National Post (National Edition)
China has jailed McGill grad for 18 years
IT'S A HYPOTHESIS CRYING OUT FOR TESTS. — COLBY COSH
`The road ahead for me in medicine would have been smooth and bright,” Wang Bingzhang declared shortly after becoming the first Chinese national to be awarded a PhD in North America, but “I have decided to abandon medicine and to devote myself to China's contemporary democracy movement.”
For defending democracy, Wang was illegally abducted in Vietnam and convicted on trumped-up charges of terrorism and espionage by a Chinese court, in a closeddoor trial that lasted only half a day. He has languished in solitary confinement ever since. It has been more than 18 years.
Wang's family members — many of whom are Canadian citizens — want nothing more than to see him. But most of them have been barred from entering China by the Ministry of State Security. He has not even met any of his four grandchildren. At 72 years old, time is of the essence.
That's why today, six former ministers of justice and foreign affairs are joining the Wallenberg Advocacy Group at McGill University in sending an open letter to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its ambassador in Ottawa. We are calling for Wang's immediate release because justice is long overdue.
Wang's story began in 1966, when he witnessed a deadly beating perpetrated by Red Guard members during the Cultural Revolution. This experience deeply disturbed him and shaped his views on totalitarian politics. Nonetheless, the Chinese government sponsored his studies at McGill University's faculty of medicine, and news outlets around the world lauded his accomplishment when he obtained his PhD in experimental medicine in 1982.
Wang could have then returned home a hero. But he longed for a China where rights and freedoms flourished, especially after witnessing Canada's vibrant democracy during Quebec's 1980 referendum. So he forewent his promising career in medicine and dedicated his life to abolishing China's one-party rule, founding two political parties and the overseas Chinese democracy movement. Two decades later, Wang's activism would come to an abrupt halt.
In 2002, he was kidnapped by unknown agents in Vietnam and forcibly taken to China. He was detained incommunicado for five months without being notified of the charges brought against him. Not once was he permitted to contact his family or a lawyer. At trial, he was even denied the opportunity to speak or present a defence.
The Chinese government violated Wang's rights to free expression and due process guaranteed not only by international law, but also by China's constitutional and criminal procedural law. Worse yet, proof has emerged indicating that the evidence used to convict him was fabricated. Wang's conviction on terrorism charges relied in part on the alleged testimony of witness Ni Jinbin. This surprised Ni, who recently signed a declaration asserting that he had never even spoken to Chinese authorities.
To top it all off, solitary confinement for more than 15 days constitutes torture according to the United Nations Nelson Mandela Rules; as of Wednesday, Wang has been in solitary confinement for 6,794 days. His mental and physical health have suffered dearly as a result. He has endured three debilitating strokes and Chinese authorities have refused to provide medical records to his family despite their requests.
Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry claims that, “There is no such thing as arbitrary detention.” The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention disagrees. In 2003, it confirmed that Wang's detention was just that: arbitrary. Yet the Chinese government has refused to heed the working group's call to action.
China's ascension as a global superpower despite its government's contempt for our rules-based international order should send a chill down our spines. If the Communist Party of China's persecution of its critics continues to be met with silence and impunity, atrocities will go on unabated.
Wang must be released from solitary confinement and reunited with his family in Canada. Our demand for justice has been echoed by former ministers of justice and foreign affairs, as well as Canadian parliamentarians from all parties who have adopted his cause. And rightly so. Until Wang enjoys his freedom, our collective conscience should not allow us to enjoy ours.