Authorities across China have tightened their surveillance of rights activists and dissidents, according to a rights group, ahead of annual parliamentary sessions which open in Beijing this weekend.
"It is believed that greater resources than in the past have been put to use to 'maintain stability' during this 'sensitive' time," the China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said in an e-mailed statement.
The renewed clampdown also coincides with the first anniversary of online calls for a "jasmine" revolution, inspired by a series of uprisings in the Middle East.
The wife of Internet cafe proprietor and democracy activist Cao Haibo, who has been detained for more than four months on charges of "incitement to subvert state power," said she hasn't received word from him since November and has no idea what has become of him.
Zhang Nian, who recently gave birth to the couple's child, said she was unable to work for the time being, and was depending on her own parents for financial support.
"I called at Lunar New Year to ask after him," Zhang said in an interview on Thursday. "I asked them [about his case] but they said they had had no news from the prosecutor's office."
Meanwhile, police in Shanghai have placed activist Feng Zhenghu under surveillance, stationing officers outside his residence round the clock and searching his home. Feng told the officers he had no plans to travel to Beijing, to which they replied that they were just taking orders from above, CHRD said.
Beijing-based eviction protesters and long-term petitioners Zhang Shufeng and Zhang Deli were placed under house arrest on Feb. 29, while rights activist Wu Tianli, the last to leave an apartment block slated for demolition, is under "stability maintenance" guard around the clock at her home in the southern district of Fengtai, the group said.
Netizen sentenced
In China's northeast, Harbin-based netizen Liang Haiyi, known by her online nickname Miaoxiao, was reportedly sentenced for "inciting subversion of state power."
Liang's preferred lawyer Liang Xiaojun said he had approached the family but had been turned away.
"My feeling about this case is that there are definitely a lot of places where due legal process hasn't been followed," he said in an interview on Thursday. "There should be a defense lawyer at a trial, and the trial should be an open procedure."
"[Her treatment by the authorities] has been both illegal and immoral," Liang Xiaojun said.
Liang Haiyi was detained on Feb. 20, 2011, allegedly for posting information from foreign websites regarding "jasmine revolution" protests, which were sparsely attended affairs, on domestic social websites like QQ.
And in Inner Mongolia, the relatives of anti-corruption activist Ma Liangfu, who was detained last month, said they had been refused permission to meet with him.
"The superior officer wasn't there, and the case is still under investigation, so they can't release him," Ma's brother said on Friday. "The family isn't allowed to visit him."
"They took him away with no formalities whatsoever," he added. "He has been held for more than 20 days—is that even legal?"
The parliamentary advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will convene in Beijing on Saturday, while the main parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), begins on Monday. Both meetings run for around 10 days.
While some political debate can be heard among more energetic delegates on the sidelines of the parliament, the heavily scripted and often sleepy main sessions are still effectively a rubber stamp for Communist Party policy.
Reported by Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Lin Jing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.