Zeng Jinyan asks for harassment to stop

Zeng Jinyan wrote last week on her Twitter account that the heavy surveillance she and her daughter are under has been stepped up in recent days and now includes regular physical harassment.

Zeng appears to continue to have some sort of internet access, but judging from a letter posted to her blog yesterday, this move by authorities comes as a sharp reversal to a prior slight relaxation of the conditions of her ongoing house arrest:

“Dear Mr. Policemen,

The dozen or so of you are stationed in the courtyard. Your bikes parked, you wait for orders, through the blowing wind that chills you in winter, the bugs that bite you during the hot summer, and not a day off in the meantime. Aside from stopping people from visiting me, you even often block me from going out, or trail me when I go shopping, or take my baby to the hospital for shots, and it can be quite trying. My husband Hu Jia is now being held in Chaobai prison, and his freedom of movement and various other rights have been completely restricted. And I, left to raise our half-a-year-old daughter on my own, am barely left with enough time to look after myself; eating and sleeping regularly aren’t even guaranteed now. Recently, my child has been becoming a little naughty, and I can’t keep on my own, so I’ve hired an older woman to come in for a few hours each day to help out. You didn’t just completely investigate her background and that of her family, you even keep blocking her from entering my home, going as far as to threatening to see that she loses the job. The first thing you did after I hired her was run to her home to check her out, making her neighbors believe she’d been stealing or something, creating for her a lot of psychological stress. Even to this day, you treat just as horribly, putting pressure on her. But in bullying women and children around, you’re also an embarrassment to police.[continues...]“