Safeguard Defenders is a private foundation based in Madrid, Spain that campaigns internationally against censorship and state-sponsored kidnappings in China. It also provides legal training and assistance to Chinese nationals facing persecution by the Communist Chinese government. ¹

Safeguard Defenders took over the work of China Action, which also opposed censorship and imprisonment of public dissenters in China. In 2016, China Action dissolved after staff members were arrested or disappeared and kept the names of most of its staff anonymous as a result. ²

Background

Based in Madrid, Spain, Safeguard Defenders is a private foundation registered in the European Union. It was founded in 2016 as a successor of China Action after Chinese authorities detained some of its staff members while other members of its staff went missing at the same time. ³

China Action was founded in 2009 in Beijing by Peter Dahlin from Sweden and Michael Caster from the U.S. alongside Chinese human rights activists. It was a network of pro-bono legal aid centers across China that assisted Chinese people facing abuse by law enforcement and the government. Safeguard Defenders’ website states that towards the end of China Action’s existence, it faced harassment from China’s Ministry of State Security and had its operations shut down multiple times. ⁴

Safeguard Defenders states that it took over China Action’s mission after China Action dissolved in 2016 and that it is more prepared to operate more securely and effectively by working through remote sites in various countries. ⁵

Criticisms of the Chinese Government

In December 2017, Safeguard Defenders published a blog post clarifying statements made in its book The People’s Republic of the Disappeared about China’s use of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), describing it as “another piece in China’s totalitarian apparatus of terror and control.” The article argues that China’s RSDL activities, which were legalized in 2013, demonstrate how the Chinese government has normalized the disappearance of public dissenters and advocates for the international community to intervene due to the severity of it as a human rights violation. ⁶

Safeguard Defenders published a blog post in January 2018 stating that Chinese President Xi Jinping is an authoritarian who has been committing the greatest human rights violations against the Chinese people since 1989. It states the Chinese Communist Party “weaponize[s] the law” through legislation such as Article 73, which it claims permits the government to detain people through RSDL activities without regard for their safety. ⁷

Uighur Muslim Re-Education Camps

In a June 2018 blog post, Adrian Zenz, a representative of Safeguard Defenders, discussed how hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims from the northwestern Xinjiang region have been disappeared and sent to re-education camps with “no due process.” ⁸ Zenz also commented how the use of re-education camps is, “a classic ingredient of Communism. Communism is all about ideological change and especially away from religion…It’s a classic and has basically been used by all Communist regimes.” ⁹ The op-dd continues with Zenz stating, “I think the particular combination of communism and Chinese culture is particularly potent in thinking that this can actually be done and that there’s determination.” ¹⁰

Criticism of Chinese COVID-19 Response

In April 2020, a blog post written by Safeguard Defenders commented on an open letter written by, “a group of one hundred Chinese establishment scholars,” ¹¹ criticizing the country’s response to COVID-19 whilst sharing the opinion of independent professor Xu Zhangrun on the “ridiculous ‘Red Culture’ and the nauseating adulation that the system heaps on itself via shameless pro-Party hacks who chirrup hosannahs at every turn.” ¹² The Op-ed also noted several Chinese professors, journalists, and entrepreneurs that had been placed on house arrest or went missing around 2020 after investigating or attempting to report on the Covid-19 Pandemic within the country or publicly criticizing said response. ¹³ The piece continued by the author stating, “by politicizing all aspects of life including people’s health, continued autocratic one-party rule in the People’s Republic of China has endangered everyone.” ¹⁴

1. “What We Do.” Safeguard Defenders, December 29, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/what-we-do.
2. “About Us.” Safeguard Defenders, January 22, 2023. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/about-us.
3. “About Us.” Safeguard Defenders, January 22, 2023. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/about-us.
4. “About Us.” Safeguard Defenders, January 22, 2023. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/about-us.
5. “About Us.” Safeguard Defenders, January 22, 2023. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/about-us.
6. “Shining a Light onto the Abuses of the Chinese State.” Safeguard Defenders, December 3, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/shining-light-abuses-chinese-state.
7. “Why Is RSDL the Most Feared Type of Detention in China?” Safeguard Defenders, February 10, 2021. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/why-rsdl-most-feared-type-detention-china
8. Zenz, Adrian. “Adrian Zenz speaks about mass disappearances in Xinjiang.” Safeguard Defenders, June 25, 2018. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/adrian-zenz-speaks-about-mass-disappearances-xinjiang
9. Zenz, Adrian. “Adrian Zenz speaks about mass disappearances in Xinjiang.” Safeguard Defenders, June 25, 2018. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/adrian-zenz-speaks-about-mass-disappearances-xinjiang
10. Zenz, Adrian. “Adrian Zenz speaks about mass disappearances in Xinjiang.” Safeguard Defenders, June 25, 2018. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/adrian-zenz-speaks-about-mass-disappearances-xinjiang
11. “The Communist Party’s rule by fear endangers Chinese citizens—and the world.” Safeguard Defenders, April 16, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/communist-party-s-rule-fear-endangers-chinese-citizens-and-world
12. “The Communist Party’s rule by fear endangers Chinese citizens—and the world.” Safeguard Defenders, April 16, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/communist-party-s-rule-fear-endangers-chinese-citizens-and-world
13. “The Communist Party’s rule by fear endangers Chinese citizens—and the world.” Safeguard Defenders, April 16, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/communist-party-s-rule-fear-endangers-chinese-citizens-and-world
14. “The Communist Party’s rule by fear endangers Chinese citizens—and the world.” Safeguard Defenders, April 16, 2020. https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/communist-party-s-rule-fear-endangers-chinese-citizens-and-world