By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China– China has detained numerous dissidents and campaigners ahead of President Barack Obama’s anticipated first visit to the country, their relatives and close contacts told the Associated Foreign Press Saturday.
In Beijing, a group of dissidents tried to apply for a demonstration last Friday, to protest the President’s visit. The dissidents hoped it would attract attention to the Chinese regime’s human rights violations. But officials rejected their application.
On Sunday Obama arrives in Shanghai before moving on to Beijing the next day for a four-day presidential trip. As the visit has drew closer, Zhao Lianhai, the head of an activist group for parents of children who were sickened by tainted milk was detained, said his wife. In a text Li Xuemei said, “Zhao Lianhai was criminally detained for ‘provoking an incident’.”
Zhao was handcuffed and taken away Friday night by officers who searched his house and took items such as computers, a video recorder, a camera and an address book according to activist group Human Right in China. The group also stated that upon refusing to go with them, since the summons did not state a cause, the police filled in “provoking an incident” in the summons. Beijing police would not comment on the case.
Qi Zhiyong, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, says the President’s upcoming visit is already affecting him, “[Obama’s] visit to China only involves discussions on climate change, or economic issues. We hope that he will bring up the issue of human rights, and truly improve China’s human rights. In fact, his [upcoming] visit has indirectly caused our rights as well as our living spaces to be trampled on. Because of his visit people like me and other dissidents are being affected. I have been subjected to a formless oppression, whether it’s house arrest, or being taken away from Beijing.” Many dissidents have received warning from police not to go to Beijing during Obama’s visit.
Qi also applied to police to protest the Obama’s visit to press him on human rights in China and was detained trying to organize a human rights seminar on November 9 in a Beijing park. Qi said he was being held in the suburbs and had been charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the social order.
Obama is headed to China to discuss climate change.
For more information, please see:
AFP – China Dissidents ‘Detained Ahead of Obama Visit’ – 14 November 2009
New Tang Dynasty Television – Dissidents Protest Obama’s Upcoming Visit to China – 10 November 2009
AP – Chinese Activist Risks Jail With Letter to Obama – 5 November 2009
