2015-04-06
Petitioners visit the home of the late Zhao Ziyang during Qing Ming festival in Beijing, April 5, 2015.
Photo courtesy of an activist
Police in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi detained dozens of members of an anti-corruption campaign group after they tried to hold a public memorial for the father of President Xi Jinping, while well-wishers scuffled with police at the Beijing home of a late, ousted premier on the traditional grave-sweeping festival over the weekend, activists said Monday.
Thirty-one activists, many of whom have pursued long-running complaints against China’s ruling Communist Party, tried to visit the Xi ancestral home in Shaanxi’s Fuping county to mark Sunday’s Qing Ming festival, a day that is traditionally given over to honoring the dead in China.
They were intercepted by the authorities and taken to a local police station, where five were later escorted to the railway station and a further 21 were released.
The remaining five remain unaccounted for, activists said on Monday.
“Members of Long March Against Corruption gathered to pay memorial respects to the elder Xi Zhongxun, but there were riot police at the door when we got there,” activist Zhou Guangdong told RFA.
“They confiscated our ID cards, and then they dragged us into a vehicle that had no license plates, and took us somewhere they said was a reception center for the Fuping county police department,” Zhou said.
“Then they brought in a bus to take us up to Chengyang railway station … where they had already bought us train tickets [out of there],” he said.
“But when we got the tickets and our ID cards back, we saw that the train had already left.”
Zhou said the Long March Against Corruption is largely formed of petitioners, many of whom have pursued complaints against alleged official wrongdoing, often over forced evictions, loss of land to development, or abuse of police power.
Repeated calls to the Fuping county police department and public hotline rang unanswered on Monday.
Tianjin-based activist Tang Xinbo, who was detained at the same time as Zhou, said the majority of the group’s members hail from northern China.
“So many of us petitioners haven’t received any justice and we are under pressure [from the authorities,” Tang said, adding: “Petitioners are the ugly face of China. Of course they don’t want us there paying our respects.”
“We have been forced to this, because the complaints offices aren’t taking new cases now,” he said.
Zhao home
Meanwhile, petitioners in Beijing scuffled with police after they tried to visit the former home of late, ousted premier Zhao Ziyang.
“I went to Fuqiang alley with my husband [on Sunday] to pay our respects to Zhao Ziyang, but there were police and security guards there, and they tried to stop us going in,” Beijing petitioner Zhang Shufen told RFA. “They shoved us around, and nearly made my husband fall over.”