Criminal Justice

MPS Launches "2010 Strike Hard" Anticrime Campaign

Background

"The Wrongful Case of Zhao Zuohai"

Weeks after reportedly "resurfacing" in late March 2010, prominent Chinese human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng disappeared again in mid-April, according to an April 30 New York Times (NYT) article and a May 1 Voice of America article. In early April, Gao gave several interviews to foreign reporters, claiming he had been "released" months earlier and had ended his human rights campaigning in hope of being reunited with his family. The extent of the restrictions imposed on Gao's freedom of movement and association after this reported "release" remain unclear. Gao provided few details of his circumstances or of his 14-month disappearance, according to a March 28 BBC News article.

Authorities in Yixing city, Jiangsu province, released environmental activist Wu Lihong from the Dingshan Prison on April 12, 2010, after Wu completed a three-year sentence for alleged fraud and extortion, according to an April 12 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese). Prior to his detention, Wu had spent years documenting pollution in the Lake Tai area in Jiangsu province. After his release, Wu repeated allegations that he was forced to confess to the crimes, and alleged that prison officials had subjected him to abuse during his detention and imprisonment from 2007 to 2010, according to a May 11 Agence France-Presse (AFP) article and a May 11 RFA article (in Chinese).