■ Since February 27, four weeks after the much-reported torture of Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang (谢阳). who has been imprisoned since July 2015, the two family-appointed lawyers of Xie have repeatedly been denied meetings with him. The last time they saw him was February 6. According to Chinese law, lawyers are free to meet their clients any time during the trial stage. Rattled by the coverage of torture and responses by international legal professionals as well as foreign governments, China took extraordinary steps in early March to deny the torture and attempt to discredit the report, in an all-out propaganda assault. They forced lawyer Jiang Tianyong to confess to the “fabrication” on national television, and threatened Xie Yang’s lawyer Chen Jiangang (陈建刚), responsible for publishing his transcript of meetings with Xie Yang as the latter recounted the torture he was put through in heart wrenching detail. Recently, without the family’s knowledge or consent, a lawyer named He Xiaodian (贺小电) visited Xie Yang in custody at least once, apparently at the bidding of the authorities, in an attempt to get Xie to appoint lawyers who will cooperate with the government. Xie Yang’s wife Chen Guiqiu (陈桂秋), a professor of environmental science at Hunan University, wrote the following letter to Mr. He Xiaodian. This is an important development in the Xie Yang story, and China Change here offers an unauthorized translation of the letter. — The Editors
To the honorable Director He,* greetings:
Director He, as you can tell from the salutation, I continue to treat you respectfully.
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| Left to right: Chen Jiangang, Liu Zhengqing, and Chen Guiqiu in front of the Changsha 2nd Detention Center in December, 2016. |
I was shocked to learn that you led a group of people to visit Xie Yang in the detention center. Did you know that for the last month Xie Yang’s own defense lawyers, Liu Zhengqing (刘正清)and Chen Jiangang, have been prevented from seeing him? Their legally stipulated rights have not been protected, and yet you were allowed to pay a visit. Can you tell me why?
Do you know the details of how Xie Yang has been tortured for over more than a year? Did you know that, because we exposed the details of the inhumane torture he was subject to, I was summoned, interrogated, and threatened at the end of last year? Did you see the reports vilifying Xie Yang run by CCTV, Phoenix, and Global Times in early March this year? Did you know that lawyer Chen Jiangang has been investigated, intimidated, and threatened? Did you know that he is currently having trouble in his practice and that he has two young children to provide for? Did you know that lawyer Liu Zhengqing has attempted to visit Xie Yang on numerous occasions, including many personal trips to the detention center, whereupon he has simply been rudely told to go away?
We have already clashed once before over this, last September. At the time, Xie Yang had been locked up for 16 months and hadn’t once been able to see his defense lawyers, yet you managed to see him several times! How strange, given that I had never hired you, or met you — yet you were somehow able to enjoy the extralegal privilege of meeting with my husband. And now, without even asking me for a cent or seeking my signature on a Power of Attorney letter, you’ve happily gone to the detention center to see Xie Yang, while the lawyers that I myself hired to defend him, who traveled long distances to Changsha, couldn’t see their client? As a lawyer, why is your allegiance aligned with certain people, and not the law?
Though it’s nothing unusual in today’s society, your eagerness to do the government’s bidding still gave me a shock. This is because I know that many years ago you left your post as a judge and were determined to become a lawyer. You seemed to be one of those who knew where the future of China was headed, and knew how to maintain a basic sense of human decency. You’re over 50 years of age, yet you still allow yourself to be led by the nose. Is it that you need to help frame up Xie Yang so you can bolster your political credentials? Or is it that they promised you a huge cash reward for cooperating? While you grieve for the recent passing of your own mother, have you considered that Xie Yang too has aging parents who are hoping for their son’s return? And that his brothers and sisters are all waiting to be reunited with him?
What is the purpose of your meeting Xie Yang, anyway? Did you go to try to force him to sign papers commissioning you as his lawyer? Why are you willing to be the scapegoat for these people? Do you want to become Xie Yang’s lawyer, enter a guilty plea on his behalf, and send him to jail? What I’m thinking is: even though you may be gaining benefit from doing this, and gaining illicit privilege, you may not be able to enjoy peace for the rest of your life. Surely you’ve heard of the many cases where ordinary people fight back against the injustice inflicted on them. I personally have no way of guaranteeing that, in Xie Yang’s case, there’s no relative or friend who won’t take excessive measures in his defense.
The right and wrong in this case is so clear that a four-year-old would understand! Perhaps in your heart you do understand, but you are bound by mutual interest with the relevant organs, have to do what they ask you to, and get rewarded for doing so, in the face of overwhelming public condemnation.
I heard that you don’t like to go online, so I’m going to ask one of your colleagues to share with you the reports from the three media mentioned above, accusing us of fabricating the torture, so you can watch them together and exercise your meticulous legal reasoning, of which I think you’re still capable. You can see for yourself how how the top-tier state media outlets of the country represent the twisted logic of the relevant departments handling the case; see for yourself the pure idiocy of it all; and realize how you are becoming part of this web of lies they’re weaving. You could still back away from this travesty, unless you believe that the sun can rise in the west if the people in power say so, and everyone else in China are deaf, dumb, and blind.
I’d like to think your actions thus far are a slip of judgment after a talk, or a drinking party, with certain people. But when it comes to Xie Yang’s case, we won’t let this happen. Please, think it over carefully.
Xie Yang’s wife, Chen Guiqiu
April 5, 2017
*He Xiaodian is the head of Hunan Gangwei Law Firm (湖南纲维律师事务所) in Changsha where Xie Yang was once an associate.
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