Jailed Chinese rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) was allowed to see his wife and young son on Friday for the first time in nearly four years since he disappeared in a crackdown.
Wang, 43, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in January for “subverting state power” following a closed-door trial.
A prominent lawyer who defended political activists and people affected by land seizures, Wang vanished in a sweep aimed at courtroom critics of communist authorities known as the “709” clampdown because the arrests started on July 9, 2015.
Photo: AFP
Wang was held incommunicado for more than 1,000 days without access to his family or a lawyer prior to his trial and authorities have repeatedly denied requests by his wife, Li Wenzu (李文足), to visit him in jail.
“My husband’s health has deteriorated during the long incarceration, he had lost so much weight,” Li said.
“When I asked him what he had for breakfast, he kept scratching his head, but he couldn’t remember,” she said.
“It was really emotional. This was the first time my son and I got a chance to see him after being separated for four years,” she said.
The couple’s six-year-old son, Wang Guangwei (王廣微), was a toddler when his father disappeared.
Li saw her husband at the Linyi jail in Shandong Province, where he was transferred in May after years spent at a detention center in Tianjin.
“I felt like he was not the earlier Wang Quanzhang,” said his sister Wang Quanxiu (王全秀), who was also at the meeting. “He was very agitated when he spoke to us. He had made a draft about what to discuss and had to constantly keep looking at his notes to remind himself of what to say.”
Wang Quanzhang was the last of more than 200 lawyers and activists swept up in the 2015 crackdown to be tried or released.
Li, who has protested against her husband’s detention and sentencing, has repeatedly demanded proof of life from the authorities.
She was placed under de facto house arrest the day before Wang Quanzhang’s trial on Dec. 26 last year to prevent her from attending.
Earlier that month, before the court date was announced, Li and three supporters shaved their heads and tried to submit a petition to a Beijing court, protesting against his detention.
In April last year, she attempted to march 100km to the Tianjin detention center where he was previously held.
Earlier this week, a video was posted on Twitter showing Li shouting over the prison wall asking whether Wang Quanzheng was alive.
It was only on Thursday morning that she received a call from Shandong authorities saying she would be allowed a 30-minute visit.
“I’ve never really known if he was alive all these years and finally there was a clear message I can meet him,” Li tweeted on Thursday.
Authorities had also called Wang Quanxiu on Thursday at about 11am and told her she could meet her brother at 2pm that day.
“I rushed to the Linyi jail as soon as I received the call, but when I got there it was already 5pm, so I missed the chance to see him that day,” Wang Quanxiu said. “We have been calling the prison authorities all week to no avail, and then suddenly they changed their mind.”
The timing of the meeting, which coincides with the G20 summit in Japan, has led to speculation that the Chinese Communist Party “might be offering a compromise” to embellish China’s checkered human rights record, said Chan Yue, an activist from the Human Rights Concern Group in Hong Kong.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in