CCP Rounds Up Petitioners Ahead of Asian Games

CCP Rounds Up Petitioners Ahead of Asian Games - The Chinese communist regime has further tightened social control, rounding up petitioners across the country ahead of the Asian Games to be held in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Sept. 23.

CCP Rounds Up Petitioners Ahead of Asian Games

CCP Rounds Up Petitioners Ahead of Asian Games

The Chinese communist regime has further tightened social control, rounding up petitioners across the country ahead of the Asian Games to be held in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Sept. 23.

In recent days, many petitioners have reported on social media that many cities have set up checkpoints at highway intersections to conduct security checks to prevent local petitioners from traveling; petitioners were followed, jailed, and even dragged out of buses and beaten. Since Aug. 22, the Shanghai Municipal Office for Petitioning has begun to intercept petitioners and put them in black jails.

Petitioners are citizens who have grievances against local authorities that they wish to bring up to the central authorities in Beijing.

Some petitioners told The Epoch Times that Sunday night a large number of petitioners from across the country lined up outside the state petitioning office in Beijing, waiting for the office to open on Monday. They were taken back to their hometowns by local authorities. Twenty-one of them are from Shanghai. Among them, it is known that Chen Huiying, Chen Meihua, Chen Guoying, and others were detained in black jails. The situation of the rest is unknown.

Petitioners from across the country wait outside China's state petitioning office during the night on Aug. 20 to file grievances against local authorities. (Courtesy of interviewees)
Petitioners from across the country wait outside China's state petitioning office during the night on Aug. 20 to file grievances against local authorities. (Courtesy of interviewees)

Shanghai petitioner Chen Guoying told The Epoch Times on Aug. 23: “Hangzhou is preparing for the Games. All of us who went to Beijing were stopped and returned to Shanghai. Yesterday I took the 1461 high-speed train back, and I was directly taken and locked up in a hotel."

Chen Meihua, a petitioner from Dongbakuai of Shanghai, was taken away by the Jing'an District Sub-district Office when she returned to Fucun Road in Shanghai on Aug. 23, and taken to Suzhou, a nearby smaller city. She said in the last message she sent to other petitioners, "I only saw the word Suzhou along the road, and the exact address (where she was detained) is unknown."

Petitioner Chen Huiying, after returning to Shanghai on Aug. 22, was taken by the police to the Bansongyuan Police Station and detained for nearly 24 hours. She was then sent to the black site on Hengsha Island in Chongming District for further detention.

More than 100 petitioners filed an application for a demonstration permit at the police headquarters in Beijing, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Courtesy of interviewees)
More than 100 petitioners filed an application for a demonstration permit at the police headquarters in Beijing, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Courtesy of interviewees)

According to other Shanghai petitioners, Ms. Chen was heard shouting at the police station at 5 a.m. on Aug. 23: "Where is the rule of law from top to bottom in China? I went to Beijing to defend my rights in accordance with the law, but was detained at the Bansongyuan Road Police Station again and again. The local governments are continuing to suppress and retaliate against petitions going to Beijing!"

Shanghai petitioner Yu Zhonghuan told The Epoch Times that the rampant interception of petitioners was due to the fear that petitioners would go to Hangzhou to protest and affect the Asian Games. "Government officials are finding ways to set up black jails to detain petitioners. They can make money from it. The venue fees and security fees for black jails now are three to four times higher than usual."

Ms. Liu, a petitioner in Shanghai, told The Epoch Times: “The interception of petitioners usually starts nationwide in early September to Beijing. However, Yangpu District put petitioners under house arrest in suburban farmhouses since early July to restrict their personal freedom. Petitioners will not be released until mid-November when stability maintenance is over.

State Petitioning Bureau Colludes with Local Authorities

During every important event, petitioners are suppressed more by the regime.

Miao Luozhen, a petitioner from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, was taken by local authorities in the state petitioning bureau on Aug. 23. She said to The Epoch Time: "We ordinary people petition through proper channel, why did the state petitioning bureau stop us petitioners together with our local government?!”

A peasant woman cries as she holds photos of her son who she alleged was brutalized and killed by the local officials, as she joins other petitioners queueing outside the new complaints bureau in Xian, central China's Shaanxi Province on Aug. 18, 2005, for their chance to submit their grievances. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
A peasant woman cries as she holds photos of her son who she alleged was brutalized and killed by the local officials, as she joins other petitioners queueing outside the new complaints bureau in Xian, central China's Shaanxi Province on Aug. 18, 2005, for their chance to submit their grievances. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Although intercepting petitioners is already an open practice in many places in China, mainland Chinese lawyer Meng Fanyong said, "Intercepting petitioners may constitute the crime of illegal detention."

“Local authorities use various means to prevent ordinary people from petitioning, such as tracing petitioners’ transportation ticket information, hiring people to monitor them, and other illegal means to obstruct them. Some even beat petitioners and lock them up in black sites. It is a blatantly illegal act to restrict or even deprive citizens of the right to petition in the form of interception,” he said.

"Illegally depriving citizens of their personal liberty without any legal procedures, if the circumstances are serious, it may even constitute the crime of illegal detention." He encouraged petitioners to file lawsuits and appeals in accordance with the law if they encounter illegal interceptions.

Li Xi contributed to this report.