Chinese Authorities Crack Down on Activists Before U.S. President's Visit

November 30, 2005

Government officials in a number of provinces launched a crackdown on activists and petitioners in the two weeks preceding U.S. President George W. Bush's November 19-20 visit to China, according to several news media sources. Reports in the London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times noted that in advance of the visit, the Chinese government failed to release any prisoners of conscience that President Bush raised in a September meeting with Hu in New York.

Government officials in a number of provinces launched a crackdown on activists and petitioners in the two weeks preceding U.S. President George W. Bush's November 19-20 visit to China, according to several news media sources. Reports in the London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times noted that in advance of the visit, the Chinese government failed to release any prisoners of conscience that President Bush raised in a September meeting with Hu in New York.

In a November 21 Christian Science Monitor report, experts analyzed President Hu's silence as a marked departure from the prisoner releases that have occurred before visits by Western leaders in the past. In March, Chinese authorities released Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman, shortly before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Beijing. In August, they released Wang Wanxing, a Tiananmen democracy activist, two weeks before UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour's visit.

For a list of the various detentions, house arrests, and beatings preceding President Bush's visit, see below.


News reports noted that Chinese authorities took the following actions against rights activists and petitioners:

  • Tightened control over religious activists. On the same day that President Bush attended a Protestant church service in Beijing, the Washington Post reported that Beijing officials had detained evangelist Zhang Mingxuan on November 18. According to a November 20 press release issued by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors the religious freedom of Chinese Protestants, public security agents drove Pastor Zhang and his son from Beijing to Sheqi county, Henan province, and held him in a government guest hotel until President Bush's departure. Henan officials also held eight house church leaders in temporary custody before releasing them all on November 19, according to CAA. In a separate press release on November 19, CAA also reported that Beijing authorities forced prominent house church activist Hua Huiqi and his wife Ju Mei out of Beijing to avoid any chance of them meeting with President Bush. One week prior to that, Hebei officials detained bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, two priests from Jia's diocese, Catholic priest Yang Jianwei, and four seminarians from the unregistered Catholic community, according to the Washington Post and a November 18 report by the Associated Press. On November 8, a local Beijing court sentenced house church leader Cai Zhuohua to three years in prison for publishing Bibles and other Christian literature without government permission.
  • Public security roundups of Shanghai petitioners. Citing unnamed sources, Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a press release that on the morning of November 20, about 30 Shanghai petitioners were forcibly taken to Fuyou Police Station after attempting to attend a service at the Xishiku Church in the same district where President Bush attended church services. In an Associated Press report available through the South China Morning Post (subscription required), one petitioner explained that they had hoped to go to the church where President Bush worshipped to lodge complaints about the central government. The group included, among others, Zhang Cuiping, Tian Baocheng, Wang Shuizhen, and Wang Qiaohua, the sister of long-time petitioner Wang Qiaojuan, who received a one-year sentence to reeducation through labor in August. Sources also told HRIC that since November 16, Shanghai public security officials have maintained surveillance over Xu Yongdao, the father of long-time petitioner Xu Zhengqing, who received a three-year sentence in October for "creating disturbances."
  • Attempts to clear out petitioners in Beijing. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on November 14 that since the week of November 6, authorities have taken steps to clear out the area in southern Beijing where petitioners typically congregate. According to RFA's report on November 17, Fujian petitioner Huang Weizhong, who has organized villagers from Putian city, Fujian province, in petitions and lawsuits against government confiscations of land, arrived in Beijing on November 9. Fujian officials arrested him at the train station in Beijing and sent him back to Fujian on November 10, where they have since detained him for "gathering people to disturb public order." On November 16, Beijing public security officials warned another long-time property rights petitioner, Ni Yulan, that she should not leave her home. The Voice of America reported that unidentified individuals attacked Ni on November 18, while she was on her way to the park for a walk. After calling the public security bureau to complain about the beating, Ni was taken into custody by officials and remains at the Xin Jiekou Police Station.
  • Surveillance and house arrests of human rights activists. The HRIC press release reported that on November 17, Shanghai public security officials prevented rights activist Ma Yalian from leaving her home while she was on her way to file a complaint against the district government. On the same day, Shanghai officials from the North Sichuan Road Police Station also detained rights activist Wang Liqing, releasing her on the morning of November 21 with a warning that she would be sent back to the unmarked location where they kept her if she made her grievances public. A November 18 report by RFA also revealed that Chinese authorities placed under house arrest a number of activists, including Liu Jingsheng, Qi Zhiyong, Liu Xiaobo, and Liu Di. Authorities have monitored Liu Xiaobo and Liu Di several times in the past, placing them under surveillance or house arrest in January and again in August. A journalist for the Voice of America observed in a November 20 report that authorities cut off the journalist's attempted conversation with Liu. A November 21 RFA account noted that Chinese authorities restrict Liu's personal freedom every year during particularly sensitive periods, such as the anniversary of June 6, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.