Several top Chinese rights activists have disappeared into police custody as a Web campaign urged angry citizens to mark the Middle East’s “Jasmine Revolution” with protests, campaigners said yesterday.
More than 100 activists in cities across China were taken away by police, confined to their homes or were missing, the Hong Kong-based group Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
“We welcome ... laid off workers and victims of forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end ‘one-party rule,’” one Internet posting said.
Photo: Reuters
The source of the call was not known and many activists seemed not to know what to make of it, even as they spread the word. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout: “We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness and long live democracy.”
The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas Web sites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major cities.
As the word spread on the demonstrations, numerous political dissidents and rights lawyers were placed in police custody, activists said.
“Many rights defenders have disappeared [into police custody] in recent days, others are under house arrest and their mobile phones are blocked,” rights attorney Ni Yulan (倪玉蘭) said.
“The police detachment outside my door has increased. They follow us if we go out,” Ni said of the surveillance on her and her husband.
Telephone calls to prominent rights lawyers including Teng Biao (滕彪), Xu Zhiyong (許志永) and Jiang Tianyong (江天勇) went unanswered yesterday. Friends and other activists said they had been detained by police.
Police pulled Jiang into a car and drove away, his wife said, telling reporters by telephone on Saturday night that she was still waiting for more information.
Chinese authorities have sought to restrict media reports on the recent political turmoil that began in Tunisia as the “Jasmine Revolution” and spread to Egypt and across the Middle East.
Yesterday, searches for “jasmine” were blocked on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog Weibo, and status updates with the word on popular Chinese social networking site Renren.com were met with an error message and a warning to refrain from postings with “political, sensitive ... or other inappropriate content.” Messages on the popular Baidu search engine said that because of laws and regulations, such results were unavailable. Some Chinese Internet search pages listed “jasmine” postings, but links to them were blocked.
Mass text messaging service was unavailable in Beijing due to “technical issues,” according to a customer service operator for leading provider China Mobile.
On Beijing’s busy Wangfujing pedestrian mall, where protesters were told to rally in front of a McDonald’s restaurant, there was a heavier-than-normal police presence amid the crowds of shoppers.
Along with uniformed police and “public security volunteers” wearing red armbands, plainclothes officers monitored the crowd with video and still cameras. A police surveillance van was parked across the street from the restaurant.
At least two people were seen being taken away by police, one for cursing at the authorities and another person who was shouting: “I want food to eat.”
“I don’t think the call to protest was serious, no one really intended to protest because there are too many police,” leading rights lawyer Li Jinsong (李勁松) told reporters.
“By taking this so seriously, police are showing how concerned they are that the Jasmine Revolution could influence China’s social stability,” Li said.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s drone exports surged past US$100 million in the first quarter, exceeding last year’s full-year total, with the Czech Republic emerging as the largest buyer, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Exports of complete drones reached US$115.85 million in the period, about 1.2 times the total recorded for all of last year, the ministry said in a report. Exports to the Czech Republic accounted for about US$100 million, far outpacing other markets. Poland, last year’s top destination, recorded about US$11.75 million in the first quarter. Taiwan’s drone exports have expanded rapidly in the past few years, with last year’s total
RSS