By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A month after Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Chinese jailed dissident, Lui Xiaobo, the Chinese government has increased its crackdown on human rights activists advocating for release of Mr. Xiaobo and improvement in human rights.

A series of report reveals that various methods are used by the government to subdue conscience voices of these activists. Some are confined to their homes, others were followed and harassed while some went completely missing.
After all, there is no sign of abating.

One prominent human rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, released in September after years in prison became subjected to house arrest since early October in his hometown in Shandong Province. He is not allowed to receive any visitors or get out of his home. Mr. Guangcheng has been a vocal critic of government policies, especially of forced abortions by local officials in an attempt to enforce the one-child policy.

Pu Zhiqiang, a civil rights lawyer, claims that he was detained for three days in a hotel after the Nobel announcement October 8 and remains under heavy surveillance. “Everywhere I go, a policeman will follow me for sure,” he said by phone. “Sometimes I ask them to drive my car for me.”

Li Heping, another human rights lawyer, said that after Liu was announced as Nobel Peace Prize winner, police officers brought comforters and slept at the door of his apartment and now follow him everywhere, including to meetings with clients. “Once my friend sent me a text message to invite me to dinner,” he said. “They knew, and came and asked me for the details.”

Similar things happened to another lawyer, Li Fangping, who claims that three policemen have been following him ever since there was announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Some are facing a more dire situation. Ding Zilin, who heads a group of relatives of victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown disappeared along with her husband, Jiang Peikun, on Oct. 14. Activist Feng Zhenghu in Shanghai was also missing after being taken away by police Monday.

Many fear that such surveillance, harassment and detainment will continue at least through the Nobel awards ceremony scheduled in Oslo on December 10.

Hong Kong-based Human Rights Watch researcher Nicholas Bequelin called the date of awards ceremony “the big looming deadline.”

“The government doesn’t want to make the situation worse by arresting anyone,” Bequelin said. “But they want to keep an eye on all the known activists and dissidents.”

For more information, please see:

The New York Times – China: House Arrest For Rights Lawyer – 4 November 2010

The Washington Post – China continues crackdown on activists – 28 October 2010

AP – China pressures European governments over Nobel – 3 November 2010