Her problems with her government began when she was not allowed to board a train although she had a valid ticket. She got into a fight with railroad employees and was sent to prison for assault.

In her two years of imprisonment she was appalled at the treatment of the prisoners and made the decision to become a human rights defender when she got out. Wang Yu has since represented activists, academics, farmers, and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group. She’s fought for women’s rights, children’s rights, and the rights of people to attend religious services. She’s taken cases on freedom of expression, and assembly.

Through it all, she’s been harassed, threatened, searched, and physically assaulted by police. One evening in 2015, the electricity in Wang Yu’s home was cut off. Ten men broke down her door, pushed her to the floor, handcuffed her, put a bag over her head, and took her away, under arrest. Hundreds of other attorneys and activists were also taken that night.

Wang Yu’s husband, once arrested, is now “free.” Her son was also imprisoned, then escaped to the United States where he was put in detention, his passport confiscated, and, depending on the court’s judgment, may be deported back to China.

For months, no one knew where Wang Yu was. Over a year after her arrest, she made a televised “confession” and was released on bail. It was common knowledge that she was forced to make the confession after being subject to shackled interrogations, isolation, and sleep deprivation.

Despite it all, Wang Yu continues to speak out and to provide legal advice as a “citizen advocate.”

“The law,” she says, “is only made for showing the outside world that the Chinese legal system is great. If you try to use the law for real, it harms [the authorities’] interests. But I want to be a person of the law.”

“Many people think ‘China is rich, China is developing quickly, China has tall buildings, wide highways, fancy cars.’ They don’t know that Chinese people are like animals that don’t have any basic rights.” Wang Yu and her husband miss their son. “Sometimes my heart hurts,” she says. “He is my only child.”