China Change, published: July 9, 2015
The morning of 10 July, following the news of lawyer Wang Yu (王宇, see Statement below) being disappeared, it has just been reported that lawyer Zhou Shifeng (周世锋律师), director of the Fengrui Law Office in Beijing (北京锋锐律师事务所), was kidnapped this morning and his whereabouts are unknown. Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan tweeted earlier this morning: “Yesterday evening, Zhou Shifeng went to the Tongzhou District Detention Center to pick up Zhang Miao (张淼). (Zhang, a research assistant for the German publication Die Zeit, was arrested in October in Hong Kong last year during the Umbrella Revolution, and she was released from the detention center last night.) Later, Wang Lin, Zhang Miao, and Zhou Shifeng stayed at the Seven Days Hotel in the artist colony Song Zhuang. Wang Lin and Zhang Miao stayed in one room while Zhou Shifeng had an adjacent room. At 7:30 am, Wang Lin heard a hotel attendant knock on the door to Zhou Shifeng’s room. Afterwards, Wang Lin heard Zhou Shifeng shout her name. Wang Lin opened the door and saw Zhou Shifeng, hooded, was forcibly taken away by three men.
According to Liu Xiaoyuan, “At 7:41 am, after I obtained [the above] news, I immediately dialed Director Zhou’s telephone. At that time I could still get through to his phone but no one answered. I am now calling his phone but it is turned off.”
Separately, lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan took a phone call from the Fengrui Law Office assistant Dr. Liu Sixin (刘四新) who said that many policemen had arrived in law firm’s office, and it was feared that the office might be raided.
Lawyer Wang Yu represents the recently arrested activist Wu Gan (吴淦). Before his arrest, Wu Gan worked in the Fengrui Law Office. Lawyer Zhou Shifeng had stated that he would provide 8 million yuan to establish a fund for Chinese rights lawyers. The fund would provide support to families of persecuted lawyers throughout China. Zhou also recently stated that Fengrui Law Office would support Wu Gan’s wife and child for as long as he was in prison.
Below is a statement signed by over 100 lawyers on the disappearance of lawyer Wang Yu:
A Statement Concerning the “Loss of Contact” with Lawyer Wang Yu
Very early in the morning of 9 July 2015, lawyer Wang Yu (王宇) sent a text from her residence in Beijing: “This evening I took my husband and son to the airport. Just now the electricity in my apartment suddenly went off. The Wifi also is not working. I hear people forcing the door and talking outside. I called my husband and son but the calls did not go through.” After 4:00 am, contact with lawyer Wang Yu was lost.
We the undersigned are colleagues and friends of lawyer Wang Yu and, unable to get in touch with Wang Yu, we hereby issue the following statement:
- Wang Yu is a reasonable, polite, and law abiding lawyer. She is not a terrorist, she does not use drugs, nor is she a rowdy troublemaker.
- Wang Yu’s work is consistently open and aboveboard, honest and frank. If the police suspect she has broken the law, the police can openly and honestly summon and investigate her according to the law, and Wang Yu will definitely cooperate.
- We strongly condemn the relevant departments for cutting off the electricity and the internet in the middle of the night and using force to enter Wang Yu’s residence and arrest her. This is an appalling behavior that seriously violates the proper procedures for handling cases and it is a serious departure from the rule of law.
- Cutting off electricity and the internet and apprehending a person in the dark could easily lead to miscalculation on the part of the resident who might treat the intruders as burglars and take defensive action.
- If personnel from the relevant departments have decided covertly to take the law into their own hands, causing bodily harm to both sides, the relevant departments must assume full legal responsibility.
- We urge the relevant departments to remember that handling cases according to the law is your duty and obligation. If coercive measures are taken against lawyer Wang Yu, then her family members must be notified within 24 hours. Obtaining confessions through torture and coercion, as well as abuse of power, is certain to bring down the wrath of Heaven.
Signatories to this Statement:
Wang Quanping, Lawyer from Guangdong
Chen Jiangang, Lawyer from Beijing
Wu Kuiming, Lawyer from Guangdong
Xia Jun, Lawyer from Guangdong
Chen Muqing, Lawyer from Guangdong
Chen Keyun, Lawyer from Guangdong
Liu Zhengqing, Lawyer from Guangdong
Liu Shihui, Lawyer from Guangdong
Wu Zhenqi, Lawyer from Guangdong
Liang Xiaojun, Lawyer from Beijing
Zhang Keke, Lawyer from Hubei
Chen Jinxue, Lawyer from Guangdong
Xie Yang, Lawyer from Hunan
Chang Boyang, Lawyer from Henan
Fu Yonggang, Lawyer from Shandong
Zhou Lixin, Lawyer from Beijing
Zheng Enchong, Lawyer from Shanghai
Ge Wenxiu, Lawyer from Guangdong
Chen Wuquan, Lawyer from Guangdong
Wang Quanzhang, Lawyer from Beijing
Zhao Yonglin, Lawyer from Shandong
Lan Zhixue, Lawyer from Beijing
Liu Wei, Lawyer from Beijing
Meng Meng, Lawyer from Henan
Chen Shuqing, Lawyer from Zhejiang
Wang Jun, Lawyer from Beijing
Li Dawei, Lawyer from Gansu
Wen Yu, Lawyer from Guangdong
Wang Xueming, Lawyer from Shandong
Xu Hongwei, Lawyer from Shandong
Liang Xiubo, Lawyer from Henan
Li Weida, Lawyer from Hebei
Yu Quan, Lawyer from Sichuan
Liu Wei, Lawyer from Henan
Wang Zongyue, Lawyer from Guizhou
Liu Shuqing, Lawyer from Shandong
Peng Jian, Lawyer from Beijing
Hou Lingxian, Lawyer from Heilongjiang
Xu Xianghui, Lawyer from Guangdong
Qin Lei, Lawyer from Shanghai
Zhang Guo, Lawyer from Hunan
Xu Tao, Lawyer from Hubei
Jiang Shoumin, Lawyer from Guangdong
Guo Lianhui, Lawyer from Jiangxi
Xiao Fanghua, Lawyer from Guangdong
Li Changming, Lawyer from Beijing
Wei Youshou, Lawyer from Jiangxi
Feng Yanqiang, Lawyer from Shandong
Liu Sixin, Doctor of Law, Beijing
Tong Huping, Lawyer from Beijing
Luo Xi, Lawyer from Hunan
Yan Anle, Lawyer from Henan
Jiang Yongji, Lawyer from Gansu
Xiao Guozhen, Lawyer from Beijing
Tan Yongpei, Lawyer from Guangxi
Li Yuhan, Lawyer from Beijing
Liang Lanqing, Lawyer from Hebei
Liu Lianhe, Lawyer from Tianjin
Deng Shulin, Lawyer from Sichuan
Guo Jin, Lawyer from Beijing
He Wei, Lawyer from Chongqing
Ren Quanniu, Lawyer from Henan
Shu Xiangxin, Lawyer from Shandong
Zhang Hai, Lawyer from Shandong
Xu Guijuan, Lawyer from Shandong
Liu Jinbin, Lawyer from Shandong
Zhao Guojin, Lawyer from Beijing
Lin Qilei, Lawyer from Beijing
Wang Shengsheng, Lawyer from Guangdong
Zhang Zhongshi, Lawyer from Hunan
Ji Laisong, Lawyer from Henan
Zhuang Daohe, Lawyer from Zhejiang
Li Wenzhi, Lawyer from Hubei
Wen Donghai, Lawyer from Hunan
Li Tiantian, Lawyer from Shanghai
Fan Biaowen, Lawyer from Guangdong
Yao Minfu, Lawyer from Hebei
Yang Xuan, Lawyer from Hunan
Lu Fangzhi, Lawyer from Hunan
Zou Lihui, Lawyer from Fujian
Yu Wensheng, Lawyer from Beijing
Liu Weiguo, Lawyer from Shandong
Li Jinxing, Lawyer from Shandong
Cai Jixin, Lawyer from Guizhou
Wang Qiushi, Lawyer from Heilongjiang
Yang Wei, Lawyer from Sichuan
Xue Rongmin, Lawyer from Shanghai
Xiong Dongmei, Lawyer from Shandong
Wang Cheng, Lawyer from Zhejiang
Jiang Tianyong, Lawyer from Beijing
Tang Jitian, Lawyer from Beijing
Zhang Lei, Lawyer from Beijing
Li Heping, Lawyer from Beijing
Li Fangping, Lawyer from Beijing
Zhang Jiankang, Lawyer from Shaanxi
Zhang Yujuan, Lawyer from Hunan
Teng Biao, Scholar from Beijing
Pang Kun, Lawyer from Guangdong
Wang Haijun, Lawyer from Hunan
Shi Fulong, Lawyer from Hunan
Liu Li, Lawyer from Beijing
Lei Dengfeng, Lawyer from Chongqing
Yang Mingkua, Lawyer from Yunnan
Ceng Weichang, Lawyer from Yunnan
Ma Lianshun, Lawyer from Henan
Zhou Xiaochun, Lawyer from Guangdong
Yan Wenxin, Lawyer from Beijing
You Feizhu, Lawyer from Chongqing
Chen Shihua, Lawyer from Hunan
Zhao Qing, Lawyer from Beijing
Liu Jinxiang, Lawyer from Shandong
Ge Yongxi, Lawyer from Guangdong
Wang Fengming, Lawyer from Hebei
Jia Kaiwen, Lawyer from Guizhou
9 July 2015
———–
Related:
Cataloging the Torture of Lawyers in China, China Change, July 5, 2015.
(Translated by Ai Ru)
Solidarity with you.
sad toheared
sad toheared
A brutish, sinister and lawless regime is leading the PRC for the forseeable future. Mr. Xi will pull a Putin, and extend his clawlike control over “his” country for the next 20 years.
I am sorry to hear of this and pray they will be okay. Even though I live in the U.S. I think of the suffering in China daily and hope to help ease it somehow in the future in any way that I can.
This feels like a substantial, perhaps unprecedented, escalation of government attacks on criminal defense and rights lawyers.
Not only had the government previously mounted (1) a nationwide coordinated media smear campaign against Wang Yu, beginning on 11 June, but has now followed that by (2) disappearing her and, in other reports, her husband and son, in a simultaneous move, and (3) disappeared or detained one and possibly more lawyers in her law firm.
Terry
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