By Jerome A. Cohen
Usually, media reports on “disappearances” such as have been suffered by well-known people as diverse as Xiao Jianhua and Gao Zhisheng, and on arbitrary use of the formal criminal process as in the case of the two Michaels, do not provide sufficient pressure to effect release of the victims or even produce a credible explanation from PRC officials. But Red Roulette, the new “tell all” book by Desmond Shum, lays the groundwork for what could become a persistent barrage of questions to MOFA press conferences and the Q&A following the speeches of high Chinese officials that might eventually yield some response.
MOFA spokespersons usually dust off the initial question about a fresh detention by assuring the assembled journalists that the case of the person in question is being processed by “the judicial organs in accordance with law”. This is a misleading answer since it evokes the falsely reassuring image of Chinese courts, while the actual situation is even worse. The detainee is normally in the custody of the police. Unless, of course, the detainee has been kidnapped and is therefore indefinitely, lawlessly held by special Party or military minions.
Yet sometimes journalistic efforts, including op eds, can make a difference, as they did in the release of Ai Weiwei in 2011 after his 81-day incommunicado confinement in the guise of “residential surveillance”. What belatedly and briefly smoked out the missing Whitney Duan after four years of enforced silence was the imminent publication of her ex-husband Shum’s book. I hope that PRC officials will be peppered with questions about Ms. Duan’s mysterious case since she is still obviously being secretly detained.