Authorities in China targeted dissidents, rights lawyers and activists and their families with house arrest, round-the-clock surveillance and restrictions on their children’s school attendance on Human Rights Day, RFA has learned.
Rights activist Li Wenzu and rights lawyer husband Wang Quanzhang said they were placed under house arrest on Dec. 9, with unidentified security guards refusing to let them leave to take their child to school.
“I’m leaving for the school run,” Wang tells them in a video clip posted to Li’s Twitter account. “It’s OK. We’ll take the kid to school for you,” comes the reply.
Li said she had asked the people stopping them from leaving to identify themselves, but met with no clear answer.
“Would you please show your ID? In what capacity are you here right now?” Li is heard asking one guard in another clip. “Is this really necessary?” comes the reply. “It’s not as if we’ve only just met.”
Fellow activist Xu Yan and her rights lawyer husband Yu Wensheng said around nine people were outside the door of their apartment at 6.00 a.m. on Thursday, and they were unable to get out at all.
“They’re not letting me open the door,” Xu told RFA. “I can’t get it open no matter how hard I push.”
“They pushed back pretty hard a couple of times, and my ribs are still hurting,” she said.
Xu said she suspects the restrictions will end after Human Rights Day on Friday, but that the people outside her home had declined to confirm this.
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https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/arrest-12102021125759.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-says-uyghur-tribunal-is-lie-2021-12-10/
