Michael Caster - The People’s Republic of the Disappeared: Stories from inside China’s system for enforced disappearances

THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC
OF THE DISAPPEARED

nd edition

Stories from inside Chinas system for enforced disappearances

This second edition includes new harrowing testimonies and covers the explosion of emerging and existing methods to disappear victims, while hopes for rule of law steadily evaporate.

Edited by Michael Caster

Foreword by Teng Biao

Copyright 2017, 2019 Safeguard Defenders

Cover illustration Copyright 2017, 2019 Badiucao

Published in the United States by Safeguard Defenders

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without expressed written consent of the publisher/author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews

ISBN: 978-0-9993706-1-2

Second edition.

Keywords: Enforced disappearance, China,

Human Rights, Criminal Justice, International law

First published November 1, 2017,

Second edition published November 1, 2019.

Also available as a paperback on Amazon Worldwide:

https://SafeguardDefenders.com

REVIEWS of the 1st Edition

gut-wrenching stories. the world has been mainly oblivious to these gross human rights violations in China. Many people in China dont know whats going on, either. The Peoples Republic of the Disappeared has an urgent message for us all.

- Susan Blumberg-Kason, Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel

A noteworthy and deserving book.

- Jerome A. Cohen, Professor at New York University (School of Law)

the most comprehensive collective portrait to date, Disappeared compiles powerful first-person accounts.

- Terence Halliday, Co-Director of Center on Law and Globalization, American Bar Foundation

eye-opening and courageous. help you better understand the Middle Kingdom.

- June Cheng, WORLD magazine

a very heavy [reading] session.

- Kate Whitehead, South China Morning Post

The narrators tell of physical and psychological abuse, beatings and sleep deprivation, humiliations, isolation rare in their detail.

- Steven Lee Meyer, the New York Times

Direct and compelling. A rare and important collection.

- Eva Pils, Reader in Transnational Law, Kings College London

this book is a necessary eye opener. will add depth and clarity.

- Yaxue Cao, Director of ChinaChange.org

a profoundly important book. If you want to understand China beneath the dollar signs and infrastructure projects, read this book.

- Benedict Rogers, Deputy Chair of [UK] Conservative Party Human Rights Committee, founder of Hong Kong Watch

essential reading for academics and journalists, governments and nonprofit workers. worthwhile reading for anyone studying authoritarian regimes and the struggle for human rights.

- Magnus Fiskesj, Professor at Cornell University

reading this is like taking a direct glimpse at the cruelty and brutality that are the heart of Communist Party rule.

- Kong Tsung-gan, Medium, The Best Human Rights Books of 2017

an important new book

- Donald Clarke, Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

A set of unique, insider accounts into one of the most secretive prison systems in the world. If you've ever wondered what the rise of China means for human rights around the world, this book has the answer.

- Anonymous reader (Amazon review)

Dedicated to Wang Quanzhang

Wang Quanzhang, lawyer - father - husband - friend, disappeared on 3 August 2015, and was held under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), but even after exceeding the legally limited six months of secret detention under RSDL Wang was not released. Instead, he was held for another three and a half years in secret, solitary, incommunicado detention, before being subjected to a show trial in late 2018.

Throughout his lengthy and arbitrary incarceration, credible sources report that Wang was subjected to torture, including electrocution. For over three years, his wife Li Wenzu, and others tirelessly campaigned for his release. She too has become an inspiration for countless others, as she has braved the full force of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The day after Christmas 2018 (it is a CCP tactic to mask high profile trials around international holidays), Wang was subjected to a one-day, closed show trial. A month later, the court sentenced him to four and a half years on absurd charges of state subversion. And yet still, the Party tortured Wang and his family. Li was denied the right to see her husband until June 2019, nearly four years after his disappearance. When they finally met, Wang was a changed man, destroyed by the Party. Her account of meeting him brings tears to our eyes and as Wang languishes in prison we remember the countless other victims of the Peoples Republic of the Disappeared.

Wang Quanzhangs courage and devotion to human rights in the face of adversity is an inspiration to those of us who know him and should be a reminder that we all can and should stand against repression.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported this project.

Most importantly, this book couldnt have happened without all the brave people who came forward to share their stories. In China, merely to speak of your experiences in Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) can itself pose a threat, and many who have chosen to speak out have been detained again after speaking with the media, foreign organizations or researchers.

Those who have shared their stories in this book have done so at considerable risk to themselves, but they have done so because they agree that there is a real need to expose Chinas systematic use of Enforced Disappearances, and to help future victims of RSDL to be better prepared for what awaits them. We hope their stories lead to greater awareness and inspire action against this abusive system.

Many others have wanted to share their stories, but either felt it was too hard to revisit their painful experiences or that the threat of reprisal was too strong to allow their stories to be published, for now. Others have offered their time to be interviewed, so that we can more accurately present RSDL, or given their feedback on draft versions. To all those who volunteered their time, their knowledge, and their experiences for this book, we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks. We would like to especially thank Zhang Zhiming for all his translation support, Dinah Gardner for her work editing the text, and Taiwan-based cartoonist Stellina Chen for her help with graphics.

TABLE OF CONTENTS