted by police for his participation in a meeting in Xiamen on 13December 2019 where "democratic transition in China" was discussed. Li had not taken part in the Xiamen meeting. Nevertheless, her arrest was regarded by the non-governmental organization Human Rights in China as part of the "12.26 Citizen Case" named in reference to 26December, the date of the first arrests in relation to the meeting. Li later posted online about the interrogation, in which she alleged that her depression had been used at one of the questionings to belittle her character; she also wrote that she had been monitored by security guards since her release.
Li was detained in the early morning of 16 February 2020 in Beijing, one day after Xu was detained in Guangzhou. As of 11 March 2020, her charge and whereabouts had not been disclosed by authorities, with an officer saying that Li had been subpoenaed for "allegedly inciting subversion of state power". Li's lawyer, Song Yusheng, was denied information about his client on "national security grounds". After having been held incommunicado in RSDL, a form of secret detention, Li was released on bail on 19 June 2020. In an essay about her detention dated 11January 2021, Li accused state authorities of serious ill-treatment, including that her medication had been denied in the first five days.
