Human Rights Defender Lawyer Zhao Lianhai Must be Released Now!  Zhang Kai

As his son was one of the victims of drinking contaminated milk with melamine, Lawyer Zhao Lianhai founded a blog named ‘Home for Kidney Stones Babies” to help those affected families to fight for compensation and better treatment. Unfortunately, he was also arrested and charged for “provoking quarrels and troubles” and then sent to prison for two and a half years.

          This has aroused public indignation. Hong Kong Bar Association and The Law Society of Hong Kong issued a joint declaration to support Zhao. Twenty-seven members of the National People’s Congress (NPC) jointly wrote an open letter to ask for a light sentence. Meanwhile, Liu Mengxiong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative (NCCPPC) heavily criticized that it was “one of the darkest and ugliest pages of the history of China’s juridical system”. About 20 human right activists claimed that the People’s Supreme Court should review Zhao’s case and find him “not guilty’ (Ming Pao, 24 December). In addition, Times Weekly, published by an official media group in Guangdong Province, selected Zhao as one of the 100 well known civilian in 2010, including those human rights lawyers and some signatories of Charter 08. The award speech stated that the authorities’ undetermined attitude on the Contaminated Milk Incident and Zhao’s case showed that the pursuit of social justice could not be repressed by imprisonment. Although that issue was later banned, it clearly showed that the general public was largely sympathetic towards Zhao.          According to Xinhua News dated 22 Nov, Zhao pleaded guilty and the authorities accepted his application for medical treatment outside prison. Afterwards, there has been no more news about him. On 10 Dec, it was suddenly disclosed that Zhao was allowed to have medical treatment, which led to Hong Kong media rushing to his apartment. However, the media was blocked by dozens of guards. What happened to Zhao still remains a puzzle. Zhao’s case proves that wrong cases always repeat and people have no legal rights. It absolutely needs people’s power to make a change. (22 Dec 2010)

          Postscript: According to Ming Pao dated 29 Dec, the blog of “Home for Kidney Stones Babies” issued a notice by Zhao that he was under medical treatment and he “refuses to contact anyone and disturb my family, and wants to lead a normal life”. This is indeed dubious. He had been detained for one month and was forced to issue such kind of notice. The truth will be disclosed in the future. On the other hand, Wang Guangya, currently appointed as the director of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council of PRC, claimed that Zhao’s case has already been “finely resolved’, and defended that “the mainland’s independent juridical system should not be intruded”. When asked if the open letter by Hong Kong members of NPC violated the rule, Wang replied that it depended on the way of expression, but he emphasized that “the well water does not interfere with the river water”.

          Wong Kwok Kin, a Hong Kong member of NPC and a core member of The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, responded that “if an NPC member cannot interfere with HK matters or comment on the mainland affairs, what can he or she do?” Actually, all members of NPC and NCCPCC are merely instruments of raising hands to say yes, but never make any dissent. Their modest petition does not have any positive response which is really a tragedy of bureaucracy.                               30 Dec 2010