Activists Mark Rights Day

By Radio Free Asia
December 08, 2009

Chinese activists risk surveillance and detention as they mark two anniversaries.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou have detained an activist who applied to hold a symposium on World Human Rights Day next week, one year after Chinese democracy activists signed a charter calling for political reform, his relatives said.

Guizhou police are believed to have detained Chen Xi, organizer of the human rights symposium, after escorting him away from his home, his wife said.

Chen had still not returned home late Monday.

"He has not yet come back and I don't know his whereabouts," his wife said.

"This is definitely related to World Human Rights Day," she said.

Fellow activist Li Renke said police had told the symposium organizers that they would have to apply to register the event, and that it couldn't go ahead.

"I told them that there was no law requesting a symposium to be registered, and there was no such thing as a pre-registered symposium either," Li said.

"Therefore, their banning the symposium was illegal."

More surveillance

Police in Zhejiang also stepped up surveillance of activists ahead of World Human Rights Day.

Zhejiang-based activist Zhu Yufu said police were sitting outside his house, carrying out round-the-clock surveillance.

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