Chinese poet and his wife charged with inciting subversion of state power while the fate of their four children remains unknown

Chinese poet Wang Zang was arrested by more than 20 police officers in front of his four children on May 30th, and his wife Wang Lichin has lost contact with the outside world since June 17. While their family have received notification of their arrests, the situation of Wang’s mother and their four children remains concerning.

Chinese poet Wang Zang and his wife Wang Lichin were officially arrested by the Chinese government under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” in July, and their family members received the notification in early September. Currently, Wang’s four young children are raised by her elderly mother. According to people familiar with the situation, Wang Lichin’s sister was able to get into their home in Yunnan’s Chuxiong City a few days ago, and she found the official notification detailing their charges.

Wang’s mother and his four children are now under house arrest, without any freedom of movement. Based on audio recording shared by sources, it is confirmed that the entrance to Wang’s home has been guarded by more than a dozen police since July and no one can visit them. In July, a delivery man told Wang’s friend in Beijing that a package she sent needed to be left at the guard’s office and the police would take it to Wang’s family.

“The police didn’t allow me to deliver the package to his home, and more than a dozen police were guarding the entrance to his house,” the delivery man said. “I’m not sure what kind of serious crime has that family committed.”

Since Wang’s wife lost contact with the outside world on June 17, his four young children have been looked after by his mother. Even though the police allowed some packages to be delivered to their home in the beginning, Wang Lichin’s sister said since July 20, the family hasn’t received any package. “This matches the timing of Wang Lichin’s arrest,” the source said. “We don’t know what is the source of food for Wang’s mother and his four children since then.”

“We handled the case based on the law”

Want Lichin’s friends have been calling local police departments in Yunnan Province over the last few months, hoping to get some reasonable explanation about the situaton that Wang’s mother and his children are facing. However, the police has been emphasizing that everything they have done are legal and they warned Wang’s friend not to get involved with the case.

According to one of the audio files, Wang’s friend called the police department in Chuxiong City on July 14, asking the police why they decided to put Wang’s children under extended house arrest. The police kept saying that since they didn’t directly handle the case, Wang’s friend needed to contact the local police station directly for more details.

She called another police department on August 7, questioning why local police continues to put the five of them under house arrest. The police on the phone warned Wang’s friend not to be too involved in the case, while suggesting the friend to file her complaint to the prosecutor’s office.

“Based on our investigation, we haven’t violated any law during the entire process,” said the police. “You can try to file a complaint to the Yunnan Provincial police department. I don’t know everything about the case, and if you want to figured the legal aspect of their detention, you should contact a lawyer. You can’t accused us of detaining him simply because he has children to taken care of. He has violated the law.”

Wang Lichin’s sister evicted by police from Yunnan

After Wang Zang and Wang Lichin were arrested by the police, their family members have also been affected. Sources said Wang Zang’s brother was briefly helping to send necessities to the family after his brother was arrested. However, he was soon put under house arrest by local police.

Wang Lichin’s sister, Wang Xiaomin, became the only person that can update the outside world about the family’s situation after her sister disappeared in the middle of June. However, an audio recording provided by anonymous sources proved that Wang Xiaomin was summoned by local police for questioning on September 9th and she briefly lost contact with her friends afterwards. Later, friends confirmed that she had been evicted from Yunnan Province by the police.

“Xiaomin was taken to Lijiang City on September 9th, and the police asked her to go back to her hometown after questioning her,” the source said.

Chinese human rights lawyer Ni Yulan has been paying close attention to the development of Wang’s case since his arrest. She helped to raise more than 10,000 RMB for the family with a group of friends, but since they didn’t have ways to contact Wang’s family members, they couldn’t get the money to the family.

“We tried to send friends to visit their children several times over the last few months, but they always couldn’t get into their house due to the heavy police presence,” Ni said. “Even though the official notification of their arrest indicated that they were arrested in July, the family didn’t receive the notification until September 6. Is this a legal process? I think those people who claimed that their way of handling the case has been legal are trying to find excuses for those who have committed something illegal.”

Leo Lan, the research and advocacy consultant for Chinese Human Rights Defender in Washington D.C. said the case shows how arbitrary detention is used by authorities in China to silence not only activists but also their family members.

“While we don’t know how Wang Zang can be accused of ‘inciting subversion,’ it’s even more inexplicable and deplorable how Wang Lichin can be accused of ‘inciting subversion’ when she only tweeted for help for her husband,” Lan said.

Lan emphasized that “inciting subversion of state power” is so broadly and vaguely defined that Chinese authorities can always abuse the charge to persecute dissidents. “It’s an offense repeatedly criticized by UN experts as seriously infringing human rights,” Lan said. “Such ‘pocket crime’ only serves as curbing free expression in the name of ‘national security’ and they should be abolished.”

Wang Lichin’s friends worry about her mental state

Wang Zang was arrested and detained by police for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after he shared a photo of him posing with a yellow umbrella and organized a poetry recitation event to support protesters in Hong Kong during the 2014 Occupy Central Movement. During his detention, Wang’s family were harassed by police many times and they were forcefully evicted from his studio in Beijing several times. These experienced caused Wang Lichin to develop schizophrenia.

On May 30, local police in Chuxiong City sent 40 to 50 police to Wang Zang’s house, and they pushed Wang to the ground in front of his wife, children and mother. He was handcuffed and taken away. Wang Lichin said the police didn’t show any document before they arrested Wang and she was also interrogated at the police station for more than 12 hours. Wang Lichin’s friends worry that she could experience another mental breakdown if she was detained for a long time.

“Wang Lichin suffered from schizophrenia a few years ago when the family was forcefully evicted from several places,” a friend said. “She tried to commit suicide by jumping into a lake and she also left her children behind for a few days. We worry that she might have another mental breakdown after being detained for a long period of time.”

This article was first published in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.