Cameras installed in front of home Tianjin visitor Zhang Jianzhong released from prison still being monitored

Tianjin human rights activist Zhang Jianzhong was arrested and sentenced to two years and three months in prison for watching human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang’s trial in 2018, and is still under close surveillance by the authorities after his release from prison in March this year. He says there is no rule of law in China and hopes to use facts to let more people know about the brutality of the Chinese Communist regime.

On the afternoon of May 28, the wall police station of the Hebei District Public Security Bureau in Tianjin installed another surveillance camera at the door, just a few meters from his room.

A little earlier, he went on a trip to the south and was also placed under house arrest. “It used to be the same thing, getting people away and under house arrest, it happens all the time.” He said.

According to a report by Rights Defense Network, June 4 is approaching and the Chinese Communist Party is entering a “super stability maintenance season. Zhang Jianzhong said that every year, such petitioners and sensitive figures have to maintain stability. “The so-called sensitive people are the ones who have exposed their atrocities. The petitioned ones are also, treated unfairly, are also exposing them. All are regarded as hostile forces, destabilizing factors, terrorists.”

The reporter called the wall police station, the voice prompt for off status. The reporter called another phone number of the office, the other party answered and said he was not aware of the matter on the grounds that he had just taken over the shift. But he admitted that the phone that was turned off was the office’s phone, explaining that there was no electricity.

Zhang Jianzhong said the political situation in the country is bad. He was convicted for his words and exposed something tangible. He hopes to reflect the current situation of human rights in China in an objective way.

On Dec. 26, 2018, the trial of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who has been missing for nearly three years, began, and Zhang Jianzhong went to the Tianjin Second Intermediate Court to observe the trial, was arrested by police on the spot, and was then criminally detained and sentenced to two years and three months for provocation and disorderly conduct, and returned home on March 26 this year after completing his sentence.

Zhang Jianzhong told reporters, “The reason for getting into prison this time is to observe the case of Wang Quanzhang, who was forcibly disappeared for nearly three years. But when the conviction was handed down, there was no mention of the huddle at the Second Central Court, it was a conviction for words, saying that something affecting the country’s image was posted on Facebook.”

The contents of the Tianjin judicial indictment and verdict against Zhang Jianzhong show that his case went through and did not go beyond freedom of expression. The police seized three of his computers and a cell phone for “evidence collection.

According to the verdict, Zhang Jianzhong’s registered Facebook account repeatedly posted or re-posted posts about major domestic events and was charged with “seriously damaging the image of the country, etc.” Some of the posts read: “The NPC deputies were re-elected because they had “boiled up from a small daughter-in-law to an old woman, and from a small rascal to an old man. The new China’s liberation” is “the liberation of hooligans, bandits and criminals”, etc.

Zhang Jianzhong was charged with “damaging the country’s image” for posting on Facebook. The picture shows part of the verdict. (provided by the interviewer)

According to the verdict, Zhang Jianzhong used a random IP address outside of China to access the Facebook website through the Freedom Gate wall-scrambling software because the domestic IP address could not access the website directly.

The police inspected Zhang Jianzhong’s computer hard drive and accessed the hard drive’s system, ran the system desktop’s Freegate software for wall browsing information on overseas websites, and logged into Facebook to directly access Zhang Jianzhong’s account information. The police fixed the friend page of Zhang Jianzhong’s Facebook account and saved it in the form of web screenshots. This was used as evidence for prosecution.

Zhang Jianzhong said that in court, the judge would not let him speak. In fact the verdict and prosecution can not stand up to scrutiny, is assigned by the municipal government above, the Political and Legal Committee down, must be sentenced, the sentence is obviously too heavy. The two lawyers signed a confidentiality agreement, the so-called evidence information is not allowed to pass out. The trial is not open to the public, not allowed to observe, the family requested the webcast was not approved.

Reported Tianjin officials have fallen whistleblowers are still being hit

Zhang Jianzhong was originally an employee of the TEDA Group, and from around 2004, he reported local officials to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Tianjin Discipline Inspection Commission, and various departments in accordance with the law. Unexpectedly, the Public Security Bureau provided the recording of his report to his unit, and the Discipline Inspection Commission department provided the list of whistleblowers to the unit, which led to the unit’s crazy retaliation against him.

For example, the company made so many torturous rules and regulations, when he drove in TEDA, a quarter exceeded the company’s prescribed fuel consumption of 0.6 liters, he was fined 600 yuan; for example, the vehicle was late, did not receive the leadership or employees, employees hit the taxi money are borne by the driver; forced the driver to plow snow for the company in the middle of winter, cold after the snow, he suffered from asthma as a result… …

Zhang Jianzhong has unnamedly accused Zhang Gaoli, Huang Xingguo, Wu Changshun, Liu Huifeng, He Lifeng, Gou Lijun and other officials of alleged inaction during the main administration in Tianjin, and allegedly involved in harboring and conniving at the alleged corrupt forces of TEDA Group such as Dong Wensheng and Huang Tao.

According to land media reports, TEDA Group Chairman Liu Huiwen died at home on April 19, 2014, at the age of 60, rumored to be a suicide. Wu Changshun and Huang Xingguo fell from power in July 2014 and October 2016, respectively.

Zhang Jianwen said, “Liu Huiwen was the boss of TEDA, fear of suicide. When reporting Huang Xingguo, Wu Changshun, were met with genocidal retaliation, they arrested, should we be rehabilitated? Many suffering people openly shouted down the Communist Party, why? Because the people no longer see hope. The people have suffered and are not allowed to speak.”

He said, “I don’t have the ability to change the brutality of the CCP, but I have the ability to use facts to let more people know the brutality of the current regime.”

In 2009, Zhang Jianzhong was fired from his unit for petitioning and had no income and could not afford to see a doctor. He recalls, “I carried materials to Beijing at that time, in time for the two sessions, was searched for reporting materials, they said I committed suicide in Tiananmen Square, detained for ten days and the unit gave the dismissal. In China there is no right and wrong, only strong and weak.”

“The black water of things inside the officialdom is too deep, I do not think China is corrupt to this extent, the one-party system is the biggest drawback. Wasn’t Hitler the (Nazi) party that led everything? Anti-corruption is an internal struggle of interest groups, not a real anti-corruption. Can you finish swatting flies by guarding the dung heap?” He said, “Now it’s even more brutal, even talking is now a crime. The barrel of a gun is the rule of law, what kind of reasoning can you speak to hooligans carrying guns and driving tanks?”

He stressed that back then he was real name with evidence, the central inspection team approached him to talk about these things, but there was no follow-up. “It’s been almost 20 years since this kind of genocidal retaliation. My health is getting worse every day, and I’m now in my 60s.”

At the Hebei District Detention Center in Tianjin, the basic cost of living is 300 yuan a month, and meals are rationed, regardless of satiety. Due to the serious lack of nutrition, his health is deteriorating, and he feels that “staying in the prison for one year is a loss of life for three months”.

“In the detention center and fell a new problem, unexplained dizziness. The disease worsened and suddenly fell down, unconscious, sent to the hospital to rescue, almost became the second Guo Hongwei.” He said.