About the Individual:
Li Chang

On this page: Basic Information Overview Current Status Official Appeals Court Documents HRIC Advocacy and Media Work on Li Chang Updated News Articles

	Name	Li Chang / 李昌
	Date and Place of Birth	1939, Jilin Province[1]
	Date of Coercive Summon	July 20, 1999
	Formal Arrest	October 19, 1999
	Charges	Organizing and using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law (组织、利用邪教组织破坏法律实施罪) Organizing and Using a heretical organization to cause death (组织、利用邪教组织致人死亡罪) Illegally obtaining state secrets (非法获取国家秘密罪)
	Trial Date	December 26, 1999
	Sentence	25 years reduced to 18 years, and 5 years’ deprivation of political rights
	Current Location	Qianjin Prison, Tianjin
	Anticipated Release	October 18, 2017

Li Chang is a former high-ranking government official in the Ministry of Public Security (公安部) who belonged to the Communist Party for over 39 years.^[2] His trial and sentencing in 1999 for holding a leadership position in the Falun Gong movement stand as one of the most widely publicized and high-profile prosecutions of a Falun Gong member to date.

Li Chang graduated from Nankai University (南开大学) with a major in science and technology.^[3] He joined the Communist Party at a young age, and eventually rose to the position of either vice director-general (局级), or a “section” official (处级干部), at the Ministry of Public Security.^[4] Originally a practitioner of qigong (气功), a form of breathing meditation, Li joined the Falun Gong movement in 1992 in order to improve his health.^[5] While the details of Li Chang’s connection to Li Hongzhi (李洪志), the founder of the Falun Gong movement who began living in the United States in 1996, are unclear, he is believed to have served as one of Li Hongzhi’s main contacts in Beijing and worked as a representative for Falun Gong.^[6]

The Chinese official press maintained that Li Chang held a leading position in the Falun Dafa Research Society (法轮大法研究会), which the Chinese government called the “supreme organ” of Falun Gong which oversaw its operations nationwide, and used his post in the Communist Party to shield Li Hongzhi from arrest and help him move to the United States.^[7]

Official sources also claimed that he played a key role in organizing a massive sit-in protest on April 25, 1999 outside Zhongnanhai (中南海), the housing compound in Beijing for the highest-level Communist Party leaders. This protest put Falun Gong in the international media spotlight and triggered an intensified government crackdown on Falun Gong. During the protest, around 10,000 practitioners from across China demonstrated peacefully against the government’s persecution of Falun Gong members. Sources within the Falun Gong movement say Li Chang acted as a negotiator, meeting with Party leaders and securing the promise of then Premier Zhu Rongji that authorities would not interfere with the group’s peaceful practices.^[8]

They also alleged that Li Chang and others organized 78 Falun Gong protests in which more than 300 people participated and attempted to coordinate a power handover within the Falun Gong movement after the original leadership was put under heavy surveillance following the April 25 protest.^[9]

On July 20, 1999, two days before Falun Gong was officially banned, Li Chang was coercively summoned (拘传) by authorities and put under residential surveillance (监视居住) for three months. He was formally arrested on October 19, 1999. Amnesty International reported that after his formal arrest, Li Chang confessed to his involvement with Falun Gong and expressed remorse for his actions. However, the lack of transparency surrounding the conditions of Li Chang’s detention casts doubt on the reliability of his confession.^[10]

Li Chang’s trial took place on December 26, 1999, at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. He was tried with Wang Zhiwen (王治文), Ji Liewu (纪烈武), and Yao Jie (姚洁), three other former government officials suspected of leading Falun Gong. The official charges were:

• “Organizing and using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law” (组织、利用邪教组织破坏法律实施),

• “Organizing and using a heretical organization to cause death” (组织、利用邪教组织致人死亡), and

• “Illegally obtaining state secrets” (非法获取国家秘密罪).

All of the alleged activities had taken place prior to the government’s ban on Falun Gong. Under the charge of “organizing and using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law,” Li Chang and the other defendants were accused of setting up illegal organizations and recklessly expanding the Falun Gong “cult organization” by setting up “39 command posts, more than 1,900 training centers, and more than 280,000 contact posts” nationwide, and organizing, plotting, and directing illegal protests which seriously disturbed the social public order. There were as many as 78 protests of more than 300 people each.^[11] The charge of “organizing and using a heretical organization to cause death” referred to activities allegedly perpetrated by the Falun Gong movement as a whole, not to any actions taken by the defendants themselves.

The nine-hour trial received wide coverage from Chinese state media. CCTV broadcast portions of the trial, including the four defendants making confessions. Li Chang’s hearing was “open” to an audience of government cadres and official media reporters selected by authorities. Only one family member for each of the defendants was permitted to attend. The portion of the trial covering alleged state secrets was held behind closed doors.^[12]

Li Chang and the three other defendants were all found guilty. The court handed Li Chang a sentence of 25 years for the three crimes but decided to enforce an eighteen-year imprisonment, the longest of the four being tried. The government claimed it had been “lenient” since Li Chang had made a confession. Li Chang is currently serving his sentence at Qianjin Prison in Tianjin and is due to be released in 2017.

In Qianjin Prison (December 1999 - Present)

Qianjin Prison of the Qinghe Branch Bureau of Beijing Prison Management Bureau (北京市监狱管理局清河分局前进监狱), located in Tianjin, is where many Falun Gong practitioners serve their sentences. Reports by former inmates describe the use of brainwashing and physical violence on Falun Gong followers. Prisoners had their hands and legs cuffed and chained, were shocked with electrical batons, severely deprived of sleep, and forced to read material defaming Falun Gong on a daily basis. Prisoners kept in the “strictly monitored” Second Section were made to sit in the same position on a small stool from 5:00AM until 10:00PM and were forbidden to speak. Li Chang was reported to have been kept in the Second Section.^[13]

International Experts

• The European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights awarded the 2008 Sakharov Prize to Hu Jia “on behalf of the silenced voices of China and Tibet.” Li Chang’s name was included by the Subcommittee in a list of repressed Chinese and Tibetan citizens the award was meant to honor.^[14]

• The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled in 2001 that the detention of Li Chang was arbitrary and constituted a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.^[15]

• The following United Nations reports have detailed Li Chang’s arrest and trial as well as the persecution of Falun Gong members in China:

  • 2000 Note by the Secretary General on the Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance.^[16]

  • 2000 Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on civil and political rights including questions of torture and detention.^[17]

  • 2001 Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on civil and political rights, including religious intolerance.^[18]

U.S Government

• The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China included Li Chang in its annual country reports for 2006 and 2007, drawing attention to the continuing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the legal pretexts used to imprison them.^[19]

• The U.S. Department of State in its annual country report on human rights practices for 1999 and 2000 highlighted the obstruction of justice practiced in the trial of Li Chang and other Falun Gong members. According to the report, attorneys must obtain government permission to represent Falun Gong members, and some have been prevented from entering pleas of “not guilty.”^[20]

• Lawyer’s defense argument (Chinese), delivered by Yue Cheng and Zheng Bing, Li Chang’s lawyers, to the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court (December 26, 1999)

• Criminal verdict (Chinese) of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court (December 26, 1999)

Below is a listing of HRIC's advocacy and media work on Li Chang, including press release, statements, and case updates. To subscribe to HRIC's press list, please e-mail communications@hrichina.org with "SUBSCRIBE" as the subject heading.

• Press Statement: “Crackdown on Falungong Demonstrates Clear Violations of Human Rights” (July 23, 1999)

• Press Statement: “Sentencing of Falungong Members Reveals the True Face of China” (December 27, 1999)

• The Falungong Phenomenon, China Rights Forum (No.4, 2003)

• Press Statement: “Children Reported among Victims of Chinese Government’s Persecution of Falun Gong” (October 12, 2004)

• “China’s New Regulations on Religious Affairs: A Paradigm Shift?” Statement by Human Rights in China to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (March 14, 2005)

The Human Rights in China (HRIC) Daily News Brief is a daily compilation of selected human rights-related news covered in local and regional Chinese and English press compiled by HRIC's research office. Visit the Daily News Brief for recent news articles on Li Chang.