Last Wednesday the nameless police officer that I met warned me to “follow legal channels” to solve the problem. I don’t know where my current actions have overstepped the rights granted me by law. The materials I’ve delivered to each bureau have disappeared like stones into the sea. The receptionists of corresponding work units shift responsibility onto one another. As an ordinary Chinese person, it is depressing. Although the provisions of relevant laws and regulations set the rights of suspects, when you actually do things according to law you discover that you are facing a black hole. . . .
This is Hao Wu’s sister, Nina, writing on April 13th about her renewed efforts to get information from the police about her brother’s incarceration. Hao Wu, as regular readers of this blog may know, is a Chinese documentary filmmaker and was my fellow editor at Global Voices up until February 22, when he was detained by the police without explanation (details here). Nina has been very bravely chronicling her feelings and experiences on her blog, and translations of her entries are being posted regularly at the Free Hao Wu site.
There is now also a petition which I encourage you to sign, and a letter-writing campaign has been launched.
I know that for many of us, especially here in the tiny nations of the Caribbean, the notion of agitating on behalf of a stranger in distant China when we have ample troubles of our own may feel a little strange. But Nina’s heart-wrenching blog entries often make me wonder what it would be like if my own brother or any other family member or friend were to be detained by the police without explanation for two months.
“Free Hao Wu” badges are available here.
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