On August 17, 1996, shortly after arriving at Luoshan Labor Camp to begin a three-year Reeducation Through Labor sentence, prominent Zhejiang human rights activist Chen Longde, 39, leapt from a window to escape torture. A senior prison official admitted to Chen's father that he and a group of other officers had beaten Chen with clubs and electric batons in an attempt to force him to write a statement of guilt and self-criticism. The officers had also encouraged other inmates to torture Chen, promising sentence reductions if they could beat a confession out of him.
Sustaining two broken hips, a broken leg and facial injuries in his fall, Chen was moved to Hangzhou Qingchun Hospital, a police facility, where he spent months on his back without moving. On December 1, 1996, he was returned to the labor camp still suffering from his injuries, including kidney damage related to the beatings. Usual duties at Luoshan involve heavy quarrying work. Unable to walk, Chen must put in the required work hours at tasks which he can do while sitting.
Police apprehended Chen in Hangzhou on May 28, 1996, after he, Wang Donghai and five other Zhejiang activists signed and released "An Open Letter to the National People's Congress on the Seventh Anniversary of June Fourth." The petition demanded the release of Wei Jingsheng and all other political and religious prisoners; appealed for an official reassessment of the 1989 democracy movement, including punishment of those responsible for the June Fourth massacre and compensation for its victims; called for freedom of expression as well as other political reforms; and decried the rampant corruption engendered by a system without institutionalized checks and balances. After more than a month in detention, on July 2 Chen was sent to serve a Reeducation Through Labor term without any trial or other judicial proceeding, for "endangering state security."
Formerly a factory worker, Chen's commitment to speaking out for democracy and human rights has brought him repeated persecution. He served a three-year sentence after being convicted of "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" for distributing handbills during the 1989 protests. In late May 1995 Chen was detained for a few days in connection with petition activities, released only on the condition that he would not speak out around the June Fourth anniversary. When Wei Jingsheng was formally arrested in November 1995, Chen and several others responded with an open letter of protest, and was consequently jailed from December 14 to January 12, 1996.
"In the face of the great tide of international democratization, on the eve of the arrival of the 21st century, no political party or national leader can evade the issue of democracy, which has already become the most urgent theme of our era. If those in power do not have the wisdom or the courage to march to the step of political reform, they will be swallowed up by history, cast aside by the people, and condemned by China through the ages.From "An Open Letter to the National People's Congress on the Seventh Anniversary of June Fourth," signed by Wang Donghai, Chen Longde, Wu Gaoxing, Mao Guoliang, Ye Wenxiang, Fu Quan and Zhao Wanmin.
"We proceed from the long-term interests of the people, and we are willing to struggle together with anyone who cares about China's fate - including the ruling party and its members - to realize the modernization of China, to build a democratic system which will bring China into accord with the needs of modern civilization."