Wang Li heavily surveilled after visiting her imprisoned husband

Li Lei, a policeman from the Public Security Bureau of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province, who kpet surveillance on Wang Liqin

Photo: Li Lei, a policeman from the Public Security Bureau of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province,  surveilled Wang Li

 

(Yunnan province – March 10, 2023) Following meeting procedures for China’s prisons, Wang Li successfully met her imprisoned husband Wang Zang for the first time in three years. A few days later, Wang Li was immediately monitored around the clock by 24 government personnel. She posted a video revealing this information, and the authorities threatened her and her four children.  

 

Under Surveillance 

 

Dissident poet Wang Zang’s wife, Wang Li (given name: Wang Liqin), has been under strict surveillance since March 2. When she went out to buy groceries, 5 people followed and even filmed her. Wang Li took a video of them and posted it on Twitter. Beginning on the 3rd, the number of surveillance personnel increased from 12 to 24, divided into four shifts. 

 

 

Questioning the authorities on video 

 

In a video, Wang Li questioned the government and state security personnel of Donggua Township, Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province: 

 

“Why won’t you let me go out? I’m a free person. What right do you have to stop me? Have you shown a police officer’s ID card? What right do you have to make me go home and let you change shifts? What does your shift change have to do with me?” 

 

 

Aggressive policeman 

 

Li Lei, a Chuxiong Prefecture Public Security Bureau policeman, surveilled Wang and her family aggressively. He demanded she returns home, a cigarette in his hand. His eye expressions were incredibly fierce. Someone commented on Wang Li’s video: “The eyes of cultists are always filled with hatred for human beings.”  

 

 

The aftermath of the video 

 

After she posted the series of videos, Wang Li said that on the morning of March 5, the deputy mayor of Donggua Township Government of Chuxiong City and the bureau chief of the judiciary went to her residence to threaten her. She needed to report when she went out, and if she left the city, she must inform the authorities. Secondly, they asked her to withdraw the videos she posted on Twitter. Wang Li said: “(They) asked me to withdraw the information on Twitter, and to not post anything again in the future[.]”  

 

Wang Li’s response to threats 

 

Wang refused to withdraw the information sent on Twitter and issued a four-point statement publicly: First, “I will not withdraw the information. It was you all who violated the law first. What you all did are acts of crimes – harassing citizens.” Second, “unless you all do not follow my children and me again, otherwise I will post every time I’m being followed.” Third, “Wang Zang and I do not have any enemies; if anything were to happen to my children, family members, and me, it would be something Chuxiong did.” Fourth, “The behaviors of you all have seriously affected the lives of my family and me.” 

 

The couple’s arrest in 2020 

 

In the middle of 2020, Wang Li and her husband, the dissident poet Wang Zang, were arrested after the court indicted him of “inciting subversion of state power.” Two years later, Wang Zang and his wife were sentenced to four years and two and a half years respectively, for the same crime. She finished her sentence on December 16 of last year. 

 

 

Wang Li said “I’m just an ordinary housewife, the mother of children, the wife of a poet. There are only underage children and the elderly at home; how can that make you all this afraid? The number of personnel surveilling has increased from 12 to 24.”  

 

 

~Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid  

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Wang Li heavily surveilled after visiting her imprisoned husband

Li Lei, a policeman from the Public Security Bureau of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province, who kpet surveillance on Wang Liqin

Photo: Li Lei, a policeman from the Public Security Bureau of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province,  surveilled Wang Li

 

(Yunnan province – March 10, 2023) Following meeting procedures for China’s prisons, Wang Li successfully met her imprisoned husband Wang Zang for the first time in three years. A few days later, Wang Li was immediately monitored around the clock by 24 government personnel. She posted a video revealing this information, and the authorities threatened her and her four children.  

 

Under Surveillance 

 

Dissident poet Wang Zang’s wife, Wang Li (given name: Wang Liqin), has been under strict surveillance since March 2. When she went out to buy groceries, 5 people followed and even filmed her. Wang Li took a video of them and posted it on Twitter. Beginning on the 3rd, the number of surveillance personnel increased from 12 to 24, divided into four shifts. 

 

 

Questioning the authorities on video 

 

In a video, Wang Li questioned the government and state security personnel of Donggua Township, Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province: 

 

“Why won’t you let me go out? I’m a free person. What right do you have to stop me? Have you shown a police officer’s ID card? What right do you have to make me go home and let you change shifts? What does your shift change have to do with me?” 

 

 

Aggressive policeman 

 

Li Lei, a Chuxiong Prefecture Public Security Bureau policeman, surveilled Wang and her family aggressively. He demanded she returns home, a cigarette in his hand. His eye expressions were incredibly fierce. Someone commented on Wang Li’s video: “The eyes of cultists are always filled with hatred for human beings.”  

 

 

The aftermath of the video 

 

After she posted the series of videos, Wang Li said that on the morning of March 5, the deputy mayor of Donggua Township Government of Chuxiong City and the bureau chief of the judiciary went to her residence to threaten her. She needed to report when she went out, and if she left the city, she must inform the authorities. Secondly, they asked her to withdraw the videos she posted on Twitter. Wang Li said: “(They) asked me to withdraw the information on Twitter, and to not post anything again in the future[.]”  

 

Wang Li’s response to threats 

 

Wang refused to withdraw the information sent on Twitter and issued a four-point statement publicly: First, “I will not withdraw the information. It was you all who violated the law first. What you all did are acts of crimes – harassing citizens.” Second, “unless you all do not follow my children and me again, otherwise I will post every time I’m being followed.” Third, “Wang Zang and I do not have any enemies; if anything were to happen to my children, family members, and me, it would be something Chuxiong did.” Fourth, “The behaviors of you all have seriously affected the lives of my family and me.” 

 

The couple’s arrest in 2020 

 

In the middle of 2020, Wang Li and her husband, the dissident poet Wang Zang, were arrested after the court indicted him of “inciting subversion of state power.” Two years later, Wang Zang and his wife were sentenced to four years and two and a half years respectively, for the same crime. She finished her sentence on December 16 of last year. 

 

 

Wang Li said “I’m just an ordinary housewife, the mother of children, the wife of a poet. There are only underage children and the elderly at home; how can that make you all this afraid? The number of personnel surveilling has increased from 12 to 24.”  

 

 

~Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid  

News
Read more ChinaAid stories
Click Here
Write
Send encouraging letters to prisoners
Click Here
Previous slide
Next slide

Send your support

Fight for religious freedom in China

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