作者：余杰
編輯：胡丽莉
校对：毛一炜
翻译：戈冰
丁家喜：人權律師，「新公民運動」主要活動家之一。二零一三年，被捕並於次年以「聚眾擾亂公共場所秩序罪」判刑三年六個月。二零一九年，再度被捕，一直關押到二零二三年四月十日，才以「顛覆國家政權罪」判刑十二年，剝奪政治權利三年。
丁家喜，一九六七年八月十七日生於湖北宜昌宜都縣香客巖村。那裡是鄂西貧窮的山區，他小時候村民還在用三國時期發明的水翻車澆地，玉米、小麥都是用石磨等原始工具處理。
丁家喜的人生堪稱一部波瀾起伏的「四重奏」，是文革之後四十多年來中國政治經濟劇變過程的縮影，也是當代中國知識人追求真理和正義的奮鬥之路的縮影。他放棄了人人爭先恐後、而自己已然走得風生水起的名利之路，轉而走上一條少有人走的、艱難崎嶇的、甚至需要犧牲最寶貴自由的道路。
丁家喜人生「四重奏」的第一樂章，是科學救國之路。這是文革後一九八零年代進入大學的那一代青年普遍的人生理想。文革期間殘酷的政治鬥爭，大部分倒霉的知識分子都是文科出身，這讓中國人對學文史哲及法律、政治等望而生畏。文革後的改革開放和現代化，又以科技開路。所以，那一代人對理工科，尤其是尖端科技趨之若鶩。丁家喜曾說：「我總是希望學那些難、但又非常實用的東西。我不想學那種難、但是不實用，或者實用卻不難的東西。而航空發動機是中國到現在也沒能解決的一個技術難題。」一九八六年，他以優異的成績考上北京航空航天大學，在大學期間得過三次一等獎學金，很多課程都是滿分。
大學畢業後，丁家喜被分配到中國航發沈陽發動機研究所（六零六所）。兩年後，被保送回北航讀研究生。讀到一半，轉到飛機設計系。他的興趣本來是做研究，但他發現，體制內大部分研究人員的心思並不在研究上，而是賺錢、往上爬；而且，以當時的研究環境，中國在飛機設計和發動機領域很難取得重大突破。他厭倦了天天和數據、設備打交道，有了轉型的想法，在業餘時間考取了律師資格。研究生畢業後，他在北京的中國航天科工三院三〇四所工作了一年多，就辭職「下海」了。
丁家喜是「六四」一代，在大學校園裡經歷了天安門民主運動。他完全認同學運中「反官倒、反腐敗、要求民主、打倒老人政治」等訴求，「說遊行去，我們就跟著去；別人喊口號，我們也跟著喊；天安門廣場上靜坐，我們也去靜坐」。他在天安門廣場最長的一次待了整整三天三夜。運動後期，因為父親意外身亡，他趕回老家奔喪，與後期的學運擦肩而過。之後，他的「六四」情結蟄伏多年，直到二零一一年到美國做訪問學者，接觸到大量關於「六四」及之後中國反對運動的資訊，這才重新喚醒青春時代的記憶，此後每年「六四」紀念日都穿黑衣並絕食紀念——即便在獄中也堅持絕食。但他坦承：「我並不認為我的生命的選擇與天安門學生運動有直接的聯繫。那是一個水到渠成的結果。」
丁家喜人生「四重奏」的第二樂章，是做民商律師。一九九六年六月，他從研究所辭職，轉入律師這個嶄新的職場。初期，他參與做過刑事案件，卻發現法官通常很強勢，律師難有作為，逐漸放棄刑辯這一塊。他有技術背景，做民商有優勢，漸漸形成了公司併購重組、投資、破產法律事務、知識產權保護等方面的專長。二零零三年四月十六日，他創建了德鴻律師事務所。第一年，事務所的收入是兩百萬；到二零一二年年底，已增長到兩千五百萬。二零一一年，他被評選為北京市十佳知識產權律師。他還擔任一系列有頭有臉的社會職務：北京律師協會企業重組專業委員會委員、北航創業家協會秘書長、中關村國際孵化軟件協會法律委員會主任等。
丁家喜卻不以此為滿足。跟他打交道的大都是公司董事長、老總，與這個階層的接觸，使他有了更寬的視野來看待社會。但他仍會遇到各種不公平的案例，由此思考案例背後的共性是什麼，以及是否存在改變這種現實的可能。他最初的一個選擇是加入所謂「八大民主黨派」之一的「中國民主同盟」，並在二零零二年至二零零七年間任民盟中央法制委員會委員。他期望通過民盟的渠道，將自己對社會和法治問題的看法提交到政協或人大，以溫和、漸進、改良的方式推動社會進步。
丁家喜加入民盟後，曾在一年間提出八個提案。例如，毒奶粉事件發生後，他提出關於加強奶粉質量監管的提案。然而，即便此類並不危及中共統治的提案，往往也如石沉大海。二零零三年，孫志剛事件發生後，在民盟中央法制委員會的許志永因提出廢除收容遣送制度的提案，被逐出民盟。當時丁、許並無深交，但此事讓他意識到民盟並不是一個正常的「政黨」，其運作高度僵化。後來，他就不再參加民盟的活動了。
商業上的成功，並不能彌補丁家喜在社會和政治參與上的挫折。他發現，在中國，所有的規則往源頭追，到最後往往指向同一個制度性問題。這個問題不解決，許多規則上的困境也難以真正化解。此時此刻，丁家喜對民商律師的工作逐漸失去興趣，希望改變大學畢業以來二十年的選擇。他聯繫了一個到美國紐約福德翰姆大學做訪問學者的項目，在美國大半年的時間，像海綿一樣沉浸在自由世界的信息環境中。此前，他雖是八九一代，但對之後中國民間反對運動所知甚少。這時，他才發現中國國內一直存在著綿延不斷的民間行動。
在此期間，丁家喜完成了數萬字的《歷史的比較》等文稿。他通過比較近代以來中美不同的發展路徑，逐漸形成了對制度與社會問題的進一步思考。
丁家喜人生「四重奏」的第三樂章，是在未徹底放棄民商律師身份的同時，以「業餘」身份從事人權相關活動與公民行動。二零一一年十月，他從美國回到中國，與許志永再次會面並展開合作。
隨著參與程度加深，他開始面臨警方的頻繁關注與壓力。
二零一二年十二月九日，丁家喜和許志永等人發表公開信，呼籲推動官員財產公示。隨後，他參與組織多地相關公民行動。
二零一三年四月十三日，他在家中被警方帶走。十七日，被以「非法集會」罪名刑事拘留。
二零一四年四月十八日，北京海淀區法院以「聚眾擾亂公共場所秩序罪」判處其有期徒刑三年六個月。
丁家喜在法庭上作了名為《我要做一隻蝴蝶》的最後陳述：「因要求全國人大對財產公示立法，我卻成了欽定的罪犯……我要做一只蝴蝶。蝴蝶不停扇動翅膀，一定會引發社會變革的颶風。」
二零一四年七月十八日，北京市第一中級法院對丁家喜、李蔚案進行二審，以書面而非開庭審理，宣布維持原判。
Ding Jiaxi: I’m going to make a butterfly that flashes its wings constantly, and it’s going to cause a hurricane of social change
By Yu Jie
Editor: Hu Lili
Proofread: Mao Yiwei
Translation: Ge Bing
Abstract: Ding Jiaxi turned from engineer to lawyer, joined the civil movement, advocated the disclosure of officials’ assets, and was repeatedly suppressed and sentenced, which demonstrated his insistence and cost in pursuing the system change and social justice.
Ding Jiaxi: Human Rights Lawyer, one of the main activists of the New Citizens Movement. In 2013, he was arrested and sentenced to three years and six months in prison the following year for “gathering a crowd to disturb public order.” In 2019, he was arrested again and held until April 10, 2023. He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and deprived of political rights for three years for “subversion of state power.”
Ding Jiaxi, born on August 17, 1967 in Xiangkeyan Village, Yidu County, Yichang, Hubei. The area is a poor mountainous region of western Hubei, and as a child villagers used tipping machines invented during the Three Kingdoms to pour the land. Corn and wheat were processed with primitive tools such as stone mills.
Ding Jiaxi’s life is a turbulent “quartet”, a microcosm of China’s political and economic upheaval in the four decades since the Cultural Revolution, and of the struggle of contemporary Chinese intellectuals for truth and justice. He has abandoned the fame and fortune that everyone had fought for and that he has thrived on, and instead has embarked on a path that is rarely followed, difficult and bumpy, and that requires sacrificing even the most precious of freedoms.
The first movement of Ding Jiaxi’s “quartet” is the road to saving the country scientifically. This was a common feeling among the young people of the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s college generation. The brutal political struggles of the Cultural Revolution, when most of the hapless intellectuals came from liberal arts backgrounds, left the Chinese fearful of studying literature, history and philosophy, as well as law and politics. After the Cultural Revolution, reform, opening up and modernization have opened the way to science and technology. So that generation was flocking to science and engineering, especially cutting-edge technology. “I always want to learn something that is difficult but very practical,” he once said. I don’t want to learn something that’s difficult but not practical, or practical but not difficult. Aero-engines are a technical problem that China has not solved.”In 1986, he went to the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics with honors and received three first-class scholarships while in college, many of them with perfect scores.
After graduating from university, Ding Jiaxi was assigned to the Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute (606). Two years later, he was sent back to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to attend graduate school. Read halfway to the plane design department. His interest was in research, but he found that most researchers in the system were not interested in research, but in making money and climbing the ladder, and that China had difficulty making major breakthroughs in aircraft design and engines under the research environment at the time. Tired of dealing with data and equipment every day, he had the idea of a turnaround, and he qualified as a lawyer in his spare time. After graduating, he worked for more than a year at the 304 Institute of China Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology in Beijing before resigning to “go to sea”.
Ding Jiaxi, a member of the “June 4th” generation, spent his college days in Tiananmen Square as a democracy activist. He fully agreed with the school’s demands for “anti-corruption, anti-corruption, democracy and defeating the politics of the elderly.” “We will follow people when they say march, we will follow people when they shout slogans, and we will follow people when we sit in Tiananmen Square.” He spent three full days and three nights in Tiananmen Square at its longest time. Later in the campaign, after his father’s unexpected death, he rushed back to his hometown to die, missing the school run of late. It wasn’t until 2011, when he arrived in the United States as a visiting scholar and was exposed to a wealth of information about the uprisings that followed that year that he reawakened his youthful memory. He then wore black and went on hunger strike every year on the anniversary — even while in prison. But he confessed: “I don’t think the choice of my life is directly related to the Tiananmen student movement. It was a natural outcome.”
The second movement of Ding Jiaxi’s “Quartet” of life is to be a civil and commercial lawyer. In June 1996, he resigned from the Institute and moved into the new profession of lawyer. Early on, he was involved in criminal cases, but found that judges were often strong and lawyers struggled to act, gradually abandoning the defense. He has a technical background and is advantageous in doing business for the private sector, and has gradually developed expertise in corporate mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, investment, bankruptcy legal affairs, and intellectual property protection, among others. On April 16, 2003, he founded Der Hung Law Firm. In the first year, the firm’s revenue was $2 million; by the end of 2012, it had grown to $25 million. In 2011, he was selected as one of the top ten IP lawyers in Beijing. He also held a number of prominent social posts: member of the Business Restructuring Specialist Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, secretary general of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Entrepreneurs Association, and director of the Legal Committee of the Zhongguancun International Incubator Software Association.
Ding Jiaxi is not satisfied. He deals mostly with company chairmen and bosses, and his contacts with this class have given him a broader view of society. But he will still encounter cases of inequity that give him reason to think about the commonalities behind the cases and whether there is any chance of changing that reality. One of his first options was to join the China Democratic Alliance, one of the so-called “eight major democratic parties”, and to serve as a member of the NLD’s Central Commission for Legal Affairs from 2002 to 2007. Through NLD channels, he hopes to bring his views on social and rule of law issues to the CPPCC or the NPC to promote social progress in a moderate, gradual and reformed way.
After joining the NLD, Ding put forward eight proposals over a year. After the tainted milk scandal, for example, he proposed strengthening quality regulation of milk powder. Yet even such proposals, which do not endanger Communist party rule, are often towering. In 2003, after the incident of Sun Zhigang, Xu Zhiyong of the Central Legislative Affairs Commission of the NLD was expelled from the NLD for proposing to abolish the custody and repatriation system. Mr. Ding and Mr. Xu had strong ties but this made him realize that the NLD was not a normal “party” and was highly sclerotic. Later, he stopped participating in NLD activities.
Business success does not make up for Mr. Ding’s setbacks in social and political engagement. He found that in China, all rules tend to follow at the source and end up pointing to the same institutional problem. The problem is not solved, and many of the rules dilemmas are hard to really address. At the moment, Ding is losing interest in his job as a private business lawyer, hoping to change his choice of 20 years after college. He contacted a program of visiting fellows at Fordham University in New York, where he spent most of the year as a sponge immersed in the information environment of the free world. Previously, he was in the 1980s and 1990s, but knew little about the popular opposition movements that followed. Only then did he discover that there had been a steady stream of civil action in China.
During this period, Ding Jiaxi completed tens of thousands of words of “Comparison of History” and other manuscripts. By comparing the different paths of development between China and the United States in modern times, he gradually formed a further reflection on the issues of system and society.
The third movement of Ding Jiaxi’s “Quartet” in his life is to engage in human rights-related activities and civic actions as an “amateur” while not completely giving up his status as a civil and commercial lawyer. In October 2011, he returned to China from the United States to meet and cooperate with Xu Zhiyong again.
As his involvement deepened, he began to face frequent police attention and pressure.
On December 9, 2012, Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, among others, issued an open letter calling for the promotion of public disclosure of officials’ assets. He then helped organize numerous citizen-related campaigns.
On April 13, 2013, he was taken away from his home by the police. He was detained on the 17th on charges of “illegal assembly.”
On April 18, 2014, the Haidian District Court of Beijing sentenced him to three years and six months’ imprisonment for the crime of “assembling a crowd to disturb public order”.
Ding gave a closing statement in court titled “I’m Going to Be a Butterfly”: “By asking the National People’s Congress to legislate on public disclosure of property, I’ve become a convicted criminal.I’m going to make a butterfly. Butterflies flap their wings constantly, and it’s going to be a hurricane of social change.”
On July 18, 2014, the First Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing Municipality adjudicated the second instance of Ding Jiaxi and Li Wei in writing instead of opening a court session and announced that they had upheld the original judgment.
