Report on Authorities Actions Against Attorney Wang Guangliang

China Aid Association
(Beijing – April 3, 2009) Wang Guangliang, Christian attorney and author of “Reducing Power, Control Officials, Returning Power to Peasants—Eight Proposals or Reforms in Agricultural Production, Rural Development and Assistance to Peasants” was summoned by Domestic Security Protection Squad of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
At about 8:30 on the evening of March 29, 2009, three plain-clothes police officers from Domestic Security Protection Squad of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and Haidian Branch and two other policemen from Beitaipingzhuang Police Station broke into the residence of Wang Guangliang, The police detained the two roommates of Wang Guangliang and a visiting friend, on the grounds that they suspected that other people were involved in the case,.  When the police found Wang Guangliang was not home, they began to question those present, under the auspices of wanting to investigate the household.  When Wang Guangliang’s roommates and his visiting friend strongly protested, the police officers on the site called in another group of police officers who came in with a search warrant.
At about 9:20 p.m., Wang Guangliang returned home. More than 10 people from the Domestic Security Protection Squad and police department presented the search warrant to him and read the summons for Wang Guangliang issued pursuant to Article 92 of the Criminal Procedure Law.  However, they did not mention his charge. After that, officers from the Domestic Security Protection Squad and the police officers searched the rooms of Wang Guangliang and his two roommates and seized a total of 28 items, including two notebook computers, a desktop computer, several paper notebooks, diaries, printed materials, magazines and other articles.
At 11:30 p.m., after seizing the items, two police officers from the Domestic Security Protection Squad took Wang Guangliang to the police station and made a record of the summons.  The entire summons ended at 2:30 in the morning the next day.  It is reported that the main reason for searching Wang Guangliang’s residence and summoning him is because he wrote “Reducing Power, Control Officials, Returning Power to Peasants—Eight Proposals For Reforms in Agricultural Production, Rural Development and Assistance to Peasants” in which he appeals for reforms on the three issues of agricultural production, rural development and assistance to peasants.
We hold that the authorities’ view of regarding common people’s mild and gentle appeal for rational reforms as a hostile act and their attempt to silence the common people’s voice with criminal charges are a violation of President Hu Jintao’s goal of building a harmonious society and a violation of the promises made by the Chinese government in the rule of the country by law. In essence, this practice by the authorities is leading our country astray and an exercise in futility. We appeal to the Ministry of the Public Security Bureau and other branches of government, that they should tighten their control of subordinate agencies, so as to implement the reality of the rule of the country by law appropriately and judiciously and build a harmonious society.
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