…[A]fter 20 years, Guo [Jianmei]’s organisation – the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counselling and Service Centre – abruptly announced it was closing, sending shockwaves through the country’s already embattled third sector…Reached by telephone on Thursday, Guo, 55, declined to comment on its apparently forced demise, citing “pressure”…Human rights campaigners, NGO workers and diplomats are convinced Guo’s group is the latest victim of President Xi Jinping’s escalating clampdown on civil society.

…It was the first public interest group in China to focus solely on providing legal aid to women and it quickly drew powerful supporters…[It offered] help to survivors of sexual assault, those affected by the one-child policy, and migrant workers and female engineers who were being forced to retire earlier than their male counterparts.

Wang, from HRW, said: “She [Guo] is considered a moderate advocate of women’s rights and over the years she has been very successful in leveraging whatever resources and fame she has to turn into legal advocacy work that has helped thousands of women in China over domestic violence cases, property rights and so on…