This content was first published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
His wife reported to RFA Mandarin on Tuesday that Cheng Yuan, a Chinese rights advocate, has been released from a prison where his home claims he was tortured and looks 20 years older than he did when he was taken away five years ago.
His wife Shi Minglei, who is based in the United States and founded the non-governmental business Changsha Funeng to fight for the rights of those living with HIV and another disability, announced in an interview that Cheng was released from Chishan Prison in the northern province of Hunan on Sunday.
Shi claimed that she was shocked when she first spotted her father in a video call shortly after his discharge.
” I was shocked when I saw him”, said Shi, who has lived in the United States with the woman’s daughter since , fleeing China in 2021. He appeared 20 years older than when he was taken apart.
” He was quite narrow, with a really dark yellow and bald, with cracked teeth”, she said.
Despite serving a painful sentence that included a stay in the best security wing of Chishan Prison, Cheng appeared to have maintained his sense of humor despite his family’s letters from July 2022. He was kept in a little cell, subjected to bright lights, and serious sleep deprivation.
Shi said Cheng had even joked with her about his hair loss, telling her:” Do n’t tell anyone I’m bald, so they still remember me as good-looking and charming”.
But he had kept silent about his experience in, she said.
” So far, he has n’t said much about what it was like inside”, Shi said. He needs more time to practice it, he said.
He did mention that the saddest thing was that he was detained and taken away in front of my child, and that he still remembers how terrified she was, she said. ” He was so unhappy when he said that”.
Right parties claimed that Cheng and his Changsha Intermediate People’s Court acquaintances Liu Dazhi and Wuge Jianxiong were tried in court at some point between August 31 and September 4, 2020 for” usurpation of state energy” behind closed doors at the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court.
Although Liu and Wuge received three- and two-year words in July 2021, Cheng, who has successfully served five years, was now imprisoned for almost 18 weeks.
Post-release regulations
Cheng is still subject to restrictions despite his release from prison, as is typical for political detainees in China, and Shi said he will probably have a safety information following him wherever he goes.
She said,” He told me he wanted to visit my family, but I told him not to because he would follow them there, which might frighten my family once more,” but she later said,” I told him not to.”
Cheng claimed that he felt “very criminal” for the harm he had caused to his loved ones.
He apologized and said he felt like he had fallen short of his duties as a husband and father, she said. He expressed regret over not being able to spend time with our princess during the previous five years.
Shi claimed there is no guarantee Cheng will be able to live with his home in the United States, and that she could begin engagement, which would make her concerned for his future.
Chen Yuan adores his job very little, but she warned that in the current political climate, he could be detained once more if he re-enters it after his release.
How can you carry out your wishes in a large jail? She made mention to the limitations and ongoing monitoring of dissidents and campaigners, even when they are inside a prison cell.
Past rights attorney Wang Quanzhang, who has been harrassed and , faced several evictions , since his release from prison, said it would take occasion for Cheng to adapt to life on the outside.
” It’s very hard to adjust after a long period of imprisonment”, Wang told RFA Mandarin on Tuesday. ” When political prisoners get away, they face another huge issue, which is force from the government”.
” I was so relieved to be out of prison that I did n’t really notice the restrictions, thinking little of it when they told me not to do this or that”, he said. It was only after that I chafed under them when I first saw them from the perspective of a free person.
Wang recalled his familiarity with a widely used pay app as one of the issues that are a little easier to fix.
” The first time I went out, I did n’t even know how to use WeChat Pay in the supermarket”, he said. ” It was very uncomfortable. The teller assumed that I was a person from another world.
