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Before Olympic Games, China
quells dissent
Jim Yardley
IHT
Wednesday January 30, 2008
When state security agents burst into his apartment on Dec.
27, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype, the Internet-based telephone
system. 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.
Hu, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates
who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex
with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City. She blogged about
life under detention, while he videotaped a documentary titled
"Prisoner in Freedom City." Their surreal existence
seemed to reflect an official uncertainty about how, and whether,
to shut them up.
That ended on Dec. 27. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting
state power while Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci.
Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed.
Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely
2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.
(Article continues below)
For human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Hu's detention
is the most telling example of what they describe as a broadening
crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to stage the Olympic
Games in August. In recent months, several dissidents have been
jailed, including a former factory worker in northeastern China
who collected 10,000 signatures after posting an online petition
titled "We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics."
"This is a coordinated cleansing campaign," said Teng
Biao, a legal expert who has known Hu since 2006. "All the
troublemakers — including potential troublemakers —
are being silenced before the Olympic Games."
Full
article here.
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