Wang Aizhong confirmed to be arrested, Ou Biao Feng faces being assigned an official lawyer

Guangzhou rights activist Wang Aizhong, who has been charged with “provoking trouble,” has not been released after his criminal detention expired. The authorities sent someone to inform his family on Wednesday that Wang Aizhong had been formally arrested, but did not send him an arrest notice. In addition, the family of Hunan dissident Ou Biaofeng, who is suspected of “inciting subversion,” is in a standoff with authorities over hiring a lawyer.

In late May, dissident Wang Aizhong was taken from his apartment in Guangzhou by public security officials. On Wednesday, the day after his 37-day criminal detention expired, two state security guards from the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau met with his wife, Wang He’nan.

Wang He’nan: “I was told very clearly that Wang Aizhong had been arrested. I said, “Where is the notice? He said that the notice was mailed to me directly from the Procuratorate and should be received soon. The purpose of their visit to me today is to see what my attitude is. I said, as long as he (Wang Aizhong) does not come out, I can not not speak out. I said, the voice can not affect anything, it does not matter, they said, we did not let you do not voice, it feels like they already do not care.”

State Security Threatens Wang Aizhong’s Wife

Wang Aizhong, who is originally from Zhejiang province, went to Guangzhou in the 1990s to study and stayed there after graduation. He was one of the founders of the Southern Street Movement and was released in 2014 on the eve of the 25th anniversary of June 4 after being taken away by police on suspicion of provoking trouble. He has been active on social media Twitter in recent years. Police told his family that his arrest was related to his repeated interviews with foreign media.

Although he has been verbally notified of his arrest, Wang HeNan is still upset.

The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. Guangzhou City mail words may arrive the next day, but now I have not received the letter, I do not know if what they say is true or not. The police station directly let me go over to pick up this family notification letter or. There is no need to tell the family in this way.”

Like Wang Aizhong, Hunan’s Ou Biao Feng is also known for his outspokenness. Ou Biaofeng, who has publicly supported the founder of Hong Kong’s Next Media, Lai Chi-ying, has been out of liberty for more than seven months on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and is currently being held in a detention center in Zhuzhou.

The Zhuzhou City State Security Bureau, which is in charge of the case, recently met with his wife Wei Huanhuan.

Officials want to choose an official lawyer for Ou Biao Feng

The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. The lawyer in Zhuzhou is also more convenient to meet. You family members cooperate very well, and his attitude is very good, then we will strive to give you a quick solution, meaning that there may be a better result. The three people who met with me were three state guards, three people who were wrapped up with me alone. One of the branch chiefs is the more powerful kind. He kept talking and talking and talking, and I couldn’t help it, so I said, ‘Can’t you let us hire one?’ He said, ‘What’s the use of hiring one? Can you make him get less jail time? I said, ‘That’s up to you.’ He said, ‘That’s right, it’s up to us.'”

Wei Huanhuan believes that this is only the official side of the story, and she reckons that it was not Ou Biao Feng’s own wish to hire an official lawyer.

Wei Huanhuan: “Even if he himself had written something like this, it is actually something he might have expressed after being held in solitary confinement for such a long time, after being brainwashed and threatened by them for a long time, after all kinds of coercion and inducement. Not really in line with his legal rights, not a choice made in that sense.”

Ou Biao Feng has long been concerned about social injustice and has also publicly expressed solidarity with Hong Kong’s anti-sending-China movement. After the search of Next Media Hong Kong’s headquarters building last August, Ou Biao Feng tweeted a message of solidarity with Next Media founder Lai Chi-ying and showed a photo of himself holding the front page of Apple Daily. During the period when he was under residential surveillance, public security officials seized several copies of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily from his home.
The family is worried that the authorities will handle the case of Ou Biao Feng in a black box.

Wei Huanhuan: “It wants to prevent the defense from intervening, and then use their own lawyers to go through the next process. Once it is transferred to the prosecutor’s office and we have hired a defender, the lawyer can intervene to check information about the case, and may have to meet with the person concerned to pass out the information inside, but if they are all controlled by themselves, all these things can be done inside behind closed doors.”

Wei Huanhuan stressed that unless he gets confirmation from Ou Biao Feng himself, he will never accept the authorities to arrange a lawyer for him.