Chongqing Is Not the Only Place That Has Fallen
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A4 Wednesday, December 19, 2012 FOCUS In the dungeon of Bo Xilai In the first of a four- part series, Revisiting Chongqing, we look at one of the earliest and most high-profile victims of the disgraced party chief’s crackdown on so-called gangsters ................................................ Keith Zhai in Chongqing [email protected] In mid-July 2009, 21-year-old Li Jun , freshly graduated from an American university, tried to call her father in Chongqing from a Greek restaurant in down- town New York. She could not reach him but thought, “that’s all right, maybe he’s in a meeting”. In fact, her father Li Qiang , once one of the southwest- ern municipality’s most success- ful businessmen, had been shackled to a metal chair by police mounting the mainland’s largest anti-triad campaign in decades. A stocky man with a round face and big eyes, he was forced to sit in the straight- backed, custom-made chair which was too small for him, for 76 days. In addition he had heavy leg irons around his ankles and his wrists were in manacles, his daughter and a fellow prisoner said. A black robe was often draped over his head most of the time. For the first five days and six nights he was not given any food or water, or allowed to go to the bathroom. The fellow prisoner said Li was scared to sit on a bed after weeks on the chair, introduced by then Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun and widely used to torture suspects in the ruthless crackdown he oversaw. Many victims and police sources said that after weeks on the chair a suspect’s feet became totally numb, and left them with long- lasting damage. Some had per- manent spinal damage. Li Jun tried to call her mother, her aunt and many other mem- bers of her family, but none of them answered. She began to Case Stephen Illustration: grow more concerned. “The wildest guess I had was that they had been in a car acci- dent, but I could never have ruption that accompanied the meeting after a strike Their testimony became imagined they were all detained mainland’s economic boom. involving more than part of the 240 volumes of as gangsters,” she said. However, since Bo’s downfall 8,000 taxi drivers in No- case files that helped Most of the people she called in March, many of those jailed in vember 2008. During the meet- the police accuse Li were shackled to the same kind of the crackdown have said they I wanted to come ing, Li Qiang interrupted Bo, say- twice and threatened him to Qiang of creating chair as her father at that mo- were tortured into making false back earlier but ing: “Secretary Bo, you may not stay away. He said Bo warned disturbances and ment, undergoing interrogation confessions. They have also be familiar with the situation in Zhao that he had a daughter who vandalism by hiring in various motels in rural parts of blamed Bo and Wang, his right- I was afraid the Chongqing as you are still new should not be affected by his de- gangsters. Li Jun said the accusa- Chongqing, leased by the police hand man, for tampering with here.” fence of gangsters. tions against her father were not and used as torture centres dur- evidence and a lack of due pro- police might use “Bo was very unhappy about “Zhao was told that even true and that the prosecution had ing the crackdown. cess when their cases went to me as a hostage that, plus he believed Li Qiang though he was old and might fear told only half the story. She said Li Qiang, 51 at the time, was a trial. was the organiser of the strike,” nothing, he still had a family to some of the conflicts her father local people’s congress represen- Li Ping , Li Qiang’s youn- to coerce my the businessman said. “Bo didn’t take care of,” the source said, was blamed for were simply reac- tative when he was detained and ger sister, said police detained parents allow any challenge to his author- adding that Bo and Wang started tions to deliberate provocation the biggest private operator in her without showing any docu- ity, or any kind of protest under to realise the power of lawyers by public transport companies. Chongqing’s transport system. mentation or police identifica- LI JUN his rule.” after Li Qiang was only given a 20- During the trial, Zhao said the The authorities said he owned a tion. Police later accused Li Qiang year jail sentence rather than the crime of creating disturbances fleet of 1,000 taxis and operated “Many undercover police of using violence and intimida- death penalty faced by most oth- should not be applied to Li’s case 100 bus routes. took me to a motel far from the Ping said. “I don’t understand tion against competitors in vari- er gang leaders. because most of the evidence He and six members of his city on the afternoon of July 14 why the accusation was made.” ous businesses, and said he or- Bo, one of China’s most char- presented related to disputes family were later accused of and shackled me on a chair,” she When she was in detention, a chestrated the strike by hiring ismatic politicians and the son of with competitors. being members of a criminal syn- said. “They forced me to stay police officer told her she had gangsters. However, at his trial in a former state leader, became Li Qiang was also accused of dicate. They received sentences awake. I wasn’t able to sleep for only been picked up because she October 2009, the prosecutors party secretary of Chongqing, a corruption in his dealings with ranging from fines to 20 years in seven days.” was Li Qiang’s sister. did not provide any evidence municipality of 30 million peo- municipal officials with prosecu- jail. She said her husband was A Chongqing businessman showing that Li Qiang was con- ple, in 2007. Once there, he em- tors, giving the example of an offi- Li, sentenced to 20 years in subjected to similar treatment for who knows both Bo and Wang, nected with the strike. barked on a series of spectacular cial dealing with public com- prison in 2009, remains incarcer- more than a week. said Li Qiang’s forceful personal- Zhao Changqing , Li campaigns to stay in the national plaints who had received about ated while the family appeals An accountant with Li Qiang’s ity had led to his downfall. He said Qiang’s defence counsel and a limelight, including the staging of 10,000 yuan over a decade after against his conviction. Chongqing Yuqiang Group, Li Qiang had clashed with Bo law professor at Southwest Uni- mass public gatherings to sing becoming Li Qiang’s friend in The case announced the ar- founded by her brother and his twice. versity of Political Science and nostalgic, revolutionary songs 1995. The official, Jiang Chunmei, rival of then-Chongqing Com- wife in 1992, Li Ping was jailed for The first time was in early Law, said the case “had nothing and the heavy-handed crack- was jailed for five months for con- munist Party secretary Bo Xilai’s 18 months and fined 100,000 2008, shortly after Bo arrived in to do with organised crime” and down on organised crime. He niving with gangs. massive anti-triad crack- yuan (HK$123,000) for hiding de- Chongqing, when the municipal the prosecution was not able to made Wang head of the munici- “Given the cultural context in down, which nabbed thousands tails of its accounts. Her husband government offered to buy Li prove its case despite presenting pality’s public security bureau in China of gift giving as part of of people, including the munici- was jailed for 18 years for playing Qiang’s bus lines for about 70 nearly 2,000 pieces of evidence. March 2009 to lead the crack- building a relationship, the small pality’s powerful police chief, a supporting role in her brother’s million yuan. He knocked back “It’s very important to identify down. amount of money is really not a Wen Qiang , and was widely gang. that offer and said the govern- the difference between a criminal The campaigns appeared to big deal but a label that the police seen as an attempt to tap into “I told the police investigators ment should double the price. syndicate and a private company be successful but Bo’s plan start- stuck on people they wanted to widespread anger over the cor- where the documents were,” Li The second time was at a that engaged in illegal beha- ed unravelling in February this jail,” the businessman said. viour,” Zhao said. year, when Wang fled to the US Li Jun said that while in deten- Zhao, 78, was one of the peo- consulate in Chengdu , the tion, her father had been forced ple who drafted the mainland’s capital of neighbouring Sichuan to confess to offering Jiang 20,000 Criminal Law in 1997, which province. Bo was removed yuan in bribes “so he could get made membership of a criminal as party secretary a month later out of the chair”. During his trial, syndicate a new crime. He also and now faces trial for corruption Li Qiang disputed the amount of led a Supreme People’s Procura- and obstruction of justice in his money given to Jiang. torate team studying organised wife’s murder of British business- The court imposed fines of crime.