A4 Wednesday, December 19, 2012 FOCUS In the dungeon of

In the first of a four- part series, Revisiting , 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- 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 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 ’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 , the tion, her father had been forced ple who drafted the mainland’s capital of neighbouring 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. man , which Wang more than 30 million yuan on Li Chongqing officials were helped cover up. and his company, but the police apparently nervous about his in- Wang has been jailed for 15 confiscated every fen the family volvement in Li Qiang’s defence. years. His victims and Chongqing had. Li Jun said even her grand- He and Li Qiang both com- police sources said he was a big- mother’s personal savings were plained during and after the trial ger criminal than those he pur- confiscated. When a policewom- that they had only been allowed sued, and a man with contempt an went to the bank to transfer to meet twice. Zhao also said he for human rights and the rule of the money to the police account, had been given only a few sheets law. weeks before the trial, she did not of paper before the trial, even Two people who were asked even bother to fill in the amount though the prosecution had pre- to help the investigation said they on the form, simply writing “all”. pared documents running to half perjured themselves after being Li Jun returned to China in a million words to support its put under pressure by police June 2010, a year after her parents case. while in detention. One of them were labelled as gangsters. “Those are normal practices said the police told him that if he $ “I wanted to come back earlier for other trials as well,” Zhao said. refused to commit perjury, they 36.95m but I was afraid the police might “Lawyers have very few rights.” would arrest his wife. Another The fine, converted to Hong use me as a hostage to coerce my Li Jun said Zhao was the only person said police had put two Kong dollars, imposed on parents,” she said. The police told (From left) Li Jun, Li Qiang and his wife in a Chongqing lawyer who dared to pieces of paper – an arrest war- Li Qiang and his company her parents during their deten- 1993 photograph and (above) the notice issued stand up for her father. rant and a piece of written testi- for corruption tion that she had already re- to the bank which said “all” of Li’s wife’s A person with knowledge of mony – on a desk and said: “You turned and would be jailed if they savings would be confiscated. Photos: Li Jun the case said Bo had visited Zhao have to pick one of these to sign.” did not confess to more crimes. A4 Saturday, December 22, 2012 FOCUS LOCKED UP for wearing a T-shirt Illustration: Stephen Case Stephen Illustration:

In the second part of our Revisiting Chongqing series, we meet the people introduced by the newly estab- to the unjust treatment they lished communist regime in the received. punished harshly for even the smallest gesture of dissent against Bo Xilai 1950s to purge “counter-revolu- The administration started to ...... tionaries” and “class enemies”. pay compensation in September, The police at first wanted to where. “They monitor all the calls People like me Police can impose sentences of admitting that many of the Keith Zhai in Chongqing charge Ren with inciting subver- we make,” he said. “And I don’t up to four years without a court punishments had been [email protected] just tried to sion after he posted a photograph want to go back to that camp.” hearing. 346 “misconducted”. online showing him wearing a Xie moved to stay alive and Pu Zhiqiang , a human Peng received about 110,000 On a two-hour flight from Beijing T-shirt bearing the words “Give after his release, not knowing rights lawyer, said that although The number of re-education yuan (HK$135,000) in compensa- to Chongqing early this me liberty or give me death”. whether he would ever return to prayed that the laojiao was widely used by local centres in 2006, according tion for his two years in the labour month, Ren Jianyu spent “That was ridiculous,” Ren Chongqing. wrongdoing governments across the main- to the Laogai Research camp – 166 yuan for every day he most of the time with his face said. “It was just a normal T-shirt “People can so easily lose their land, Chonqing had made the Foundation served. Others, however, were pressed against the window, from an online store.” freedom for ridiculous reasons,” would stop most use of the system. not placated by simple payouts. watching the clouds streak past. But after spending more than he said. “Opposition views were an- Xie said: “It was horrible. Who REN JIANYU, JAILED MICROBLOGGER At one point he murmured: “This a year in the labour camp, Ren Tian Hongyuan, a 30-year-old athema to Chongqing’s rulers,” formed. “It lacks openness, fair- would want to stay in the camp is freedom.” said he had become more former stock analyst who was he said. “Anyone could end up in ness and procedural safeguards,” for that amount of money?” The 25-year-old former vil- reticent. packed off to a labour camp for a labour camp by saying some- he said. “The existence of the sys- A police source with direct lage official was freed late last The same “red terror” still two years in 2010 for joking in an thing insignificant online.” tem contravenes the constitution knowledge of some of the cases month after serving 15 months in haunts Xie Suming , a 41- online chat group that then vice- Peng Hong still remem- by restricting citizens’ personal said Wang estimated in early a Chongqing labour camp for re- year-old factory owner who was president was bers the rainy October night freedom.” 2009 that Chongqing, a sprawling posting numerous microblog arrested in late 2009 after he com- set to visit the city, said such treat- three years ago when police Hopes for change were rekin- municipality of 30 million peo- comments criticising the policies mented on a popular internet ment was just part of daily life for knocked on his door at midnight dled after Wang sought refuge at ple, had at least as many crimi- of the southwestern municipal- forum about a posting that Chongqing residents. to take him into custody. He had the US consulate in Chengdu nals as Beijing or Shanghai. “If we ity’s former Communist Party Chongqing’s highest officials Tian, who was preparing to reposted an edited picture on- in February, eventually can’t meet the assigned quota, boss, Bo Xilai . might have connections with lo- get married, wrote the post on line, which implied that a top triggering Bo’s downfall. then it means we are the ‘protec- In his more than four years in cal businessmen. December 4 and was arrested Chongqing official was involved Bo was expelled from the tive umbrella’ for the criminals,” Chongqing, the now disgraced His comment was less than 30 two days later – when Xi actually in corruption. party last month for “serious he quoted Wang as saying. Bo introduced a series of political characters long. Police detained did visit Chongqing. Police grilled “[The officers] all wore black breaches of party discipline” and The police source said that in campaigns echoing Mao Ze- him and searched his house him about the source of his infor- raincoats,” he said. “They frisked is awaiting trial. Wang was jailed many cases, the families of inno- dong’s 10-year-long Cul- without a warrant. mation. He was strapped to a my wife [who was three months for 15 years in September. cent victims suffered greatly. tural Revolution, which began in Then he was sent to a labour chair and tortured for nearly pregnant at the time], confis- The downfall of Bo and Wang Ren said the violence inflicted the mid-60s. camp for a year for “creating a three days, kicked and punched cated my computer and mobile was welcomed by former labour by Bo and Wang had left a pro- Under Bo, Chongqing’s po- disturbance” and “disturbing by guards and denied sleep and phone, and took me to the police camp inmates. Xie was working found legacy on the people of lice, headed by social order”. water. station.” in a friend’s factory in Guang- Chongqing. , relied heavily on an old Xie told authorities: “Are you He said he was threatened He was later declared to have dong when he heard the news “During the past five years, system of punishment known as really going to send me to jail for a and forced into “agonising posi- committed libel and sent to a la- and decided to return home to people like me just tried to stay laojiao, or re-education through reply?” A police officer replied: tions” to make him divulge his bour camp for two years. Chongqing. alive and prayed that the wrong- labour, to incarcerate petty crim- “Don’t blame us. It’s Wang Lijun source. Peng blames his daughter’s “I felt the time had finally doing would stop,” he said. inals and activists without trial. you should blame.” “I was afraid. I told them it was sickliness when she was born on come for justice,” he said. “We didn’t dare fight against Ren and many others thrown Xie is now afraid to talk to peo- a joke but they just didn’t believe the pressure his wife was put Xie and many others like him those in power and had to wait for into labour camps as the author- ple using the mainland’s mobile it,” Tian said. His fiancée broke under during her pregnancy. who filed appeals to the Public so long to seek justice for our- ities tried to muzzle dissent re- phone services, preferring to up with him months after he was Pu, the lawyer, said such Security Bureau’s administration selves. The past is like a gaping member those years of “red ter- make most of his calls via Skype sent to the camp. abuses could be prevented if the office of re-education through la- wound and it may take a long ror” with loathing. on an iPad that he carries every- The labour camp system was labour camp system was re- bour received letters in response time to heal.”

Disgraced Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai (above) and his former head of police Wang Lijun (left). Prisoners perform manual labour in Chongqing. Photos: Reuters, SCMP Pictures A4 Friday, December 28, 2012 FOCUS Illustration: HenryIllustration: Wong

Trying to escape Bo Xilai’s shadow

In the third part of our four-part series Revisiting Chongqing, victims of with power do things arbitrarily,” time in detention and has asked a of attention from China’s legal Xu said. court to order her reinstatement community because it highlight- Bo’s crackdown recall a time that has left them with scars they still bear The unbridled power of local and monetary compensation. ed concerns among many law- ...... officials cows those they target. But many former detainees, yers that the Chongqing govern- your wife in front of you and you the southwestern municipality’s One woman, a lower-level city including Chen, say they just feel ment was trampling on legal Keith Zhai in Chongqing couldn’t do anything about it,” party chief following his sacking official who was sentenced to 18 fortunate to be alive and want no procedure in its zealous crack- [email protected] one officer told him. in March, Vice-Premier Zhang months’ jail in 2009 during the more at the moment. Chen said 5,700 down on criminal gangs. Li Speaking in Chongqing ear- Dejiang , said at the anti-triad campaign, said she had he would wait until the political Zhuang spend 18 months behind Despite being tortured for 37 lier this month, Chen said he was party’s national congress last dared to file an appeal only last outlook became more certain be- The number of arrests in bars and is pursuing an appeal days in a Chongqing motel then shackled to a metal chair month that the Chongqing mod- month, following Bo’s downfall fore filing an appeal. Chongqing during Bo Xilai’s against his conviction. room, businessman - and the police beat his manacles, el never existed. in March. “If Bo and Wang [Lijun] “Let me wait for the decision crackdown, according to Mainland officials insist that xue remained defiant. leaving bruises that are still visi- , a rising political star who were still ruling the city, I would on Bo first,” he said. “I’ve been media reports the Bo scandal – the biggest polit- “This is illegal. The govern- ble two years later. He was forced took over from Zhang right after not have filed the appeal,” she waiting for two years, and I don’t ical scandal in decades – was a ment has policy and law,” he told to confess to paying former the congress as the new party said. “It would have been useless mind waiting a bit longer.” rare aberration, but the problem the police who were tormenting Chongqing mayor Wang Hongju chief, vowed that the new gov- anyway.” The Bo scandal surfaced may be more widespread. him during former Chongqing 2 million yuan in bribes. ernment would protect the inter- She suffers from headaches when Wang Lijun attempted to He Bing , from the Chi- Communist Party secretary Bo Interviews with other victims ests of private business and cre- whenever she thinks about her seek asylum at the US consulate nese University of Political Sci- Xilai’s crackdown on or- of Bo’s crackdown show that the ate a suitable environment in in Chengdu ,Sichuan , ence and Law, said it highlighted ganised crime. use of torture to extract confes- Chongqing in which business- in February. Since then it has the problem that after decades of Chen said the police replied sions was an unsavoury feature of men, many of whom fell victim to seen Bo’s wife, , opening up, the mainland was that Bo was the policy and that his of social Bo and Wang’s anti-triad cam- jailed for the murder of a British still governed by the rule of men, his police chief, Wang Lijun and economic policies which his paign, could thrive. businessman, and has metasta- rather than the rule of law. , was the law. administration pursued for more Beijing Institute of Techno- Chongqing is sized into a full-blown political “Chongqing is not the only “Don’t you realise that our than four years. It was notable for logy law professor Xu Xin , not the only crisis, with Beijing still trying to place that has fallen under the secretary, Bo, will become the its emphasis on infrastructure who used to work at Chongqing’s figure out how to resolve it. rule of men,” He said. “Many lo- president in the future, and that upgrades, affordable housing Southwest University of Political place that has Sources say that more than cal heads would be more than our police chief Wang will be- and rapid growth, but also for its Science and Law, said it was im- 2,000 Chongqing police officers happy to destroy the rule of law, come minister Wang,” they said. anti-triad campaign and the en- portant to look at the whole polit- fallen under who were sidelined by Wang Li- so that they can do whatever they “But you may not live to see that, couragement of mass singalongs ical management system that the rule of men jun have appealed for their cases want.” you zombie. You’re going to die if of revolutionary-era songs. made such a system possible. to be re-examined, with about In late 2007, when Bo suc- you don’t confess.” The man who replaced Bo as “It’s a model that lets those HE BING, ACADEMIC half reinstated or their cases ceeded in Chen, now 58, incontinent under review. A senior police Chongqing, most political ana- and suffering from a host of source in Chongqing said if the lysts believed his new posting health problems attributed to the authorities publicly announced would become a springboard for abuse he suffered in detention, they were reviewing cases dating a triumphant return to Beijing, was arrested on December 23, back to Bo’s time in charge of the and possibly membership of the 2010. The next day, he said, there municipality, tens of thousands party’s supreme Politburo Stand- were many times when he of people would file appeals. ing Committee. He tried hard to thought he was about to die. “It is very important to seek stay in the national limelight, More than 20 police forced truth from facts, and that in- using methods reminiscent of him into the motel room without cludes telling the public every- political campaigns in the time of showing any legal documenta- thing Bo did in Chongqing with- Mao Zedong that later tion. They cut off his clothes, leav- out any hesitation,” said Lei Yi evolved into what became ing only his underpants and a , a historian with the Chi- known as the Chongqing model. T-shirt, and poured cold water on nese Academy of Social Sciences. Chen Youxi , a promi- him, from head to foot. They “Covering up the facts for nent lawyer, said that what turned the air conditioner to its political reasons could create a happened in Chongqing offered coldest setting, stood in a circle hidden danger.” a profound lesson for the rest of around him and began beating Li Zhuang ,a former law- the country. him. At one stage, two police offi- yer who was jailed for fabricating “It’s important to prompt cers held him against a wall as evidence in his defence of an al- nationwide soul-searching about others kicked his legs to force him leged triad boss in 2010, said vic- what really happened in Chong- to do the splits – tearing his groin tims had a responsibility to stand qing,” he said. muscle. Other forms of torture he up and reveal the ugly, dark side “The soil of the Cultural Revo- endured were being hung by his of Chongqing under Bo. lution can still be found in China wrists, having the soles of his feet “I will become a criminal in and the Chongqing tragedy could beaten and being subjected to history if I do not tell the story,” Li also happen in other places. The electric shocks. said. “It’s important to rule the way it fixes the problems in The police said there was Chongqing businessman Chen Guixue country by law because that Chongqing can be seen as an nothing he could do to protect shows the bruises which he says were left could regulate people and indication of the government’s family members who had also after his beating at the hands of police power.” view of the country’s legal been arrested. “I could sleep with sent by Bo Xilai. Photos: SCMP Pictures Li’s case attracted a great deal system.”