A decade after China’s largest crackdown on human rights lawyers—the 2015 “709 incident”—legal professionals and activists report that government control over the legal system has intensified under Xi Jinping. While once there was space for lawyers to defend civil rights within China’s own legal framework, today those involved in sensitive cases face harassment, surveillance, and disbarment. The suppression has shifted from public arrests to more systematic and less visible methods, with state-sanctioned legal aid now tightly aligned with Communist Party ideology. Many disbarred lawyers, like Ren Quanniu and Jiang Tianyong, continue to offer informal help despite facing personal and professional repercussions, symbolizing both the deepening repression and the enduring resilience of China’s rights defense movement.