Freed feminist tells of harsh interrogation

BEIJING — One of five leading Chinese feminist advocates said she went through lengthy and verbally abusive interrogations after she was conditionally released in a case that has attracted international attention.

Wu Rongrong, a 30year-old advocate for women’s rights, said in a statement Saturday that she endured an eighthour police interrogation in a hotel room in the eastern city of Hangzhou. She said her interrogators insulted her at length, calling her selfish and ungrateful and telling her that she brought shame to social activists.

“I finally walked out of the horrible Room 226 at 10:30 p.m.,” Wu wrote. “I felt both my body and my mind were near collapse. I didn’t know my way home. I was helpless and scared.”

Wu could not be reached as she was banned from speaking to the media, but her lawyer Lu Zhoubin confirmed the statement’s authenticity.

A policeman who Wu alleged was involved in her interrogations declined to be interviewed.

Wu and four others were detained last month, just ahead of International Women’s Day, as they were planning to hand out stickers and flyers against sexual harassment in several Chinese cities.

The detentions of Wu, Li Tingting, Wei Tingting, Zheng Churan and Wang Man drew attention overseas. Foreign governments, rights groups and luminaries including U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the arrests as an overreaction by a repressive Chinese government.

The women were released after 37 days without any formal charge, but they remain criminal suspects. Foreign governments and rights groups have been urging Chinese authorities to drop the investigations. China’s foreign ministry has responded by saying the investigations are an internal judicial affair.

Wu’s lawyer said she was ill-treated while in detention when her medicine was withheld for days and when she was forced to sleep on the floor.