Xu was born in Minquan County, Henan Province in 1973. He is married to Cui Zheng, a journalist. Their daughter was born on January 13, 2014, while Xu was in a detention center facing trial. He had been in hiding since late 2019 and was detained by Chinese police on February 15, 2020.
In 2003, he was elected to the Haidian District People's Congress as an independent. He won the re-election in 2006. However, in the 2011 election, Xu's name was pulled off the candidate list, but he still gathered more than 3,500 votes out of 22,000 voters in his district. Unlike other human rights activists, Xu firmly and carefully pushed his calls for political change and social justice in existing laws, and his group has been regarded as relatively cautious and conservative. In his recent interview before his arrest, he described his dream
The 2009 Gong Meng incident
In 2009, July 29, he was arrested at his home, and detained by Chinese authorities on charges of tax evasion. At the same time Xu's colleague Zhuang Lu was also arrested by authorities. The Open Constitution Initiative, which Xu co-founded, was fined 1.46 million RMB on July 14, 2009 for 'dodging taxes' and was shut down by the authorities by declaring it "illegal". Xu Zhiyong was released on bail on August 23, 2009. The Australian newspaper The Age reported that the release of Xu, Zhuang and another Chinese dissident, Ilham Tohti, was in part due to pressure on Beijing from the administration of American President Barack Obama.
After Gong Meng was shut down, Xu Zhiyong and supporters adopted the name "Citizens" to continue their cause. In May 2012, Xu formally established the "New Citizens' Movement" and "New Citizens' Spirit" as the high-level concept of their activism. In 2013, Xu Zhiyong was placed under house arrest for more than three months, before being formally arrested on August 22. His trial started on Jan 22, 2014. Xu and his lawyer Zhang Qingfang remained silent throughout the trial to protest the violation of basic legal procedure. Xu's closing statement was cut short by the judge, but the text was circulated on the internet and raised tremendous support. On January 26, 2014, Xu was sentenced to four years in prison for "gathering crowds to disrupt public order". In February 2020, through postings on social media, Xu publicly asked Chinese Communist Partygeneral secretaryXi Jinping to resign, for what he described as an obvious inability to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. He was then arrested. Xu is listed in 2013's Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy.
Prominent writings and speeches
Xu Zhiyong's closing statement in court
The Last Ten Years, China's rights movement through the work of Gong Meng.
A trip to Ngaba,.
New Citizens Movement, a "manifesto" published on May 29, 2012.
