(By Calton – CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The daughter-in-law of China’s former security tsar Zhou Yongkang has revealed on Twitter that she has not seen her husband for 2 months, and has criticized the Communist Party elite for not implementing a fair judicial system based on the rule of law.

On January 31 Huang Wan, the daughter-in-law of Zhou Yongkang, wrote on Twitter that she had not seen her husband for 2 months.

“Today is the last day of the month,” she wrote. “It’s already been two months since I last saw my husband. Here [in China] there are many women who cannot see their husbands, [wives of] human rights activists, lawyers, businessmen, government officials … It will soon be Chinese New Year, a time when families gather together, but I cannot see my husband. Is he safe? Is he still alive? I don’t know! Some people are threatening me, [saying that] it’s not good for me if I post something. Ha ha! My husband is Zhou Bin, his father is Zhou Yongkang.”

Zhou Yongkang was once one of the most powerful men in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). At the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October 2007, Zhou was promoted to the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

According to a report issued by the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) in 2008, Zhou was associated with “harsh policies that contribute to the repression of human rights such as the freedoms of religion and expression, and that undermine ethnic minority rights guaranteed by China’s Constitution and system of regional ethnic autonomy.”

After the rise of Xi Jinping and the launch of his anti-corruption campaign, Zhou Yongkang was investigated and charged with taking bribes, abuse of power and intentionally leaking state secrets. In June 2015
the Tianjin No.1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to life imprisonment, stripped him of all political rights and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets.

In 2016, Zhou Bin, Zhou Yongkang’s son, was sentenced by the Yichang City Intermediate People’s Court to 18 years in prison for taking bribes and illegal business operations. He was fined 350.2 million yuan (about US$53 million) and all of his assets were confiscated.

On February 1, Hong Kong-based news outlet Apple Daily interviewed Chen Yixuan, the lawyer that represented Zhou Bin during his trial. Chen confirmed that Huang Wan’s Twitter account is real.

Huang posted tweets criticizing China’s lack of rule of law, and condemning her own failure when she was a member of the regime’s privileged elite.

On February 1 she wrote:

As a relative of Zhou Yongkang, I want to issue an apology to all the citizens who suffered unfair treatment when he was leading the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. The path towards the recognition of your human rights has been a hard one, and now I find myself on that path, too. I call on all government officials in China to think carefully if your official position is greater than the one Zhou Yongkang once had. If he couldn’t protect his family, will you be able to protect your families when it’s your turn? Only the development and enforcement of the rule of law can protect the rights of all citizens!

In a tweet from February 2 she wrote:

I am Huang Wan, a US citizen, the wife of Zhou Bin and daughter-in-law of Zhou Yongkang. I am serving a community correction sentence, I have been detained in China for five years already. My situation is not safe. But I want to express my sincere regret. I regret that when I enjoyed privileges, I didn’t do anything to protect the development of the judicial system. I hope that what has happened to me will awaken those in power. Protecting the rule of law and justice is the only way to protect your own family.

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