(Yunnan province) Pioneering Chinese poet Wang Zang has been imprisoned for nearly a thousand days. His wife, Wang Liqin, escaped from surveillance personnel stationed on the ground floor of her home. She went to Yunnan No. 2 Prison by car and reunited with her imprisoned husband. The couple has been separated for more than three years.
Visitation for the couple
Wang Liqin, arrived at the No. 2 Prison in Kunming, Yunnan Province, on February 22 to visit Wang Zang. At first, the correctional officers refused the meeting because Wang Zang did not apply for visitation – to which she responded, “I know Wang Zang is in the 14th prison area. The law stipulates that meetings are permitted once a month.” After Wang Liqin’s insistence, the prison guards asked her to show her Hukou document, marriage certificate, identification card, and COVID tests. At around 2:40 in the afternoon, she finally met Wang Zang.
Editor’s note: The hukou system is China’s governmental household registration system.
Their short reunion
The prison authorities allowed the two to meet for 20 minutes, but under the condition that it would be recorded with surveillance cameras. Guards allowed them to talk on the phone with a glass partition separating them.
“Wang Zang was very thin; he became tanner and looked exceptionally haggard. I feel tremendously sad and heartbroken,” Wang Li expressed; Wang Zang felt guilty that his wife was implicated by him and was sentenced to prison. “My two-and-a-half-year sentence, he feels very guilty and self-reproachable. I have no complaints or regrets, ” she said.
Wang Zang expressed his gratitude to friends outside through his wife. Wang Liqin revealed: “He received postcards from friends and asked me to thank his friends!” She expressed her hope that more people will continue to pay attention to Wang Zang and all prisoners of conscience, “It’s helpful for them when it comes to improving their treatment.”
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Unspeakable conditions
According to people who once served sentences in Yunnan Provincial No. 2 Prison, the conditions of the inmates in this prison are incredibly harsh, the food is exceedingly terrible, and they undergo various kinds of training every day. It is exceedingly taxing and challenging to endure, where death is preferable to life.
Wang Zang was treated unfairly in the detention center, and his family could not provide him with items for the time being. Still, perhaps it was because he was worried that the meeting would be terminated, or he did not want his family to worry. Wang Zang did not elaborate on the details but said he was reasonably healthy. With a little over a year to complete his sentence, his family members expressed their worries about his condition.
Threatened for speaking out
Wang Liqin was released on December 16, 2022, after serving her sentence. After her release, authorities restricted her life and movement. However, she continued non-stop, speaking out for Wang Zang and fighting for her right to visit him in prison. During this period, she was threatened by the local police because she spoke out on the internet.
The Guobao (state security) of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province, repeatedly interfered and asked her relatives to tell her not to use the internet or to contact her friends. They threatened to arrest her again if she did not obey. State security agents said it would not be like before when her elderly mom took care of the children; instead, the mom would be sent to a nursing home and the children to an orphanage.
Holding onto her love for her husband and desire for freedom, she did not give up, and after unrelenting efforts, she finally received a call from Wang Zang on January 27 this year. The call was only five minutes long. She expressed on Twitter that “I am extremely happy” and confirmed: authorities transferred Wang Zang on January 15, 2023. “My wife, I love you, take care of our children and look after yourself.” Wang Zang said to Wang Liqin.
Wang Zang’s background
Wang Zang, also known as Wang Yuwen, was born in 1985. He is a prominent Chinese poet, film and television screenwriter and artist, a human rights defender, and a member of the China Liberal Culture Movement. In 2003, under the pseudonym “Little Prince,” he began to set foot in online poetry exercises and embarked on the road of free writing. He paid close attention to the Tibetan self-immolation incidents, paid homage to Lin Zhao on the internet, commemorated the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and engaged in other activism.
On May 31, 2020, Wang Zang was arrested by the Chuxiong Prefecture Public Security Bureau in Yunnan and detained in the Chuxiong Prefecture Detention Center. The Court sentenced Wang Zang to four years in prison on November 11, 2022. He is expected to be released on May 30, 2024.
~Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent ChinaAid
