The following email, reproduced in full with the actual names (per the request of the emailer) comes from a personal friend of Lisa’s, so I am pretty certain it is not a hoax. I have forwarded it to some newspaper reporters I know and am hoping they will do something with it. Maybe if you are a blogger (or a reporter) you’ll consider helping as well.
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The following is the story happening recently:
My brother’s name is Si Fuqiang. He is a vice director general of the Bureau of Food of Jiao Cheng, Shanxi Province, China. It happened at the night of Dec. 23, 2005. My brother sent a message to Wang Shengzhang, the Secretary of the Communist Party in Jiao Cheng County, Shanxi, China, to criticise him for his villanous behaviors. On 24 morning, Si Fuqiang was inpounded by the Beaurau of Public Security of Jiaocheng using the name of “Crime of Insult”. I asked many lawyers. They all said even according to Chinese Law, my brother’s behavior is neither a crime, nor an illegal behavior. However, Because Wang Shengzhang is the highest authority of Jiao Cheng County. No body else in the County dare to argue against him, thougn most citizens hate Wang Shengzhang very much.
When I went back my hometown to rescue my brother. Some kind people told me the truth secretly. Wang Shengzhang has many political defauts when he works in Jiao Cheng County. There are several great accidents in Mine explode. As an example, in 2005’s “3.9” accident, 30 miners died. According to related policy, Wang Shengzhang should take the resposibility for it and he should be punished. However, he ordered the people who handled the accident affair to lie and made faulse reports by saying that there are 28 miners died in the accident and by rewrote the documents. Because according to China’s Policy, the Secretary of the local government must be punished if the figure is above 30…….
His daughter is a university student. He uses his power to put his daughter ‘s name down as a staff of the Bureau of the Security and take the salary every month. However, few staffs in the Bureau met her, because she did nothing there.
He takes money from the people who want to be promoted and repayed them by taking the advantage of his position to promote them.
……
Actually the examples above just a very small part of his defauts and there are many of others that many citizens know but dare not to speak out.
Wang also take the advantage of his power to play with girls and in the everning of Dec. 23, two drivers saw Wang’s bad behavior in Taiyuan and told my brother. My brother then wrote a message to criticise Wang. As a result, Wang is mad and ordered the Bureau of the Public Security of Jiaocheng to run my brother in……
People in Jiao Cheng feel terrible and they dare not to say anything related the security…….
Furthermore, some of the staffs flatter the security by using all kinds of means. For example, there is a bad guy named Er Wei ( I don’t know his full name, Er wei is his nick name) summonsed my brother’s wife and insulted her by force her to drink water…… His behavior is a crime according to Chinese law, but nobody punish him and he is still handling my brother’s affair.
There are more I will report later.
I feel terrible and angry about the situation. I promise I will struggle agaist for it.
One can not believe it, most people in Jiao Cheng county even stoped me to wrote in internet or newspaper when I am in Jiao Cheng, because they think if I write something, probabely I will be in troubles.
Now, my brother Si Fuqiang is still in the prison, and perhaps he will be punished more. Now I am writing to you asking for your help. Could you please spread my words in your website? Or do you have any good suggestions for it?
Thank you very much for reading my letter.
Best wishes,
Susan
Beijing Language and Culture University
Beijing, China.
1
By Other Lisa
I will add that I know Susan well, and this is absolutely on the level.
Beyond that, she is a fine person, and someone who really deserves any help we can give her.
How many times have we heard variations on this story? To my mind, it is a textbook example of the “mafia-zation” of local politics in China.
January 3, 2006 @ 10:03 am | Comment
2
By Stuart
This storyline is all too common; those brave enough to speak the truth suffer greatly while receiving no protection from the law. The dissenting voice in China, especially if it dares to express a desire for honesty, is ruthlessly put down.
A colleague of mine feels that corruption is so deeply ingrained in the Chinese psyche that social meltdown will be the inevitable result. I agree.
My contacts are limited; but if I can reach anyone that can lend a voice to Si Fuqiang’s plight, I will bring his case to their attention.
January 3, 2006 @ 10:29 am | Comment
3
By Other Lisa
Stuart, anything you can do would be greatly appreciated….
January 3, 2006 @ 11:31 am | Comment
4
By Ivan
Lisa,
Back in America I knew some Mafia guys (on the fringes), and I would never insult them by comparing them to the Chinese Communists.
The Italian-American Mafia at least have SOME sense of honour, SOME notion of the difference between truth and lies. The Chinese Communists have none.
January 3, 2006 @ 8:19 pm | Comment
5
By susan
I am Susan, Si Fuqiang’s sister. I would like to say a few words about the story above. I visited lots of people when I went back my hometown to rescue my brother. They are all angry for the terrible situation. However, no body in the local government and in the city is powerful enough to pursuade the Corrupt Offical. Now I am still stuggling against it. I am looking forward to getting helps from both China and the world.
January 3, 2006 @ 9:54 pm | Comment
6
By Other Lisa
Susan, please keep us posted on what you are doing on your end and what we can do on ours – who we could contact and what kinds of resources you are looking for. There are human rights organizations we can contact for you but i’m not sure what the best path is. I know there are some very brave and impressive Chinese lawyers working on these issues – Richard has posted articles about some of them.
I’m wondering if we could come up with a basic plan of action here – suggestions, anyone?
January 3, 2006 @ 11:13 pm | Comment
7
By Susan
I would like to express my appreciation to my friend Lisa and to Richard for spreading the words about my brother’s diffucult here. I have wrote a formal report and have delivered it to CCTV, and I will give it to some important figures in China and hope that they can stand out to help us. In some small places, the situation is just like in my hometown, Jiao Cheng, Shanxi, where the corruption is terrible.
January 4, 2006 @ 12:29 am | Comment
8
By Keir
Don’t know of the Beijing Language and Culture University, but would love to have Susan come to my class and address my students.
January 4, 2006 @ 2:11 am | Comment
9
By deepocean
Richard,
I am sorry for what happened to Susan’s brother, but I am very suspecious abour the real motivation
of that ‘brave’ brother, ( dont get it wrong, I am a CCP basher and scolded you several time for too soft to CCP), I stayed in Chinese goverment for more than 15 years,( law enforcement and then one part of CCP centre committe ), to my experience I NEVER heard one official (director or vice directer even at town level)
dared to stand up to his/her boss,never.
Only when he has another motivation other than ‘disclose corruption’
Maybe I am too cynical, i donr know,this is life in China.
January 4, 2006 @ 3:19 am | Comment
10
By richard
Deep ocean, I have received other emails asking for me to post things not too dissimilar to this, and I usually decline because I can’t validate them. I posted this because Susan is a good personal friend of Lisa’s, whom I in turn know personally. So I have a character reference. I agree, you can’t believe everything you hear, even when it’s about the CCP.
January 4, 2006 @ 3:22 am | Comment
11
By Susan
Keir, Beijing Language and Culture University in a university where 70 percent students are foreigners who want study Chinese.
Deepocean, I am so sorry that you
are suspecious about “real motivation” of my “brave brother”. However, I know my brother very much and he has no other motivations but to express his angry to Wang, the corrupt official. True, very few people here dare to stand up to his boss or something, but there are some people who are really brave and justice.
January 4, 2006 @ 3:46 am | Comment
12
By Susan
My brother’s real story is simple, but some the others don’t think so, including Wang, the secretary of the CCP in Jiao Cheng. He were suspecious about my brother too and thought that by running my brother in, he can find something meaningful for him and he can find more people who are against him. However, he found nothing.
January 4, 2006 @ 4:32 am | Comment
13
By Other Lisa
Kevin, Beijing Language and Culture University is usually called BCLU (er, that would be Culture and Language, I guess) or Beijing Yuyuan Xueyuan. It’s well-known, especially among foreign students who want to learn English (my Chinese teacher is a professor from BLCU…BCLU. Okay, I need to look this up). It’s in Haidian District, not far from Tsinghua and Beida.
January 4, 2006 @ 11:52 am | Comment
14
By Susan
The abbreviation of Beijing Language and Culture University is BLCU. It is a university for Foreigners to learn Chinese. It is also a place for Chinese students to study foreign languages. The website is http://www.blcu.edu.cn. I am working in the college of foreign langauges of BLCU.
January 4, 2006 @ 9:37 pm | Comment
15
By kevin
Actually, I think that was Kier you were responding to, not me, Kevin. I’ve heard of BLCU. But glad to know you were thinking of me.
Ok, can’t really think of anything else to say cuz it’s really late. Sorry for the completely useless comment.
January 5, 2006 @ 9:44 am | Comment
16
By Susan
The situation seems to be developing. A important person who is a memeber of the National People’s Congress(NPC) has received my report and decided to help us to free my brother. Some kind friends in America are helping us too. I will post it when the time comes.
January 5, 2006 @ 8:50 pm | Comment
17
By richard
Susan, good luck and keep us posted.
January 5, 2006 @ 11:38 pm | Comment
18
By Susan
Richard, Thank you very much for your helps to spread my words here. I will wait and see the situation development now. I hope the efforts of the senate and of the friends in America will be helpful. I will post the updated news here as I can.
January 6, 2006 @ 12:46 am | Comment