Briefing on Wang Quanzhang’s Release from Linyi Prison | Separated from family, forced to stay in Jinan

The release of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang took place on 5 April 2020. Wang, who was officially charged in 2017, went incommunicado for more than 1200 days. He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, in addition to five years of deprivation of political rights in January 2019.

Prior to his release, his family (including his sister, his parents, his wife Li Wenzu and their son) asked for Wang Quanzhang to be allowed back to Beijing to reunite with his family. According to Chinese law, this should also be the case, since the individual should be returned to his normal residential address as a priority, which for Wang would have been Beijing. However, the authorities forced Wang back to Jinan in Shandong Province, which is the location of his household registration.

Wang also wrote letters to his family, likely under the instruction of the authorities, saying that he should return to Jinan instead of Beijing because of the coronavirus situation, and that it would be better to return to a place he owns rather than a rented apartment, despite his family being in Beijing instead of Jinan.

The police and the community workers told Wang Quanzhang’s sister at her work place on 3 April that she and her husband were not allowed to pick Wang up from prison, even if they went to Linyi Prison, they would not be able to see him, according to the prison authorities. Wang is to stay in Jinan for 14 days (until 19 April), during which his family is not allowed to visit. According to Shandong Province, due to an outbreak of the coronavirus in Rencheng Prison in Shandong, all individuals being released from prison have to return to their household registration locations to be quarantined. Allegedly, Wang should be a free person after these 14 days, and will be able to leave Jinan.

The day before his release, Wang’s sister Wang Quanxiu sent out a video at around 9:10am on 4 April 2020, which showed a number of plainclothes police flocking to her workplace to bar her from going to Linyi Prison to welcome her brother home. Wang initially asked his sister to help prepare his supplies for his release, but the only person who could pick him up was controlled by the police. After she took the video, her phone was snatched from her, and a crowd of people tried to drag her into a car parked outside the building where she worked. Her manager negotiated with the police, and she was kept in the office, with a crowd of police officers waiting outside.

Since Li Wenzu’s household registration is in Hubei, she was worried that she would not be allowed back into Beijing if she left for Linyi Prison because of quarantine rules in Beijing to counter the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, she was forced to stay in Beijing.

Wang Quanzhang’s release on 5 April

Wang left Linyi Prison at around 5:00am of 5 April 2020, and was accompanied by the police directly to Jinan to a house which he owns but rented out to an occupant. The police had forced the occupant out ahead of Wang’s arrival. Wang then called his wife on the phone of a community worker, and said that he would call her back once he got a new phone. Both Li Wenzu and Wang Qiaoling tried to send a meal and flowers through a delivery service. For Li’s order, the flowers and meal were successfully delivered to Wang; but for Wang Qiaoling’s order, the delivery employee was taken away by the authorities. When Wang Quanzhang’s cousin tried to bring him a meal, he too was taken away and interrogated.

In video posted by Wang Qiaoling in the morning of 6 April 2020, Wang Quanzhang had a phone call with fellow lawyer Li Heping, who was also known for having endured torture while in detention after the 709 Crackdown. Wang immediately recognised Li’s voice, but had difficulty hearing. Wang told Li that his “eardrum is damaged” and that he has to hold the phone very close to his ears to hear properly. Wang also mentioned that he was subjected to five rounds of nucleic acid testing.

Appendix:

Media coverage