Joshua Rosenzweig. “Disappearing Justice: Public Opinion, Secret Arrest and Criminal Procedure Reform in China.” The China Journal, no. 70 (2013): 73-97.
Beginning in February 2011, police throughout China began secretly detaining dozens of online activists and rights lawyers in an apparent effort to thwart the spread to China of the “Arab Spring” protests then sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. 24 Especially among those Chinese who use the Internet as a forum for discussing public affairs, the sudden disappearance of so many individuals at once generated a pervasive atmosphere of fear that was slow to dissipate even after detainees began emerging from captivity. Their experiences, as described in interviews and Internet reports, suggest that Chinese police used “non-residential” residential surveillance not only as an opportunity to carry out criminal investigation but also as a form of direct punishment and intimidation. Beijing rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong (江天勇) was one of the first to disappear, forced into a waiting vehicle by Beijing security personnel on 19 February and held incommunicado for 60 days. While his head was covered by a black hood, three interrogators used a nearly full bottle of water to beat Jiang on his head and body. Although these beatings stopped after a couple of days, Jiang was in for two more months of physical and verbal abuse by his captors. Forced to sit motionless in a rigid, upright position for extended periods, he was ordered to “reflect” upon the cases of rights abuse that he had taken on, his online postings and his contacts with foreign organizations and overseas media. In the initial weeks after publication of the draft, vocal and detailed critiques by criminal defense lawyers played an important role in setting the agenda and tone for a debate over the CPL revision that was quickly picked up and elaborated by others in the press and on the Internet.