CCP Rounds Up Petitioners Ahead of Asian Games

Several Shanghai petitioners take a group photo outside of the Beijing Train Station, after their arrival to petition on Human Rights Day. Courtesy of interviewees

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.

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

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 reportedly 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.

Some petitioners told The Epoch Times that on the night of Aug. 20, a large number of petitioners from across the country lined up outside the state petitioning office in Beijing to await the office’s opening on Aug. 21. They were taken back to their hometowns by local authorities. Twenty-one of them are from Shanghai. Among them, it’s 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

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 the Dongbakuai neighborhood 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 was taken to Suzhou, a nearby smaller city. She said in the last message that 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

According to other Shanghai petitioners, Chen Huiying 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 because of 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,” the petitioner said. “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 in Jiangsu Province, was taken by local authorities in the state petitioning bureau on Aug. 23. She told The Epoch Times, “We ordinary people petition through proper channel, why did the state petitioning bureau stop us petitioners together with our local government?!”

A 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 lining up outside the new complaints bureau in Xian, Shaanxi Province, China, on Aug. 18, 2005, for a 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.

“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.”

Mr. Meng encouraged petitioners to file lawsuits and appeals in accordance with the law if they encounter illegal interceptions.

Li Xi contributed to this report.