Roots

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Post tags: Megan Wong
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Pastor Wang Yi’s wife Jiang Rong, who is held under secret detention in an undisclosed location, has been accused of inciting subversion of state power days after authorities cracked down on the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Sichuan. More than 100 church members including Jiang and her husband were taken into custody over the weekend in a city-wide raid against the renowned protestant house church. A censorship directive was issued following the arrests prohibiting websites from reporting the incident, which is the latest in a series of crackdowns on underground churches against a background of deepening religious persecution. Mimi Lau at South China Morning Post reports:

Jiang Rong was implicated along with her outspoken husband, who has been placed under criminal detention and is also accused of inciting subversion.

[…] It was not known what had happened to Jiang until Thursday, when congregants circulated a police notice stating she had been placed under “residential surveillance at a designated location” on Monday afternoon.

A lawyer who declined to be named said Jiang could be kept at the unspecified location for up to six months, and that the move appeared to be aimed at intimidation and deterring advocacy efforts on the case.

“Accusations can be made against pastor Wang Yi – after all, he’s the one at the lectern doing all the preaching. But his wife doesn’t hold any position in the church, nor has she made any public comments,” the lawyer said.

“There are no words to describe the absurdity of this situation … the handling of the case shows how furious the top party leadership is about the church.” [Source]

Following instructions Wang gave prior to his arrest, church members released an open letter he penned in September titled “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience,” in which he explains how his disobedience is not a form of political activism and is distinct from civil disobedience.

Arrests are still ongoing and at least seven others have been placed under criminal detention along with Pastor Wang. From Wong Lok-to and Qiao Long at RFA:

An Early Rain church member said the church premises in Jiangxin Mansions on Chengdu’s Taisheng North Road were surrounded on Saturday night by several hundred people, including police, who then sealed off the premises.

“Over the past few days, starting last Saturday and continuing until this Tuesday, there have been several raids targeting the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu,” the church member said. “It’s been really awful.”

“More than 100 people have been taken away, and they are still detaining people,” he said. “Pastor Wang has been detained, and I haven’t heard from him.”

[…] A church member surnamed Zheng said Wang is being held under criminal detention on suspicion of “running an illegal business” and “illegal publishing,” while some detainees are being held on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.”

“Some people have returned home, although it’s not clear what their situation is, and they remain under surveillance,” she said. “All of the church leaders have been detained … only a few regular church members are left.” [Source]

Despite the crackdown, congregants are vowing to keep meeting for services. Mimi Lau reports in a separate article at South China Morning Post:

Zhang said members of Early Rain were in good spirits and would press ahead with gatherings.

“We will not forsake assemblies. I was frightened at first when it happened but have soon overcome the feeling as we are prepared [for persecution],” she said.

In a handwritten letter posted online, Li called on church leaders to take up pastoral work despite the crackdown.

“We are willing to have 200, 300 and even 500 of us locked up so that the whole world knows we are willing to be persecuted for our faith,” he said in the letter written as he evaded police.

He also called on church members to keep worshipping and meet outdoors if venues could not be rented, adding that the group would never give up on practising its faith publicly. [Source]

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Post tags: Chengdu, house churches, Pastor Wang Yi, Sichuan, underground churches
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New reports suggest that Canadian Michael Kovrig is being held in Beijing on suspicion of harming national security. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has announced that citizen Michael Spavor, who reportedly knows Kovrig, has gone missing in China. Nathan Vanderklippe, Robert Fife, and Steven Chase of the Globe and Mail report:

Mr. Spavor lives in China, where he runs Paektu Cultural Exchange. He gained fame for helping arrange a visit to North Korea by former NBA player Dennis Rodman. Mr. Spavor met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on that trip.

It’s not clear what has happened to Mr. Spavor, or whether he is himself the subject of interest by Chinese authorities in what could be another reprisal from China over Canada’s arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. On Monday, Mr. Kovrig, a former diplomat working as an analyst for the International Crisis Group, was seized in Beijing, not long after China threatened “serious consequences” in the case of Ms. Meng, who was released on $10-million bail on Tuesday.

Chinese police and state security have broad authority to detain and interrogate people they consider witnesses in criminal investigations. [Source]

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freehand referred to Spavor’s disappearance in a press conference earlier Wednesday:

International Crisis Group, Kovrig’s current employer, has said he was detained on Monday night by the Beijing bureau of state security. Later comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs imply that his detention is related to his work with the group, which the government says is not properly registered under the new Foreign NGO Law. Kovrig’s colleagues have insisted that he was not engaged in any work involving state secrets or espionage.

Reuters reports on coverage of his case from the official Beijing News:

“Our reporters have learned from the relevant departments that Canadian citizen Michael John Kovrig was detained by the Beijing Municipal State Security Bureau on December 10 in accordance with the law for allegedly engaging in activities that endangered China’s national security. The case is now under investigation,” the News said.

In a regular press conference, the Foreign Ministry said that he might have broken China’s foreign NGO law if he carried out certain activities for the group in China.

“My understanding is that ICG is not registered in China … If their staff conduct activities in China, he has violated the foreign non-government organisations law,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Wednesday. “China will handle the case in accordance with the law.”

[…] China’s foreign NGO law states that a 10-day detention could be imposed if an NGO carries out activities in China without being registered, but criminal prosecution could follow if those activities involved state secrets. [Source]

If the Chinese government formally cites the Foreign NGO Law in justifying Kovrig’s detention, it will be the first such case. Eighteen months after its implementation, only one percent of foreign NGOs had formally registered, due largely to the law’s opaque implementation and registration process. Christian Shepherd reports for Reuters:

It was the first time an official had raised the law in connection with a detention, even though he declined to comment on whether Kovrig had been charged.

“If the Overseas NGO Law was invoked as the reason for his detention, this would be a shot across the bow for the NGO community,” Shawn Shieh, an independent civil society expert, told Reuters.

The Ministry of Public Security appears to have avoided strictly enforcing the new law, in order to allow NGOs time to register, but if Kovrig is charged under the law, that would send a “clear signal to the NGO community that this could happen to others”, he said. [Source]

However, other observers remained more concerned by possible national security charges against Kovrig:

So far, the Chinese government has made very little information about the conditions or reasons for Kovrig’s arrest available to the Canadian government or to Kovrig’s family or employers. From The Associated Press:

It’s unclear that Canadian officials have been granted consular access to Kovrig, as required by an agreement in place between China and Canada. The Chinese are also required to inform Canadian officials of the reasons for his detention.

Canadian officials from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on down continue to repeat that the government is “seized” with this case and taking it very seriously. Officials are engaging with the Chinese and providing support to Kovrig’s family.

The Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said Kovrig was questioned by the Beijing National Security Bureau on Tuesday. The government news organization said he was suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security. [Source]

Some have linked Kovrig’s detention with the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, saying that the former was carried out in retribution for the latter. In recent days, Meng’s bail hearing was widely covered by international media and she was released on bail on Wednesday. U.S. officials are asking for her extradition on fraud charges related to illegal trade with Iran in violation of U.S.-imposed sanctions. The Chinese government has condemned the Canadian government for Meng’s arrest, calling it a violation of human rights. Steven Lee Myers and Jane Perlez note the differences in treatment between the two cases in The New York Times:

The opacity surrounding Mr. Kovrig’s situation sharply contrasted the public proceedings that unfolded over three days in a Vancouver courtroom following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, the Chinese technology company that the United States has accused of violating sanctions against trade with Iran.

After three days of hearings, Ms. Meng was released on bail Tuesday evening, pending further court deliberations on whether she should be extradited to the United States. “I am in Vancouver and back to my family,” she wrote on Wednesday afternoon Beijing time in a post on Weibo, China’s social media platform. “I am proud of Huawei and I am proud of my motherland.” [Source]

Kovrig is one of a number of foreigners who have been detained in China in recent years. At The New York Times, Javier C. Hernández outlines some of the cases. In response to Kovrig’s detention, the U.S. and Canadian governments are considering issuing warnings for citizens traveling to China.

Canadian Julia Garratt, who spent several months in prison in China in 2014 on charges of spying and stealing state secrets, offered her perspective on Kovrig’s arrest to Nathan Vanderklippe at the Globe and Mail:

[…] China’s treatment of the Garratts offers a glimpse into the harsh contours of the system that Mr. Kovrig has now been thrust into.

They were kept in an isolated compound for six months and subjected to lengthy and repeated interrogation sessions. It was akin to “a hostage-taking, because you’re not in a facility where anyone knows where it is,” Ms. Garratt said. Authorities refused them access to a lawyer.

[…] But the couple say they hope their experience can also provide some reassurance to Mr. Kovrig’s relatives.

”It’s highly unlikely there would be any physical violence. That’s one thing the family can hold onto,” Ms. Garratt said.

“China will feed him. China will probably stick to six hours of interrogation a day. So it won’t be 24/7,” she said. Mr. Kovrig’s family ”just have to take hope in some of the small blessings, even though we know it’s going to be absolutely horrendous.” [Source]

See also a personal essay by journalist Joanna Chiu, a former Beijing correspondent now based in Vancouver, asking the world to pay attention to the arrest of her friend Michael Kovrig.

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Post tags: Canada relations, foreigners in China, Meng Wanzhou, Michael Kovrig
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Although blocked since 2009, Twitter has long hosted a sizeable community of users within China, many of whom turned to it after repeated bans or deletions from domestic platforms. The freedom and safety offered by Twitter have always been only relative, however. In recent months, many Chinese users have been detained, often in relation to their tweets themselves, and forced to hand over control of their accounts, carry out deletions or account closures themselves, or pledge to stop posting. Jeff Rambin addressed the ongoing crackdown following labor professor Wang Jiangsong’s announcement this week that his Twitter account would soon be deleted. Acknowledging Twitter’s likely reluctance to entangle itself directly, Rambin proposed an alternative remedy: a “dual key” system under which users could designate a second keyholder, “most likely in another country,” without whose approval efforts to delete their accounts would fail.

In a farewell tweet, Wang said that the deletion was “due to force majeure which you all understand.” Though he said that “the sun will continue to rise,” Wang spoke of the deletion of his account as an “obituary.”

[…] As followers of ChinaChange.org are aware, Wang Jiangsong’s story is far from isolated. It is part of a recent and accelerating crackdown on the use of Twitter by Chinese authorities. On November 9, 2018, Wu Gan’s Twitter account was deleted. That deletion carries concerns of its own, because Wu has been in prison since 2015. What is more, the deletion was unannounced. Yaxue Cao just happened to be online at the right time to see it go down. As with Wang Jiansong, Wu Gan used his Twitter account for the cause of the oppressed. Time and again, Wu rallied support to those who were ignored.

[…] This is about connection and shared burden. When a Twitter user is sitting in an interrogation room facing a demand to delete their account, they should not be alone. The very existence of a second key holder changes the dynamic in that room. If a deletion request is made, the notification to the second key holder will be a pre-arranged call for help. A dual key system turns the table on the interrogator by shining a light into a dark place.

Please, Twitter, do something. Brave dissidents are already risking punishment by speaking. Give them the option of a dual key account to preserve their words. In these trying times give us reason to sing “All people become brothers where your gentle wing abides.” [Source]

China Change’s Yaxue Cao has been observing the deletions since noticing the disappearance of imprisoned activist Wu Gan’s tweets as it was in progress. She wrote last month:

Social media revolutionized Chinese citizen resistance, and Wu Gan was one of the most creative user of it. Not surprisingly, he quickly found himself in the crosshairs of the Chinese government’s censorship organ and was barred from domestic platforms like Weibo, so Twitter became a safe haven for him and other human rights activists. There, they didn’t have to worry about their accounts being deleted, and they expressed their thoughts freely and left a record of their activities and thoughts – Twitter was their open diary.

[…] As you can see, due to his extensive contacts with various groups and his involvement in many incidents, his Twitter served as a veritable history of China’s human rights struggle between 2009 to 2015. Today, while he finds himself behind bars, cut off from any means of communication with the outside world, his tens of thousands of tweets have been deleted with just a single click.

[…] The internet age has made information easier to produce and more convenient to circulate. However, It has also made it convenient for a highly sophisticated dictatorship, like the one in China, to wipe out the memories and records of people and even entire communities in an instant. They have been doing this all along, but in the last two or three years, the censorship has reached unprecedented heights in its scale and intensity.

[…] Right now, what is most urgent is that Twitter needs to know the shocking attacks on free speech that are quietly taking place. We ask Twitter to restore Wu Gan’s Twitter content and Chen Yunfei’s account from its backup database. [Source]

Last week, Cao compiled a number of tweets chronicling the ongoing crackdown:

As of today, I collected 42 tweets from users themselves tweeting about what had happened to them. Some are well-known journalists, dissidents and intellectuals. Others are average tweeps who may or may not be anonymous. Some have been on Twitter for several years, others are new to it. In a few cases, tweeps were given administrative detention of 10 or more days; in at least one case, a user in Chongqing has been criminally detained awaiting charges. Some faced the run-in with police with composure, and others with defiance; still others were scared and quit, or made to quit. Together they tell the unmediated story.

康哥‏ @nongkang5

Today I was summoned to my neighborhood police station for retweeting political rumors. I was reprimanded, and made to write a statement of repentance and another statement guaranteeing that I wouldn’t do it again. They deleted my tweets. This handle is going to be abandoned. Goodbye friends. I love you all.

[…] 文涛‏ @wentommy

On the afternoon of October 27, three police officers from the neighborhood police station made a surprise visit. The guests and the host quickly exchanged views about Twitter. The police asked me to “delete account” and stop using Twitter. I said that is unacceptable, but I voluntarily promised to self-censor what I say in order to reduce the waste of police resources and avoid upsetting loved ones so frequently. After communicating for an hour, the meeting ended in an awkward but still friendly atmosphere. For the record.

[…] 野渡‏ @ye_du

For the last year or so, I have posted nearly nothing on Twitter. Lately there have been tweeps I know who were summoned and forced to delete their Twitter, including quite a few of my friends. So I’m compelled to talk again. Throughout history, in China or elsewhere, the tyrants always think the day will not break if they kill all the roosters that crow at the dawn; everything will be fine if they could make people too afraid to speak. No matter how long the night, we will live to see the dawn. [Source]

AFP’s Eva Xiao also reported on the deletions last month:

A Chinese Twitter user who requested anonymity told AFP that he was taken in by police over tweets critical of the Communist Party.

After being held at a police station overnight, the user was made to hand over login information and watch police delete the tweets.

“You don’t know what kind of crime they’ll sentence you with. There’s no due process, so you feel scared,” said the Twitter user, who was forced to write a letter of repentance and warned against further tweeting.

[…] Chinese Twitter users have been targeted before — one was arrested in 2012 for joking about a building collapsing on a political meeting.

But the recent police activity indicates a more concerted clampdown, triggered by an exodus of users from censored platforms that has resulted in a stronger Chinese Twitter presence, said writer and activist Li Xuewen.

[…] Li said he plans to cut back his Twitter activity, since “speaking out these days is useless anyway”. [Source]

According to Radio Free Asia, activist Shi Jing was detained and fired from his job at a state-owned enterprise over his tweets about detained rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, and defacement of a portrait of Xi Jinping. Shi’s account was deleted, and his passport canceled. Hui Muslim poet Cui Haoxin, or An Ran, was reportedly detained and ordered to delete his account after posting criticism of the Party’s record on religious freedom. Cui refused. This month, Guangzhou-based activist Huang Yongxiang told RFA that the detentions illustrate the growing scope of efforts to suppress freedom of speech.

Human Rights Watch’s Yaqiu Wang commented:

The government’s recent attention to Twitter – absent any protests or other social events organized via Twitter as a trigger – signals a new level of suppression of free speech under President Xi Jinping’s repressive rule. Some of those detained have been low-profile users with a small number of Twitter followers, and do not appear to participate in activism offline. A Twitter user who was briefly detained told me that the police showed him a list of Twitter users in his city that authorities planned to “tackle.”

It seems that the authorities not only want to stop Chinese people from speaking out against the government, but also want to scrub from the Internet records of past critical speech. Some of the tweets authorities pressured Twitter users to delete were posted years ago; few would have viewed the tweets had they remained. It strains credulity that Beijing is worried that activist Wu Gan – currently serving an eight-year sentence for subversion – is suddenly going to start tweeting from prison, yet his tweets were first deleted and then his account vanished.

Twitter has been a refuge of sorts for those who can’t bear the censorship on China’s social media. “Here are no sensitive words, no messages that can’t be displayed ‘according to the relevant laws,’ and no risk of having our account shut down at any movement,” wrote Twitter user @gavinleehead, whose account has now been deleted. [Source]

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