Dissident's infant daughter is youngest political prisoner in China's pre-Olympics crackdown

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT, pg1: Dissident’s Arrest Hints at Olympic Crackdown
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: January 30, 2008


Hu Jia, his wife, Zeng Jinyan, and their daughter, Qianci, in November, before his arrest. (NYT)


(Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Police and security officers, one gesturing to the photographer, put up crime tape on Friday to block access to the Beijing apartment of Hu Jia, a jailed human rights advocate.

BEIJING — When state security agents burst into his apartment last month, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype, the Internet-based telephone system. Mr. Hu’s computer was his most potent tool. He disseminated information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other politically touchy topics even though he often lived under de facto house arrest.

Mr. Hu, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City. She blogged about life under detention, while he videotaped a documentary titled “Prisoner in Freedom City.” Their surreal existence seemed to reflect an official uncertainty about how, and whether, to shut them up.

That ended on Dec. 27. Mr. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting state power while Ms. Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci. Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed. Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely 2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.

For human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Mr. Hu’s detention is the most telling example of what they describe as a broadening crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August. In recent months, several dissidents have been jailed, including a former factory worker in northeastern China who collected 10,000 signatures after posting an online petition titled “We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics.” “This is a coordinated cleansing campaign,” said Teng Biao, a legal expert who has known Mr. Hu since 2006. “All the troublemakers — including potential troublemakers — are being silenced before the Olympic Games.”...

***

Now Ms. Zeng has been cut off from the Internet. Only her parents and Mr. Hu’s parents are allowed to visit. Friends who have tried to bring baby formula have been turned away. Last week, the police turned away a reporter from the couple’s building. Officers hastily unspooled tape and declared the area a “crime scene.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/world/asia/30dissident.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

[madrchsod]

1. well we don`t have any one left with principals

in our whitehouse or our olympic committee. history repeats it`s self. the lesson`s learned in germany is lost on america

[NewJeffCT]

2. If only we had the moral high ground to speak out about this

and, we weren't in hock to the Chinese government...

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Indeed. nt