Since stating [zh] on August 3rd that she was going to be made to leave Beijing and soon after falling silent on Twitter, home-arrested blogger Zeng Jinyan has returned! She posted several tweets today about where she was held after having been taken to meet with her husband Hu Jia.
Previously Zeng Jinyan had posted a photoshopped picture of the Adidas ad showing former Olympic diver Hu Jia wearing a t-shirt showing Zeng and her husband made by a friend of the couple. There was also a birthday celebration held for Hu Jia on his 35th birthday last month which was ‘attended’ by a small number of Chinese and foreign Twitter users who changed their avatars to display headshots of Hu, but Zeng’s post today, titled simply ‘The latest situation,’ shows there hasn’t been anything of late worth celebrating:
On August 7 I was taken to Tianjin to see Hu Jia, taken to Dalian on the 8th, and brought home to Beijing on the 23rd. Sixteen days I’ve been out of the loop, and I’m thankful to all friends who have been looking out for us, but the baby and I have safely returned home. Things are still the same here, there are plainclothes police officers in the courtyard and at all the exits.
August 7 I met with Hu Jia and learned that letters he’d been recently sending home were getting confiscated by the prison. I still haven’t received those family letters, so it’s possible the situation has not improved.
One of the staff at the prison affairs office told me that while a public trial meeting was being held for one of the convicts (based on what that prison staffer said, public trial meetings are a way of maintaining total control over convicts who make mistakes or break the law once they’ve already landed in prison; all convicts are made to watch and learn, as a kind of education), and Hu Jia had said that the prison’s methods infringe upon convicts’ dignity and human rights. He didn’t just make his disagreement known to the prison, he also began spreading his views around among other convicts, which created difficulties for the prison staff; they hoped that his family members would work with the prison and persuade Hu Jia to stop looking at things so one-sidedly, to stop repeating the same things, and to stop having “undesirable influence”.
Then I found out that Hu Jia had been “arranged” to go rake up leaves in the sun by himself, for seven hours every day, later with another inmate being sent out to assist. A book I’d sent Hu Jia before, “International Human Rights Treaties and the Protection of Prisoner’s Rights” (a legal book, published by China Procuratorate Publishing House), had been confiscated by the prison and was returned to the family. The letters that were confiscated were not returned to Hu Jia.
Hu Jia normally writes at least one letter a week each to his mother, me, and the baby. But from August 1 until now, we haven’t received a single letter. which is very unusual. Right now we don’t know when we’ll be able to meet again with Hu Jia, we can only fight for that to be as soon as possible. Even to this day the prison has yet to send our family the notice needed to arrange a visit; on previous visits, the guobao would only say each meeting was a “special occasion”.
Zeng also today uploaded a picture of her baby, Hu Qianci, to TwitPic:
As we all expected Jinyan is back coinciding with the end of the Olympic games. Below is the translation of her latest post on her blog dated today, 25th August 2008.
“August 7 was sent to Tianjin see Hu Jia, 8 were sent to Dalian, 23 were sent back to Beijing home. 16 days I do not know the world, for friends concerned about your baby and I have a safe home. Home remains the same, plainclothes officers in the yard Wai Gekoudaizhao.
August 7 has become increasingly Hu Jia, that his recent prison Jiaxin been confiscated. Now he still has not received the Jiaxin, may be the situation does not improve.
Yu Zhengke prison staff said: prison inmates to conduct a public trial when the General Assembly (according to prison staff, the public trial of the General Assembly is in prison again at fault, the law of prisoners to a form of dictatorship, all the inmates to watch As education), Hu Jia said that the practice a violation of prison inmates in the dignity and human rights, not only to the prison, inmates are between the dissemination of the relevant views to the prison difficult to meet the families of prison to persuade Hu Jia And not too one-sided view of the matter is brought about a “negative impact.”
Subsequently learned that Hu Jia was “arranged” in the sun alone sweeping leaves, sweeping seven hours a day, was accompanied by Yu You have to sweep. Hu Jia earlier I gave the book “international conventions on human rights and the protection of human rights offenders prison in China” (Chinese procuratorial Publishing House, the Ministry of Justice to the book), was returned to prison confiscation of family members. Jiaxin confiscated and not returned to Hu Jia.
Hu Jia were normal times a week to the parents, and baby at least I wrote a letter, but the August 1 date, we have not received a Jiaxin, a bit strange. Now I do not know yet the next meeting with Hu Jia What is the time, only for as soon as possible. Prison has not given us the families of the meeting notice before the meeting, the National Health Insurance’s argument as “special meeting.” “
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Brief description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the absence of information concerning the location of Ms. Zeng Jinyan, a Beijing-based human rights activist and wife of Mr. Hu Jia[1], since August 7, 2008. According to the information received, all efforts taken to contact Ms. Zeng Jinyan since the eve of the Olympics Opening Ceremony have failed.
The Observatory fears that Ms. Zeng Jinyan might have been taken away from Beijing to ensure that no journalists have access to her and that she would not be able to give interviews during the Olympic Games.
Ms. Zeng Jinyan has been under intermittent residential surveillance for the last two years by police from the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB), and this surveillance has been strengthened since the detention of her husband on December 27, 2007 (See Background information). Lately, journalists who attempted to visit her at her apartment were turned back by security forces.[continues...]
Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of the disappearance of human rights defender Zeng Jinyan on 7 August 2008. Zeng Jinyan is married to jailed human rights defender Hu Jia, co¬founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute for Health Education, a non-governmental organisation which promotes public awareness and education on the issue of HIV/ AIDS. Hu Jia was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison in April 2008. [continues...]
(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, August 9, 2008) - Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), a Beijing-based human rights activist, disappeared on August 7. All attempts to contact her have failed. It is feared that Zeng has been taken into police custody and might be mistreated.
Zeng has been under intermittent residential surveillance for the last two years by police from the National Security Unit under Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB). Since her husband and fellow human rights activist, Hu Jia (胡佳) was taken into detention on December 27, 2007, Zeng has been under tightened residential surveillance. Journalists who attempted to visit her at her apartment were turned back by those guarding her. As the Olympics open in Beijing, it is believed that Zeng was taken away to ensure that no journalists will have access to her and that she will be unable to speak out about Hu Jia during the Games.
“The Beijing police are either so incompetent that they would let her disappear under their nose or that they must be responsible for taking her away. How can a young woman with an infant child ’sabotage’ the Olympics while under such heavy and round-the-clock police presence?” asked a friend of Zeng……. (more details from Chinese Human Rights Defenders)
Today marks the start of the ten-day countdown to the Olympic Games in Beijing and Amnesty has been studying the Chinese authorities’ human rights performance very carefully since they won the right to host the Games back in 2001. We haven’t liked what we’ve seen.
The Chinese government promised that the Olympics would help bring human rights to China. Wang Wei, Secretary General of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, said in 2001: “We will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China. (…) We are confident that the Games coming to China not only promotes our economy but also enhances all social conditions, including education, health and human rights.”[continues...]
The report continues “here” or can be downloaded “here“.
Article by By Orville Schell Newsweek MagazineChina’s Agony of Defeat
It’s impossible to understand what the Games mean to the Chinese without understanding their history of humiliation.
The Olympics are an irresistible stage for athletes-but also for those who wish to act out their grievances before the world. The Beijing Games, which kick off on Aug. 8, are hardly an exception. While Chinese leaders furiously insist they’re not, and should not be, “political,” these Olympics promise to become one of the most charged in history. Rarely has a more varied array of contentious issues crystallized around a single sporting event.[continues...]
BERLIN, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Under the slogan “We are all Chinese”, nine German Olympians have posed in their sports kit for a Munich magazine while holding pictures of Chinese dissidents in front of their faces.
The pictures were published on Friday in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung magazine under a headline recalling the famous 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy that paid tribute to West Berlin’s freedom after the Wall was built.
Swimmer Petra Dallmann was depicted holding a photograph in front of her face of Hu Jia, who the magazine said has often criticised human rights in China.[continues...]
We are all very concerned about Jinyan's disappearance, since the begining of the olympic games. We thought that some major clamp-down may occur during the event but no news in this case cannot be good news. Lets hope everything isn't as bad as we think....!
This blog has the aim to act as a collector for all information regarding Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan in english. Any articles, news clips, photos or other updates can be posted and viewed through this blog. Please feel free to inform us of any information collected or noticed which has not been added, as well as commenting on anything you would like to share. This Blog exists through the help of a number of people, (H&G among others) and is my way of supporting Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan from afar.
I have the honour to know Jinyan and to have seen first hand her exceptional courage, and so my heart goes out them and their child.
G.
