January 20, 2017
Protesters in Hong Kong demanding the release of the rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong in December. Mr. Jiang has been in custody since November, but the Chinese authorities have not disclosed where.
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
BEIJING — Last Sunday was the 19th wedding anniversary of Jin Bianling and her husband, the rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong. As usual, the couple spent it apart. Ms. Jin has not seen Mr. Jiang since 2013, when she and their daughter moved to California from China seeking safety from the state harassment that came along with Mr. Jiang’s work.
“We really miss him,” Ms. Jin said by telephone from the United States.
But this year’s anniversary was especially hard, she said.
On Nov. 21, Mr. Jiang went missing. Police officials later confirmed that he was in custody under suspicion of “incitement to subversion of state power,” but they did not disclose his location.
Then, last week, the police released on bail a close associate of Mr. Jiang’s, the human rights lawyer Li Chunfu, in what Mr. Li’s relatives and lawyers said was a confused and frightened condition, occasionally raving or belligerent. Mr. Li had been tortured, they said, and his neck was injured and his mind damaged. He was also administered unknown drugs, they said.
Now, Ms. Jin is deeply concerned her husband might also be abused.
“I really can’t take it anymore,” she said. “He’s been gone for so long, and we’ve had no news. We don’t know where he is. His lawyers haven’t seen him. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”
So on Tuesday, Ms. Jin, who had already appealed to United States officials for help, turned to someone else she hoped could raise her husband’s case with the Chinese authorities: the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, whom Mr. Jiang met at the German Embassy in Beijing. Ms. Jin has a photograph of the meeting, which she says probably took place in either 2014 or 2015.
The German Embassy declined to comment on Thursday, but Ms. Merkel and other German politicians visiting China have met with dissidents, often at the embassy.
“Merkel pays attention to China’s human rights situation,” Ms. Jin said. “So my hope is that she will pay attention to Jiang Tianyong’s situation and ask, ‘Where is he locked up?’ Can German diplomats meet him and tell us if he’s dead or alive? If he has been tortured? Has he been given his blood pressure medication? Have they been giving him other drugs, strange things?”
On Tuesday, Ms. Jin sent a letter to Ms. Merkel through the chancellor’s online portal, requesting help not just for her husband but for other rights lawyers and activists detained since the government swept through their ranks beginning in July 2015, detaining about 250 people. Most have since been released or charged, some with subversion or incitement to subversion.
In her letter to Ms. Merkel, Ms. Jin wrote, “The experience of the past year has been torture for us family members too: endless smearing by the official media, repeated reports of our loved ones suffering torture, incrimination of family members and defense attorneys, countless illegal procedures.”
Here are her requests:
Ask Chinese leaders about the physical and mental condition of the detained lawyers, including Mr. Jiang, to ensure they are not being tortured.
Ask the Chinese authorities to immediately disclose Mr. Jiang’s whereabouts and arrange for lawyers to meet with him.
Allow the German ambassador to visit Mr. Jiang’s place of detention.
Ask the Chinese authorities to investigate and prosecute those who are responsible for abuses in detention.
While it is unclear whether Ms. Merkel will respond, the Chinese government is unlikely to welcome Ms. Jin’s raising the profile of her husband’s case. However, it may come under greater pressure to respond to the accusations of rights abuses and torture.
Ms. Merkel’s office in Berlin did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Ms. Merkel, who grew up in the former East Germany, is often perceived by China’s embattled rights activists as having a close understanding of Communist-run states and of supporting rights advocates, when possible.
Qin Chenshou, one of Mr. Jiang’s two lawyers, said they shared Ms. Jin’s concern that their client was being tortured.
“We continue to demand to see him,” Mr. Qin said in a telephone call.
On Tuesday, Mr. Qin applied to the state procuratorate in Changsha, Hunan Province, where Mr. Jiang had disappeared, asking it to ensure that Mr. Jiang was being treated humanely. In China, the procuratorate has supervisory powers over the police.
Ms. Jin said on Thursday that she had not received a reply from Ms. Merkel, but she did get confirmation that her appeal had been received.
