“We’re not allowed to speak out.”

But they are. The wives of three detained Chinese human rights lawyers have released a defiant video demanding the release of their husbands and calling on the U.S. and other countries to pressure Beijing.

“After the authorities locked up our loved ones illegally, they told us to follow their rules,” says Wang Qialing, the wife of Li Heping, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who was arrested — along with hundreds of other activists and lawyers — in July 2015.

Those rules included not hiring their own lawyers, not communicating with the relatives of other detainees, not talking to the media, and not speaking out online.

“Facing these illegal and groundless requirements from the government, we as family members didn’t give in,” Wang says. [Source]