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CHR Joint Letter Huang Qi

Contact Information and Letter

Please use the form below to add your signature to this joint letter:

Your Excellency:

I am writing to you as the Chair of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) in the United States to express our concern regarding our colleague Huang Qi, a Chinese computer engineer and founder of the Sichuan-based website 64 Tianwang who has been detained for over a year and is gravely ill. The Committee on Human Rights is joined in this request by 87 other distinguished members of the National Academies, who asked that their names be added to this letter. As you can see from the number of signatories, Mr. Huang’s situation is of great concern to many Academy members.

It is our understanding that Sichuan police detained Mr. Huang on November 28, 2016, just a few days after 64 Tianwang reported a sensitive story involving the arrest of several people who were protesting the death of an individual allegedly beaten by government supporters. In mid-December 2016, his family was told that he had been formally arrested for allegedly “leaking state secrets.” Since founding 64 Tianwang, Mr. Huang has been subjected to repeated police harassment and detention and was previously imprisoned twice in connection with articles posted on his website.

We are dismayed that, 13 months after his arrest, Mr. Huang remains detained in Mianyang City Detention Center, Sichuan province, without access to due process. We understand that Mr. Huang was prevented from meeting with his lawyer for the first eight months of his detention—during which he alleges interrogators attempted to pressure him into making false confessions—and has been able to meet with his lawyer only rarely since then. We further understand that, to date, he and his lawyer have been denied access to any legal documents in his case. Additionally, we are concerned to learn that at his first meeting and his most recent one in November, Mr. Huang reported to his lawyer that he has been repeatedly subjected to ill-treatment in detention, including being forced to stand for long periods of time and being insulted and repeatedly questioned by some three dozen police officers, as well as being beaten by cellmates and denied access to the prison store, where detainees purchase toilet paper, soap, nutritious food items, and other basic necessities.

Our concern is heightened by reliable reports that Mr. Huang’s health has deteriorated since his arrest. He suffers from serious kidney ailments that have resulted in limited kidney function, hydrocephalus, and liver and heart conditions. We understand that Mr. Huang has lost a significant amount of weight since his arrest, is no longer receiving the special diet that his condition requires, and may not be receiving medical treatment.

Given the information above, it appears that Mr. Huang’s detention is based on his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression and that he is being denied access to a prompt and fair trial, rights which are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory. Thus we respectfully urge you to use your good offices to ensure that he is immediately and unconditionally released. In the interim, we request that Mr. Huang be allowed regular access to his family and to legal counsel and that he be provided with all needed medical care.

We thank you for your attention, Your Excellency, to this important matter.

Yours sincerely,
Martin Chalfie, Ph.D.
(2008 Nobel Laureate, Chemistry)

This letter will be sent to the following individuals:

His Excellency Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China 
His Excellency Zhao Kezhi Buzhang, Minister of Public Security
His Excellency Cui Tiankai, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United
States
The Honorable Terry Branstad, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China

 

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