Wang Wanxing's Wife, Wang Junying, Visit Wei Jingsheng Foundation Office and Appeal to the International Community for the Release of Her Husband

Wang Junying

On June 19 and 20, 2004, Ciping Huang, the executive director of Wei Jingsheng Foundation, received visits from Mrs. Wang Junying, wife of Wang Wanxing in the Foundation office, in discussion of her husband's case and effort for his release

Wang Wanxing is the most well known Chinese political prisoner being put into a mental institution * Ankang Hospital, a common practice of the Chinese government nowadays in an effort to silent the dissidents. For his effort to ask the Chinese government to re-evaluate June 4, Wang Wanxing has been in confinement for more than 12 years. Hereby, in an effort for the international community to learn more about Wang Wanxing's case, as well as to push for his early release, we provide the following testimony that Mrs. Wang Junying wrote and entrusted Wei Jingsheng Foundation to release and urged the foundation to act more on her behalf.

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Appeal Letter of Mrs. Wang Junying:

On June 3, 1992, the day before the 3rd anniversary of the June 4 memorial, my husband, Wang Wanxing carried: a "10,000 word appeal" to Deng Xiaoping, a self- made tape of the appeal, and a banner calling for "reevaluate the June 4 judgment" to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. When he unfurled the banner at the Peoples' Hero Monument and ready to give a speech, he was set upon by the police. During that incident, the police injured a Japanese reporter and an American reporter. The police also exposed all the films of that incident. My husband was detained at the Chaoyang police station in Beijing. On June 30th, he was transferred to Ankang Hospital - a mental institution administered by the police. All the doctors and nurses there wear police uniforms.

This is my first visit to the United States and first time to Washington, DC. I come to report the long detention and appeal for my husband, Wang Wanxing. My husband was born on October 10, 1949 in Shandong Province. He attended elementary and middle school in Beijing. The Cultural Revolution interrupted his schooling. He was sent down to the Mingshan Ranch of the Construction Corp in Heilongjiang Province in 1968. He was permitted to return to Beijing in 1979. He worked as the warehouse manger at a construction company of Zuojiazhuang in the Chaoyang District of Beijing.

During the 1989 student demonstration he was in contact with the student leaders: Chai Ling, Wang Dan, Ding Xiaoping, Wang Zhengyun, etc. They held meetings in our home.

Ding Xiaoping and Wang Zhengyun served sentence for their participation in the 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement. In April of 1992 after serving prison term of nearly 3 years, Ding and Wang was released and had no job. My husband quit his job, tried to open a bookstore so they can work there.

However, before the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre in 1992, Ding and Wang planned to organize a candlelight vigil of several hundred students in Tiananmen to commemorate the Massacre. My husband tried to talk them out of it saying, "You have just been released and have not regain your health. The risk of being arrested again is very high and you would again be in prison for many years, causing the Movement a great deal of loss. There would also be a great blow to your futures. All the participating students would also at risk of being put in prison". After this advice, they still insisted on organizing the vigil.

So to test the authority's reaction, my husband went to Tiananmen a day earlier, thinking if the authority arrested him, the students would not carry out their planned vigil. The result was that he was arrested. The students gave up their plan. My husband became the sacrificial lamb while sparing dozens, if not hundreds of students being persecuted by the police.

My husband did not expect to be committed to a mental institution. If he were put in prison, there would be a definite term, e.g. 3-5 years. In a mental institution, there is no diagnosis. The family is not notified of the terms of confinement. That is, the confinement is indefinite.

Wang Wanxing has already spent 12 long years in the mental institution. He suffered immensely. His head was injured during a beating, requiring stitches. There are scars on his chest. He was assigned to help an elderly patient and other most filthy jobs. During these indignities, he upholds his personal dignity and strong belief: he does not fight back when beaten; he does not return verbal insults. He does this in an effort to avoid being confirmed as a mental case, as well as out of sympathy for fellow patients. He also saved a suicidal patient.

My husband told me many times that he sympathizes with his fellow patients. He did not react to beating nor verbal abuse. This is his strength and his greatness, under the most difficult, trying situations.

Twelve years is a long time. The Chinese Communist completely destroyed our family. My daughter lost her father's love since she was 10 years old, attending the 5th grade. I was branded a "counter-revolutionary" and the wife of a mental deviant, subjected to the disapproval and insult of the community constantly. I endure this silently to wait for the return of my husband, to nurture my daughter, and to keep my job - the only mean of support for us. At work I must work harder than others. For several years until year 2000, I left home at 6 am and came home around 11 pm. My daughter does not enjoy fully her mother's love. I just cannot explain to her the reason for our suffering.

Wang Wanxing's parents and mine also suffered the cruelties of the Chinese government abuse, facing enormous pressure and stress. My parents and his father passed away, not seeing his freedom. His mother is still waiting, day and night, for his release so he can have a reunion with us abroad. The government has broken and brutalized two generations of this family.

In the last twelve years, to secure my husband's release, I have appealed to the Beijing city government, city police department, and city party apparatus, city delegates of the People's Congress, the State Council, and many other government entities in China. I appealed. I protested. I visited (the various agencies). I waited patiently. So far there is no result. Political persecution caused me to lose my job and my health. I have heart disease, high blood pressure and bone problem. I urgently need medical care.

After suffered immensely for more than a decade, I published an article, "A political prisoner's wife's appeal - after more than a decade of silence" in August 4, 2002. After that, Mr. Hou Jie wrote, "Wang Wanxing's hospital room #6" and "823 Greeting Cards". These articles show clearly my husband's effort on behalf of Chinese democracy and the global attention of his sacrifices and cruel persecution.

Wang Wanxing thirsts for democracy and freedom. He thirsts more for justice, fairness and truth.

Hereby, I thank to the international community's attention and support to my husband and my family. And I urge the governmental branches and non- governmental organizations put effort to try to visit my husband in China and thus to give him a fair and honest evaluation so he could be released early. I also appeal to the U.S. State Department, Senate and House of Representatives and other organizations to work for his release from the mental institution. I wish soon he will be reunited with our daughter and me and enjoy a normal family life.

Thank you very much.

Wang Junying, wife of Wang Wanxing
June 20, 2004

(First released by Wei Jingsheng Foundation. Please give credit, with the foundation's website at: www.WeiJingsheng.org. Translation credit: Mr. R. T. Huang.)

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Source: "Wei Jingsheng Foundation".