Hao was born in October 1972 in Dingxiang, Xinzhou, Shanxi.[2][3] Before becoming an activist, Hao had worked in the local bank for eight years.[4] He went to read laws at China University of Political Science and Law and graduated with a master's degree in criminal litigation.[5] He deliberately chose not to acquire a lawyer’s certificate, which he reckoned would hinder his pursuing in administrative lawsuits.[1] Hao then championed the rule of law in China by suing the Chinese authorities on trivial matters, which garnered him accolades even from some media considered as mouthpieces of the Chinese Communist Party, such as the People’s Daily.[6]
In September 2004, Hao sued the Dongcheng District Taxation Bureau for its inaction in dealing with his complaint against the then Beijing Railway Administration’s refusal to issue tax receipts for purchases he made on trains. He then sued the Beijing Railway Administration separately for this matter in less than a month later.[7] He won the lawsuit against the Beijing Railway Administration in June 2005.[8] He then brought up another case against the Beijing Subway for not issuing tax receipts for toilet fees, which he won again.[7] In 2006, he challenged the then Ministry of Railways for deliberately raising ticket prices during the Chunyun period without conducting a public hearing first. He was defeated in that case, but the price hike was scrapped shortly afterwards, and the case received favourable coverage from the China Central Television for his defence of the public interest. These trivial administrative lawsuits made him famous and brought him honours from various Chinese media, praising him for his ‘positive contribution’.[5] Hao was selected as a featured figure in the Procuratorate Daily’s How the Rule of Law Affects Our Lives: The 2005 Bluebook and again in the 2006 edition.[9][10]
In 2007, Hao sued the National Forestry Administration for its inaction and lack of transparency following the South China Tiger photograph claims, in which the Shanxi Forestry Department promoted fake news and photographs purporting to show the existence of a South China Tiger in the wild.[11]: 122 Hao also sued the person who had produced the false pictures, alleging that the person had harmed trust among citizens, harmed the honesty of the government, and harmed the honesty of society.[11]: 122–123 His various pieces of litigation were rejected by the courts.[11]: 131 Numerous central government media organizations including CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, and people.com.cn gave positive coverage to Hao's efforts.[11]: 131 In addition to positive press coverage, Hao's litigation on the South China Tiger issue was well-received by other activists.[11]: 133
Detention, arrest, and adjudication
Hao was summoned by the local police of his birthplace on 10 and 11 December 2019 for ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ (Chinese: 寻衅滋事; pinyin: Xúnxìn Zīshì).[3][12] He was once again summoned on 17 December and was penalised with 15 days of administrative detention, citing the Anti-Terrorism Law, for his ‘repeated release of terrorism-involving remarks on the internet’ and ‘refusing to cooperate with public security organ’s preventive efforts on anti-terrorism and security’, which as per the statement from the police, ‘caused serious consequences’.[3][13][14]
15 days later, on 2 January 2020, Hao was converted to criminal detention and transferred to Wutai County Detention Centre on suspicion of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’.[15][16] Under criminal detention, Hao was denied meeting with his lawyer, citing that the case was ‘investigated by a special investigation team’ and required additional authorisation.[14][17] He was formally arrested on 17 January 2020 upon the approval from the local prosecution with two charges, adding ‘libel’ (Chinese: 诽谤; pinyin: Fěibàng) besides the already accused ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’.[18][19] Four months later, in the middle of May 2020, the investigation authority finished their work with two months of extensions, added another accusation of ‘fraud’ (Chinese: 诈骗; pinyin: Zhàpiàn), and transferred the case to the local prosecution for examination.[20][21]
On 20 July 2023, after being detained on remand for over 1,300 days, Hao was convicted of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ and ‘fraud’ by the Dingxiang County People’s Court and was given a concurrent sentence of fixed-term imprisonment for nine years, with a fine of 350,000 Chinese yuan.[5][22][23][24]
In separate terms, the court found him guilty of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ for his reposts and comments on several social media platforms that deemed ‘containing false information’ and ‘being widely spread over the internet, causing a large number of views, reposts, and comments’, which ‘obscured the facts’; the court found him guilty of ‘fraud’ for the concealment of his non-practising lawyer status in his past two provisions of legal consultancy services in 2013 and 2017. Hao received one year and nine months for the first conviction, with another eight years and a fine of 350,000 yuan for the second, which were combined by the court into nine years and a fine concurrently. The charge for ‘libel’, however, was dropped in the court’s adjudication.[5][23]
Hao’s judgement was not proclaimed in public, which is an explicit violation of Article 202 of the Criminal Procedure Law,[iii] nor was it sent to his family or published on the internet, which is noted by some media to be the ‘new normality’ in mainland China.[24]
^ abcdefThe Chinese character ‘劲’ can be pronounced as ‘jìn’ or ‘jìng’. While both are correct in mainland China, with the former being more prevalent; the latter is, however, the only proper pronunciation per Taiwan standard. Therefore, it was annotated as ‘Hǎo Jìnsōng’ in Hanyu Pinyin, and transliterated this way as his name in English since he is a mainland Chinese. But it was annotated as ‘ㄏㄠˇ ㄐㄧㄥˋ ㄙㄨㄥ’ in Bopomofo, and transliterated as ‘Hao Jinq-song’ in Gwoyeu Romatzyh and ‘Hao3 Ching4-sung1’ in Wade–Giles since these methods are predominantly used in Taiwan. The IPA annotation has kept the both to respect the pronunciations on both sides.
^While being referred to as ‘lawyer’ on many occasions, including many of the cited sources in this entry, Hao has explicitly stated many times that he did not acquire the lawyer’s certificate and, therefore, is not a lawyer.[1]
^Article 202 of the Criminal Procedure Law of mainland China explicitly stipulated that ‘In all cases, judgements shall be publicly pronounced.’[25]
References
^ abKuai, Lehao (10 November 2009). "Hǎo Jìnsōng: Bù Fúcóng de Gōngmín" 郝劲松：不服从的公民 [Hao Jinsong—The Citizen that Disobeys]. 南方人物周刊 [Southern People Weekly] (in Chinese (China)). Guangzhou. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via China Digital Times. (First question in the interview section) 我本来就不是律师，我没有资格证，也从未假装过我有资格证。我是一个公民，一直以公民的身份作战。因为如果你是一个律师，在一些事情上，司法局和你所任职的律所就有办法让你很难受，你要受指挥，你会有顾忌。 [I was never a lawyer in the first place, I do not have a lawyer’s certificate, and I have never pretended the other way. I am a citizen and I have always fought as a citizen. You see, if you were a lawyer, then over some matters, there would be ways in which the Department of Justice and the law firm you work with can make things very difficult for you, and you will be subject to their commands, and therefore, you will have your scruples.]
^"Zhōngguó Shídà Fǎnfǔ Míngrén Jiǔ Rén Zāo Dǎjī Bàofù" 中国十大反腐名人九人遭打击报复 [Nine of the Top Ten Anti-Corruption Figures Suffered Retaliation]. Voice of America (in Chinese (China)). Washington, D.C. 17 March 2009. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023. (Paragraph 7) 曾经在山西省定襄县工商银行工作过的北京法律公益研究中心主任郝劲松说…… [Hao Jinsong, director of the Beijing Research Centre for Law and Public Interest, who once worked at the Dingxiang Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank in Shanxi Province, said that…]
^ abThe Editorial Group of the Reader Series, ed. (2017). 让规则看守世界 [May the Rules Guard the World] (in Chinese (China)). Lanzhou: Gansu People’s Publishing. ISBN9787226051634.
^Dong, Yunhu; Wang, Jinjun; and China Society for Human Rights Studies (2006). 中国人权在行动 2005 [China’s Human Rights in Action 2005] (in Chinese (China)). Beijing: CITIC Press Group. p. 320. ISBN9787508510439.
