China’s Tortured Lawyers (Wall Street Journal on May 30, 2017 Opinion Editorial by Bob Fu)
被酷刑的中国律师（2017年5月30日华尔街日报 傅希秋撰稿）
‘It is truly ‘nine deaths, one life,’ ” my friend Li Heping said, quoting a Chinese idiom to mean he narrowly escaped death. “There were times that I wanted to commit suicide. I survived because of my Christian faith, the courageous advocacy of my wife and the attention of the international community.”
“真的是九死一生。”我的朋友李和平引用了一个成语来概括他和死亡擦肩而过的经历。“我有幾次想到过不活了，今天能活下来，全靠我的基督信仰，我妻子充滿勇氣的鼓励和国际社会的关注。”
Mr. Li was describing to me the sadistic torture he endured at the hands of Chinese authorities. He was arrested, along with more than 250 other human-rights lawyers, on July 10, 2015 as part of a nationwide sweep that has come to be known as the 709 Crackdown. More than a campaign of intimidation, it’s part of a concerted, coordinated effort to break and humiliate China’s most prominent defenders of human rights.
李先生向我描述了中国政府对他施加的种种酷刑。他于2015年7月10日被捕，成为这次全国性扫荡的二百五十多名受害者之一。这次针对人权律师的行动之后被命名为709大抓捕，与其说是恐吓，不如说是一次有组织有预谋的 ，对中国最活跃的人权捍衛者们的一次集中破壞和羞辱。
Despite promises to develop a rule of law, President Xi Jinping’s regime has sought to eviscerate China’s network of human-rights lawyers and rights advocates, viewing their peaceful efforts at legal reform as a national-security threat. Mr. Xi has reinstituted the Maoist practice of televised public confession and embraced a system of torture so horrific it demands an international response.
尽管许下依法治国的承诺，习近平主席的政府却大肆破坏中国人权律师网络，无视维权呼吁，将和平的法律改革倡议当成国家安全隐患。习沿袭了毛泽东式作风，重新启用了通过电视播放的公开認罪。他建立的酷刑系统太过于触目惊心了，需要国际社会的立即介入回應。
In addition to solitary confinement in frigid cells, beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation and being chained in stress positions, many of those detained during the 709 Crackdown are testifying that they were also drugged with large amounts of unknown substances. Mr. Li, for instance, said he was “diagnosed” with high blood pressure and forced to take 6 pills a day for nearly two years. Mr. Li’s wife, Wang Qiaoling, provided testimony about this earlier this month to U.S. Representative Chris Smith, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Human Rights.
除关禁闭，殴打，电击，睡眠剥夺和雙手腿連結躬腰鐵鏈綑綁外，许多709大抓捕的受害者透露他们曾被迫服下大剂量的不明药物。李先生就是其中一例。他被“诊断”为高血压，并被迫每日服用六片药物长达近两年之久。这月中，李和平的妻子王峭岭曾向美国众议员兼外交委员会全球人权分部主席克里斯·史密斯提供相关证词。
Another lawyer, Xie Yang, released through his lawyers details of the torture he endured, including beatings and being shackled in stress positions. He said his jailers would repeatedly threaten to torture him until he “became insane.” That’s the state that has befallen Li Chinfu, a lawyer now diagnosed with schizophrenia after he, too, was forcibly medicated.
另一位受害者律师谢阳也披露了被严刑拷打的细节，包括被殴打和被固定在一个极度扭曲的姿势里。谢阳说，监狱看守曾多次威胁要一直对他施加酷刑，直到他“精神失常”。李春富律师也遭受了相似的折磨。在被强迫服药后，李春富律师甚至已被診斷患精神分裂。
These aren’t isolated stories. Other lawyers detained during the 709 Crackdown are coming forward with similar reports. The list includes lawyer Li Shuyun, lawyer Ren Quanniu, lawyer Wang Quanzhang, legal assistant Gou Hongguo and legal activists Zhai Yanmin, Wu Gan and Jiang Tianyong. China’s pattern of torture-through-medication needs condemnation by governments, medical associations and the United Nations.
这些都不是孤例。其他在709大抓捕中被拘的律师，如李姝云律师，任全牛律师，王全璋律师，法律助理勾洪国，法律维权人士翟岩民，吴淦和江天勇也提供了相似的证词。国际各政府，医疗协会和联合国应对中国政府假借医疗之名实施酷刑的行为进行谴责。
At the Mar-a-Lago summit in April, President Trump reportedly confronted Mr. Xi with some blunt questions, among them, why China’s government brutally jails so many political dissidents. Asking blunt questions about the torture and abuse of human-rights lawyers makes a big difference, as Mr. Li says his treatment improved during periods when the U.S. focused international attention on China. It improved after the U.S. election, and following the call by Mr. Trump to Taiwan’s new president, Tsai Ing-wen. And it accelerated after the Mar-a-Lago summit.
在四月的海湖庄园会晤上，据报道，特朗普总统与习近平先生面对面会谈，直言不諱地提出了一些尖锐的问题，质问中国为何用野蛮手段囚禁如此多政治异见者。坦率地提出这些尖锐的问题大大改善了良心犯的处境。李先生说，在美国将国际关注集中到中国后，他在狱中的待遇变好了。同样的，在美国大选之后和特朗普先生与新晋台湾总理蔡英文通话后，良心犯们有了喘息的空间。这种趋势在海湖庄园会晤之后更为明显。
All of this is in stark contrast to the Obama administration. Mr. Trump, for instance, authorized the rescue of Mr. Xie’s wife and two young daughters, whose daring escape to Thailand in February was almost derailed by Chinese agents seeking their repatriation. The Obama administration did little when Beijing spirited other Chinese asylum-seekers out of Thailand in recent years.
这一切都与奥巴马在任时大不相同。例如，特朗普总统親自授权了对谢阳妻子陈桂秋女士和两个女儿的营救。此前，陈桂秋母女二月份已勇敢地逃到泰国，但三月初被泰國中国政府人员扣押并几乎遣返回国。相较之下，奥巴马政府对在近年来中国政府对一些赴泰避難异见人士的強行抓捕遣返回國的行為不闻不问，少有作为。
The international community should be calling for an investigation into the torture that resulted from the 709 Crackdown. Possible responses could include sanctions through the Magnitsky Act, which targets officials complicit in the torture of human-rights advocates.
国际社会应呼吁对709大抓捕背后的酷刑进行全面调查，并启动《马格尼茨基法案》，向对人权倡导者施加酷刑的官员们實施包括制裁在內的问责措施。
Wang Quanzhang, Jiang Tianyong and Wu Gan—and so many others—remain in jail and are in danger of horrific torture. We cannot forget them. Silence may equal their death.
王全璋，江天勇，吴淦和许许多多其他的人权倡导捍衛者仍在狱中，并时刻面临着被施以酷刑的危险。我们不能忘记他们。我们的沉默也许就意味着他们的死亡。
Mr. Fu is the founder and president of China Aid, a Texas-based international Christian human-rights organization.
傅希秋先生是对华援助协会的創辦人兼會長。对华援助协会是一个位于德克萨斯的国际基督教人权组织。
原文刊載於5月30日「華爾街日報社論版（亞洲）」和華爾街日報網絡地址。
