STATE SECRETS: CHINA'S LEGAL LABYRINTH - HRIC

CASE STORY
Zhang Shanguang
12 HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA STATE SECRETS: CHINA’S LEGAL LABYRINTH
Zhang Shanguang (张善光), a workers’ rights advocate and formerly a secondary
school teacher, was sentenced to ten years in prison for “illegally providing
intelligence to overseas organizations” under Article 111 of the Criminal
Law on December 27, 1998. The court used the terms “intelligence” and “state
secrets” interchangeably to describe Zhang’s offense of providing a Hong
Kong-based reporter for Radio Free Asia with information about a protest and
a kidnapping case in Xupu County in Hunan Province. Zhang was first
detained on July 21, 1998 after his home was raided by police, who confiscated
documents and his personal computers. He was formally arrested on
August 28, 1998. The court stated that the interview with the reporter for
Radio Free Asia violated the terms of his probation, which had not yet concluded.
The verdict also claimed that he provided the interviewer with intelligence,
because the case Zhang described had not yet been made public by
public security officials, even though it was common knowledge among citizens
in the area.
Zhang appealed the conviction immediately. While the law stipulates that the
appeal must be heard within 45 days, Zhang was forced to wait nearly a year
and a half before officials suddenly announced that the court was upholding
the original verdict. While judging the appeal, the court did not conduct any
investigation nor ask Zhang a single question about his case. Prior to this
imprisonment, he had spent seven years in jail after the June 4, 1989 government
crackdown for his role in organizing the Hunan Workers’ Autonomous
Federation in May of that year. He is currently being held at the Hunan No. 1
Prison. He suffers from tuberculosis and is reportedly in very poor medical
condition.
Information on the above case is taken from HRIC’s human rights database or
website.
Zhang Shanguang