Li Wangyang (, 12 November 1950 – 6 June 2012) was a Chinese dissident labor rights activist, member of the Workers Autonomous Federation and chairman of the Shaoyang WAF branch. Following his role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he served twenty-one years in prison on charges of counterrevolutionary propaganda, incitement, and subversion. Of all Chinese pro-democracy activists from 1989, Li spent the longest time in prison.Chan, Kaiyee (7 June 2012). . China Daily Mail. Retrieved 10 June 2012. On 6 June 2012, one year after his release from prison, and a few days after a television interview in which he continued to call for vindication of the Tiananmen Square protests, Li was found hanged in a hospital room. Shaoyang city authorities initially claimed suicide was the cause of death, but it was revised to 'accidental death' after the autopsy.
Following a protest march attended by up to 25,000 people, Pan Democrats and senior establishment figures in Hong Kong publicly commented on the suspicious nature of the death, and said they had escalated the demands of citizens to politicians or "relevant departments" at national level for an independent investigation. The uproar in Hong Kong is said by commentators to have put pressure on mainland authorities to order a criminal investigation so as not to overshadow the impending visit of Chinese Communist Party general secretary Hu Jintao for the 15th anniversary celebrations of the handover of Hong Kong.
Protests and imprisonment A worker in a glass factory, Li Wangyang set up a labour union under inspiration of the Democracy Wall in 1983. In 1989, China saw mass pro-democracy protests throughout the country, with the largest protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. After hundreds died when the People's Liberation Army suppressed the protests on 4 June, Li pasted a poster on a Shaoyang traffic sign urging a general strike in support of the protests. Two days later, Li organized a memorial for the victims.
As a result of his actions, Li was jailed on 9 June for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement".Chinese dissident found dead, family suspect foul play. Reuters, 6 June 2012 He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment, but his sentence was increased to thirteen years when he appealed to the court. He was also sentenced to hard labour. As his health deteriorated, he was granted medical parole in June 1996, but the authorities cancelled his release after Deng Xiaoping died in 1997, fearing calls for the other responsible officials to be held to account for the 4 June Massacre. In June 2000 Li was released again for reasons of poor health. Human Rights in China (HRIC) alleged that Li was tortured while in custody, resulting in his losing both his sight and hearing. Li himself said in his last interview that the only explanation for his becoming blind was through nerve damage caused by being repeatedly beaten about the head.
During his spells in prison, Li was a frequent inmate in solitary confinement.Jacobs, Andrew (8 June 2012). "Chinese Activist’s Death Called Suicide, but Supporters Are Suspicious". The New York Times In 2001, Li began a hunger strike as part of a petition to authorities to repay his health care costs, and was given an additional ten-year sentence for "inciting subversion". Whilst attempting to force feed Li during his hunger strike, guards knocked out Li's front teeth. He finally gained freedom in May 2011, when he checked into Daxiang District Hospital to treat his medical conditions. His sister, who lived 7 km away from the hospital, visited him twice a day with his meals.
Li remained vocal in demanding vindication of the Tiananmen protesters up until his death: in an interview with i-CABLE broadcast four days before, he said "the souls of the martyrs deserve to finally find some peace". He advocated a multi-party democracy for his country, and said he did not regret his fight for a better China, "even had [he] been beheaded". In another interview, broadcast on French radio the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, he appealed to his compatriots "to observe 6-4". Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience. Apple Daily reported that he had no minders before the interviews. After his interviews were broadcast, Li was kept under around the clock surveillance by a team of 10 police officers. An account that was opened to receive donations from supporters from China and abroad to pay his medical fees was inexplicably blocked; he was also severely impeded from going to Beijing to see a specialist physician.
Death Li was found dead on 6 June 2012, one year after his latest release from prison, in the Daxiang Hospital where he was being treated for heart disease and diabetes. Li was reportedly found on his feet with a strip of cloth tied around his neck and connected to a window bar. Li's next of kin, his sister Li Wangling and her husband Zhao Baozhu, rushed to the hospital shortly after they were telephoned at 6 am. His brother-in-law said that the body was "on its feet next to his bed, with a white strip of cloth tied tightly around its neck and connected to a window bar above". The authorities said to relatives that there would be an autopsy. Although the latter were denied permission to take photographs, some stills and one video made it onto the internet. Later, i-Cable television in Hong Kong reported that officials had been attempting to persuade Li's family members to cremate his body immediately.Siu, Phila; Agence France-Presse (8 June 2012). "Death probe calls snowball" . The Standard. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
Domestic reaction Official statements that Li had committed suicide caused "outrage" among China's dissident community, as his family questioned how Li would have been capable of killing himself. They said that leaving aside his minders, Li was blind and nearly deaf and could "barely hold a bowl without his hands shaking". Friends and local activists strongly allege that Li "was suicided" (), and formed a 'Committee in quest of the truth about Li's death'. The Wall Street Journal commented that Chinese activists on Twitter had begun to tweet their own declarations that they had no plans to commit suicide (); dissident Hu Jia recommended that fellow dissidents who are frequently arrested and political prisoners prepare a notarised statement declaring one's lack of intention to commit suicide.Chen, Te-Ping; Spegele, Brian (12 June 2012). "Protests Erupt Over Death of Tiananmen Dissident". 'China Realtime Report' – a Wall Street Journal blog To avoid internet censorship, "suicided" became a web-search term of choice.
HRIC said Li's sister had been detained by police and was taken to a hotel where they were being held.Branigan, Tania (8 June 2012). "Chinese police detain Tiananmen Square veteran's relatives" The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2012. Media reported that Li's family was under pressure to consent to an autopsy, and that police had given an ultimatum of noon on 8 June. Family members were denied access to the body since police removed it from the hospital. The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy conveyed that Li's next of kin were prepared to grant an autopsy subject to the presence of a lawyer from outside Shaoyang.Ng, Tze-wei; Cheung, Simpson (8 June 2012). "Answers demanded in activist's death". South China Morning Post. On 8 June, an autopsy of Li's body was carried out by authorities in Shaoyang, apparently against the wishes of his family, and the body was cremated on 9 June. According to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an unnamed member of staff at a funeral parlour implied that the government ordered the cremation; another worker told Cable TV that Li's sister and brother-in-law had given signed consent.
According to Shaoyang city authorities, people on Li's wards saw him "acting strangely" by the window at around 3 am on the day he died. "Surveillance camera footage showed that on the night Li Wangyang died, no suspicious persons entered the ward except Li's wardmates and hospital staff ... The ward's door was not forced open", and there were no other bruises on his body.
Shaoyang city authorities said the autopsy was conducted by four pathologists from Sun Yat-sen University on 8 June. It is claimed that the entire process was videotaped and in the presence of the media, members of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The university is expected to report the autopsy within four days. The city continued to assert that Li committed suicide, that his body was cremated at his family's request, and that his ashes were buried under the supervision of his sister and brother-in-law.Siu, Phila (11 June 2012). "Shaoyang cadres defend cremation" , The Standard. The media made a connection to the Wukan protests, pointing out the medical examiner assigned to perform Li's autopsy was the same person who pronounced that Xue Jingbo had died of "cardiac failure"."官方驗屍不可信" ["Official autopsy 'unreliable']". Ming Pao 12 June 2012. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012
International response By the day following news of Li's demise, over 2,700 people, including dissident Ai Weiwei, had signed an online petition calling for an independent investigation. Human rights activist and lawyer Teng Biao posted a picture of a calligraphy scroll which read "An inch of blood for an inch of freedom, thousands of miles of rivers bring thousands of miles of woes" to his Twitter account, dedicating the post to Li. The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy raised the possibility that "security guards monitoring him tortured him to death and faked a suicide". Amnesty International issued a statement urging the Chinese government to "thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding Li Wangyang's death and take seriously the claims made by his family and friends that this was not suicide". At the request of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), LabourStart launched a global online campaign demanding that the Chinese government open an investigation.
Response in Hong Kong