Authorities in the northern Chinese province of Hebei have detained a rights activist for damaging the flag of the ruling Chinese Communist Party during the annual parliamentary session in Beijing, while the whereabouts of her seven-year-old son are unknown, lawyers and activists told RFA on Tuesday.
Zhao Chunhong was placed under criminal detention by Beijing police after she traveled to the Chinese capital during the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), a politically sensitive time during which petitioners and activists seek to highlight grievances.
Zhao was detained alongside fellow petitioners Ma Bo, Xiao Pang, Jiang Chunhua, Lin Wenyan and Wu Wenjing, but is the only one to remain in custody following the others' release, sources told RFA.
They were accused of damaging the hammer-and-sickle flag of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and warned that this could be considered subversion, they said.
The child's father, rights activist Chen Fengqiang, said Zhao is currently being held in the Fengtai Detention Center in a southern suburb of Beijing on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."
"Zhao Chunhong was detained by police from Lu village in Fengtai district on March 4," Chen, who hails from the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, told RFA. "The authorities didn't issue any official notification to her family."
"I am really concerned about the child right now; he was born in 2009 and is a minor," he said. "We don't know what has happened to him since Zhao Chunhong was detained. I am really worried."
Under police surveillance
Sun, who is currently under close police surveillance at his home in Zhuhai, said the authorities haven't contacted anyone to arrange for his son to be collected.
"I am under 24-hour surveillance during the annual parliamentary session, and if I go anywhere in Zhuhai I am immediately followed," he said. "There is no way I can leave Zhuhai."
"I was living as husband and wife with Zhao Chunhong back in 2009, and this child is ours, and yet nobody seems to care about him," he said.
"As the child's father, I call on the authorities in Beijing to give me back my son," he said.
Zhao has previously served a three-year jail term for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" after she and a group of fellow petitioners put up a banner welcoming then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Beijing in 2009, and calling on U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to put pressure on China over its human rights record.
Chen said she has likely been singled out by Beijing police out of a sense of retaliation for her actions then.
Beijing-based rights activist Zhou Li said she had also confirmed Zhao's whereabouts and been permitted to give money so Zhao could buy essential items and food while in detention.
"All I know is that she was criminally detained on March 4, which means that she was probably first taken away on March 3," Zhou said. "I am a close friend of hers, so I went over there to try to visit her."
Hundreds of petitioners detained
Police and local government "interceptors" have detained hundreds of petitioners during this year's parliament in a massive security operation that has encircled Beijing with checkpoints and extended to the hometowns of anyone with a track record of complaining about the government.
Petitioner Li Baihua was detained in the northeastern city of Harbin on Monday, while Shenyang petitioners Li Yanjie and Sui Hong were forcibly removed by local security guards from rented accommodation in the capital and taken to an unofficial detention center at Jiujingzhuang on the outskirts of the city.
Shanghai petitioners Yan Yanwen, Zhang Shunbao and Zhou Miaoru were also detained and forcibly escorted back to the city on Sunday. They are currently being unofficially detained on a farm in Hengsha village in the city's Chongming district, sources told RFA.
A Shandong petitioner surnamed Jiang said the local governments typically hire "muscle" from local criminal groups to act as "interceptors" during important political meetings.
"Petitioners who go to Beijing are being persecuted at every turn by local governments, who are in cahoots with the criminal gangs," Jiang said.
"We have been hearing reports emerging on a daily basis of petitioners being detained and mistreated at the hands of these thugs," he said. "What human rights do petitioners have?"
"These people are animals that are bringing disaster on the country and on the people," he said.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.