Wang Bingzhang

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Wang Bingzhang ( Chinese : 王炳章; Pinyin : Wáng Bǐngzhāng, born December 30, 1947 in Shijiazhuang , Hebei , China ) is a political activist and founder of two Chinese democracy movements. Wang is considered a political prisoner of China and is (as of August 2017) imprisoned in a prison in Shaoguan in the northern province of Guangdong in China.

Wang studied and graduated from Beijing University of Medicine. After graduating from college, Wang ran a small medical clinic in Yushu City, Tibetan Yushu Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, China . A year later he went to Shijiazhuang, where he was helping the victims of an earthquake that struck near Tangshan that killed half a million people.

When China's Cultural Revolution began, Wang was briefly appointed leader of the university's Red Guard . However, when he witnessed his former college professors and principals being beaten, he was disappointed with the communist movement. In the 1980s, Wang received a scholarship from the then government of China and was sent to study abroad, where he studied medicine at McGill University in Montreal , Canada .

biography

Wang Bingzhang was born on December 30, 1947 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China. He graduated from Beijing Medical University and served as a doctor for eight years. In 1979 he was sponsored by the Chinese government to study abroad at McGill University in Canada. There Wang received his doctorate in pathology in 1982 .

In 1982 Wang founded China Spring , the first magazine to campaign for democracy in China abroad . The following year he started the "Union of the Chinese Democratic Movement," which publicly denounced the one-party system in China. He later traveled back to China and co-founded two opposition parties, the Party for Freedom of Democracy in China (1989) and the Party for Democratic Justice in China (1998). The latter led to his arrest in China. Wang was expelled from the country but not convicted because the Chinese government planned to invite the then President of the United States , Bill Clinton, to visit that same year .

Wang traveled to Thailand in early 2002 , where the Thai Royal Police were investigating him at the request of the Chinese Communist Party . Since they could not find any evidence against him and were concerned for his safety, Dr. Wang asked to leave the country. In June 2002, Wang went to Vietnam with Yue Wu and Zhang Qi , where he was kidnapped by Chinese secret agents . In December 2002, the Chinese government announced his arrest after Wang was held in secret for six months.

In February 2003, Wang was sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage and terrorism . The public was excluded during his trial and the trial lasted a day. Wang was detained in Shaoguan Prison in northern Guangdong Province, China.

In March 2006, Wang locked a guard in his cell and was punished for bad behavior. Wang was not allowed to communicate with anyone and his family was not allowed to visit him. His family members were informed that this sentence was suspended for three months. Shortly afterwards, in April 2006, his father died, to which Wang responded with a hunger strike . This led to his sentence being extended. In November 2006 he was allowed to be visited again. According to his younger brother, Dr. Bing Wu Wang, Wang's health had deteriorated since the last visit. The reason for his condition is because a new prison guard was handing out poor quality food, ordering more severe abuse, and intensive political study sessions, Wang said.

Various international organizations, including the United Nations , Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and Worldrights, have expressed their opposition to Dr. Mr. Wang was detained and said China is arbitrarily holding him. The United States and Canadian lawmakers both passed laws in support of Wang and condemned the actions of the Chinese Communist Party.

Daughter fights for release

Ti-Anna Wang, Wang Bingzhang's daughter, told Amnesty International that her family had openly discussed human rights issues and was familiar. Her father often traveled to other countries to campaign for democracy. Wang traveled to Vietnam in 2002, where he met other activists. There he was abducted by two men and taken to China. Ti-Anna said that at the time she did not understand the seriousness of the situation. She thought it was a big misunderstanding and that it was only a matter of time before justice would prevail. “I really thought that maybe it was just a mistake, that they had the wrong person and that everything would be fine. I never thought it would take more than 10 years, ”she told Amnesty International.

When Ti-Anna realized that she might never see her father again, she took matters into her own hands, she said. She contacted others whose parents were also detained in China. She mentioned to Amnesty International that she felt that if she couldn't get her father released, the alternative was to let him know that his sacrifice had not been in vain. Ti-Anna wanted to share his story with others. Despite the hurdles she faced during her activism, she refused to give up hope. She said doing something is better than doing nothing, and she doesn't want her father and the many other political prisoners in China to be forgotten.

See also

  • Chinese democracy movement
  • List of Chinese dissidents (en)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g WANG BINGZHANG: POLITICAL DISSIDENT STILL IMPRISONED BY CHINA , Inside these Walls, CBC, Firsthand, August 6, 2017, accessed August 15, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Yaxue Cao, In the Prison of China - The Journey of Dr. Wang Bingzhang (Parts 1-3) , China Change, October 4, 2013, accessed August 15, 2017
  3. ↑ a b China: Further information on Possible disappearanc / Incommunicado detention / Fear for Safety ( Memento of September 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Press Release from Amnesty International, February 12, 2003, accessed on August 15, 2017
  4. ↑ CHINA: MEDICAL ACTION: Ill-health of Dr Wang Bingzhang, imprisoned medical doctor and activist ( Memento June 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Amnesty International Press Release, July 19, 2004, accessed on August 15, 2017
  5. ↑ UN Declares Wang Bingzhang To Be Arbitrarily Detained , Free China Movement, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, April 11, 2003, accessed August 15, 2017
  6. ↑ Full text of US House of Representatives Resolution 326 ( Memento of September 22, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Worldrights, November 18, 2003, accessed on August 15, 2017
  7. ^ Full text of Canadian Parliamentary Resolution, FAIT Report, House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada, accessed August 15, 2017
  8. ↑ a b c A child of Tiananmen - young activist campaigns for her father's release from jail , Amnesty International, May 20, 2014, accessed August 15, 2017
  9. ↑ Challenging China: A Father's Dream and a Daughter's Destiny: Ti-Anna Wang at TEDxToronto , YouTube, October 16, 2013, accessed on August 15, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Wang, Bingzhang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese activist for democracy
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Shijiazhuang , Hebei , China