Monday marks one year since Chinese journalist Huang Xueqin and labor rights activist Wang Jianbing's arrests. They have both been charged with subversion of state power and have been subject to very tough conditions in detention. My latest: dw.com/zh/%E9%9B%AA%E…
Huang was originally planning to pursue her graduate degree in the UK, but she was arrested alongside Wang on September 19th last year, one day before she was scheduled to fly out. They were officially "arrested" in October 2021 and their cases weren't sent to ...
... the prosecution until March 2022. During this process, they were reportedly put under solitary confinement for more than five months, which the authorities justified in the name of "pandemic prevention."
During solitary confinement, Huang and Wang were reportedly interrogated and detained under similar conditions of "residential surveillance at a designated location."
While they've been arrested since late September 2021, their family members haven't received any official notification. Wang was finally allowed to meet his lawyer for the first time in April 2022, five months after the initial arrest.
As for Huang, her freedom for communication and her access to a lawyer of her own choice have both been denied, making it very difficult to get any accurate updates about her situation in detention. Her family originally wanted to designate a friend of hers as her lawyer...
... but in April 2022, police in Guangzhou suddenly showed her lawyer a form of dismissal, which had Huang's signature on it. Her friend originally wanted to confirm the dismissal with Huang personally in late April, but the detention center turned down her visit ...
... in the name of "pandemic prevention" again. During detention, Wang reportedly went through dozens of long sessions of interrogation and physical or psychological torture. Irregular eating schedules have caused his digestion to deteriorate. He was also troubled by depression.
As for Huang, she lost 5 kilograms in the first six months and since she has no right to communicate with the outside world, her family or friends have no way of knowing her conditions in detention.
Apart from the ongoing pre-trial detention of Huang and Wang, police in Guangzhou have rallied police in other parts of #China to harass or interrogate more than 70 people who are either Huang or Wang's friends or who have participated in gatherings organized by them.
More than 10 of them have been forced to move away from Guangzhou by local police. Some of the interrogations and threats lasted more than 24 hours, and most of the interrogations weren't conducted under legal procedures.
Additionally, police reportedly searched and forcefully copied the electronic devices of some of these individuals. Some of them were also coerced by police to sign fake testimonies that will "confirm" that Huang and Wang have tried to subvert state power.
@patrickpoon said the cases show the way the Chinese government deals with activists in the country.
" They want to make them silent as much as they can and they don’t even care the international community thinks about how they’ve been abusing the judicial process and violating due process," he told me.
"They only want to control as much as they can and they don’t even worry if these activists would be examples showing how they’ve been subject to violation of serious human rights issues," he added.
He said there is the possibility that #Beijing will try to sentence Huang and Wang before the 20th Party Congress next month.
"Considering what happened in other cases in the past, usually Chinese authorities would try these cases and sentence defendants before big events."
"Considering what happened in other cases in the past, usually Chinese authorities would try these cases and sentence defendants before big events."
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
