Poet’s Whereabouts Unknown After Arrest: Wife Turns to Twitter for Help

Mainland Chinese political dissident and poet Wang Zang was taken away by Yunnan police on May 30 under the charge of “Inciting Subversion of State Power”. His whereabouts are still unknown to this day. Wang's wife, Wang Li, called for public attention on Twitter. On June 11, Wang Li tweeted a plea for help as police stole her belongings and threatened to take her away. Wang Zang, a mainland poet who had been detained for nine months by CCP authorities for organizing a poetry recital in support of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement in 2014, was arrested and detained again at the end of last month by Yunnan police on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" and his whereabouts are still unknown. On the eve of June 4, the police forcibly took Wang Zang away from his home, and also harassed his wife, Wang Li. On June 11 Wang Li tweeted a plea for help, as police threatened to take her away because her younger sister had sent her a cellphone from Shanghai. Wang Li said: "My sister had just sent me a cell phone from Shanghai, but it was snatched away by a dozen police officers while I was downstairs.” Wang Li said more than a dozen people, including police, were guarding the floor below her residence 24 hours a day, and she felt her life was under threat. Wang Li: (on a video she tweeted, June 10, 2020) “I would like to ask friends from all around the world to see that the Chuxiong City police have illegally taken my husband Wang Zang away, and are now banning us from using our cell phones and robbing us of our belongings. Please take a look at how this police department treats our law-abiding citizens by taking away our cell phones. That's how mafias work.” In the article she tweeted, Wang Li posted the telephone numbers of nearby public security bureaus and police stations, calling for more attention from netizens. Since she doesn't have a cell phone number, she could only ask her friends to call and ask the Chuxiong police who knocked down and injured her mother-in-law and stole the cell phone and phone card her sister had sent from Shanghai. Toward the end (of the video she tweeted), Wang Li could only cry as she spoke, she was so helpless and didn't know where Wang Zang was. Many netizens have left comments encouraging her not to give up hope, and that many people are showing their care. Some netizens said, we are all your family, we are all your strong support. U.S. based writer, Wang Qingying: “I met Wang Zang on the Internet, and I feel the same way about what he has gone through. Because what he is going through now, is something I have been through before. I am very sympathetic and angry about what has happened to their family, because that is what the CCP does, it will kill anyone with a sense of justice.” Former Senior Member of a Chinese NGO, Yang Zhanqing, said: “Wang Zang was arrested by the police for his words, and in order to obtain a confession, the police convicted Wang Zang, threatened and implicated his family. This is something that would only happen in a barbarous society, but it is happening every day in China.” Wang Zang was detained for nine months before he was released, due to his support for Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement in 2014. After his release from prison, Wang Zang was forced to move at least nine times with his wife and children, and he was threatened by the police that if he continued to engage in human rights campaigns, he should be “afraid of losing his home and his family”. China's human rights lawyer, Chen Jiangang: “Under the rule of the CCP, implicating family members in the persecution of individuals is a norm. Dissidents and human rights lawyers have been treated under the CCP this way for many years. The Chinese Communist regime is nothing but an anti-human regime.” Wang Zang, age 34, is a poet, a screenwriter, and a painter. In 2012, he moved to Beijing’s Songzhuang Art District. In October 2014, he was detained by Beijing police on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" for posting photos of holding a yellow umbrella online and for organizing a po