Threats and arrests for activists and dissidents of the National People first
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Threats and arrests against dissidents and activists have mushroomed with only a few days to go to the National People's Congress, the annual gathering of the Chinese parliament, which will last approximately 10 days from the end of this week. With the slogan of not disturbing "public order" and ensuring “the safety of the assembly," the police are cleaning up the capital to avoid demonstrations, messages, presentations of petitions to representatives.
Anti-abortion activist Mao Hengfeng, was physically transported from Beijing to Shanghai and placed under house arrest for the entire period. Last December she was arrested for 10 days in Beijing because she had organized a demonstration in support of writer Liu Xiaobo, author of Charter 08, who has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Twenty years ago, Mao Hengfeng was forced to abort because she was expecting a second child and was immediately fired. Since then she has been fighting the one child law and as a result of this has frequently been interned in psychiatric hospitals.
The wife of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia, is being monitored day and night by 6 policemen. Chen Ziming, accused of being a "terrorist-conspirator" in charge of students of movement of Tiananmen '89, has been threatened not to take any action in coming days. The same fate for Teng Biao, a lawyer for the defence of human rights, and the Mothers of Tiananmen, who each year file a petition to demand justice for their children killed by army tanks.
Thousands of people who want to submit petitions of all types have already been forcibly relocated outside the capital. Some are held in so-called "black prisons" detention centres where they are detained without charges.
Fan Yafeng, a Christian human rights lawyer, was forced by police to cancel a seminar on Chinese politics for this period and to cancel all bible classes which he teaches in his house. Fan was dismissed from the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing because of his faith and his social commitment. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, he says: "I condemn this kind of behaviour [by the police] ... This outdated system of societal control is actually the root of instability."
In fact, due to anarchical development and the corruption of the Party - to which the economic crisis must be added - instability is the greatest concern of leadership. Last week, the Academy of Social Sciences published the "Annual Report on the rule of law in China" and noted that in the first 10 months of last year, crimes increased by 10%, reaching 5.3 million, while the number of cases related to public safety (which includes protests and riots) increased by 20%, reaching 9.9 million.
Last week, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Politburo and head of national security, said that "maintaining fast and stable economic growth, with social harmony and stability, remains a heavy task."
The Academy does note, however, that these incidents are largely caused by local governments who instead of meeting the demands of the population, blame "people who do not understand the truth" and some "wrong doers or thugs” who incite others to riot.
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