Detention of Huang Qi

Pu Wenqing (蒲文清), the elderly mother of jailed human rights defender Huang Qi (黄琦), is seriously ill and has expressed concerns about the lack of information regarding her son’s health status. Huang Qi was sentenced in July 2019 to 12 years’ imprisonment on the trumped-up charges of “intentionally leaking state secrets” and “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities”.

Prior to his detention in November 2016, Huang Qui was an active documenter of human rights violations in China, which he recorded on his website 64 Tianwang, established in 1998. The website, along with the affiliated 64 Tianwang Human Rights Centre, was originally established to help locate victims of kidnapping and human trafficking but gradually expanded its focus to cover other human rights violations in China.

In an article dated 11 April 2020 and published online on 25 April, entitled “A Final Confession from Huang Qi’s Mother”, Pu Wenqing wrote that she was seriously ill with lung, liver and kidney conditions and that it was unlikely she would live to see her son realeased from prison. Huang Qi is serving his sentence in Bazhong Prison in Sichuan, which has temporarily suspended visitation rights due to the coronavirus outbreak. Even under normal circumstances, human rights defenders who are imprisoned often have their rights to communicate and meet with family curtailed.

Pu Wenqing, in her late 80s, said she was under strict surveillance in her home in Sichuan and is followed by state agents when she goes out to buy medicine or attend doctors’ appointments. The authorities have prevented her from meeting with or hiring lawyers to represent Huang Qi. She has been told that she is not allowed to go to Beijing to petition government offices, give media interviews, meet with other petitioners, or hire human rights lawyers.

Huang Qi also suffers from various illnesses including high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic kidney condition and hydrocephalus and his mother has previously appealed for him to be granted medical parole. During a trip to Beijing to campaign for Huang Qi’s release in December 2018, Pu Wenqing was intercepted and manhandled by plainclothed agents. She was then taken back to Sichuan and was briefly placed under incommunicado detention.

In April 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion finding the detention of Huang Qi to be arbitrary as it was a reprisal against his exercise of basic human rights and was accompanied by grave violations of due process rights. In December 2018, UN human rights experts issued a public statement expressing serious concerns about Huang Qi’s deteriorating health and calling for his immediate release. In August 2019, UN human rights experts wrote to the Chinese government after Huang Qi’s sentencing, expressing concerns regarding his physical and mental integrity, his inability to access adequate healthcare, and a lack of information regarding his health condition. The European Union, speaking at the Human Rights Council in March 2020, also included Huang Qi among the list of detained human rights defenders which it is calling on China to release immediately.

Human rights defenders imprisoned or detained in China often face harsh detention conditions, ill-treatment, as well as difficulty in accessing timely and adequate medical treatment. Several human rights defenders have died while in detention or soon after their release, including Cao Shunli, Liu Xiaobo and Ji Sizun.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the health conditions ofHuang Qi and the contiuned harassment of his mother Pu Wenqing. It urges the relevant authorities in China to immediately and unconditionally release Huang Qi, as well as overturning the verdict of July 2019. It also urges the relevant authorities to cease all form of harassment and surveillance against Pu Wenging and ensure her right to freedom of movement and expression, including her right to seek legal counsel.

On 14 January 2019, citizen journalist Huang Qi underwent a secret trial at the Mianyang City Intermediate Court.

Huang Qi has been detained since his arrest on 28 November 2016. Throughout the defender's detention, authorities have continually hindered his access to legal counsel and denied his requests medical leave to medical issues regarding his heart, brain, kidney, and blood pressure. Huang Qi's elderly mother has also been subject to intermittent periods of restricted movement and incommunicado detention by authorities.

On 28 November, human rights defender Mr Huang Qi was forcibly taken from his home by officers of the Chengdu, Mianyang, and Neijiang city police forces. He has not been heard from  since he was arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

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On the evening of 28 November, approximately 15 police officers from the Chengdu, Mianyang and Neijiang city police forced their way into Huang Qi’s home and took him away. During the raid, several police officers entered the nearby home of Huang Qi’s 83-year-old mother. When his mother attempted to call the police, her phone was confiscated from her. She was taken by car to a local hotel for “soft detention,” a surveillance method often practised by Chinese authorities against persons of interest and their families. Huang Qi’s mother was detained for two hours and subsequently released. Huang Qi’s arrest was witnessed by Mr Pu Fei, a volunteer who works for the 64 Tianwang Human Rights Center. After Huang Qi was taken away, Pu Fei publicised his account of the events online. On 29 November Pu Fei was arrested by police forces, and has not been heard from since. Requests by Huang Qi’s mother for information on his whereabouts have been ignored. No warrant has been produced for Huang Qi or Pu Fei’s arrests.

In the week prior to Huang Qi’s arrest, he published a series of articles documenting arrests and physical abuse of local petitioners by Sichuan police. Huang Qi also told a reporter during the time of publishing, that these reports might “get him into trouble.” Huang Qi has been targeted by Chinese authorities for almost 20 years. He spent eight years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion” and “illegal possession of state secrets”. In 2008, the defender was detained for his investigation into the collapse of schools in Sichuan Province during the 2008 earthquake, statistics of which the Chinese government had attempted to suppress. Following his release in 2011, Huang Qi has continued to document human rights violations and has met continued harassment from the government. Most recently, in October 2016, he was detained for several days during the 6th Plenum meeting of the Chinese Communist Party. Huang Qi’s first incarceration, beginning with his arrest in 2000, has been attributed to his posting of articles written by participants of the Tiananmen protests of 1989.

Front Line Defenders believes Huang Qi’s arrest and subsequent refusal to disclose his whereabouts to be motivated by his legitimate and peaceful work to defend human rights.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in China to:
 

1. Take all necessary measures to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Huang Qi and Pu Fei and guarantee their physical and psychological security and integrity;

2. Ensure that the treatment of Huang Qi and Pu Fei, while in detention, adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment', adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988;

3. Inform the families and lawyers of Huang Qi and Pu Fei of the place of their detention, and allow them immediate and unfettered access to them;

4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in China are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.