Concerns are growing about the health of Xu Zhiyong, China's most prominent imprisoned human rights lawyer, who is thought to have been on hunger strike for nearly a month.
Xu, a scholar and leading figure in China's embattled civil rights movement, started his hunger strike on 4 October, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO. He is protesting against what he describes as inhumane treatment in prison, including lack of contact with his family and intensive surveillance by other prisoners.
Since the death of Liu Xiaobo ... Xu is considered by many to be the most significant dissident in China. I would say that Xu Zhiyong at this point is China's most important living activist.
The movement has largely been squashed in the era of Xi Jinping, China's leader since 2012, who has cracked down on civil society.
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