Beijing (AsiaNews) - While the government is concentrated in Beijing, where the two most important meetings in domestic politics is taking place, public security is as usual rounding up dissidents and activists to stop all possible social protest.
The National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, are two appointments, which more than any other, are exploited to attract attention by those who bring their petitions to the capital, almost always directed against local governments. To give a false impression of stability, therefore, the government has ordered the "soft" detention or "temporary disappearance" of familiar faces of dissent.
According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which for years has been monitoring the human rights situation in China, in recent days, the police have blocked at least 101 activists. Not only in Beijing but also in Shanghai and Hangzhou and the provinces of Hubei, Hunan and Shandong. Among them are some familiar names.
Mao Hengfeng, who fights for the right to housing for the population of Shanghai, was sentenced to 18 months of "re-education through labour”. His wife, Wu Xuewei, was warned by the municipality, that accuses her husband of being a "public nuisance" on 25 December, in front of the headquarters of the Beijing Intermediate Court. That day, several activists demonstrated for the release of Liu Xiaobo, author of "Charter 08".
A group of peasants in Hengyang County, led by Hong Jifa and Wei Shuisheng were instead penned into the station while they were about to take a train to Beijing. Their aim was to present their petitions of protest against the local government. There are all currently under tight surveillance.
March 8, in Beijing, police detained Dahua Kong and three other people from the city of Linyi. last year the four had their lands forcibly seized from them and they wanted to protest against their removal from their homes. Police agents locked them in a "black prison", in a secluded unofficial location (often requisitioned hotel rooms or cellars private), from which demonstrators often disappear.There have been many more arrests in the capital. Among those well-known are, Wang Xiuying and her daughter Li Xuehua, Xuanwu District, and Mrs. Li Aiyan Chongwen District, Yang and Zhang Yongquan Shufeng from the district of Shunyi and Hu Guang, Chaoyang District.