Doctor released from solitary confinement
Guifang and Junzhen Wang, parents of jailed human rights activist Dr. Bingzhang Wang called for their son's release outside the Chinese consulate yesterday.
By Martin van den Hemel
Staff Reporter
Mar 19 2005
Jail conditions improve in China much to the relief of Richmond parents
Richmond parents Guifang and Junzhen Wang still won't be able to see their son, but they received a small measure of relief when Chinese officials recently released human rights advocate Dr. Bingzhang Wang from solitary confinement.
Although he remains in the same cell, the 58-year-old is now allowed to fraternize with fellow prisoners, to garden, play basketball and run outside, and even read magazines.
And unlike before, whenever the temperature now dips below a certain level, he's allowed access to a heater.
These developments came following Canada's trade mission to China in late January, during which Prime Minister Paul Martin handed over a list of names to Premier Wen Jiabao of the People's Republic of China, according to a source. Although the political leaders didn't discuss the names on the list, or their specific situations, Dr. Bingzhang Wang's name was apparently on it.
Timothy Cooper, executive director of WorldRights, a non-governmental human rights advocacy organization, said the positive development in Dr. Wang's treatment came in the last couple of months. Considering he's been kept in solitary for more than two years, any positive changes were welcomed.
"We've seen a marked improvement in the condition of Dr. Wang...All of these new improvements suggest a shift in tone in the manner of his treatment and they are most welcome."
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew voiced his concern about the charges against Dr. Wang and the "harshness of his sentence" in February.
During a mid-January prison visit by Wang's sister Linda, she first noted a shift in tone, followed a month later by news of a change in the way he was being treated on the inside.
"We certainly attribute it to the pressure, direct and indirect, that has been put on the Chinese authorities to improve his conditions by the Canadian government," Cooper said.
Cooper credits the changes to mounting political pressure from countries across the globe, including the United States, Wang's country of citizenship, as well as Canada. Wang's parents and sister moved to Richmond in December 2003.
A medical doctor, Dr. Wang was kidnapped in June 2002 while in Vietnam during a meeting with Chinese labour leaders near the border between China and Vietnam.
The following year, after he was held "incommunicado" for many months, Wang was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for espionage and leading a terrorist organization by what Cooper called a "kangaroo court."
"We think that Paul Martin's visit to China, the trade visit, was an opportunity for the Canadian government to express its concerns to the Chinese authorities about Dr. Wang's treatment."
In recent months, 41 members of the British House of Commons voiced expressions of concern about Dr. Wang's treatment.
Early last year, Wang's family was denied visitation rights for about six months, and then learned to their horror that Dr. Wang had suffered a stroke.