Liao Zusheng, a dissident freelance columnist from China’s southern Fujian Province, has gone missing early this year. Liao has frequently been harassed by authorities for exposing China’s social problems. His writing was also the cause for his son being murdered in 2006, he said.
Liao last talked to a friend on Jan. 17. No one has heard from him since. On Jan. 16 he posted his last article on his blog.
Human right activist Fan Yanqiong, a 2011 Hellman-Hammet Award winner, told the Epoch Times she admires Liao for his persistent, poignant writing to fight the evil people. She said she had a couple of email contacts with Liao. When she learned that he had financial difficulties, Fan donated 1,000 yuan from her Hellman-Hammet prize to him. She said something must have happened to Liao because he has not posted anything on his blog for a long time.
On July 16, 2006, Liao’s 15-year-old son Liao Mengjun died at his school in the Nanhai District of Guangdong of unnatural causes that were never openly investigated by authorities.
Liao concluded that his son was murdered and thrown off the school building to make it appear like a suicide.
Liao learned that three teachers and a security guard had chased his son to the third floor of the school building. Witnesses outside the school saw his son fall to the ground. They suspected that the boy was already dead before being thrown off the building, because he did not utter a sound when hitting the ground.
The family, their lawyer, and reporters were not permitted to examine the crime scene. School authorities quickly cleaned up any evidence. The autopsy report, crime scene pictures, and case documents were classified as state secret. Local police called the boy a thief, and without an investigation, they concluded that it was a suicide. The school was also declared innocent in the boy’s death.
But even after his son’s tragic death, Liao continued his writing on social and economic issues. Armed police once surrounded his home. Domestic security officers frequently harassed him. Internet and TV connections to his home were cut off for 300 consecutive days.
“No matter where I am, no matter how I make a living, writing is my life,” Liao said in one of his blogs. “I will post my essays to let everyone know that I am safe. Even when I have to wander about, I won’t stop writing. If you don’t see any of my writings for a couple of weeks, it means something has happened to me,” he said.
In December Liao wrote three articles in support of the Wukan protests. At the end of December he said his landline phone had stopped working.
“Beginning next month [January 2012], my wife and I will be drifting. I don’t know where our next stop is and where our last stop will be. I don’t know which article will be my last words. If anything should happen to us, the Political and Legal Commission and the Public Security Bureau of Taining County, Fujian Province, are definitely responsible.”
On Jan. 16 Liao posted his last blog article. On Jan. 17 he talked to a friend. No one has heard from him since.
Read the Original Chinese article.
