Huang’s mistake may have been to place himself in the vanguard of two emergent forces in China–civic action and the Internet. Since official resources are limited, Beijing tolerates and even praises private efforts to locate ordinary missing persons. But authorities strongly discourage anyone asking too many questions about people who have gone missing in sensitive cases–those involving political dissent or the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, for instance–because almost inevitably they’ve been detained without trial. Huang may have crossed the line when his Web site did not delete online bulletin-board postings dealing with taboos such as official corruption, the party’s witch hunt for Falun Gong followers and pro-independence activities by Muslims in western China. (Some items even cursed Chinese leaders by name, calling Li Peng a “turtle egg.”) Perhaps the site’s most egregious violation was to post information about the Chinese military’s lethal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. (The site’s address is 6-4tianwang.com.)
At the same time, the site’s popularity no doubt caught the eye of officials, who remain deeply wary of the reach and unruliness of the Web. “China realizes that for economic growth it needs a free flow of information over the Internet,” says a Western diplomat in Beijing. “But on the other hand, it’s trying to control news on politics and social reform.” The most recent U.S. State Department human-rights report on China notes increased attempts to block e-mail from overseas service providers used by dissident groups and to shut down access to politically sensitive Web sites.
Sources say that Huang has suffered some of the very same torments as those he was trying to help with his Web site. The Webmaster “was beaten by police trying to coerce a confession,” says the Western diplomat, and collapsed during the first day of the trial last month. Huang’s wife and son, who were barred from the preliminary hearing, have not been told when the trial might resume. Officials have also threatened to evict her from their apartment, and expel their son from school, because she dared talk to Western media about the case. Even attorneys have been warned not to represent Huang. Lawyer Fang Jun decided to take the case anyway because, he says, that’s the legally correct thing to do. “Chinese law guarantees Huang Qi a lawyer,” Fang reasons. “If the government interferes with his right, it is breaking the law.” That’s convincing logic, but as Huang found out, in China the state still trumps the law.
