Chinese human rights lawyer hospitalised after nine days of hunger strike

Beijing: Wang Yu, a Chinese human rights attorney, was admitted to the hospital after a nine-day hunger strike caused her health to deteriorate dramatically. She started the strike while she was being held in custody in protest of an altercation she had with police on October 23 outside a courtroom in the province of Hebei.

In addition to other issues, Wang’s hunger strike was a protest against the authorities’ denial of basic medical treatment, their unwillingness to let her take a shower, and their refusal to let her meet with her family and counsel.

After a brief administrative detention for “disrupting public order” after the brawl, Wang was released from Weicheng County Detention Center on November 1, according to a report from Radio Free Asia. In an interview with RFA Mandarin, her husband, Bao Longjun, a fellow rights lawyer, said he brought Wang straight to the hospital.

Wang was “completely hunched over and unable to walk,” and Bao had to carry her on his back when she was freed. She had shed so much weight that he was astounded, saying it felt “like carrying a sack of cotton wool.” She weighed around 30 kilos (70 pounds), according to his estimation.

Bao sent her to the renowned Handan Central Hospital after she was evaluated at Wei County People’s Hospital and physicians found a “shadow” on her liver. According to Bao, she was placed on an IV drip there and gradually resumed eating solid meals.

While organizing Wang’s continued medical care, Bao and Wang, who were among the first people targeted in the July 2015 mass arrests, detentions, and harassment of more than 300 rights attorneys, employees of public interest law firms, and activists around China, are presently lodging in a hotel.

Wang and Jiang Tianyong, another rights attorney, had been arrested by police when they showed up to the Wei County People’s Court to represent Liu Meixiang, their client who was accused of corruption. According to a lawyer on the scene who begged to remain anonymous out of concern for reprisals, a dispute started when cops took away a family member’s camera while they were trying to capture pictures.

Concerned about Wang’s health, Bao filed a formal legal opinion on the seventh day of her hunger strike, but the authorities rejected it, he said. “I went to the detention center, rang the doorbell, and asked to meet with Wang Yu so she could eat and drink after I asked them to send her to the hospital,” Bao said. They misled me by claiming that she had eaten the previous evening and that there was no need for it, but in reality, she had not eaten anything at all.

Bao said that he planned to bring Wang to Beijing and Tianjin so that he could see additional doctors. He intends to publicly protest the treatment she has received by appealing her administrative punishment. “There’s no rule of law in this country, so all we can do now is speak out on our own behalf,” Bao said.

In addition, the newspaper emphasized the release of Guangxi rights lawyer Qin Yongpei, who had served five years in jail for “incitement to subvert state power.” When reached by RFA Mandarin, Qin’s wife refused to respond, saying it was “inconvenient”—a term often used to imply pressure from the authorities—when he went home to Nanning city on October 31.

During a raid on his Baijuying legal consulting business in Nanning in November 2021, Qin was taken into custody. Qin was probably targeted by local law enforcement because, according to his wife, he had often spoken out against wrongdoing and abuses by local court authorities and police.

Despite being disbarred, Qin’s consulting work had not breached any laws, according to U.S.-based human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping. “He was accused of inciting subversion of state power only because he posted many of his personal opinions on the internet,” Wu said.

“Everything he did complied with the law and human justice in any normal country.” He went on.