Wang Quanzhang, a rights lawyer, finally met with a lawyer after having been disappeared for more than three years. The lawyer, Liu Weiguo, reported that that Wang told him that he has suffered "no hard violence." In the article below, Wang's wife Li Wenzu reminds us what "no hard violence" means in the case of Li Heping, another lawyer detained during the 709 Crackdown.
When Li Heping was released, Li Wenzu writes, he showed no physical injuries, yet he recounted that every day during his incarceration, he was forced to take the medicines given to him, while a doctor wearing a white coat watched, prying open his mouth to make sure he swallowed them. To Li Heping, that experience was tantamount to a death threat. He was forced to stand in one fixed position for more than 15 hours every day. He was allowed to sleep in only the supine position, and guards would wake him up if he tried to turn over. His hands and feet were chained together for an entire month; in the winter, he was forced to stand in front of the air conditioner which blew cold air at him for more than ten hours. Also in the winter, at the Tianjin Detention Center, he was only given a thin quilt, and he was so cold that he could not sleep for an entire month. He was just given two buns the size of quail eggs every meal—and his stomach hurt from the hunger. He could not see sunlight all year round.
Li Wenzu writes: "When Quanzhang said that he did not suffer hard violence, he was trying to tell me that he suffered inhuman torment!" Wang Quanzhang told his lawyer Liu everything that happened outside would affect his situation inside; in prison, some of the actions against him weren't even taken by prison guards—it was the overlords among the inmates who were tasked with "solving problems." Li Wenzu worries that all appeals she made on behalf of her husband in the past three years might have caused her husband to be "solved" by the overlords in prison. She says: "Ever since I received news about Wang Quanzhang, I have been feeling even more terrified!"