2 Activists Are Under House Arrest and Barred From Leaving China

May 19, 2007

By JOSEPH KAHN
BEIJING, May 18 — A young Chinese couple who have promoted a variety of delicate social and political causes were barred from leaving the country on Friday and placed under house arrest, the couple said.

The police barred Hu Jia, 33, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, 23, from departing from Beijing on a trip to Hong Kong and several European countries, Mr. Hu said. The couple had planned to call attention to what they described as a neglect of AIDS patients and to defend other Chinese campaigners for human rights who had been prosecuted in recent months.

Mr. Hu said the police told him that he and Ms. Zeng were suspected of “endangering national security” and would be required to stay in their home under police watch for an indefinite period.

“Officials are worried that we would set off opposition to Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics,” Mr. Hu said. State security officials almost never offer any information about their activities, but the city is the venue for the 2008 Summer Games and intends to use the event to present China as a sophisticated, modern country that is open to the outside world.

In another indication of the sensitivity of the Games to China, Yang Jiechi, the country’s new foreign minister, on Friday denounced efforts in the United States to link support for Beijing’s serving as host of the Olympics to its policies in Sudan.

China has been criticized for giving strong financial and diplomatic backing to the government of Sudan, which the Bush administration and critics worldwide say has practiced genocide in its southern Darfur region while waging a war against secessionists there. “There is a handful of people who are trying to politicize the Olympic Games,” Mr. Yang told reporters. “This is against the spirit of the Games. It also runs counter to the aspirations of all the people in the world.”

A group of 108 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the Chinese government last week warning that China must use its influence with Sudan’s government to improve the situation in Darfur or face a possible backlash against its serving as host of the Games. Leading Hollywood personalities have also warned China that it could face a boycott of the Games unless it puts more pressure on Sudan.

In response to the criticism, China appointed its first special envoy for Darfur earlier this month. Beijing also sent military engineers to help reinforce the African Union’s peacekeeping force there.

But even as it seeks to head off international criticism over its Sudan policies, China has stepped up efforts to prevent domestic critics from voicing negative views. Lawyers, journalists and rights activists in many fields say the space to express opinions that the government considers unfavorable has sharply contracted in recent months.

Mr. Hu and Ms. Zeng have tirelessly advocated on behalf of a wide array of people involved in grass-roots organizing activities, human rights and delicate legal and medical work whom the Chinese authorities consider subversive. They often publicize details about police persecution of such people in e-mail communications and a popular blog.

Last year, Mr. Hu and Ms. Zeng spent more than six months confined to their home. They made a 30-minute film about the plainclothes security officers who surrounded their home and harassed and intimidated them.

Mr. Hu said he was invited by organizations in several European countries to speak about civil society and human rights in China. He said he planned to call attention to efforts to punish several of China’s most outspoken lawyers and AIDS workers if he had been allowed to travel.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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