More than 30,000 petitioners -- many of whom were brutally beaten and herded into a gymnasium -- have been detained in Beijing before a major meeting of the Chinese Communist Party, a human-rights group and witnesses said yesterday.
Some 36,000 people have been rounded up during the past week in an apparent move to ensure public order before the fourth plenary session of the party's elite 198-member Central Committee, New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said.
Citing unnamed sources, it said police had been seen storming into petitioner settlements and breaking down makeshift structures, confiscating and destroying personal belongings.
"Many of them were brutally beaten or otherwise abused," the rights groups said. "Some of the abuses reported to HRIC include sustained beating and kicking of detainees, and prodding in the face with high-voltage electric batons."
Du Mingrong, 52, from Jilin Province, said that on Sept. 2, police vans surrounded a squatter area in southern Beijing where people stay as they try to lodge petitions against injustices with the government.
She said police arrested dozens of people, including an old man who was shoved to the ground and beaten for refusing to get into a police van.
"Those who refused to get into the vans were all beaten before being dragged into the vans," said Du, who claimed police had beaten her several times during the past months, including once with an electric baton.
Police had earlier stormed into the petitioners' makeshift homes, smashing windows, bowls and plates and scattering food on the floor, she said.
"They have no compassion at all, they are arresting people day and night," Du said.
Those not detained were too afraid to return to the village during daylight and only sneak back after dark to sleep.
Many petitioners, mostly detained without legal warrants, were taken to what HRIC described as a "concentration camp" in the basement of the Shijingshan Gymnasium in western Beijing. It was built for the Asian Games in 1992.
At the gymnasium on Tuesday, security guards were ordering onlookers away. Police vans and cars surrounded the building.
"Starting from Saturday or Sunday until today [Tuesday], bus after bus has been coming to the stadium, it is hard to say how many people they have brought in," one worker at the facility said.
After identifying the petitioners, police were handing them over to officials from the provinces where they came from, petitioners said.
Petitioners from all over China -- many of whom have suffered injustice at the hands of corrupt officials -- traditionally head to Beijing before major national events to try and make their voices heard.
Many were urging the release of Ye Guozhu (
"The right to petition is guaran-teed in China's Constitution, with no exceptions made for major events," HRIC president Liu Qing (劉青) said. "The central government should show its respect for the Constitution by taking whatever means are necessary to redress the injustice these people have suffered, rather than to add to their oppression."
Police could not immediately be reached for comment.
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated