The wives of four Chinese human rights lawyers imprisoned in the crackdown of summer 2015 shaved their heads on Monday to protest the government’s treatment of their husbands. “We can go hairless, but you cannot be lawless,” they declared at the conclusion of their head-shaving event.
Reuters described the ceremony and the plight of the participants:
The women took turns shaving each other’s heads, placing the hair in see-through plastic boxes alongside pictures of them with their husbands, before heading to China’s Supreme People’s Court to petition over their husbands’ treatment.
Li Wenzu, who says she has been unable to visit her husband, rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, since he went missing in the 2015 crackdown, told reporters that the act was to protest against the way her husband’s case was being handled.
Li said judges in Wang’s trial had unlawfully delayed proceedings and prevented her from appointing a lawyer of her choosing.
Wang is being held in Tianjin on suspicion of subverting state power, but both Li and seven lawyers she has appointed to try and represent Wang have been unable to visit him, she said.
After three years of being held completely incommunicado, Wang Quanzhang was finally seen by one of his colleagues in July 2018. The colleague sent Li Wenzu a message saying her husband appeared to be “in a good state, both physically and mentally.”
In late October, Wang’s attorney abruptly withdrew from the case after supposedly losing three of his teeth because of a “fall during exercise.” Li Wenzu refused to speculate on whether the lawyer was pressured into withdrawing, but other experts on the Chinese legal and political scene speculated Wang is refusing to provide the written confession demanded by the government, so it will take whatever measures are necessary to keep him incarcerated indefinitely.
“My husband is being detained incommunicado without a proper explanation. I want answers as to why the authorities aren’t following due process. I want to know why they aren’t allowing the family’s lawyer to visit Wang,” Li Wenzu said on Monday. She said the police have not responded to over 30 freedom of information requests she has submitted in reference to her husband’s case.
Another of the four women who shaved their heads, Liu Ermin, said the health of her husband Zhai Yanmin has “deteriorated” in prison and his family remains under “constant surveillance.”
The other two women were actually able to recover their husbands from prison, with one out on bail and the other serving a three-year suspended jail sentence. They joined the hair-cutting demonstration to show their support for the men who are still imprisoned and call attention to the mistreatment of political prisoners in China.