Wang Quanzhang

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Wang Quanzhang ( Chinese  王全璋 , Pinyin Wáng Quánzhāng , born February 15, 1976 in Wulian , People's Republic of China ) is a Chinese lawyer, dissident and human rights activist. On July 10, 2015, he was arrested by the Chinese authorities. After three and a half years in prison - leaving his family in complete uncertainty for several years about his fate - he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on January 28, 2019 after a closed circuit for "subversion". He was released from custody in April 2020.

biography

Legal training and first activities as a civil rights attorney

Wang Quanzhang studied law at Shandong University from 1996 , where he graduated in 2000. Before he graduated from college, he began providing legal assistance to persecuted Falun Gong members , which is why he was warned by government agencies. Near the city of Jinan in Shandong Province , he initially worked as a law teacher at a general education institution and held courses on farmers' land rights. He contacted human rights activists in Beijing and provided legal advice to various opposition groups in Shandong Province. In 2003 he passed his final legal examination and worked as a lawyer from 2007. He was then forced to stop his legal work in Shandong due to pressure from government agencies. During this time he also advised a foreign television station on its research into human rights litigation in China.

Under the author's name Gao Feng ( 高峰 ) he published a total of ten articles on the Internet in which he was critical of the policies of the Chinese government. In 2008, the first house search followed with the confiscation of various documents by the state security organs. He then left Shandong Province and moved to Beijing to work at the World and China Institute , a non-governmental institute that deals with issues of regional conflict research, China's relationship with the rest of the world, economic issues, etc. During this time he also attended an event on writers and the Internet, and helped draft an observer report on the role of lawyers in civil rights movements in China.

In April 2013, by order of the Jingjiang City Court, Jiangsu Province , Wang was arrested for ten days after defending a Falun Gong practitioner. The incident resulted in more than 100 lawyers in China signing a petition demanding Wang's release. He also caused a worldwide media coverage. Wang was released three days later.

On March 28, 2014, Wang went to the city of Jiamusi (province of Heilongjiang ), to support lawyer colleagues in the so-called Jiansanjiang incident were involved. In the incident, four Chinese lawyers said they were arrested and ill-treated by police officers. In Jiamusi, Wang himself was subjected to physical violence by the police and was forced to sign a statement declaring that he would not use any further influence.

Arrest and disappearance

In July 2015, a large-scale nationwide wave of arrests began in the People's Republic of China (the so-called "709-Aktion", 709 大 抓捕  - "709 arrests" or 709 crackdown , after the start on July 9th), which was directed against opposition members. Among the approximately 300 people arrested were numerous lawyers. On July 10th, 2015, Wang was also arrested. The Tianjin City Public Security Bureau announced shortly after that he had been arrested and charged with "undermining state authority." His wife Li Wenzu ( 李文 足 ) and his then one-year-old son were not allowed any contact, including criminal defense lawyers.

Those arrested as part of the 709 campaign were gradually released. However, charges were brought against about two dozen people. The charge in all cases was similarly “subversion of state power”. Some of the defendants received long prison terms , including Zhou Shifeng ( 周世鋒 ) who founded the Fengrui ( 鋒銳 ) law firm (7 years in prison). Others, like human rights attorney Li Heping , have been sentenced to suspended sentences. Some of those arrested and released were subsequently shown on Chinese state television, where they admitted their "guilt". Foreign observers, however, strongly doubted that these "confessions" were made entirely voluntarily. Individuals, such as lawyer Wang Yu ( 王宇 ), later stated that they were forced to make these statements. After a while, all those arrested as part of the "709 campaign" showed up again, only there was no trace of Wang Quanzhang. His exact whereabouts were also not disclosed by the authorities. After receiving no information or signs of life from her husband for over a year and a half, his wife said in an interview with the BBC in May 2017 that she was very concerned for her husband's health after hearing from other inmates and later released that she was that they were mistreated and forced to take medication. Such treatment is brutal and inhumane. The reason that her husband has not yet been released may be because he was absolutely uncompromising in his beliefs. She is very concerned that her husband may now be paralyzed by torture or even dead.

Wang's wife Li Wenzu decided in April 2018 to go on a high-profile, 12-day, 100-kilometer walk from Beijing to Tianjin, where Wang was allegedly detained, to draw attention to her husband's fate. In a second interview with the BBC on July 10, 2018, after three years with no news of her husband, Li Wenzu openly described the Chinese government as vile.

The fate of Wang aroused increasing global concern, and numerous groups called on the Chinese government to clarify his fate.

Prosecution, conviction and detention

Wang Quanzhang reappeared in Tianjin Prison in December 2018 and a trial against him was opened on December 26, 2018. Western observers suspected that the Chinese authorities had deliberately set the start of the trial in the Christmas holidays, as they expected less attention from the western world. According to the previously known charges, Wang was accused of "undermining state power" and contacts with the Swedish activist Peter Dahlin with the aim of "training enemy forces".

On December 18, 2018, Wang's wife, Li Wenzu, and several other women whose husbands had been harassed by the state organs had their hair shaved in public in Beijing in protest.

On December 25, 2018, Wang's wife was prevented from leaving her home in Beijing by numerous plainclothes men - allegedly members of the security forces - to watch the trial.

On January 28, 2019, the verdict in Wang's trial was announced. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by the Tianjin People's Court for "subversion" and "undermining state authority". The trial was completely closed to the public, family members were unable to attend, and Wang did not have access to a lawyer of his choice. According to Western observers, the process made it clear again that there is no judiciary and rule of law in China that is independent of the Communist Party. As a citizen of China, one cannot rely on the rights guaranteed by law because the state police authorities do not adhere to them.

On June 28, 2019, Li Wenzu was able to visit her husband for the first time since he was arrested in Linyi Prison . She then described him as strikingly apathetic; he was barely able to have a conversation and repeatedly uttered incoherent sentences. She also noticed Wang's unnaturally dark skin and broken front teeth. Li wrote: "After four years he looked like a well-programmed, callous wooden figure."

In early April 2020, Wang was released from prison after his regular term of four and a half years. According to his wife, he was unable to return to his family in Beijing but has been quarantined as a precautionary measure because of the rampant COVID 19 pandemic in Jinan .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Wang Quanzhang (王全璋). China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  2. Wang Dan: 一位 中国 维权 律师 ("A Chinese human rights lawyer"). Radio Free Asia, June 8, 2017, accessed December 26, 2018 (Chinese).
  3. Four Chinese rights lawyers allege torture by police. The Guardian (Associated Press), April 15, 2014, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  4. ^ Zhou Shifeng: Chinese law firm founder jailed for subversion. BBC News, August 4, 2016, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  5. China human rights lawyer Li Heping given suspended jail term. BBC News, April 28, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  6. China human rights lawyer Xie Yang 'admits being brainwashed'. BBC News, May 8, 2017, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  7. Joyce Huang: China Lawyer Crackdown Enters 4th Year. Voice of America, July 9, 2018, accessed December 27, 2018 .
  8. John Sudworth: Wang Quanzhang: The lawyer who simply vanished. BBC News, May 22, 2017, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  9. China human rights: Wife marches for 'vanished' husband. BBC News, April 4, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  10. Wife of missing Chinese lawyer: 'I don't know if he is alive'. BBC News, March 4, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  11. ^ Ann Maxon: Taipei bike ride in support of men detained by China. Taipei Times, April 9, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  12. Ann Maxon: Beijing urged to release rights lawyers. Taipei Times, July 10, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  13. Michael Caster, Peter Dahlin: China should be proud of Wang Quanzhang - instead it persecutes him. The Guardian, September 23, 2016, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  14. Yang Jianli: We don't even know if this heroic Chinese lawyer is alive or dead. The Washinton Post, February 26, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  15. Wang Quanzhang: China human rights lawyer trial begins. BBC News, December 26, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  16. Women shave their heads to protest lawyer's detention in China. BBC News, December 18, 2018, accessed December 28, 2018 .
  17. The action alluded to a Chinese proverb or a saying that Mao Zedong had made during the Cultural Revolution: 和尚 打伞 —— 无法无天 , Héshàng dǎ sǎn - wúfǎwútiān , which literally means “Like a monk with an umbrella - no respect for law and order ”and thereby makes use of linguistic ambiguities and allusions: in Mandarin  /  ,  -“ hair  ”is pronounced the same as , -“ law ”. A (Buddhist) monk is a man without hair and can therefore also be read as a “lawless man”. The screen is directed towards the sky, and the phrase “no heaven” ( 無 天 , wú tiān ) is reminiscent of the term 無 天理 , wú tiānlǐ “no heavenly justice”. In the case of Mao, the saying was interpreted in such a way that he saw himself neither bound by heavenly nor by earthly laws. See Sin-Wai Chan (Ed.): The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language . Routledge, 2016, ISBN 978-0-415-53970-8 , pp. 397 (English, online: Google preview ).
  18. 'More than 20' security personnel block wife of detained China rights lawyer from attending trial. Hong Kong Free Press, December 25, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
  19. Trial against Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang opened. Deutsche Welle, December 26, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 (English).
  20. Civil rights attorney sentenced to four and a half years in prison. ZEIT, January 28, 2019, accessed on January 28, 2019 .
  21. Wang Quanzhang: China jails leading human rights lawyer. BBC News, January 28, 2019, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  22. Imprisoned Rights Lawyer Wang Quanzhang Gets First Family Visit in Four Years. David Cowhig's Translation Blog, June 28, 2019, accessed July 31, 2019 .
  23. Wang Quanzhang Released from Prison , Zeit Online, April 5, 2020.