The police’s plan on dissociating the supporters group for Jasic Workers and the masses with a second video confession has failed. After having witnessed so many public incidents ending with TV confessions, is it astonishing and disappointing anymore?

两度制作认罪视频，并希望声援团和广大热心群众因此作鸟兽散——反动势力的这个算盘打得不好了。在目睹了诸多以认罪视频作结尾的公共事件之后，我们还会对此感到错愕和失望吗？

In September, 2011, villagers of Wukan protested for unauthorized selling of collective lands and conflicts with the police burst out. After five years, Lin Zulian, the village representative legally selected by the villagers was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes. Five days later, he confessed on TV.

2011年9月，广东乌坎村民抗议村委会私下变卖集体土地，爆发警民对峙。2016年6月17日，村民自选的村主任林祖恋被警方以“涉嫌受赂”为由带走，五天后，他在电视上公开认罪。

On July 9th, 2015, mass arrests on lawyers assisting defending rights occurred throughout China. It all started from Qingan Incident in March when those lawyers supported Xu Chunhe who was shot during petition. One year later, the lawyer Wangyu confessed on TV.

2015年7月9日，全国范围内发生了对维权律师的大抓捕，导火索是在5月的庆安事件中，律师联合声援被枪毙的访民徐纯合。一年后，律师王宇接受凤凰卫视采访并认罪。

In October 2018, hundreds of PLA veterans gathered in Shandong from various parts of China and required the government to apologize to a veteran beaten during petition and to improve their treatment. In December, CCTV determined the protest as a “violent crime incident” with some of the veterans confessing as well.

2018年10月5日左右，数百名解放军退役老兵从各地集结至山东，要求当局为一起老兵上访被打事件道歉，并改善老兵待遇。12月9日，新闻联播将这起抗议行动定性为“严重暴力犯罪事件”，几名老兵代表在电视上公开认罪、道歉。

Between 2018 and 2019, Wang Linqing, a judge at Supreme Court, recorded several videos revealing the inside story of a major case. After two month of disappearing, he admitted on the investigation reporting on TV that he stole the file by himself just to make trouble.

2018年末到2019年初，最高院法官王林清拍下多个自述视频，举报在“陕西千亿矿权案”卷宗丢失事件中存在的“黑幕”。随后，王林清消失了近两个月。2月22日，新华社发布调查结果，王林清在央视认罪：承认卷宗丢失是监守自盗，是想以此“给单位制造点麻烦”。

The high-sounding confessions seem engraved with the might of law enforcements, but it never cover the truth. With people’s eyes discerning, the similar points of the confessions are easy to discover.

冠冕堂皇的口供印证着执法的威权，但再巧妙的手法都只能让真相欲盖弥彰——人民的眼睛是雪亮的，纵观数部认罪视频，我们不难发现其中的共同点:

1. Suspects in the video usually disappear for months or longer without reasons. Relatives and friends have no ways to finding them or even “disappear” as well.

1、 认罪视频中的嫌疑人通常会无缘无故消失几个月甚至更长时间。家人及亲属遍访无门，有的甚至连家人也跟着消失。

As for the mass arrests on July 9th, after a year of their missing did the news that the lawyers were released on bail pending trial and got sentenced. In Jasic Incident, those appearing in the video confessions have lost contact for about half a year, lawyers failing to reach them. Even some of them were detained with a fake name.

709律师大抓捕事件中，当被抓捕的律师王宇、任金牛等人失联一年后，公安机关才放出取保候审和判刑的消息。而佳士事件中进行视频认罪的人，都已失联数月乃至半年：亲朋求见不得，律师会面受阻，有的甚至被以假名关在看守所，彻底人间蒸发。

According to the law, thirty seven days is the limit of detention, exceeding which the public securities have to make a resolution including confirming as innocent, arresting, releasing on bails pending trial or residential surveillance and stop detention. However, we are still cut off from many of them after thirty seven days.

依照法律，37天是最长的拘留期限，37天后，不论嫌疑人是无罪释放、批准逮捕，还是取保候审、监视居住，公安机关都必须作出处理，不得超期拘留。但是不少人的“37天”早已过去，却依旧没有任何音讯。

In the period of disappearing. what have they gone through?

在被消失的这段时间里，他们又经历了什么呢？

2. The missing people often suffer from long-lasting abuse, confessions being extorted by torture and fatigue interrogation occurring at times. Some are even threatened by the danger of their families.

2、 当事人消失过程中往往遭受长时间的虐待，刑讯逼供和疲劳审讯时有发生，有的甚至被以家人生命安危相威胁。

After being released, some workers who supported Jasic Movement exposed and accused the illegal abuse during detention like insulting, binding their hands, riding on their necks, pulling hair, closing toilets and pepper-spraying. Fifty people are confined in a room capable of accommodating only a dozen of people. They slept sideways like fish in cans.

一些支持佳士建会的工人被释放后，揭露控诉了看守所对嫌疑人的非法虐待：辱骂、反剪双手、骑在脖子上、揪头发暴打、不允许上厕所、喷辣椒水……五十多人挤在只容纳十几人的通仓里，睡觉只能侧着身，像一条条罐头里的鱼。

Apart from physical torture, their dignity was also deprived.

肉体的折磨还在其次，人的尊严却也要被剥夺。

The jailers use high-definition cameras to surveil prisoners’ behaviors. Only when jailers call them to dinner can they eat and when approve can they go to the toilet. Here jailers themselves are rules against which the suspects are not allowed to fight — otherwise they will be welcomed with a variety of corporal punishment.

狱里的牢头用高清摄像头做眼睛，严密监视着嫌疑人的一举一动，只有在他们喊吃饭了才能吃饭、让去厕所了才能上厕所。牢头们就是规则本身，嫌疑人若违反“规定”，等待着的又是辣椒水和五花八门的体罚。

Everyone will be shocked at the sight of the red words “HATE” and “GOD” written with blood on in the walls of the cells. We never know how many wronged souls have been imprisoned in the dark prison.

囚室墙上用点点血红书就的“恨”、“老天爷”等词触目惊心。这黑监狱，不知囚禁了多少含冤的灵魂。

In Xinjiang Province, millions of people are forced to get brainwashed because of their religious beliefs. In the Re-education Camp, there are always two of the “students” dragged out and beaten by the idle guards every day and the rest of them listen to the screams with panic. Without singing hymns for the authorities before a meal, they are not given food. The “re-education” is but manufacturing ever-obedient and humble citizens by fright.

在新疆，因为宗教信仰不同而被强制洗脑的新疆人预计超白万。“新疆再教育营”里，每天都有两个人被无所事事的守卫拉出来毒打，剩下的人听着惨叫惶惶不可终日。吃饭之前他们必须为当局唱赞歌，否则不给吃饭。如果这就是当局的“再教育”，那么他想要教育出来的，不过是被震慑得永远卑躬屈膝、永远四肢发抖的顺民罢了。

According to “It is everyone’s duty to expose torture”, a letter to leaders of those countries against torture from relatives of the victims during July 9th Incident, Wang Qiaoling and Li Wenzu, the main writer of the letter, have communicated with several lawyers released after their arrest. They said that forcible medication, fatigue interrogation, beating, water jail, and threats on the lives of relatives were common penalties at the early stage of imprisonment — six months of residential surveillance.

根据《王峭岭、李文足、金变玲等：揭露酷刑，人人有责——709家属给反对酷刑的各国领导人的信》，王峭岭和李文足都曾当面与几位被捕后获释的709律师有过交流。几位律师告诉他们：被迫服药、疲劳审讯、殴打、关进水牢、被以至亲的生命威胁，都是在坐牢的前期——六个月的监视居住——常见的刑罚手段。

Dr. Tan Qindong was arrested and then detained for nearly 100 days because of exposing fake advertisements of Hongmao medicated wine. On May 11, he was summoned for interrogation for twelve hours and behaved abnormally (crying, banging his head and self-mutilation) on arriving home that night. He had no alternative but to be sent to a psychiatric hospital. On the 17th, he wrote down a letter of apology, which everyone knew it contradicted with his conscience.

谭秦东医生因为揭露鸿茅药酒的虚假广告，被跨省抓捕并拘留近百日。5月11号他被传讯十二小时，晚上一回家即出现痛哭、头撞墙、自残等失常行为，不得不转入精神科住院治疗。17号，谭医生写下道歉书，全国为之唏嘘不平。

Facing extreme pains and pressure, unless keeping very strong will, one can easily collapse and beg for living. The evil forces in politics-and-law systems use exactly such fact to gradually wear out the suspects’ souls and lead them into the trap for confessions.

在极端的痛苦和压力之下，若非意志异常坚定，受虐者很容易被瓦解决心，选择求生。公检法中的黑恶势力就是利用这一点，逐步瓦解人的意志，引着嫌疑人往坑里跳、屈打成招。

3.The confession, most of which were not the expression of their real mind, was prepared in advance. Similarly, the video is probably not the product of their voluntary behaviors, but a passive one.

3、 嫌疑人的认罪稿子是提前准备好的，大多并非当事人真实态度的表现；认罪视频也未必是他们的自愿行为，而可能是“被认罪”。

Wang Yu, the lawyer fighting for defending rights discovered that her only son was arrested and threatened severely after being detained for more than 300 days since June 9 Incident. She had no choice but to make multiple video confessions following the forcible requirements and manuscripts in return for lenity: livelihood of her son.

709事件中被抓捕的维权律师王宇在被关押300多天后，得知自己唯一的儿子也被抓捕，人身安全受到极大威胁。她只好被迫按照有关要求和稿件，多次录制“认罪视频”，希望以此获得“宽大处理”，留儿子一条生路。

Gao Yu, deputy editor of “Weekly Economics” was even worse. In April 2015, she was sentenced to 7 years for “disclosure of state secrets to illegal organizations abroad”. The authorities made video confessions with candid camera without her knowing. Her head was mosaic in the video because the voice was not synchro with her mouth.

前《经济学周报》副总编高瑜就更屈了。2015年4月，她被判处有期徒刑7年的，罪名是“为境外非法提供国家机密”。当局“偷拍”了她并制作了认罪视频，她本人却完全不知情。视频里，她的头被打码，因为“声音和口型对不上”。

4. TV confession is ready. The mainstream media will promote it. The mainstream media will guide public opinion and turn the rights violation into an illegal case. Next, the sentence will be a matter of course.

1. 视频准备就绪，再由主流媒体配合宣传，引导公众舆论，完成反转，让接下来的定性和定罪顺理成章。

Lin Zulian, the secretary of Wukan Village, publicly pleaded guilty after being arrested. The Xinhua News Agency released the first report that “Zhu Zulian, the party secretary of Wukan Village, was suspected of accepting bribes.”

乌坎书记林祖恋被捕后公开认罪，新华社发布首篇报道《乌坎村党总支书记林祖恋涉嫌受贿》。

“709” lawyer Zhou Shifeng publicly pleaded guilty after his arrest, and then XinHuaNet released a report “Zhou Shifeng, director of Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, pleaded guilty to confession”; Lawyer Wang Yu was released on bail pending trial, and then Global Times published an interview feature “Exposure” Fengrui Law Firm “black curtain, remorse for past behavior.”。

709律师周世峰在被捕后公开认罪忏悔，新华网发布报道《北京锋锐律师事务所主任周世峰认罪忏悔》；律师王宇在审判前被取保候审，环球时报发布采访特稿《揭露“锋锐律师事务所”黑幕，对过去行为悔恨不已》。

In the face of Shandong Pingdu’s veterans who want to maintain their rights, the news broadcast, China News Service, Chaowen Tianxia, and the People’s Liberation Army Daily were all dispatched. These media claimed that “the Shandong Pingdu criminals used the name of “retired soldiers” and arbitrarily beat the violent assault police”, describing the veterans as obscure and deliberately disturbing the rogue of society.

面对山东平度的维权老兵，新闻联播、中新社、朝闻天下、《解放军报》更是齐齐出动，以“山东平度犯罪分子打着‘退役军人’名号，肆意打砸暴力袭警”为口径，将老兵描述成面目可憎、唯恐天下不乱的群氓。

After the judge Wang Linqing pleaded guilty in CCTV’s interview, the People’s Daily, Beijing Daily, Global Times, Xinhuanet and other official media once again rushed to start the machine of public opinion.

法官王林清在央视专访认罪以后，人民日报、北京日报、环球时报、新华网等官媒又一次轰隆隆齐声开动了舆论的机器。

Our media uses the official calibre as a sword, acting as a mouthpiece for propaganda and a pawn of trial. Although they have a lot of reports, they always keep their mouths when talking about human rights. What they concealed is the persecution of prisoners and the sins of repentance by means of extorting confessions by torture.

我们的媒体以官方口径为利剑，充当着宣传的喉舌和审判的马前卒；勇猛之余，却总是在谈及人权之时三缄其口。他们所隐瞒的，正是监狱对人的迫害，以及用刑讯逼供等手段逼人驯服的罪恶。

The villagers of Wukan still remember the “spiritual leader” uncle lin. The family of 709 lawyers are still running for the husbands. Wang Linqing’s self-reported video is still hanging on the Internet. Even the Xinjiang concentration camps displayed on satellite images have been clearly evidenced. However, these do not seem to correspond to the media’s statement that “the parties have pleaded guilty and are sentenced according to law.”

乌坎村民的心中还挂念着“精神领袖”林叔，709律师的家属还在为丈夫们奔走呼号，王林清的自述视频仍赫然挂在网上，甚至卫星图像上所展现的新疆集中营也已明显证据确凿。但这些，似乎也抵不过喉舌们的一句“当事人已认罪，依法依规获刑”。

1. After successful suppression of public opinion, all acts of defense are impossible. The suspect was convicted of a speedy sentence.

5、 在成功进行舆论压制后，一切为之辩护的行为成为不可能，嫌疑人被迅速判刑定罪。

Five years after the Wukan incident, the village director Lin Zulian, who was elected by the villagers, was taken away. The local government quickly characterized the incident as “outside media” to incite and plan the incident and play a video of guilty plea. Officials claim that all interviews that have not been applied for and approved are “illegal”. The masses have a rare truth, and the “truth” can only be smeared.

乌坎事件5年后，村民自选出的村主任林祖恋被带走。当地官方迅速将事件定性为“外媒”的煽动、策划，并播放认罪视频，声称所有未经申请和批准的采访均为“非法”。群众于是难得真相，“真相”便只能任人涂抹了。

What’s more, the official can also tear off the fig leaf of public opinion and directly deprive you of your legal defense rights. The dozens of people arrested in the Jasic incident have no news so far. Their lawyers wanted to get in touch with the client, but they were all kept out of the door and even threatened to revoked their license and banned from acting in such cases. Some lawyers received the statement of “decommissioning and refusing to meet” written by the client, but the credibility of the statement could not be confirmed. It is even more unreasonable: how can a person refuse to reach out to his helper in difficult times? If you can’t get in touch with a lawyer and lose your right of defense, you are not far from prison.

更有甚者，官方还可以撕下舆论的遮羞布，直接剥夺你的合法辩护权利。在佳士事件中被拘捕的几十人至今毫无音讯。他们的律师想要接触委托人，却都被挡在门外，甚至被以吊销执照相威胁，禁止其代理此类案件。有的律师收到了委托人写下的“解除委托和拒绝会见”的声明，但声明的可信性无法确认，更不合常理：一个人怎么会在困难时期拒绝伸向他的援手呢？无法接触律师，失去申辩权利，那就离冤狱不远了。

In that way, with the so-called irrefutable evidence, are video confessions with Chinese characteristics legal or not?

那么，在“证据确凿”的情况下，具有中国特色的“视频认罪”到底合不合法？

First, the biggest flaw lies in prejudging, which violates the doctrine of the presumption of innocence in the penal law. The videos subtly mislead the public with first impressions：now that the people concerned have repented on the table, how can the charges be fake and how can the process of the public security organs be unjust? We should always bear in mind that the guilt of a suspect depends on the final sentence of the court, not an account given by one only. With the control of the propaganda machine, reactionary forces disregarded the facts and declared the suspects’ guilt in advance based on their confessing personally. Such behavior has invited suspicion of arrogating the court and obtaining the power of conviction unlawfully.

首先，未审先判是它最大的问题，违反了刑法中规定的“无罪推定”原则。 “认罪视频”巧妙地利用第一印象效应误导公众——当事人已经公开忏悔、认罪了，罪名怎么会是假的呢？公安机关的处理怎么会是不公正的呢？可我们恰恰忘了，一个嫌疑人是否有罪，理应由法院终审判决，而不是听嫌疑人一面之辞。反动势力依靠对舆论机器的掌控，罔顾事实，借嫌疑人亲口悔过而提前“公开定罪”，这是赤裸裸地僭越法院、非法取得定罪权的行为。

In the next place, extorting video confessions by torture has violated their human rights and trampled the legal system. We have to ask why the suspects have been imprisoned for months in the name of “accepting the education of public security organs” before being sent to court? The photos of Dr. Tan before and after him being locked in the detention house have made us believe that with no connection to the outside world, most video confessors failed to tough out the physical and spiritual torture.

其次，用非法手段如刑讯逼供让当事人拍视频，是侵犯嫌疑人的人权，践踏法制。 为什么不尽快送嫌疑人上法庭庭审，反而要关他几个月，“接受公安机关教育”？对比谭医生关进所里前后的照片我们能猜到一二。在完全与外界失联的情况下，绝大多数“视频认罪者”是没有能力使自己免于肉体和精神的折磨的。

Apparently, video confessions are actually illegality in the disguise of “rule of law”. Then why the authorities deliberately break the law while in charge of their enforcement? Finding the real gainer behind the video confessions will tell us which side is law on.

这样看来，“视频认罪”显然是披着“法治”的外衣的违法产物。那么为什么当局会知法犯法、执法犯法呢？只要分析一下谁是认罪视频背后的获利者，便知道法律到底是站在谁那边了。

Before the July 9 incident, rights-safeguarding lawyers kept active in fighting for labor human rights in Southeast China. They particularly assisted a great number of petitioners in maintaining their interests. The mass arrests and the following video confessions grossly struck the lawyers, and since they were suppressed, will the groups they are protecting still be intact? Quite good news for the capitalists and bureaucrats who ride roughshod over the workers.

709事件前，维权律师在东南部活跃着，为争取劳工权益、呼吁人权保障而奔走，特别是帮助了很多访民维护自己的权利。大抓捕和随后的认罪视频对维权律师群体是一个莫大的打击。律师们被压倒之后，他们所维护的群体的利益难道还能完好吗，那些侵犯工人权益的资本家和官僚又岂不快哉？

During the Jasic incident, workers demanded forming a union to defend their political and economic rights. Officials and the police pretended to be illiterate towards the labor law written down in black and white. While keeping locking up an army of students and social persons in support of Jasic workers, they have made a second video：an illegal organization plotted the whole “workers disturbance”, and since the organizers have admitted their guilty, it is others’ turn to be executed!

佳士事件中，工人要组建自己的工会，捍卫自己合法的政治经济权利。可面对白纸黑字写着的劳动法，我们的官员和警察竟然半个字也不识，反而把一大批支持佳士工人的学生和社会人士关禁起来，现在还做了第二个认罪视频：一个非法组织策划了整场“工闹”，组织者已经认罪了，其他人尽快伏诛吧。

On the authorities’ command, dictatorship of all parties cooperated in suppressing the workers by violent arresting, articles deleting and video confessions like a closed-loop. Laws here merely serve for puppets instead of a weapon defending the interests of people. It is clear that men are not equal in front of laws: there are always ones “more equal”!

从先前的暴力抓捕、全网删贴，到现在的认罪视频，在官方的指挥棒下，各方专政力量合力压制工人，俨然形成了一个闭环。法律在此时已经不再是维护人民权益的律令，而是变成了某些人手里可随意揉捏的泥团，塑成他们想要的“金元宝”，用来继续维持对工人的剥削。 我们已经看明白了，法律面前不是人人平等的，总会有人比你我更平等。

Therefore, it is meaningless for us to ask why petitioners never have a voice except in video confessions. Laws are bare tools for rulers to murder its people when the suspects are sentenced publicly and confess on TV.

所以我们也不必再问，为什么维权群体的诉求总是无人倾听，还要被“电视认罪”抹去争取权利的正当性。当那些维权群体被“公开审判”和电视认罪的时候，法律已成为赤裸裸的统治工具，压迫着被统治阶级，把他们牢牢掌控在统治者手中。

However, will the suppressed class never get up again? The famous saying can be paraphrased like below:

但是，被压迫阶级就只有永世不得翻身的命运吗？写到这里，不禁想套用一段有名的话：

First they came for the villagers of Wukan, and I did not speak out because I am not a villager of Wukan.　　

当他们打压乌坎农民时，我没有发声，因为我不是乌坎农民；

Then they came for the lawyers fight for human rights, and I did not speak out because I am not a lawyer.

当他们迫害人权律师时，我没有发声，因为我不是维权律师；

Then they came for the pneumoconiosis patients, and I did not speak out because I am not a pneumoconiosis patient.

当他们驱散尘肺病人时，我没有发声，因为我不是尘肺病人；

Then they came for the PLA veterans, and I did not speak out because I am not a veteran.

当他们打击退伍老兵时，我没有发声，因为我不是退伍老兵；

Then they came for workers forming a union, and I did not speak out because I am not the worker.

当他们抓捕建会工人时，我没有发声，因为我不是建会工人；

Then they came for me and there is no one left to speak for me.

当有一天，我也被资本和权力联合绞杀的时候，已经没有人再站出来为我说话了。

If petitioners like workers, Lawyers, villagers and veterans are separated in corners, they never gain the power to fight against might and capital. We will have no chance but to unite.

工人、律师、农民、老兵……广大的维权群体如果孤守一隅，是断然没有抗击强权和资本的力量的。只有团结与联合，才能带来希望。

The painful “confession” of our comrades will only stouten the determined. Even if we are cracked down continuously, the supporters group will not give up struggle, but ally with people all over the world instead. We are invicible!

昔日同行者痛苦的“认罪”，只会让坚定者更加坚定。哪怕打压接着打压，声援团都不仅不会放弃斗争，还要与全天下的受压迫人民联合起来。我们永远有力量！