THERE is perhaps nothing more depressing than lobbying for a man condemned as 'China's most corrupt official'.
That is what Zhang Ying feels after talking to human rights activists, diplomats and journalists last week in Hong Kong in a last-ditch effort to save her husband Wang Jianye, 42, from the executioner's bullet.
'I am really exhausted, extremely exhausted. It seems human efforts can do very little,' said Ms Zhang.
'But what has motivated me to carry on the two-year-long campaign is the belief that Wang Jianye is innocent and justice could be done some day.' Although Beijing claims the judiciary is independent, Wang's case has sent a different message across the world. It is that political expediency, not the weight of evidence, often dictates the outcome of a trial.
Wang, the former finance chief of the Shenzhen Government's planning department, fell from grace in 1993 when he was summoned for questioning by anti-graft officials acting on a tip-off.
He fled to Thailand through Burma but was extradited from Bangkok in September 1993.