Hello! Today I Talk of Women’s Rights Activist Silenced Ahead of 18th Party Congress.
Ahead of the 18th Party Congress and the once in a decade leadership transition in China, security forces are rounding up human rights activists and political dissidents. Since September, Amnesty International says that Chinese authorities have put at least 130 people in prison for so-called stability maintenance. The latest case is Mao Hengfeng, a women’s rights activist from Shanghai who refused to abort her second child in 1988. She was consequently dismissed from her job at a soap factory and has been imprisoned twice for criticizing the Chinese regime. Her latest sentence to labor camp is for 18 months. Head of Amnesty International in East Asia, Roseann Fine, says that Mao's sentence was clearly a way to silence her during the leadership transition. [Roseann Rife, Head, Amnesty International in East Asia]: “Amnesty International reported earlier that she had been detained towards the end of September and sent back to Shanghai. And we've yes, just learned today that she has been sentenced to 18 months. These were for two activities both commemorating deaths. One of them another petitioner, and one of Chen Xiaoming. And they were for activities such as unfurling a banner and burning paper offerings. But unfortunately it's clear that this is simply a ploy to silence her and the other petitioners who were in her company and to keep them out of Beijing at a sensitive time." Rife says these tactics may cover up dissent in the short term, but only true reform will make a difference. [Roseann Rife, Head, Amnesty International in East Asia]: "It works on very short term. Obviously when you put someone in detention, place them in black jails, they are silenced. But they come back. And Mao Hengfeng herself is an example of somebody who continuously returns to raise the issues of concern to her; reproductive rights and the housing rights, people who have been faced with forced eviction. These are issues that are not going away until the Chinese authorities actually address them." Authorities have stopped Mao’s husband, Wu Xuewei, from seeing her. Amnesty International fears she may be mistreated and tortured.
