China activist formally arrested

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

A prominent Chinese activist has been formally arrested more than a month after being taken into custody.

Hu Jia, who publicises human rights abuses across China, has been accused of inciting subversion of state power. Campaigners say his arrest shows that China is not keeping its promise to improve human rights ahead of this year’s Beijing Olympic Games. But the government says China is a country ruled by laws, and Hu Jia will be dealt with according to the law. [continues...]

Hu Jia Formally Arrested: Authorities Impervious To International Protest

China must be held accountable for its Olympic pledge “to improve human rights” - CHRD

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, January 31, 2008)– Hu Jia (胡佳 or 胡嘉), the Beijing-based human rights defender detained since December 27, 2007, was formally arrested and charged with “inciting subversion of state power” (the crime for which he was originally detained) by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) on January 28, 2008. Hu’s family was notified on January 29. Hu may face trial and receive a harsh sentence.[continues...]

News from 30th January 2008

A series of articles were published on the net the 30th of January, below are the links for them to be read.1) Well-wishers detained outside Hu Jia’s Beijing home - from “chinaelections.net“

Chinese well-wishers and bloggers were detained and questioned by police standing guard outside the home of detained AIDS activist Hu Jia, reporting their experience later online.

Dozens of petitioners went to Hu Jia’s home in an eastern suburb of Beijing on Sunday, in a bid to bring baby formula to Hu’s wife Zeng Jinyan. Zeng has been held with her baby daughter under house arrest since Hu’s arrest Dec. 27 for “subverting state power.” Their internet and phone connections have been cut off.

Some of the well-wishers were taken to the Dispersion Center for petitioners from out of town, suggesting they travelled from elsewhere in China to help Zeng. [continues…]

2) Dissident’s Arrest Hints at Olympic Crackdown - from “The New York Times : Asia Pacific section“

BEIJING - When state security agents burst into his apartment last month, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype, the Internet-based telephone system. Mr. Hu’s computer was his most potent tool. He disseminated information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other politically touchy topics even though he often lived under de facto house arrest. [continues…]

3) Surveillance follows Chinese activists - from CNN

# Chinese police quietly seize activist Hu Jia from home in December# Hu faces charges of “inciting subversion of state power”# EU has demanded Hu’s release; U.S. has raised concerns to Beijing# Questions remain over China’s willingness to address human rights questions [read here]

4) Chinese dissident watched, then taken - from Yahoo! news

BEIJING - Nearly two dozen plainclothes police swarmed the apartment on a December afternoon, confiscating laptops, cell phones, bank cards and books. The wife, who was bathing her 6-week-old daughter, heard nothing. The husband, China’s brashest dissident, was quietly whisked away.

In a matter of minutes, Hu Jia had vanished into the country’s state security system.

The Dec. 27 raid sent a clear message that the Chinese leadership is determined to silence critics ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics. [continues…]

Channel 4 Press articles

Here below are 3 articles published by Channel 4 news:

1) China’s price for protest - 04/06/2007

2) One dream, One prison - 11/01/2008

3) Why flat-pack China doesn’t quite work - 14/01/2008

The pdf of the articles can be found “here“

What’s happened on them on Dec.27, 2007?

That day, on Dec.27th, all the things in their house were checked, many were brought away, including their computers, all the communication materials, and electrograph, video, tape recorder, some books and the telephone directory, etc. The policemen threatened Zeng to cooperate with them, if not, the baby will in danger. The second day Hujia’mother came and know this. She got the criminal confinement notice for Hujia, the stamp from Beijing Public Security bureau.   the policemen cut off all the connections in their house first and then secretly opened their door, without any sound. At that moment, Zeng was bathing her daughter, and then found one stranger stand in her bedroom. Hujia was brought out, even have no time to wear his shoes.

China arrests prominent dissident

The Internet activist and his wife were already under house arrest for criticizing the government online. As the Olympics approach, such detentions are on the rise.

BEIJING — In what human rights activists are calling a pre-Olympics crackdown on criticism, a leading dissident has been arrested here on charges of “subverting state authority.” The 34-year-old activist, Hu Jia, is among the best known in a new generation of Chinese online dissidents, blogging about issues such as the treatment of AIDS patients and the Tibetan antelope. [continues...]

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 30, 2007

Web dissent on the rise in China - BBC

Zeng Jinyan does not look like a dissident. She is small, heavily pregnant and has a liking for colourful dresses.

But the Chinese security operatives who permanently watch the apartment she shares with her husband are an indicator of just how influential she has become. The 24-year-old uses the internet to pass on information to the outside world about protests, injustices and underground campaigns in China. She is just one of tens of thousands of ordinary Chinese people who are now using the internet to express themselves in  ways that were previously impossible. [continues...]

From BBC website 16 /10/2007

Interview With AIDS Activist Hu Jia (2006.03.29 )

seized by officers from the internal security department of the city’s police force on Feb. 16. He was driven with a hood over his head to a rural resort, held without his medication, and questioned for 41 days after taking part in a rolling hunger strike to protest police brutality in China. He told RFA reporter Lin Di about his ordeal:I was kidnapped by police at around 9 a.m. on Feb. 16. I was told yesterday that they would be able to release me, and in the morning they dropped me off about an hour’s walk from my house. They didn’t bring me home, but made me walk the rest of the way.

On the morning of Feb. 16 I was heading out to a meeting of non-governmental AIDS organizations, and the State Security Bureau of the Tongzhou county police department had already checked with their superiors and said I could go. At the time I was under house arrest.

But they said I had to go in to the meeting in a police car. I wasn’t in the slightest bit suspicious, and I got into the police vehicle. But then I realized that the four officers in the police vehicle weren’t the same as the ones from before.

They were heavies; I’d never seen them before. They drove me out to a remote area where there weren’t any people and one of the guys in front turned around and said to the others , “Get him sorted out for me.” And they immediately grabbed me and got me into that position they use for restraining criminals, called the jetliner position…

Black hood over the head

They put a black hood over my head, removing my glasses first, so I couldn’t see anything. Sometimes they forced my head right down to the floor as the car was driving along…

I asked them several times during my detention if they would go back home and get my medication for me but they refused.

AIDS activist Hu Jia

They were making sure that I had no idea where they were taking me. I started to vomit at one point because I was extremely car-sick. I’m not normally car-sick, but because one minute the car was accelerating, the next minute they were slamming on the brakes, and me with my head pressed down against the floor…

I went for a total health check today. The doctor ran a series of tests and said things were not looking good. He says I have early cirrhosis of the liver. He said the next stage is late cirrhosis and then cancer. They asked me if I drank a lot of alcohol, but I told them that I am a Buddhist and that I never drink…I told them about some of my run-ins with police and they said this could be a reason for it, that my liver had been damaged in this way…

When I left home I had no medication with me, and no daily necessities, and no change of clothes…I was on hunger strike for 30 days during my detention…I asked them several times during my detention if they would go back home and get my medication for me but they refused.

When my mother and wife were going to the police station to look for me, they ran into police officers who had been watching me. But they absolutely refused to admit they were holding me.

The place was called the the No. 5 Production Brigade of Taihu township, Tongzhou county, Beijing. It used to be countryside but now it’s been turned into one of those holiday villages. I was locked up in the inner room of one of their suites. It was very cold. At any given time there’d be seven or eight police officers watching me. They did it in shifts.

Cut off from outside world

I had no idea of all the reports that were circulating about me. I had no way of knowing. They had all been told not to bring any news from the outside world in with them. They were also very careful about their mobile phones. They were very careful to keep them far away from me for fear I would manage any sort of communication at all with the outside world.

After they had kidnapped me and taken me to that place, I asked them why they were doing it, but they wouldn’t tell me…That evening, three people came to visit from the Beijing municipal headquarters of the State Security Bureau. They were very young. They started asking me about the hunger strike, because when Gao Zhisheng had put out his statement about the hunger strike, he had included my name.

I answered all their questions either by saying I couldn’t answer or by suggesting they go and look it up on the Internet. They got nothing new out of me, and then they left. After that, I think they realized that they weren’t going to change my attitude or achieve any sort of cooperation or communication with me.

Yesterday lunchtime another four people came from the Beijing municipal headquarters and took all the notes I had made about who had come to see me, my diary, everything on my person. They did a very intimate search.

Then they put the black hood over my eyes again and took me out to the suburbs of Beijing and left me to walk home, after warning me that more misfortune would come upon me if I continued to take part in those activities – any activities relating to human rights – I would be detained again and my family would be left to worry about me. They’ve never done that before. Usually they take me right to my neighborhood and the police see me right to the door of my apartment.

I think they did that because they didn’t want any proof at all of this whole affair. They were afraid that if they took me home, someone would see them. They’ve already got to the point where they’re invisible…They were from the Internal State Security Brigade of the Beijing Public Security Bureau. This department is run like a criminal gang. Everything they do goes against human rights, and they know it, and they don’t care.

Police department for dissidents

Other types of police…have to actually do some work on behalf of ordinary people. Some of them even work pretty hard at it. But the state security police are in charge of dissidents. Office number 610 [set up to track down members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement] is part of this department.

Basically if the Party wants to get you, then this department will use illegal means to deal with you…the officers who were on surveillance detail were from the Tongzhou branch of this department.

I’ve never had this before in all the times that I’ve been detained. I had no idea the amount of concern that was shown by my family, my wife, my mother, my friends, and also media while I was being held. But I cannot let this go. According to Chinese law, even if someone has committed a crime, even if they’ve committed murder, they still have to inform their family within 12 hours of their detention. But I was held for 41 days.

Those police knew very well where I was; they’d been with me, but they still kept their mouths shut when my wife went enquiring after me at the police station. They also told her a pack of lies. It is unbelievable that such things were done by law enforcement officers.

I plan to seek out each one of those police officers and ask them to account to me for what they did. First, I will write an account of what happened and send it to the Beijing National People’s Congress deputy, and go through that channel to the Beijing municipal police department…

I am going to sue the Beijing Public Security Bureau, because they have become more and more reckless in violating human rights, which not only has brought misfortune to my family, but also to many other families. In order to put restraint on them, to awaken them, and to make them repent, I must use the law as my weapon…

To tell the truth, however, it’s enormously difficult to gather proof. My records of my detention have all been taken away.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Lin Di and in Cantonese by Lei Kin-kwan. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. RFA Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

from: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2006/03/29/china_hujia/

Last time, Hu Jia kidnapped by policeman—-Jinyan’s seeking

INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS CONFERENCE

REGARDING HU JIA’S DISAPPEARANCE

21 March 2006

PROFILE OF HU JIA

Hu Jia was born in Beijing on 25 July 1973. His registered name on Hukou is 胡嘉, although the alias胡佳 is more commonly used. His family originated from Wuhu, Anhui Province, and was labeled as “rightist” in Mao’s era. Both his parents are 70.

As a devout Buddhist, Hu Jia has been a vegetarian since 1989.

Hu Jia became an environmental activist in 1996, first participating in the anti-desertification campaigns in Engebei Dessert (Inner Mongolia). He then worked as a coordinator for University Green Camps to advocate public awareness of environmental protection and established websites dedicated to the cause. He had traveled to the Tibetan Plateau in an effort to protect Tibetan antelopes. A seasoned member of Friends of Nature, the largest environmental organization in China, Hu Jia had also stationed as representative for Friend of the Earth (HK) in Beijing.

Hu Jia has been an AIDS activist since 2001. He is co-founder of Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and Loving Source, a grassroots organization dedicated to help children from AIDS families. He traveled extensively in AIDS-stricken villages and campaigned for better protection of the rights for people with HIV/AIDS.

For the last three years, his attention focuses on socially under-privileged groups who suffer injustice and ill treatment. He never hesitates in helping those in need of it and he dares to speak out the truth.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON HU JIA’S DISAPPEARANCE

Since 2004, Hu Jia has been routinely subject to arbitrary detention by the State Security Police (SSP) of Chaoyang and Tongzhou Districts. Full details are not presented here for lack of complete records. Below are the cases of abuse of basic human rights against Hu Jia in 2006, as documented by his wife:

1. 9 – 22 January 2006: Tongzhou District SSP put Hu Jia under house arrest and surveillance without producing any legal warrant. Hu Jia was not allowed to leave home. To travel for emergent reasons, he must obtain permission from and be accompanied by SSP agents.

2. 9 February 2006: Tongzhou District SSP put Hu Jia under house arrest without producing any legal warrant. He was not allowed to leave home.

3. 11 – 16 February 2006: Tongzhou District SSP put Hu Jia under house arrest and surveillance without producing any legal warrant. Hu Jia was not allowed to leave home. To travel for emergent reasons, he must obtain permission from and be accompanied by SSP agents.

4. Since 16 February 2006: Hu Jia disappeared while under tight residential surveillance by the Tongzhou District SSP. His whereabouts are unclear and his family received no legal warrant or unofficial notification from the authorities.

9 A.M. 16 February 2006: Upon leaving for work, Hu Jia’s wife was greeted by SSP agent Yang Chuntao, who was in charge of the surveillance. He claimed that if his superiors granted permission, he would travel with Hu Jia to an AIDS meeting, to be held near the West 4^th-Ring Road. Without such permission, Hu Jia must be subject to house arrest and stay at home.

9:10 A.M. Hu Jia and his mother had a brief telephone conversation.

9:46 A.M. Hu Jia’s wife failed to get in touch with him on the telephone. Subsequent contacts with his neighbours, landlord and the AIDS organization revealed no clue of his whereabouts. Hu Jia’s wife inquired with the SSP over the telephone but both agent Yang Chuntao and chief agent Xu denied any knowledge of Hu Jia’s whereabouts. The SSP team (6-10 of them) outside their apartment left without notice.

There was no sign of fighting when Hu Jia went missing. He left without taking his daily necessities, medication or clothing.

On February 21, 2006, Hu Jia’s family reported Hu Jia’s disappearance to the Liu police station and Tongzhou Zhongcang police station in person. Liu police station didn’t accept the report.

On February 23, 2006, the Internal Safeguard police Yang Chuntao and other policemen called Hu Jia’s neighbor to ask about Hu Jia’s wife’s situation (according to the neighbor, they asked about her health condition or if Hu Jia’s wife’s health was in danger at that time.)

On February 27, 2006, Hu Jia’s family brought the medicine for curing Hepatitis B, which Hu Jia needs to take everyday, as well as a change of clothes to the Tongzhou Public Security Branch. The Internal Safeguard Detachment police officer, Wang (A plainclothes policeman) received us. He didn’t accept the clothes or medicine, and denied they took Hu Jia.

On March 2, 2006, Hu Jia’s family went to the Zhongcang police station and asked about the status of searching for Hu Jia. The police answered: they would inform the family if they have any information. However, since Hu Jia’s disappearance until now, the police station has never requested any statement from the family, nor has taken any action towards looking for him.

On March 2, 2006, Hu Jia’s family went to the Tongzhou Public Security’s Appeal Office, filled in an appeal form to ask the Internal Safeguard police Yang Chuntao as well as others to explain what happened on the morning of Feb.16th; asked the Chuncang police station to placed the case on file for searching for the missing person, Hu Jia; asked the Internal Safeguard Detachment free Hu Jia unless they showed the law file to prove that Hu Jia committed any crimes and showed the law document for detaining Hu JIa. Until March 19, 2006, the Appeal Office hasn’t given any reply.

On march 9, 2006, Hu Jia’s family visited Beijing Security Office. The petitions office received his family. They asked them to fill a petition form. Hu’s family requested via the form/s the following: Yang Chuntao (the national security office), to explain what took place the morning of February 16, the status of missing person request to Zhongcang police office , and asked national security office to release Hu Jia unless they can prove that Hu has committed crimes and show them legal detention document. But until March 19, 2006, the petitions office still has not responded to them.

On March 11, 2006, Hu Jia’s credit card was sent to property office by a stranger.

On March 17, 2006, Hu’s family submitted an accusation document to People’s Procuratorate in Tongzhou District. They accused the security office’s illegal detention and the police office’s misconduct. The officers of the procuratorate asked Hu’s family to solve the problem in the security office. They haven’t given any written reply since then.

Hu’s family has called the National Security Office almost every day, but they haven’t received any reply.

The Hu family’s wishes

Since Hu’s health is not well, his family is deeply worried about him. . His family thinks that the longer Hu is missing, the more dangerous it is. They are especially anxious that Hu might be tortured as he received several times last year. He was beaten on the face with fists six times by plainclothes police of National Security Office, which caused serious injuries on his face. So his family wish Hu can return home soon

We wish:

1.Beijing police station and National Security Team of Public Security Office of Tongzhou District can explain the event happened on the morning of February 16, 2006 in detail.

2. The police station and security office have a case record a of missing people to look for Hu Jia. The security office is responsible and obligated for citizens’ safety. They are responsible for missing personss because it is a case of a normal adult’s unusual missing.

3. Immediately release Hu Jia, whether he was taken away by the National Security Team of Public Security Office of Tongzhou District, Beijing City, or by other departments with their assistance.

4. Unless the police have evidence to prove Hu commited crimes and show legal documents, they cannot legally stake Hu away and detain him.

5. National Judicial Department has to investigate the illegal conducts of related departmenst and people in charge, for example, having no response and illegal detention.

6.If the above wishes are not responded at once by China’s related department, the Hu family’s only option is to take the case to court.

from: http://zengjinyan.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3d%25e8%2583%25a1%25e4%25bd%25b3%25e6%2598%25af%25e8%25b0%2581%25ef%25bc%259f

Chinese Police Beat Up AIDS Activist During U.N. Rights Visit (2005.08.31)

HONG KONG—Chinese national security officers scuffled with AIDS patients and severely beat a prominent activist who was helping them, at the start of a five-day visit to China by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, activists in Beijing said.

AIDS activist Hu Jia was beaten by national security police based in the eastern Beijing suburb of Tongzhou after arriving in the capital with a group of AIDS patients from Henan province Aug. 24, Beijing-based dissidents told RFA’s Mandarin service.

They regard people like us as ‘cotton wool’. The more they hit us, the cozier it feels.

Beijing-based dissident Zhao Xin

“Hu Jia was beaten up,” said dissident Hou Wenzhuo, whose home was under tight police surveillance during U.N. high commissioner Louise Arbour’s visit. “He was beaten up yesterday. It was really serious.”

Another Beijing-based activist, Zhao Xin, spoke to Hu while the activist was on his way to hospital after national security police beat him up for the second time in a week.

AIDS patients pushed around

“On the first day of his return to the capital, Hu Jia was under close surveillance at his home,” Zhao told RFA. “On the second day, he set out to take a group of AIDS patients from Shangcai County to make an official complaint, but the police wouldn‚t let him go.”

The AIDS patients, who had traveled to Beijing to draw attention to their plight, were also pushed to the floor and beaten in the scuffle that ensued, Zhao said.

Calls to Hu’s telephone went unanswered Tuesday.

“Hu Jia was furious at this. Hu Jia is a very noble person, very pure-hearted. He cannot bear to see evil things. He told the police that the AIDS patients had all become infected out of extreme poverty, from selling their blood. They have suffered enough already, and you people start pushing them around. He really got under their skin,” Zhao said.

I haven’t been out yet. I need to get some rest, and make preparations in case they detain me when I try to go out.

Beijing dissident Hou Wenzhuo

Overseas charities estimate that more than a million people have contracted HIV/AIDS in the central Chinese province of Henan, mostly through widespread blood-selling among extremely poor villagers in the early 1990s. The virus has spread rapidly over the last decade, with devastating social and economic consequences.

In some of the hardest-hit villages, more than 40 percent of the adult population has contracted the virus. Shangcai County is one of the most-often cited areas by Chinese AIDS activists in reports of official abuse of power and human rights violations against HIV/AIDS patients.

AIDS activist hospitalized

Zhao said Hu had been repeatedly beaten by officers from the same Tongzhou-based brigade already this year.

“Yesterday evening I got a lot of text messages from Hu Jia at around 8-9 p.m. When I called it was still going on. I spoke to him when he was with his girlfriend in the police van on his way to the hospital. The police took him there. When he was examined, he was bruised and bleeding, and he couldn’t lift his arm. This was the second time he was beaten up in a week,” Zhao said.

“Hu Jia has been beaten up four or five times this year, usually under the leadership of a brigade chief surnamed Tong. These guys are turning into animals,” Zhao said.

“They regard people like us as ‘cotton wool’. The more they hit us, the cozier it feels. But we will pursue those responsible. Because we want them to know this: We aren’t cotton wool. We are people with backbone.”

Calls made Tuesday to the national security police office in Tongzhou during office hours were not answered.

Beijing-based dissident Liu Xiaobo, one of several dissidents who signed an open letter to Arbour earlier this month calling her attention to China’s human-rights record, said other prominent activists including cyberdissident Liu Di, Jiang Qisheng and Zhang Zhuhua were also under effective house arrest.

“They are just waiting outside the door of the building. They follow you. But I haven’t been out in the past couple of days anyway,” Liu told RFA reporter Gao Shan.

Fear of detention

Liu said he thought the letter was the main reason for the tight surveillance, which began outside his home on the eve of Arbour’s arrival in Beijing. Shortly after he said that, the phone connection was cut off.

Hou said police officers had surrounded her office and her home. “I haven’t been out yet. I need to get some rest, and make preparations in case they detain me when I try to go out. I have to prepare for this.”

Chinese State Councillor and former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan said at the start of Arbour’s visit that sovereign states should be allowed to use their own methods to address human rights issues within their borders.

“The government is really mixed up about this, to detain all the human rights activists during the visit of the human rights commissioner,” Hou said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will attend a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao and talk with other top leaders during her Aug. 29-Sept. 2 trip, intended to help China follow international advice on improving rights, a statement from her office said.

Arbour will also join Chinese officials in signing an agreement aimed at facilitating Beijing’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the statement said.

China signed that document, a cornerstone of international human rights law, in 1998 but has yet to ratify it as 154 countries have.

Arbour is also scheduled to hold talks with China’s ministers of justice and foreign affairs and meet the head of the Supreme People’s Court

from: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2005/08/31/china_rights/