The Shenzhen Public Security Bureau that implemented the 2016 Shenzhen 11-15 arrests. A source said, “Everyone thought they were just arrested by public security and locked up for a few days, but they didn’t expect such a heavy sentence because of the meal.”
A year ago, on Jan. 13, 2020, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sentenced some of the detainees in the 2016 11.15 arrest, also known as the “Yang Mei case,” to 5 to 12 years in prison for “subversion of state power.” A little later, in February, the court sentenced another detainee in the same case, Ma Zhiquan, to three years and six months in prison for “inciting subversion of state power. Thus, most of the more than a dozen people arrested in the Yang Mei case were sentenced to felony charges of “inciting subversion.
The “Yang Mei Case” in Bantian, Longgang District, Shenzhen
Ma Zhiquan, the “regime subversive”
Yangmei is short for Yangmei Village, located in Bantian Street, Longgang District, Shenzhen. It is also the name of an active station of Shenzhen Metro Line 5, Yangmei Metro Station.
The grassroots arrest that started on November 15, 2016 and lasted until the end of the year started in Yangmei Village’s Wuhe Restaurant.
At noon on November 14, 2016, several human rights activists who were not elites, including Ma Zhiquan, Deng Hongcheng, Xiao Bing, Wang Wei, and Li Nanhai, gathered at the Yangmei Village Wuhe Restaurant for a meal. During the meal, these people discussed current affairs and also criticized and attacked the speech. They didn’t notice that among them, Li Nanhai and Xiao Bing had been secretly photographed.
The next day at noon, Shenzhen police took the photos of Li Nanhai and Xiao Bing and went to Wuhe Restaurant to investigate, asking the staff to identify them. After the afternoon, to participate in the dinner Ma Zhiquan, Deng Hongcheng, Xiao Bing, Wang Wei, Li Nanhai that lost contact “disconnected”. This is the first batch of missing persons.
A pro-democracy advocate with the screen name “Sharp Knife” also attended the dinner that day. He told Voice of America, “I had just been ‘out’ for two or three months at that time; I was told to ‘communicate less with people in Shenzhen’. I spent 18 months in there on the charge of ‘inciting subversion of the regime. Maybe because I just got out, they didn’t come after me this time.”
Wang Yingguo, an entrepreneur who used to run a renovation stone business in Shenzhen, told Voice of America that a second group of disappearances followed. These people were all in frequent contact with the first group. One of them, Wang Jun, who was working in Dongguan at the time, heard about the situation and rushed to Shenzhen to find out the truth, only to “disappear himself” after going in the direction of Yangmei Village in Bantian, where Deng Hongcheng, Ma Zhiquan and others lived.
Wang Yingguo also said that the first batch of missing Deng Hongcheng two nephews also went to Yangmei Village to find his uncle, but on the road, “walking in front of the nephew Deng Jianfeng was arrested, the latter one escaped”.
Because the search for the first batch of lost people themselves also missing are Liu Zhuohua, Shandong Song Liqian, Shenzhen Pengcheng Hospital doctor Dong Lingpeng, etc.. One of them, Deng Jianfeng, was released after a month of police custody, the police did not give any statement.
Article 37 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China provides that “The personal freedom of citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall be inviolable. No citizen shall be arrested except with the approval or decision of the people’s procuratorate or the decision of the people’s court, which shall be carried out by the public security organs. Illegal detention and other methods of illegal deprivation or restriction of personal freedom of citizens is prohibited.” Thus, unlawful detention is a serious deprivation of a citizen’s physical freedom.
Article 238 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that the crime of unlawful detention refers to the crime of illegally depriving another person of his or her personal freedom by detention, confinement or other methods of coercion.
Wang Yingguo said, “Wuhan native Cheng Shi, who was arrested on November 15, 2016, at the Guangzhou railway station, was sent to Shaoguan Detention Center to be held until March or April of the following year, just because he had just spent two days in Yangmei Village at that time. The authorities didn’t have anything to say either, and finally just let him out on bail pending trial.”
Wang Yingguo himself was forced to leave and restricted from entering Shenzhen because he sympathized with the underprivileged and often assisted people in need in society at his own expense. His place of residence and company in Shenzhen was called a “nest” by the government.
“More than 10 of those arrested in the Yang Mei case were acquaintances who had frequent contact with each other, and other peripheral people who had more or less contact with those arrested were “given tea”.
According to China Human Rights Campaign, this is an escalation of the Shenzhen authorities’ crackdown on citizen gatherings in the same city.
Critics of the Chinese Communist Party say the arrestees have been treated more brutally than the lawyers in the 709 arrests, but little is known about it.
Software Technician Turns Poet and “Regime Subversive”
Ma Zhiquan, who goes by the screen name “Shen Li,” was one of the first to be arrested at the Nov. 14, 2016, dinner party. Before that, he lived on loan in Yangmei East Lane 4 on Hantian Street. As mentioned earlier, he was only officially sentenced in February 2020 and was released after completing his sentence on July 28. However, the official indictment and verdict for him were never made public.
Ma is now physically free, but is still under “political censorship and deprivation of political rights”; “if he does not behave well, he will be imprisoned again,” one of his friends told VOA.
People who saw him told VOA that Ma is divorced and “wants his wife to live a normal, undisturbed life; he has a lame leg and a head injury, and he often has headaches.
After being arrested that day, Ma was placed under residential surveillance on December 15 of the same year on suspicion of “subversion of state power”; on May 12, 2017, he was arrested on the same charge and detained at Shenzhen Second Detention Center.
Notice of arrest by Shenzhen Public Security Bureau (Photo from the internet)
On May 19, 2017, the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a “Decision on Not Granting Access to Criminal Suspects”, stating that “because Ma Zhiquan and others are suspected of subverting state power, which is a case that endangers national security,” defense lawyer Chen Jinxue was “not allowed to meet with criminal suspect Ma Zhiquan”.
Shenzhen Public Security Bureau document
On May 23, Ma Zhiquan handwritten a “letter of release of authorization”, saying “I do not agree with Chen Jinxue’s lawyer as my litigation agent in this case”.
Ma Zhiquan’s letter of release of authorized attorney
On May 31, Chen Jinxue’s lawyer wrote a handwritten “request to meet with Ma Zhiquan to confirm the termination of the power of attorney”.
Lawyer Chen Jinxue’s request for an interview with his client
During his detention, the trial lasted for more than five months, and Ma Zhiquan’s left leg became disabled. Some sources said that Ma Zhiquan’s left leg was hung by chains, his back was forcibly pressed with batons and chairs, and his left crotch was misaligned after being forcibly rotated.
On Nov. 7, 2019, Ma Zhiquan’s trial on charges of subversion of state power began at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court. He refused to plead guilty. Family members saw that Ma Zhiquan, who was originally 1 meter 75 meters tall, was hunched over and significantly shorter. His wife said her husband was allowed to sit in court because he said he had been tortured and tortured to extract a confession, and that he was unable to stand for long periods of time due to serious injuries to his legs.
Radio Free Asia said at the time that “officials forbade all those arrested from meeting with their lawyers and forcibly assigned them so-called assistance lawyers.”
China Citizen said that none of the lawyers appointed by the families of the arrested were granted access to them after the Shenzhen mass arrests occurred, and all were eventually forcibly dismissed.
Ma Zhiquan has a book of poems circulating on social media platforms. The book, titled “A Collection of Poems by Pu Xuan,” is said to be “hard evidence” that the authorities have pressured and convicted him.
Ma Zhiquan’s poems
One of the poems says: “I, who live a hundred years, will die one day …… I will die so that Chinese people can live like human beings …… I will die so that all Chinese people can live decently when they are old; I will die so that all Chinese people can be treated in hospitals even when they have no money ……”
Ma Zhiquan, now 44, worked in software development in Beijing’s Zhongguancun 20 years ago, never imagining that he would one day write poetry, let alone “subvert state power.
Ma’s friends told the Voice of America that in 2002, a group of hoodlums robbed a 70- or 80-year-old man in Zhongguancun, and Ma came to his rescue, but was beaten to death. The incident happened next to the community hospital in Shangdi, Haidian District. The director of the community hospital, who happened to be passing by, pulled him to the hospital and saved him.
When the police investigated the violent incident, the key witness, the old man, did not admit to being robbed, and the police adopted the incident as a “fight and brawl”. Ma Zhiquan was reduced from a “hero of justice” to a “hooligan in a group fight”. Although he was reported in the New Beijing News at the time and praised for his bravery, it did not change the betrayal of the witnesses and the conclusion of the police.
However, Ma Zhiquan is not angry with the old man, because the old man’s daughter told the truth and apologized —- they are worried that if the “savior” is seriously injured, or even killed, they can not afford the medical expenses and more financial responsibility, because they are also strapped for cash; they can only be forced to make a choice that is only in their own interest.
This incident changed the course of Ma Zhiquan’s life. He began to petition and defend his rights and gave up his job; he also witnessed more injustice and injustice and set out on the road to pursue human rights, rule of law and fairness.
His poem “The Happiness of the Elderly in Happiness Village” describes how there are three villages in a township: “The farmers in Happiness Village come from state-owned farms, and the farmers in Glorious Village and Shengli Village come from peasant communes. The elderly in Happy Village basically live with their children to eat and live together; the elderly in Glorious Village and Victory Village basically live separately from their children; the elderly in Happy Village these years Very few children and the elderly quarrel; glorious village and victory village of the elderly and children quarrel never stop”.
Rental house on the second floor of No. 9, Lane 4 East, Yangmei Village, Shenzhen
The people arrested in the 11-15-2016 mass arrests were all connected to this rental house in some way. The five people who disappeared at 1 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2016 – Deng Hongcheng, Xiao Bing, Ma Zhiquan, Li Nanhai and Wang Wei – previously lived at this address on Lane 4 of Yangmei Village in Shenzhen, said rights.org.
Deng Hongcheng, one of the first people arrested in the 11-15 case, was a tenant of this house. After his arrest, he was accused of “subversion of state power” and was first placed under residential surveillance and then formally arrested before being sentenced to 12 years in prison on Jan. 13, 2020.
Wang Yingguo, an informant, told Voice of America that the house was in the urban village of Bantian, on the second floor, entering from a very deep alley, dark and broken. The cement floor has unclean oil stains, the walls are black, “but cleaned up without the stench; moreover, Shenzhen is not cold most of the time, easy to pass in winter. In the summer there is not even an electric fan.”
Deng Hongcheng, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the 2016 11-15 Shenzhen arrests. He is also a tenant of that rental house in Yangmei Village, Bantian, Shenzhen.
Deng Hongcheng’s friends around him said that Deng Hongcheng, now 53, was divorced and had been a small boss in Haikou before arriving in Shenzhen, mainly contracting for projects such as demolition and demolition. He saw the black hole in the system and was very dissatisfied, vowing to devote himself to defending rights, promoting the cause of democracy in China and making a difference.
He ended his contracting career and came to Shenzhen in 2013, renting this rental house with only a few hundred yuan a month for shelter from the rain.
A friend of Deng Hongcheng’s told Voice of America, “He has this place to host people who he knows in his circle. They come to Shenzhen if they happen to have no place to live, or suddenly in financial difficulties, are free to borrow; very small place sometimes a few people bunk, ten days and a half months or a month. Deng Hongcheng monthly rent is also a few hundred yuan. Such a house in Shenzhen is really old and rudimentary. However, a person is living, ten or eight is also living, we do not require high.”
Informants said, Yang Mei Village, this humble residence became the core of the subsequent 11-15 arrests, no one had previously thought. As mentioned earlier, most of those who were caught without attending the dinner were “cleaned up” on their way there. Deng’s nephew, Deng Jianfeng, was also arrested for going to Yangmei Village to find his uncle, although he was only detained for a month, “after coming out of the process did not dare to say a word, it is expected to be tortured”.
Shenzhen 11-15 arrest of Deng Hongcheng’s nephew Deng Jianfeng was also accused by Shenzhen police of “subversion of state power”.
Yang Meicun involved in some people and things
Wang Yingguo, a source close to the case, said it is estimated that the police raided the home of Yang Meicun and searched for computers and then followed the trail to Wang Jianhua.
Wang Jianhua is a native of Xinyang, Henan Province, and has his own business in Shenzhen, the company in Shenzhen Xixiang Wanjunhui Building. He originally had the ability to help people in need in addition to employing staff and supporting his family. He was sentenced on January 13, 2020 to five years in prison until November 2021 for “subversion of state power” in connection with the 11-15 case.
Wang Jianhua, who is still serving a prison sentence for the 2016 Shenzhen 11-15 arrests.
A friend of Wang Jianhua told Voice of America, “Wang Jianhua had asked someone to meet him to discuss business, but when the other party approached him a day in advance to confirm, no one answered his phone. The person then called me and said he didn’t see anyone. I was stunned and didn’t know what was going on, and only after inquiring did I learn that he might have been arrested.”
The friend said that Wang Jianhua has a daughter and a son, the boy was about two years old. After Wang Jianhua was arrested, the family’s life collapsed, his wife could not continue to survive in Shenzhen, took the children back home to Xinyang, “but we try not to contact, for the sake of their own well-being.”
Wang Yingguo, an informant, told Voice of America that he happened to violate the Shenzhen police ban when the big 11-15 arrest took place and sneaked back into Shenzhen. He said, “It must have been Nov. 16 when Wang got in touch with me and agreed to meet me in the evening. We talked for about an hour or two. Mainly he advised me to leave Shenzhen, thinking that the most dangerous should be me, let me hurry to hide. I also reminded him to be safe. He said he intended to hide back home in Xinyang, but did not leave immediately, it seems to be to a friend’s house in Dongguan for a few days.”
The “rights movement” network said that on the afternoon of November 24, 2016, the neighborhood committee called Wang Jianhua’s company in Shenzhen’s Xixiang Wanjunhui Building, saying that it needed to know who was working and to count them one by one; Wang Jianhua returned to his office and then came more than a dozen plainclothes, they checked his ID card to confirm and took him away and searched his residence.
“After Wang lost contact, his wife and lawyer made inquiries and learned that he had been arrested by Shenzhen police on Dec. 15, 2016, on suspicion of “subversion of state power,” and was placed under residential surveillance.
Wang Yingguo said: “Wang Jianhua was suddenly disappeared, his wife and children are very poor. The wife is a rural woman, the family originally relied on Wang Jianhua. At this time, the son also had a serious illness without money for treatment, and not much friends, because the public security state security warned to keep a distance from others. After being arrested like Wang Jianhua, all bank accounts were frozen, bank cards were invalidated, and the company was closed overnight. His wife and children could be said to be poor and sick at that time, very miserable. I myself was on the police blacklist and could not enter Shenzhen publicly, so there was no way to care for them.”
Wang Yingguo also told Voice of America that before 11-15, a young couple frequently visited Shenzhen and landed at Deng Hongcheng’s residence in Yangmei Village. This was Wang Jun and his wife Yan Junjun.
Wang Jun, who was released on bail after being assigned to residential surveillance for three years during the Shenzhen 11-15 arrests.
Wang Jun was released on bail on Nov. 28, 2019, after three years in detention, when he was 29 years old.
A friend of Wang Jun told Voice of America that Wang Jun was orphaned and raised by his grandparents since he was a child. As an adult, he and his wife, Yan Jun, both worked in Dongguan. Both borrowed a rental house in Deng Hongcheng’s Yangmei village when they visited Shenzhen for fun in their spare time.
When Wang Jun was arrested in November 2016, Yan Junjun was about two or three months pregnant. Yan Junjun’s family was better off than Wang Jun’s, plus the state security went to the woman’s house to do work to break up the family relationship, and Yan Junjun’s parents and family pressured her to oppose having the baby and to leave Wang Jun. However, she did not leave and found a way to go around to seek justice for Wang Jun.
Wang Yingguo told Voice of America, “Yan Junjun would rather abandon her parents than continue to follow her husband, and insisted on having the child. During this period, she endured a lot of torture. She was unable to work in a factory for a long time due to her increasing physical inconvenience and the state security blockade. She had no place to live and had to rely on different friends to pick up the pieces.”
Yan Junjun, the wife of Wang Jun in the Shenzhen 11-15 arrest, applied for her husband to be released on bail pending trial.
A friend of Yan Junjun’s said that once, Yan Junjun stayed at a friend’s house in Foshan and used a matchstick to lay out the words “June 4” on the ground and posted the photo on the Internet. As a result, the National Security Bureau followed up and not only threw Yan out of Guangdong, but also seized the friend’s small food store. The friend was given a cup of tea and has been chased around by the police ever since.
Radio Free Asia said officials did not even let down their guard when Yan gave birth in a Foshan hospital in June 2017. She saw men who were neither medical staff nor patients or family members “manning” the entrance to her ward around the clock. She said, “I’m in a situation where I’m having surgery and I’m in a situation where I have very little freedom, and they’re getting people to monitor me. I don’t know why they are doing this.”
Wang Yingguo said Wang Jun was released on bail at the end of 2019, but, after returning home, his temperament changed dramatically, “Three years in prison has completely changed his mental state, and his wife seems to have become the enemy in his eyes. This is a shock to Yan Junjun can be imagined.”
The reporter called Yan Junjun, her cell phone is always off.
Residential surveillance and fear from all sides
Nearly 20 people were arrested, imprisoned and sentenced in the 11-15 arrests. In addition to being disappeared, being denied the protection of lawyers, and missing indictments and verdicts, almost all of them have been “designated for residential surveillance”.
Wang Jun was placed under residential surveillance by Shenzhen police on suspicion of “subversion of state power” during the November 15 arrests in Shenzhen.
Wang Yingguo told the Voice of America, “The Chinese Communist Party police put the detainees in a room that is isolated from the outside and closed on all sides. The police are allowed to inflict abuse, such as beatings, sleep and food bans, and humiliation. It is difficult for lawyers to intervene, and the outside world has no idea of the serious human rights persecution of the alleged detainees. Moreover, during their detention, the detainees are only given half a day’s sentence for each day they are detained.”
In June 2020, Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch, said that many human rights defenders in China pay the ultimate price simply for speaking the truth; she also said that countries should respect their commitment to human rights and hold the Chinese Communist government accountable.
The author believes that everyone in the 11-15 arrests, whether they have been released or are still behind bars, and even their families, have accumulated a large number of various experiences and feelings, both the same and unique, in dealing with law enforcement and justice. Due to the limited space and the restricted interview conditions, this article only shows part of the stories of some people, which is not enough to present the full content of the physical and mental shocks suffered by all.
Some analysts say that elites such as Liu Xiaobo, Ren Zhiqiang, and Cai Xia frighten the rulers of the CCP, and that many of the grassroots people arrested in the 11-15 case, who live in cheap rented houses and earn little money, also frighten the rulers of the CCP. At the same time, the rulers keep the elite to the grassroots under their rule living in fear.
The English philosopher Bacon said that fear is the most terrible enemy that crushes human personality.
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