Jailed Chinese rights activist Guo Feixiong’s hunger strike to protest ill-treatment in his prison in Guangdong entered its third week as police in Beijing detained three of his supporters on Tuesday.
Guo’s sister, a physician named Yang Maoping who in a previous meeting two weeks ago urged her brother to break off his fast, told RFA she is worried about his condition.
“On May 11, when I met him, he was on hunger strike more than 30 hours, sweating a lot. After I left, he has been on passive eating. I am very worried. I hope a lawyer can visit him, but up to now he has not seen his lawyer,” she said.
“When I saw him on May 11, I persuaded him to do a colonoscopy, but he refused to do all the checks. This is because the prison authorities used insulting language against him while they forced him to undergo a medical examination on May 9,” Yang told RFA.
Yang, who is only permitted to visit her brother once a month, said Guo’s lawyer’s application to see his client has not yet been approved by the prison authorities, who just say they need to study the application.
Guo's lawyer Zhang Lei told RFA on May 20 that he last saw his client on May 6, at a meeting that was cut short after two minutes by prison guards.
Meanwhile three activists in Beijing were detained for displaying banners in support of Guo and Lei Yang, a man whose unexplained death in police custody has raised suspicions of torture and caused an outcry on social media in China.
The detained activists are Ji Xinhua from Beijing, Zhu Chungxiao from Liaoning, and Wang Jinlan from Henan, activist Wang Fulu told RFA after visiting their detention center in Beijing.
Guo was sentenced last November for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" and "gathering a crowd to disrupt social order" after a prolonged period in pretrial detention where he was held alone in a closet-size cell and denied access to the exercise yard for nearly two years.
“Guo Feixiong has a tough character, refusing to compromise with the prison authorities, and causing them to avenge him,” said Guangdong-based dissident Jia Pin.
“He has been on hunger strike for two weeks. As friends we can only continue to extend our support to his hunger strike and send out appeal for him on the Internet."
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service and by RFA’s Cantonese Service. Translated by Lam Lok-to and Ping Chen. Written in English by Paul Eckert.