Two organizers of a nationwide hunger strike to protest attacks by authorities on social activists have gone missing and are believed to have been arrested, their relatives and friends said yesterday.
Qi Zhiyong (齊志勇), who lost a leg after being shot by a soldier in the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, and Hu Jia (胡佳), a well-known AIDS and rights activist, were likely taken away by China's State Security police, they said.
Qi sent a text message from his mobile phone to Hu around 11pm on Wednesday saying he was being kidnapped, according to another text message Hu sent to his friends and foreign journalists.
Hu, who had been under house arrest since Feb. 11, was now no longer at home, while the police who had been guarding him had also disappeared, according to his wife, Zeng Jinyan (
"When I called my neighbor around 10am to check on him, my neighbor said no one was home and none of the police who normally watch over him were around," Zeng said.
Both Hu's and Qi's phones went unanswered.
Gao Zhisheng, (
At least 370 people in China have joined the rolling hunger strike, which began on Feb. 4 to protest recent beatings by authorities of activists.
The participants, who include ordinary citizens, have been taking turns to stage the 24-hour actions to show their solidarity with the activists.
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