[...]The pair were acquitted by the Zhejiang Provincial High People’s Court on March 26. The court said it is possible that police used illegal methods to accumulate evidence when investigating the case 10 years ago.

The court reversed its 2004 ruling that included a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for Zhang Hui and a 15-year prison term for his uncle, Zhang Gaoping, for raping and murdering a woman in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, as there was new evidence showing the possibility of another suspect. Evidence presented during the previous trial was not enough to support the conviction.

[...]Both men claimed they were forced into confess[ion] after a long interrogation.

In an interview with China Central Television, Zhang Gaoping said the interrogation lasted for seven consecutive days with no sleep and little food, and added that he was forced to stay in a squatting posture for a long period of time.

A Xinhua report providing details of the night the two freighters picked up Wang Dong also notes that the two were forced into confession:

On the night of May 18, 2003, Zhang Gaoping and his nephew Zhang Hui gave 17-year-old Wang Dong a free ride when they were transporting freight to Shanghai.

They dropped the girl off in the city of Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province at 1:50 a.m. the next morning and continued on their way to Shanghai.

Wang’s naked body was discovered later that day. The two men became the principal suspects in her death and were detained on May 23, as they were the last people to have seen Wang alive. However, police could not find any physical evidence to charge Zhang and his nephew with the crime.

[...]Zhang Gaoping said they were forced to confess to the crime under great pressure and torture from police and their fellow inmates.

Using forced confessions to implicate accused criminals dates back to China’s imperial past, but recent measures have been made to curb the practice –  in 2010 the Supreme People’s Court passed regulations banning torture-drawn confessions. In 2011, a Hong Kong University study found a 95 percent confession rate in China, hinting that torture was still widely-used in extracting confessions. In late 2012 the ban on forced confessions was reiterated after the Criminal Procedure Law was amended to enhance suspects’ rights in non-political cases. In an in-depth report detailing the Zhangs sentencing, interrogation, road to appeal, and release, the Washington Post notes the rare government acceptance of fault in this case – as expressed in the official media acknowledgment of forced confession and also the apologetic behavior of justice officials as the men were released – and how it can be seen as a product of political infighting:

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this case is coming out now,” said Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It’s part of an effort by the pro-legal reforms faction to overcome the resistance of the security apparatus.”

[...]Justice officials who were in court when the men were released apologized and bowed to them. Later, through a court spokesman, officials acknowledged to reporters that their conviction appears to have been based on confessions that were coerced with violence and threats.

[...]On the day he was released, standing before the justice system that wronged him, Zhang said: “Today you are judges and prosecutors, but your descendants won’t necessarily be the same. If there is no change in institutions and laws, your descendants could be wrongfully accused and teeter on the brink of the death penalty like us. Please remember that.”

For more on legal reform and forced confession, see prior CDT coverage.

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Post tags: criminal procedure law, criminal rights, forced confessions, legal reform, murder, prisoners' rights, rape, torture
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Hexie Farm’s cartoon depicts a prisoner hidden underground as the national flag is raised above her head. The image alludes to words by former Masanjia detainee Liu Hua, translated on Twitter by activist Zeng Jinyan, about the detention center.

The title of Hexie Farm’s drawing is a line in the tweet*:

We are women above ghosts’ head twitter.com/zengjinyan/sta…

— zengjinyan (@zengjinyan) April 15, 2013

In 2012, an American found a letter asking for help allegedly written by a detainee at Masanjia and hidden in a graveyard kit that was part of a Halloween decoration package sold at K-Mart.

The Hell We Live In, by Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm for CDT:

Read more about Hexie Farm’s CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series.

[CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.]

*Correction: This post was edited to reflect that the translation by Zeng Jinyan was not a poem, but words from an interview.

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The title refers to an incident in prison when he broke the rules by singing; as punishment, he was ordered to sing 100 songs. When his voice gave out, he was tortured with electric shocks from a baton inserted into his anus.

“I felt like a duck whose feathers were being stripped,” he writes.

[…] Even now, he experiences a recurring nightmare. “I am flying and I see people on the ground with guns and knives running after me,” he said. “But I am a bird without legs, and when I can’t fly anymore, I fall to the ground. The people come nearer and nearer, and as soon as they are about to attack, I wake up filled with terror.”

[…] He sees his mission as a storyteller of human suffering, not as a reformer striving for change in what he calls the “foul pigsty” that is China. “I have no interest in what China will become,” he said. “My suggestion would be that China crumbles into dozens of little countries so that it would no longer be the terrible menace it is now.”

See more on the book and Liao’s incarceration via CDT.

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On January 12, 2013, two family members of the imprisoned rights defense lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) were permitted to visit Gao at Shaya Prison in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Gao’s wife Geng He (耿和). This was the first family visit since March 24, 2012, and the only confirmation since that date that Gao is still alive. Gao’s younger brother and Geng He’s father were allowed to see Gao and speak with him by phone through a glass window.

[…] Before being allowed to see Gao, his younger brother was subjected to a body search and told that, during the visit, he was not allowed to discuss Gao’s case, Gao’s prison situation, or Geng He and their two children, who are in the United States, or to accept press interviews after the visit.

Gao’s mind seemed clear and he spoke normally. His younger brother was not able to find out when Gao is scheduled to be released, or whether he received the letters from his wife and children.

When Gao’s brother asked when Gao is permitted to see his family next, he was told that the family has to “follow old ways.” Geng He said, “Last time, it took nine months for the authorities to allow the family to see Gao in prison. How long will it take next time?”

See more on Gao’s case at Human Rights in China and at CDT.

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That confrontation is likely to center on allegations that Mr. Wu was tortured into signing a confession, which is the crux of the case against him. In a deposition released by his lawyers, Mr. Wu says he was beaten while being hung upside down, deprived of food and water for several days and then given stimulants so he could not sleep. In the end, Mr. Wu says, he signed the declaration of guilt that was placed before him. “They pre-wrote everything,” he told his lawyers, according to the deposition. “If I didn’t sign it, they beat me.”

Mr. Wu’s case, human rights groups say, highlights the problems that even American citizens face in China’s flawed and deeply politicized criminal justice system. Although confessions extracted through torture are technically inadmissible in court, legal experts say the police frequently rely on heavy-handed tactics to win the confessions that often form the basis of convictions. “We’d be pleasantly surprised if the judge even allows the allegations of torture to be discussed in the courtroom,” said Roseann Rife, East Asia director for Amnesty International, which has been publicizing his case.

[...] During an earlier entanglement with Mr. Lin in 2002, Mr. Wu says, he was detained by the police for 11 months, but later released after prosecutors decided that there was insufficient evidence to try him. His family said a ruling in February by the Supreme People’s Court vindicated Mr. Wu’s claims and cemented his ownership of the disputed property, a successful fruit market in the city of Foshan.

Mr. Lin could not be reached for comment, and police officials in Huizhou declined to comment. Kenny Wu, one of Mr. Wu’s sons, said in a phone interview that Mr. Lin warned his father that he would prevail in the end. “ ‘I control the laws in mainland China,’ ” Kenny Wu said Mr. Lin told his father. “ ‘Watch me put you back in prison like I did 10 years ago. Even President Obama and God cannot save you.’ ”

See more on police brutality in China via CDT.

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Post tags: Americans in China, business disputes, Chinese-Americans, forced confessions, lawyers, police brutality, torture
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We’ve learned a hard lesson in Chongqing at the cost of both lives and blood.

[…] If I was to describe how they acted in Chongqing over these past few years, I’d say they were like a crazy mouse on a rollercoaster going to a slippery slide. The newly-appointed leaders of the city’s public security apparatus are strongly opposed to the way that former party chief Bo Xilai and former head of the Public Security Bureau Wang Lijun handled matters in the past.

Now many just causes are gradually being rehabilitated.

But how many people were actually detained during the crackdown? How many were prosecuted? How many were sentenced to death or re-education through labor … we need to be clear on these numbers. We have a duty to history and to the people.

[…] If we don’t reveal what really went on, if we don’t expose their crimes and terrible deeds, many ordinary people will remain in the dark and we will be on the wrong side of history.

Also at Economic Observer, Li’s own lawyer Chen Youxi outlines how Bo’s ‘Chongqing Model’ almost succeeded, the damage it did, and the lessons that should be learned.

After two years of observation and deep thought, I believe that the underlying social foundations that led to the tragedy that occurred in Chongqing, continue to exist and flourish in China today. If we don’t seriously reflect on what happened in Chongqing, the soil which cultivated the tragedy in Chongqing will continue to exist, and if it doesn’t happen in Chongqing again, it just might take place somewhere else.

[…] If Wang Lijun hadn’t defected to the U.S. embassy and set off a series of other problems, it’s likely the Chongqing Model would have been copied across the country. If that happened, what would China’s rule of law be like? The more we think about it, the more we still feel have fears even after the events in Chongqing.

[…] In fact, the Chongqing’s problems are national problems that were concentrated and exposed in one municipality. It showed us the serious consequences of not continuing to deepen reform and also the great possibility and danger of the extreme-left making a comeback.

Reflecting on Chongqing is meaningful for the whole nation.

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Post tags: abuse of power, Bo Xilai, Chongqing, Chongqing Model, corruption, lawyers, Li Zhuang, murders, organised crime, rule of law, strike black, torture, Wang Lijun
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Following Bo’s fall and Li’s early release, the Gong brothers have recanted their accusations in order to help Li clear his name, while Li, in turn, is representing his former client in his appeal. From Luo Jieqin and He Xin at Caixin:

Li’s day in court may come soon. He told Caixin that on November 23 he met Supreme People’s Procuratorate representatives and was told, “We will handle this incident very seriously.” Six days later, he met officials from the Chongqing Municipal First Intermediate People’s Court, who echoed the procuratorate’s assurance.

A new trial would add another twist to the saga of Bo, who has been stripped of his post and party membership, and in early December was awaiting trial for alleged abuse of power and bribery. His wife Bogu Kailai was convicted in August of murder and sentenced to life with a two-year reprieve. And Bo’s former police chief who directed the anti-mafia campaign, Wang Lijun, has been sentenced in September to 15 years for abuse of power, corruption and attempting to defect to the United States.

“My appeal is a weather vane” for the future direction of the Bo drama and Chongqing’s justice system, Li told Caixin. “It sends out a sensitive signal about rectifying mistakes.

“All those wronged during Chongqing’s ‘organized crime’ crackdown are watching and waiting.”

The torture employed to secure Gong Gangmo’s cooperation was, according to Luo, far from exceptional. After Gong’s arrest, his brother fled, and the latter’s son was taken for interrogation to a secluded site outside the city where hundreds of suspects are thought to have been tortured in the name of law and order.

Blinded by a black hood, the son of businessman Gong Ganghua couldn’t see where he was going after being taken into custody by officers with Chongqing’s organized crime task force.

When the hood was lifted, Gong Peng found himself on a cool, forested mountain popular among Chongqing residents as a summer getaway called Tieshanping.

But this was no resort. Police held Gong Peng at an old military training base on Tieshanping, east of the city, where he was interrogated and tortured for five days.

[…] Police threatened to send Gong Peng, whose wife had given birth just days earlier, to a labor camp so that “your son won’t know you when he grows up. He’ll call you uncle.”

Police employed similar methods to turn one of Gong Gangmo’s alleged associates against his own lawyer, Zhu Mingyong. Fan Qihang, however, refused, despite prolonged torture and the detention and investigation of family members.

The torture was so intense that a participating police officer pleaded for a re-assignment and the suspect, a local mafia member Fan Qihang, mutilated his own tongue before trying to kill himself by running head-first into a wall.

Yet Fan never capitulated to police demands that he testify falsely in court and help prosecutors put his lawyer, Zhu Mingyong, behind bars.

[…] Fan said he was handcuffed while hung by his feet and was not allowed to sleep for more than 10 days. Steel from the cuffs burrowed into his flesh, he said, and he tried to commit suicide twice. An officer beat Fan with a plastic water bottle whenever he starting losing consciousness. Sleep deprivation continued for months.

[…] Even on the eve of his execution, spending a few final hours with his sisters, Chongqing police pressured Fan to give them incriminating evidence against Zhu.

Read more about Li Zhuang, Bo Xilai, Chongqing and its new leader Sun Zhengcai at CDT.

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Allowing reporters to visit Beijing No 1 and 2 detention centres was a surprising move by public security officials, who usually avoid foreign media. But it was only a tiny glimpse of the highest quality facilities in the country.

Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said there was no doubt the facilities were the country’s best, but added: “It does tell you something: it means this is what the government sees it should be doing … I don’t think China is building model detention centres just to fool the international community.”

[…] But John Kamm of Dui Hua, which advocates for political and religious prisoners and monitors developments in the criminal justice system, pointed out that not everyone was held in a detention centre: those put under residential surveillance were held in “guest houses” run by the Public Security Bureau. Last year, several of those held under such conditions during a crackdown on activists and lawyers, subsequently described being tortured.

In August, lawyer Zhang Yansheng recounted his own visit to a client in a Guangdong detention centre, and complained that conditions inside prevented him from offering effective legal counsel. In addition to residential surveillance, black jails and house arrests, there is also the notorious shuanggui system reserved for Party members, in which Bo Xilai now appears to be held and retired Hunan official Wang Zhongping died under disputed circumstances late last month.

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The North’s state news agency announced Mr. Ri’s visit with two, one-sentence dispatches – one last Tuesday saying he’d left for China and another on Saturday saying he’d returned.

On Sunday, China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Mr. Ri went to Jiangsu, the populous province just north of Shanghai that is the home of Nanjing and several other large cities. While there, Mr. Ri met with provincial officials as well as China’s minister of public security, Meng Jianzhu, triggering media speculation that Mr. Ri was discussing security arrangements for a visit by Mr. Kim.

Then on Monday, a delegation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China arrived in Pyongyang. The North’s state news agency said they were hosted at a reception led by Kim Yong Il, one of the 11 secretaries of the North’s ruling Worker’s Party.

The North’s report said that Mr. Kim told the visiting Chinese delegation that former dictator Kim Jong Il visited China eight times and that the new leader Kim Jong Eun “is deeply interested in the development of friendly relations with China.”

There has also been speculation about why Kim is planning a visit, The Telegraph adds:

Sources say Kim may ask China for food aid. Floods last week killed 88 North Koreans and destroyed homes and crops, according to the country`s state news agency KCNA.

The US cancelled an aid agreement with North Korea in protest over the country`s long-range missile test in April. The US State Department says it is in close contact with China over the situation in North Korea.

“When he travels to China, Kim Jong-un will be following a path well trodden by his father and grandfather,” said Michael Breen, author of Kim Jong-il, North Korea`s Dear Leader.

“The trip serves two purposes: securing Chinese aid following the flooding in North Korea and, to strengthen confidence in his leadership in Pyongyang – not, as one might expect, by the show of support from China – but rather by the exhibition of that peculiar North Korean skill of appearing to permit foreign powers the privilege of donating.”

Despite the summit between China, Japan, and South Korea to discuss trade and North Korea earlier this year, China’s relationship with South Korea seems to be under pressure as China denies the south’s claims of Chinese baby flesh pills. Aside from these claims, AFP reports South Korean activists are seeking an investigation of torture allegations against China:

A South Korean rights group said on Monday it would ask the United Nations to investigate the alleged torture of a Seoul activist detained in China after helping North Korean refugees there.

Kim Young-Hwan and three other people were arrested on March 29 and accused of endangering Beijing’s national security.

After the group were deported on July 20, Kim claimed he had been physically abused by Chinese security authorities. He gave no details but his colleagues said he was subjected to electric shocks.

The activist Kim is the former leader of an underground leftist party who met the then-North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang in 1991. He later became a fierce regime critic and now works for a Seoul-based rights group.

According to The New York Times, the activists being held by China were being held because of their attempts to help North Korean refugees:

“They put a cattle prod, wrapped in electric coils, inside my clothes and placed it on my chest and back,” Mr. Kim told Chosun Ilbo, a mass-circulation daily in South Korea. “It felt like being continuously electrocuted.

“I could smell my flesh burning,” he said. “They also threatened several times to send me to North Korea.”

Chinese officials frequently raise the possibility of being sent to North Korea when they interrogate South Korean activists for helping North Korean refugees in China, according to activists who say they were tortured in China.

Another activist, Chung Peter, told the same TV Chosun program that “sleep deprivation” and “letting you hear the sound of torture from the next room” were standard interrogation tactics when he was held in China for a year and a half starting in 2003 for helping North Korean refugees.

As the activists bring their case to the United Nations against China, Seoul is also hardening its position towards China in this dispute, according to The Korea Herald:

Cho Tae-young, a spokesperson for Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, said the government will “actively support” Kim if he takes the issue to multinational agencies. The ministry will also direct its consuls in China to interview all 625 Korean inmates in the country to investigate whether they were abused. Regarding China’s denial, Cho said Korea does not regard it as an official response. Seoul demanded China reinvestigate the alleged torture of Kim after he was deported. The government is still awaiting an “official answer” through their diplomatic channel, he added

“We have requested from the Chinese government a strict reinvestigation, apology, punishment for those responsible and measures to prevent future abuses. And we will continuously raise the issue (until China responds),” spokesperson Cho told a news briefing.

South Korean ambassador to China Lee Kyu-hyung has asked for a meeting with a senior government official to explain Seoul’s position and the need for stringent fact finding, Cho said.

The Committee for the Release of North Korean Human Rights Activist Kim Young Hwan said last week that it filed requests in May and plans an additional appeal for an investigation into Kim’s confinement with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva.

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Membership in the Chinese Communist Party has many advantages. Officials often enjoy government-issued cars, bottomless expense accounts and the earning potential from belonging to a club whose members control every lever of government and many of the nation’s most lucrative enterprises.

There is, however, one serious downside. When party members are caught breaking the rules — or even when they merely displease a superior — they can be dragged into the maw of an opaque Soviet-style disciplinary machine, known as “shuanggui,” that features physical torture and brutal, sleep-deprived interrogations.

[…] Few who have been pulled into the system emerge unscathed, if they emerge at all. Over the last decade, hundreds of officials have committed suicide, according to accounts in the state news media, or died under mysterious circumstances during months of harsh confinement in secret locations. Once interrogators obtain a satisfactory confession, experts say, detainees are often stripped of their party membership and wealth. Select cases are handed over to government prosecutors for summary trials that are closed to the public.

“The word shuanggui alone is enough to make officials shake with fear,” said Ding Xikui, a prominent defense lawyer here.

Last year, the Dui Hua Foundation translated an account, cited in Jacobs’ article, of a blogger’s visit to a shuanggui facility (via CDT). The introduction to the translation noted that “sadly, acceptance of shuanggui seems to have seeped into international human rights circles and resulted in a dearth of relevant research and advocacy. While stamping out corruption is a worthy cause, it by no means warrants extra-legal detention, torture, or lack of transparency and rule of law.”

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“We saw that his body was still hanging by the window, and his two feet were clearly still standing on the ground. But they [hospital staff] did not let us get near him … Then they dragged his body away,” Zhao Baozhu, Li’s brother-in-law, was quoted as saying by Human Rights in China.

As of Thursday afternoon, 2,700 people had signed an online petition, including prominent Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, scholars, lawyers and writers who called for an authorized forensic investigation.

[...] Hong Kong’s Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said a number of rights activists, lawyers and citizens had arrived in Shaoyang to assist the family in its bid for justice, but many were unreachable and had probably been detained by authorities.

“It’s very difficult to accept the official explanation of events,” said Wen Yunchao, a prominent Chinese blogger and journalist now based in Hong Kong who helped initiate the online petition.

The online petition has now gathered thousands of signatures from people inside China and around the world. Human rights groups in Hong Kong also led a rally calling for an investigation into Li’s death.

In an interview given a few days before his death, Li talked about his determination to continue his activism. Al Jazeera reports:

[Note: Al Jazeera report contains graphic footage.]

The full interview on Hong Kong Cable TV, with English subtitles, can be seen here:

In the interview, he describes the torture in prison that reportedly resulted in his loss of hearing and eyesight, and expresses optimism that China will become democratic in the near future. Discussing his own activism, he says: “I won’t retreat, even if I am beheaded.”

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Brother-in-law Zhao Baozhu said he was suspicious about Li’s death because the activist had never expressed a desire to kill himself despite spending 20 years in prison and being very sick. He said that Li had seemed normal over dinner the previous night.

“He was always very strong, there was no sign at all that he was thinking of killing himself,” Zhao told The Associated Press. “Even though he had so many illnesses and spent more than 20 years in jail, he never talked about suicide. So I don’t believe it.”

Li was already dead by the time Zhao got to the hospital in Shaoyang city on Wednesday morning after being notified of Li’s death by the facility. He was 62.

Li was on his feet next to his bed in a hospital, with a white strip of cloth tied tightly around his neck and connected to a window bar above, Zhao said.

And from Reuters:

A photograph taken of the hanging corpse by the family showed the dissident’s two feet planted on the ground.

“He was imprisoned for over 20 years and didn’t die,” his distraught sister told Hong Kong’s Cable Television. “But then, the result is this.”

[...] Hong Kong-based lawmaker and activist Lee Cheuk-yan, who spoke with Li’s family after the death, said Li had been constantly watched by security guards and that they could easily have prevented any suicide attempt.

“The circumstances are very suspicious,” Lee said.

Chinese activists on Twitter mourned Li’s death and launched a petition calling for an investigation into his death. Lawyer Teng Biao posted calligraphy he wrote in honor of Li which said,  ”An inch of blood for an inch of freedom, thousands of miles of rivers bring thousands of miles of woes.”

【一寸自由一寸血；万里江河万里愁。】 滕彪撰联挽李旺阳–http://img.ly/jced

— 滕彪 (@tengbiao) June 6, 2012

Li’s name has been filtered from Sina Weibo search, according to William Farris.

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SINCE I arrived in the United States on May 19, people have asked me, “What do you want to do here?” I have come here to study temporarily, not to seek political asylum. And while I pursue my studies, I hope that the Chinese government and the Communist Party will conduct a thorough investigation of the lawless punishment inflicted on me and my family over the past seven years.

He mentions how his brother and nephew were tortured by an unidentified group of people after his escape. His nephew, Chen Kegui, is now facing charges of attempted homicide, which Chen Guangcheng believes are absurdly fabricated. Chen wants the central government keep its promise to investigate the case and calls for supervision from the United States and other democratic countries:

I asked for such an investigation while I was hospitalized in Beijing, after I had left the refuge of the United States Embassy and American officials negotiated my reunification with my family. High officials from the Chinese government assured me that a thorough and public investigation would take place and that they would inform me of the results. I hope that this promise will be honored. But the government has often failed to fulfill similar commitments. I urge the government and people of the United States and other democratic countries to insist that the Chinese government make timely progress in this matter.

Read more about Chen Guangcheng, his escape from house arrest, and his journey to the U.S., where he now resides in Greenwich Village in New York while attending classes at New York University.

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“I met Chen Guangfu this morning. His health situation is okay,” said Ding Xikui, a lawyer authorised by Chen Kegui’s wife to represent her husband.

“His family are not allowed to leave the village. Chen escaped secretly. He came here to tell us what happened that night [when people broke in] and seeks help from the lawyer. He also supports the request from Chen Kegui’s wife to engage us as his lawyer in this case.”

Chen Kegui’s wife hired Ding and Si Weijiang after two other lawyers she had appointed were intimidated and harassed. But officials told the men that they could not act for Chen Kegui unless his wife came to the police station to file paperwork. She is currently in hiding due to fears for her safety.

Reuters’ Sui-Lee Wee met with Chen Guangfu to discuss his son’s case, his own reported torture, his brother’s departure, and other events of the past month.

He said he was restricted from leaving the village and that police in Shandong warned him they would increase the sentence for his son, Chen Kegui, who is being held on an attempted murder charge, if he gave interviews.

“I feel since they are already doing this, why can’t I say something?” Chen Guangfu said late on Wednesday in a teahouse in western Beijing. “I have the power to speak up.”

“I told them their claims have no legal basis, but are based on power or by their will to determine Kegui’s sentence. On this point, I’ll never be able to accept it,” he said, adding he planned to return to his village soon.

Local government and public security bureau officials were not immediately available for comment.

Chen Guangfu said that the security presence around Dongshigu has only intensified since his brother’s escape. As Charles Custer commented at ChinaGeeks in the immediate aftermath of Chen Guangcheng’s escape, this security apparatus had become a significant factor in the local economy, which various parties had a strong interest in sustaining. McClatchy’s Tom Lasseter reported from the area last week on the persistent cordon around the village.

A reporter attempting on Wednesday to walk the stretch of farm fields and groves between [Pengjiazhai] village and Chen’s hometown of Dongshigu was intercepted by two guards at a turn on a small dirt track. Their stools were positioned so that they could easily see anyone crossing to Dongshigu across a remaining flat expanse, the length of about six and a half football fields.

On the highway to Dongshigu, police cars and vans still zipped back and forth, their lights flashing. Men lurked in the meadows.

The continued siege of Dongshigu underscores the punishing weight with which China enforces its version of social order. It suggests, too, the steep costs of such an approach – the inertia of an authoritarian system that becomes difficult to change, and a messy legacy that it must then try to conceal.

See also Chen Guangfu’s earlier account of his torture by local security officers, news of Chen Guangcheng’s arrival in New York and the start of his family’s new life there and more on the Chen Guangcheng saga via CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, Chen Guangcheng, Dongshigu, house arrest, legal defense, security guards, torture
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“They put me on a chair, bound my feet with iron chains and locked my hands with handcuffs behind my back,” he said. “They pulled my hands upwards forcefully. Then they slapped me in the face.”

“They first asked me if I knew what this was about. I said ‘I don’t know’. So they beat me and slapped my face. Only on one side, not the other. And they trampled my feet with their leather shoes.”

He told them it was him who had helped Mr Chen because he did not want to implicate others involved, but then realised they knew more details.

”I resisted for a really long time,” he said. ”In the end I couldn’t hold out any more.”

The officials also told Chen Guanfu that his son, Chen Kegui, had hacked and wounded officials. Chen Kegui has since been charged with “intentional homicide”, but his lawyer says he was acting in self-defence.

The full isunaffairs interview with Chen Guangfu is on YouTube and has been translated in full by a CNN reporter, Steven Jiang, on his blog:

China Human Rights Defenders has more details about the situation involving Chen’s brother.

Meanwhile, in a phone call to a U.S. Congressional hearing on his situation, Chen defended Chen Guangfu and Chen Kegui. The Washington Post reports:

Chen complained Tuesday that his elder brother and nephew had both been beaten by Chinese authorities since Chen fled house arrest in late April.

Chen said a charge of homicide brought against his nephew was “trumped up” as he was acting in self-defense after being subjected to a three-hour beating that left him bleeding.

“This is a pattern,” Chen said. “This is not the first time it happened against my family.”

Rights activist Bob Fu, who translated Chen’s comments, earlier testified that Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, using a kitchen knife, had injured several people who had burst into his home without warrants.

Joshua Rosenzweig explains that “intentional homicide” in this case is similar to “attempted murder” since the victim survived.

Chen and his family are awaiting travel to the U.S. where Chen has been offered a scholarship to New York University Law School. Officials have told them they should receive passports within 15 days. From BBC:

Mr Chen said government officials came to see him on Wednesday and completed passport applications for him, his wife and their two children.

He said the officials told him the passport would take 15 days to issue, without giving a definite date.

“People from the immigration administration department have been here. We had our pictures taken and forms filled out. (They said) within 15 days,” Mr Chen said.

“They didn’t promise when we’ll get the passport. They didn’t say anything like we will definitely get the passport on a certain day, etc. There was nothing like that told to us,” he added.

Read much more about Chen’s current situation via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: activists, Chen Guangcheng, dissidents, torture
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