Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan are stepping up pressure on detained dissident poet Wang Zang to confess to "subversion" charges, after his wife Wang Li was sent to hospital from a police detention center. Police in Yunnan's Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture have applied for indictments of poet Wang Zang and his wife Wang Li for "incitement to subvert state power," with the charges citing his recent poetry, essays, interviews with foreign media, and performance art since his last release from prison in 2015.
A person familiar with the case said police likely arrested Wang Li to use as leverage to force a confession from Wang Zang, who is currently being held in the Chuxiong Detention Center in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.
"There is definitely an implication that he has to do what they want, as they have arrested his wife, and that if he makes a 'confession', then they will let his wife go," the person said. "But it's not a clear commitment either, so he must be very anxious and afraid right now."
