Beijing human rights activist Wang Guoqi has been on the streets since last year, threatened and harassed by the police because he was deprived of his working years by the authorities. In an interview with our reporter on Thursday, Wang told us about his wandering experience and petitions in Beijing.
Since last year, Beijing rights activist Wang Guoqi has been living on the streets. On May 20 of this year, Wang Guozhi told the station, “I don’t have money to rent an apartment, I have no income. Last year, I really ran out of ideas and asked them (press: referring to the government) for a minimum living deposit of 1,170 yuan a month.”
As previously reported, Wang Guozhi, who is 60 years old, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party in 1992 for his involvement in the formation of the “China Freedom and Democracy Party. Last May, he learned that his service prior to 1992 had been revoked by the authorities, leaving him with only fifteen years of service since his release, and therefore only the minimum pension insurance.
While Wang Guozhi was serving his sentence, his housing at Beijing Language and Culture University was taken away from him and his files were lost. Currently, Wang Guozhi is living on the streets of Beijing due to poverty, illness and lack of income.
Wang Guozhi, who petitioned for his rights, outside the Beijing People’s Visitors’ Reception Room on Feb. 22, 2021 (Courtesy of Wang Guozhi, exclusive premiere)
Wang Guoqi told reporters that he was dating a girlfriend. Caught in a life of vagrancy, he is sometimes taken care of by his girlfriend: “My girlfriend often lets me go to the house she rents for herself and helps me more or less. But just in this case, they kept calling and harassing, and the police came to the house to harass.”
Recently, police learned that Wang Guoqi sometimes sleeps over at his girlfriend’s house and makes phone threats. Wang Guoqi said, “Yesterday (May 19) also threatened to go to the home to check, and then I was no way. I could only spend the night in the police station, because I did not go to my girlfriend’s yesterday either.”
In desperation, Wang Guozhi had to go to the Dongsheng police station in Beijing’s Haidian district where he was called late on May 19, and spent that night in a chair outside the police station. In the police station, Wang Guozhi questioned the police: “I said, who made this phone call? You’ve made it so I can’t even live here!”
Photo of Wang Guozhi taken in the early hours of May 20, 2021 after spending the night outside the Dongsheng Police Station in Beijing’s Haidian District (courtesy of Wang Guozhi)
Reporters have also called the Dongsheng police station to try to find out more details about the incident, but the phone went unanswered.
Wang Guoqi said that since last year, he has wandered around Beijing in places including Wangfujing, East and West Chang’an Street, Qianmen, the area around College Road, Nanchizi, Xidan and other places. Currently, he is making a petition to try to get his cancelled service back. Talking about his recent situation, he said, “The situation is not particularly good recently, because petitioning is very difficult. Especially the identity and particularly special, there are a lot of practical problems, many departments are not much love management, mainly to shirk responsibility to put me off, there is little progress.”
Wang Guozhi sleeping on the street in April 2021 (Courtesy of Wang Guozhi)
Wang Guoqi’s friend Xu Yonghai, who was imprisoned for two years for exposing the persecution of Christian house church members by the Liaoning police, was also deprived of his seniority and pension for the same reason, and is currently petitioning for the same. In recounting his encounter with Wang Guozhi, he said angrily, “I was in jail for two years, and Wang Guozhi was in jail for 11 years. If I live to be 80 years old, I won’t get my pension for 20 years. What if I live to be ninety? I won’t get a pension for 30 years.”
Wang Guoqi, for his part, believes that the threat of a police home invasion investigation that forced him to live in a place of no return is related to his status as a petitioner: “Petitioning is particularly difficult, and I am harassed by public security, and I am harassed in my actual life, and I am harassed in the process of petitioning.”
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