Several top Chinese rights activists have disappeared into police custody as a Web campaign urged angry citizens to mark the Middle East’s “Jasmine Revolution” with protests, campaigners said yesterday.
More than 100 activists in cities across China were taken away by police, confined to their homes or were missing, the Hong Kong-based group Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
“We welcome ... laid off workers and victims of forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end ‘one-party rule,’” one Internet posting said.
Photo: Reuters
The source of the call was not known and many activists seemed not to know what to make of it, even as they spread the word. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout: “We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness and long live democracy.”
The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas Web sites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major cities.
As the word spread on the demonstrations, numerous political dissidents and rights lawyers were placed in police custody, activists said.
“Many rights defenders have disappeared [into police custody] in recent days, others are under house arrest and their mobile phones are blocked,” rights attorney Ni Yulan (倪玉蘭) said.
“The police detachment outside my door has increased. They follow us if we go out,” Ni said of the surveillance on her and her husband.
Telephone calls to prominent rights lawyers including Teng Biao (滕彪), Xu Zhiyong (許志永) and Jiang Tianyong (江天勇) went unanswered yesterday. Friends and other activists said they had been detained by police.
Police pulled Jiang into a car and drove away, his wife said, telling reporters by telephone on Saturday night that she was still waiting for more information.
Chinese authorities have sought to restrict media reports on the recent political turmoil that began in Tunisia as the “Jasmine Revolution” and spread to Egypt and across the Middle East.
Yesterday, searches for “jasmine” were blocked on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog Weibo, and status updates with the word on popular Chinese social networking site Renren.com were met with an error message and a warning to refrain from postings with “political, sensitive ... or other inappropriate content.” Messages on the popular Baidu search engine said that because of laws and regulations, such results were unavailable. Some Chinese Internet search pages listed “jasmine” postings, but links to them were blocked.
Mass text messaging service was unavailable in Beijing due to “technical issues,” according to a customer service operator for leading provider China Mobile.
On Beijing’s busy Wangfujing pedestrian mall, where protesters were told to rally in front of a McDonald’s restaurant, there was a heavier-than-normal police presence amid the crowds of shoppers.
Along with uniformed police and “public security volunteers” wearing red armbands, plainclothes officers monitored the crowd with video and still cameras. A police surveillance van was parked across the street from the restaurant.
At least two people were seen being taken away by police, one for cursing at the authorities and another person who was shouting: “I want food to eat.”
“I don’t think the call to protest was serious, no one really intended to protest because there are too many police,” leading rights lawyer Li Jinsong (李勁松) told reporters.
“By taking this so seriously, police are showing how concerned they are that the Jasmine Revolution could influence China’s social stability,” Li said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS