Urgent Statement Regarding the Criminal Detention of Wang Gongquan
Around 11:30 am on September 13, 2013, Beijing time, two dozen or so police officers arrived at the home of Mr. Wang Gongquan (王功权), and took him away with them after searching for two hours. At 8:17 pm, the police announced that Mr. Wang was criminally detained, and a notice of such was served to his family. He was suspected of “disrupting order in a public place.”
This is an absurd accusation and Mr. Wang Gongquan could not possibly have disrupted order in any public places.
Mr. Wang Gongquan is a staunch supporter of the New Citizens’ Movement. His hope is that the Movement will help citizens to press for their civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution through peaceful and legal approaches, to promote China’s peaceful transformation toward a more humane, freer, more just, and more loving society. Such are his values as a devoted Buddhist, a humanitarian, and a peace-lover.
People like him should be welcome and cherished in China. But instead, he’s met with such barbaric treatment. This is not just unfairness against Mr. Wang, but also a blow against all humanitarians, peace-lovers, and those who still have a little hope left in themselves about a peaceful transition in China. At this moment, we cannot conceal our shock.
What Mr. Wang Gongquan believes is also our direction, and his fate is our fate. We will not look on passively. We must stand up and speak out for Mr. Wang:
We resolutely condemn such barbaric actions by the government. We ask the authorities to free Mr. Wang Gongquan immediately and unconditionally. We warn them to stop provoke the society, and stop breeding more hatred and violent sentiments.
At the same time, we also call on the society as a whole, especially intellectuals, legal professionals and entrepreneurs, to pay close attention to the case of Mr. Wang Gongquan, to do whatever they can to speak out for him just as he has done for the disempowered and other persecuted citizens, and to protect his human rights and citizen’s rights with all of our strength.
The arrests have spread from Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜), Zhao Changqing (赵常青) to Xu Zhiyong (许志永) in Beijing, to Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄) in Guangzhou, to Li Huaping (李化平) in Shanghai, to Dong Rubin (董如彬) in Yunnan. It is not about a few people anymore. Instead, the nascent effort toward a civil society is being clamped down upon ruthlessly across the board, and Chinese society is at one of its most dangerous moments.
Free Wang Gongquan. Give a chance to goodness, to freedom and justice, and to a peaceful transformation. Fellow Chinese, when the nest is upset no egg is left intact. Do not let our country fall any deeper into the abyss in the opposite direction of modern civilization without doing anything. Take actions to defend the effort to build a civil society, for, by doing so, we are defending ourselves, each one of us.
Citizens of China: Liu Suli (刘苏里), Guo Yushan (郭玉闪) and Xiao Shu (笑蜀, or Chen Min陈敏)
Send your support to the following email with your name, profession, and place:
Related reading:
Activist Chinese Billionaire Is Arrested, the New York Times’ coverage of Mr. Wang’s detention with information about Wang as a businessman and as an activist.
(Translation by ChinaChange.org)
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