Chang Shuanming, the father of Shaanxi human rights lawyer Chang Weiping, said via Weibo on Monday (November 30) that he has met his son, but his unusual words have made him worry that Chang Weiping is in fear of being tortured and that his safety has been threatened.
After being placed under “residential surveillance” for inciting subversion of state power in late October, local Baoji police suddenly arranged a meeting with his father, Chang Shuanming, last Wednesday (November 25). At the end of the meeting, Chang Wei-ping suddenly shouted, “You and my mother must live a good life,” which made Chang’s father worry that Chang Wei-ping’s personal safety was threatened and he was being tortured.
According to Chen’s attorney and sources, the Chang family and friends have not only been harassed and silenced by the police and the local National Security Agency, but also by the senior management of the hospital where Chang’s wife works, who have been pressuring her to stay quiet since her father made the incident public on Weibo this week. The four lawyers appointed by the Chang family have all been prevented from defending Chang’s wife by their respective judicial bureaus. In response, a source with knowledge of the situation said, “The authorities are now in a naked “one lawyer at a time, one lawyer at a time” situation.
Chen Jiangang, a lawyer who also suffered political persecution and has now fled to the United States, said in an interview with the Voice of America that since Xi Jinping came to power in China, human rights lawyers have become enemies of the Chinese regime. The Communist Party’s illegal persecution of dissidents and human rights lawyers has become the norm since the 709 lawyers manhunt in 2015.
In the new era of Xi Jinping, this has become the norm,” he said. The norm is that the CCP has, in effect, abolished the criminal defense system; or, in other words, terminated the Chinese criminal procedure law.”
Chang’s father: Chang Wei-ping gives an account of the aftermath?
According to Chang’s Weibo posting on Monday, he met with Chang Wei-ping last Wednesday at the Maying police station next to the Baoji High-tech Branch. The father and son sobbed. Wei Ping had lost a lot of weight, his eyes were red, his face was tired, and he spoke slowly…as if reciting from memory.
According to Chang’s father, at that time, Chang Wei-ping asked all of his family members, including his wife and parents-in-law, not to travel for him or raise awareness of the case through the Internet. However, when the meeting ended and Chang’s father walked out of the interview room, Chang Wei-ping was suddenly heard shouting from inside the room, “You and my mother must live a good life!
Chang Shuanming wrote: “Is this a post-mortem? I was instantly crushed by the sad and terrified voice. Son, you must hold on, Dad won’t give up!”
Chang Shuanming, a former village party secretary, has written several times expressing his concern for his son’s safety and his anger at the authorities for harassing Chang Wei Ping’s wife’s hospital work and illegally obstructing her appointed lawyer’s defense. He once exclaimed, “One person tortured, the whole family loses their jobs!
According to Chang Shuanming’s posting, Zhang Tingyuan, a lawyer appointed by him since the end of November, was forcibly taken away from his hotel by the Judicial Bureau, which arrived at Baoji City the day after his arrival. Chang Shuanming denounced the Baoji High-tech Bureau as “using the law as toilet paper.
The family’s lawyer was repeatedly blocked
According to sources, Zhang Keke, a lawyer appointed by Chang’s father, stayed in Baoji for four days, but was unable to meet with Chang and was pressured by the local judicial bureau upon his return to Hubei. The other two attorneys, Chen Jinxue and Fu Ai Ling, received obstructive and threatening phone calls from the Guangzhou Bureau of Justice and the National Security Bureau immediately after they applied for an interview at the Xingao Branch Office, and were forced to withdraw from the case.
According to sources, Chang Wei-ping’s wife works in a hospital in Shenzhen, and this week the hospital executives also came out to pressure Chang’s family to keep a low profile, not to accept media interviews, and not to make any more noise about Chang’s case, and even the friends who provided assistance were threatened by the National Security on several occasions.
In response, Chen Jiangang, a lawyer, said that not only has China’s judicial system been reduced to a tool of the regime’s oppression, but now even lawyers, a channel for redress, are controlled and monopolized by the Chinese government.
He said that the situation under Xi Jinping’s rule is to “eliminate the group of human rights lawyers. Therefore, the Chinese Communist Party, from the arrest, detention, harassment of family members, family members are not allowed to hire their own lawyers, the lawyers hired by the judicial system after the threat to quit, the government to arrange the nature of the performance of the official lawyer, to the final sentence of several years of imprisonment and what crime, have been institutionalized like “assembly line production”, not according to the law, and ultimately also by the government unilateral decision. .
Fear and Despair
Based on past experience and the case studies of many human rights lawyers, Chen Jiangang says that the Baoji police arranged the meeting with the Chang family in order to silence them through the mouth of Chang Wei-ping. He said that Chang’s out-of-control cries after the meeting were a sign that he was in a state of fear and despair.
He said, “The purpose of this meeting is to tell Chang’s family what they have rehearsed and rehearsed many times and to use Chang’s mouth to say what the authorities have said. That is, leave me alone outside, don’t make any noise, don’t argue, don’t appeal for my case, and listen to the government. This is the only goal of the official government, and I believe that he (Chang Wei-ping) is completely in this kind of fear, and the last thing he said was actually a kind of complete fear, desperation.”
Chen said that when suspects are imprisoned, they are under 24-hour police control, and when they are tortured by the police to the point of fear, they are easily controlled, and it is easy to make them act like puppets.
He said pessimistically that in the face of repression, the families, lawyers, and civic circles are defenseless, relying only on the fact of innocence and adherence to the law. But in a dysfunctional rule of law environment, when falsely accused, repressed, according to the law also can not be redressed, as “the scholar met the soldier”, can do extremely limited. He said the Baoji police have not produced any evidence of Chang Wei-ping’s crimes, but “the current situation is that people are on the chopping block and I am the flesh on the bone”. He asserted that the human rights situation in China will only get worse.
Chen Jiangang concluded that it is highly likely that Chang Weiping will be tortured again, ranging from 24 hours of exhausting interrogation to harsh physical torture. The first time Chang Wei-ping was tortured in January of this year, he sat on the so-called “tiger chair” and was left with numbness in his fingers and other long-term effects.
A Few AIDS Pro Bono Lawyers
Chang Wei-ping, 36, worked in an automobile factory and began studying to be a lawyer on his own in 2009, obtaining his law license in 2013. He has represented several public interest and sensitive rights cases, including employment and discrimination against AIDS and hepatitis B patients, and problematic vaccines, and is a passionate and fair-minded lawyer in civic circles.
In December 2019, he was invited to attend a conference in Xiamen sponsored by Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, among others, to discuss his views on legal practice and hot-button issues with nearly 20 human rights lawyers and friends in civic circles.
However, in mid-January, he was arrested by Baoji police for “endangering national security” and placed under “residential surveillance” for ten days until January 23, when he was released on bail pending trial on charges of inciting subversion of state power.
According to Chang Weiping’s “Everyday Life” video series on his YouTube channel, during his 10 months in Baoji, police and national security officers harassed him daily by phone, demanded to meet with him once a week, summoned him once criminally and administratively, and took his statement 16 times, but he was never found. Evidence of guilt. He insisted on his innocence and said that these unnecessary investigative processes had caused him great physical and mental stress, as well as disruption to his life, family, and circle of friends.
He once complained: “The work that the so-called human rights lawyers do, although it is small and insignificant, I am proud to say that I think we are contributing to the progress of society, or, as a citizen, fulfilling our obligations to our fellow citizens and society around us. We do not deserve to be treated this way, if not rewarded.”
Self-admitted torture treatment
In a video he posted on October 16, he made a significant statement about the illegal torture he was subjected to during his first residential surveillance in January of this year. He said, “I was severely tortured by the Baoji City Public Security Bureau during the process of being prosecuted. I was chained to a tiger bench in the guest house of the Baotian Hotel 24 hours a day for 10 days, an extreme form of torture. The damage caused to me is that the index and ring fingers of my right hand are still numb, insensitive or perceptibly abnormal to this day.”
According to sources, the video may have led to his re-arrest on October 22, and he has been under “residential surveillance” since then in retaliation.
The Voice of America (VOA) called the Baoji City High-Tech Criminal Police Department for advice, and the police officer on duty conveyed the senior leadership’s request that reporters “come to the scene to understand, on the phone, online can not reply. In addition, the Voice of America has also made several phone calls to the deputy director of the Gaoxin Branch, Xiang Xianhong, and the chief of the Guangzhou Judicial Bureau, Li, and left messages and emails, but they have not been returned.
The unexplained detention of Chang Wei-ping has aroused the concern of the international community.
The Geneva Bar Association issued a public letter at the end of October expressing its grave concern to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and made five demands: First, release Chang Wei Ping immediately if there is no reliable evidence. Ensure that Chang Weiping has unrestricted access to his family and lawyers of his choice. Ensure that Chang Weiping is not subjected to torture or other harsh treatment during his detention. As a party to the United Nations Convention against Torture, China must abide by the rights it guarantees. Ensure that Chang Wei Ping receives due process and a fair trial, particularly by respecting the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence under the rule of law. Guarantee that Chang Wei-ping and all Chinese lawyers are and will be free from harassment, intimidation, and reprisal in the performance of their professional duties and their lawful activities in defense of human rights.
International Concern and Solidarity
In addition, six major international legal organizations, including the International Bar Association and the Bar Council of England and Wales Human Rights Committee, have issued a joint statement making the same demands.
In late November, six representatives of the AIDS community in China sent an open letter to the Baoji City Police, using pseudonyms, calling on the police to comply with the law.
The letter states that he (Chang Wei Ping) has been featured in the media in almost every case he has represented, which has led to a greater awareness of the existence of people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as equal employment rights for people living with HIV and AIDS, and has allowed employers to learn about the law and reduce prejudice and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. It can be said that every lawsuit is a case of changing the fate of people living with AIDS… The AIDS community hopes that Baoji Public Security will handle the case according to the law and protect the rights of lawyers. “
According to Chinese publicist Jim Yang, who assisted with the launch, under China’s current oppressive regime, the civil society and lawyers are increasingly being politically persecuted, not only for their own safety, but also for the reprisals against their friends and family. In this climate, few people in China dare to speak out in solidarity with persecuted citizens or human rights activists, and this chilling effect is taking hold not only in China, but also among overseas Chinese in Europe and the United States, who are increasingly silent for fear of reprisals against their loved ones back home.
Whether one is in Europe or the U.S., one is afraid to speak out,” Yang told the Voice of America.
Yang, who is based in the United States, is also pessimistic about the rule of law and the human rights environment in China.
There are few pro bono lawyers willing to help them, he said, because of the multiple risks they face as defense attorneys, including the morality of society, the difficulties of litigation, and the risk of offending the state-owned enterprises and other large institutions they are challenging, or even retaliation by local authorities.
Therefore, Yang highly praised Chang Wei Ping’s courage and sense of justice in defending the rights of these disadvantaged groups and believed in his law-abiding principles, and he called on the police to stop retaliating against Chang Wei Ping.
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