709 Crackdown Three Years on: A Tribute to Wang Quanzhang

Yaxue Cao, on the second China Human Rights Lawyers’ Day, July 8, 2018, New York

Wang Quanzhang, around 2010 As of today, lawyer Wang Quanzhang has been held incommunicado for 1,095 days. Over the 1,095 days, his toddler has grown into a boy who vows to fight the “Monster” that took his father; his wife has metamorphosed from a timid housewife to one of the most recognizable faces of the 709 resistance. With each day, we worry about Wang Quanzhang’s fate: Is he still alive? Has he been so severely debilitated by torture that they can’t even show him? These dreadful thoughts eat at our hearts when we think about Wang Quanzhang, and we don’t know how not to think about him.

Wang Quanzhang is 42 years old. Like most human rights lawyers in China, he was born and raised in the countryside, and came of age with a deep-rooted sense that Chinese society was unjust and unfair.

He graduated from Shandong University in 2000 with a law degree. While still in college in 1999, the brutal, nationwide suppression against Falun Gong began, and he provided legal assistance to Falun Gong practitioners. That makes him one of the earliest defenders of Falun Gong. As a result, he was threatened and his home was raided by police.

After college, Wang Quanzhang took up volunteer work to teach villagers about Chinese law near Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong. He debated with villagers about whether it was power, or the law, that was supreme in China. The villagers believed that in China, power rules — not the law.

They were right then, and they’re right now.

In 2008 Wang Quanzhang moved to Beijing and worked at a string of NGOs. In 2009 he and friends co-founded the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group NGO (中国维权紧急援助组), to expand access to legal assistance for victims, organize trainings for fellow lawyers, and teach victims to become citizen lawyers using China’s civil and administrative laws.

After 2013, he focused on his legal practice and defended persecuted individuals in court, especially Falun Gong practitioners.

Wang Quanzhang was a lawyer with the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm when he was swept up along with scores of other lawyers and activists in July 2015. Among the rights lawyers, he was known for being beaten up a lot, inside and outside the court.

Oh yes, court bailiffs do beat lawyers sometimes, though China has yet to apply for World Cultural Heritage status for this practice.

In February, 2017, Wang Quanzhang was indicted for “subversion of state power.” No one has yet seen a copy of the indictment. We don’t know how the Communist Party built its case against him, but we do know that they have been eager to have him admit guilt, without success.

Foreseeing what was to come, Wang Quanzhang left a letter for his parents in July 2015:

No matter how despicable and ridiculous we appear to be in the portrayal by the manipulated media, Mother, Father, please believe your son, and please believe your son’s friends.

My taking up the work—and walking down the path—of defending human rights wasn’t just a sudden impulse. Instead, it came from a hidden part of my nature, a calling that has intensified over the years—and has always been slowly reaching up like ivy.

This path is doomed to be thorny, tortuous, and rocky.

Dear Father and Mother, please feel proud of me. Also, no matter how horrible the situation is, you must hang on and live, and wait for the day when the clouds disperse and the sun shines through.

I’m immensely grateful for this note of hope, a note of hope from someone who seems to have the least reason to embrace hope.

So what choice do we have but to remain strong, and forge ahead? We have a monster to slay, or our dignity, our freedoms, and indeed, our humanity, will be in peril.

Thank you.

Yaxue Cao edits this website. Follow her on Twitter @YaxueCao

致敬王全璋：2018年中國人權律師獎獲得者

曹雅學，第二屆中國人權律師節頒獎詞，2018年7月8日，美國紐約

截止今天，王全璋律師已經與世隔絕，被秘密羈押了1,095天。在這1,095天裡，他的兒子從一個兩歲的乳兒長成了一個虎虎生風的小男孩。小男孩發誓要去打那個把爸爸帶走的“怪獸”。在這1,095天尋找丈夫的過程中，妻子李文足從一個拘謹的家庭主婦變成了709抗爭中最為人熟悉的面孔之一。每一天，我們擔心著王全璋的命運：他還活著嗎？他是不是被酷刑殘廢了、不能見人？當我們想到王全璋的時候，這些可怕的想法噬咬着我們的心。

王全璋今年42歲。如同大部分中國人權律師一樣，他在貧苦的鄉村出生、長大，對中國社會的不義與不公有早早的、刻骨銘心的體驗。

他於2000年畢業於山東大學法學院。1999年，當中國政府開始在全國對法輪功實施野蠻鎮壓的時候，他還是個在校生，那時就為法輪功學員提供法律援助。這使得他成為中國境內最早為法輪功辯護的人之一。他因此遭到威脅，他的住所遭到查抄。

大學畢業後有三年的時間裡，王全璋工作之餘，在濟南附近的農村給村民上法律課。他和村民辯論在中國是法大，還是權大。村民們認為，在中國，權力大於法律。

村民們那時是對的，現在仍然是對的。

2008年王全璋從濟南搬到北京，在不同的民間公益組織工作過。2009年，他和朋友共同創建了“中國維權緊急援助組”，向權益受害者提供法律救助，為律師提供培訓，同時訓練受害者成為公民律師。

2013年後，他進入律師事務所，成為刑辯律師，專心代理個案，特別是法輪功案件。

2015年7月，王全璋和幾十名律師與公民活動者遭到抓捕的時候，他是北京鋒銳律師事務所的執業律師。在人權律師中，王全璋有“挨打律師”之稱。挨打可以發生在庭外，可以發生在庭上。

是的，是有這樣的事情：在中國的法庭上，法警可以對律師大打出手。不過中國政府還沒有給這項舉世無雙的做法申請“世界文化遺產”。

2017年2月，王全璋被以“顛覆國家政權罪”起訴。但不管是他的律師還是家人，無人看到過這份起訴書。因此，我們不知道共產黨是怎麼給他羅織罪名的，但是我們知道，他們急於逼迫王全璋認罪，但沒有獲得成功。

王全璋預見到了將會發生的事情，他在2015年7月被捕前不久留下了一封《致父母書》。他寫道：

無論那些被操縱的媒體把我們描述和刻畫成多麽可憎、可笑的人物，父親母親，請相信你的兒子，請相信你兒子的朋友們。

從事捍衛人權的工作，走上捍衛人權的道路，不是我的心血來潮，隱秘的天性，內心的召喚，歲月的積累，一直像常青藤慢慢向上攀爬。

這樣的道路注定荊棘密布，坎坷崎嶇。

親愛的父親母親，請為我感到驕傲，並且無論周圍環境怎樣惡劣，一定要頑強的活下去，等待雲開日出的那一天。

對於這封信裡透露出的頑強的樂觀，我深懷感激。它出自一個似乎最沒有理由擁抱希望的人，那麼我們其餘的人除了堅強地往前走，還有什麼選擇呢？我們大家有一個“怪獸”要去打敗；不然的話，我們的尊嚴，我們的自由，乃至我們的人性，都將面臨威脅。

謝謝大家。

曹雅學是本網站（改變中國）的主編。她的推特號是 @YaxueCao

709 Crackdown Three Years on: Mother and Lawyer Reveals Brutality Against Her Teenage Son for the First Time, Wang Yu, July 1, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: ‘I Stayed Because I Want to Change It’, Jiang Tianyong, July 3, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: ‘If This Country Can’t Even Tolerate Lawyers’, a 8-minute video, Wen Donghai, July 4, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: The Many Methods by Which the Chinese Communist Party Cracks Down on Human Rights Lawyers, Lü Shijie, July 4, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: ‘You’re Guilty of Whatever Crime They Say You Are’, a 7-minute video, Sui Muqing, July 5, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: ‘We Don’t Accept the Communist Party’s Attempt to Instill Terror in Us’, a 9-minute video, Xie Yang, July 6, 2018.

709 Crackdown Three Years on: ‘The Most Painful Part of It all Was the Squandering of Life’, Xie Yanyi, July 8, 2018.