Sun Zhigang incident

Death of a migrant worker in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The Sun Zhigang incident refers to the 2003 death of the migrant worker Sun Zhigang in Guangzhou, as a result of physical abuse he suffered while being detained under China's custody and repatriation (C&R) system. The case received massive attention in the media and on the Internet in China, resulting in the abolition of the C&R system by the national government.

Sun Zhigang (; 1976–2003) was from Huanggang, Hubei Province. He was a graduate of Wuhan University of Science and Technology. After the Chinese New Year of 2003, he left Hubei for the coastal Guangdong Province, an area of south China that depends on migrant labor. He first found a job in Shenzhen, but later went to Guangzhou to work for Daqi Garment Company. An official autopsy at Sun Yat sen University, authorized by Sun's family, found evidence of a savage beating of his body 72 hours before prior to death. The detention center's medical clinic had reported the cause of death was a heart attack or a stroke. Among these reactions, two groups of senior Chinese legal scholars wrote to the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the custody and repatriation regulation. One particular problem with the regulations was said to be that they had been adopted as regulations by the State Council and not as a law by the full Congress. As a result, it was argued, the C&R law for migrant workers was unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated citizens' rights articles of the Constitution. Chinese law does not provide for constitutional judicial review, and therefore reform of laws deemed unconstitutional is the responsibility of the legislators and administrators. There has been some movement by legal reformers to use courts and bureaucracy to experiment with constitutionalism. A similar argument was that the custody and repatriation regulations "violate the 1996 Administrative Punishment Law, which states that administrative punishments which restrict personal freedom may only be authorized by laws passed by the [full] Congress." Both criticisms echoed statements published in earlier years by lawyers and legal scholars. In addition to the legal arguments, some reports by those with contact with the detention centers (including an official report) indicated that not only were the conditions worse than prisons or reeducation camps (including beatings and prolonged detentions without trial), but also sometimes the police used the system to kidnap and extort more expenses from the families of the accused. These reports echoed earlier ignored warnings.

Southern Metropolis Daily chief editor Cheng Yizhong and three editors were charged with corruption in connection with the Sun case reporting, and other offenses. Allegedly Cheng misused funds from a (local) state owned enterprise. Human rights defense lawyers asserted that the actions were local official revenge for the journalists' expression of press freedom. Whatever the case, their defense lawyers quickly secured his release from prison, as well as that of another, and reduced sentences for the others. Human rights defense lawyers considered the Sun and Cheng cases together as a victory for the budding weiquan movement. In June 2003, two people found directly responsible for murdering Sun were sentenced to death (one suspended), 10 accessories were sent to prison for terms between six months and life, six civil servants were sentenced to prison terms of two to three years for malpractice, and later a head nurse was sentenced to two years in prison. Some criticized the decisions because the police investigated, but they concluded no police were indicted. Sun's father, Sun Liusong, received a $53,000 settlement from the government and stated "now Zhigang can sleep well in the nether world."