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“I am under siege in my house”: Message from Li Wenzu, Wife of Disappeared Lawyer Wang Quanzhang

April 11, 2018

Below is a translation of a message from Li Wenzu (李文足), wife of disappeared lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), who has been put under house arrest in Beijing. The message was tweeted out on April 11 by Cai Chu (蔡楚), chief editor of the minzhuzhongguo.org and canyu.org websites.

On April 4, 2018, Li Wenzu began a march from Beijing to Tianjin to look for her husband, who has been detained since July 2015 without access to lawyers or family. On April 9, she was intercepted by police in Tianjin and taken into custody and then released. That night, security personnel forcibly took her back to Beijing and put her under house arrest.

From Li Wenzhu, April 11, 2018:

[Translation by Human Rights in China]

Last night I was forcibly returned home by Domestic Security. The people who are monitoring us were already at their posts, about 30 of them downstairs guarding [the entrance to the building]. They include Domestic Security, Neighborhood Committee, and “Chaoyang Aunties” [women who get paid by the authorities for patrolling the streets].

After dinner, I went out to buy some fruit. At the entrance to our compound, they [the Chaoyang Aunties] surrounded and blocked me. They rushed at me, pulled, pushed, and they even got behind and supported a very elderly Auntie to bump into me, while screaming that someone bumped into and hurt the Auntie. (I was speechless.) I called the police. But the police never came.

I am under siege in my house, surrounded by 40-50 people. Friends who came to see me were blocked from coming in. I could only shout through the windows to talk to them.

Wang Quanzhang has been disappeared for 1,006 days, and I’ve been under house arrest for two days. They even blocked our caretaker and our son from leaving the house, and said: if you come out, we’ll kill you. It was only after I called the police that the guards allowed them to leave the house. But a gang of Aunties hurled insults at them, calling them traitors, and made them cry.

If we—mother and son—are disappeared, are killed, we hope our friends everywhere will help us write this tragic episode into history.

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