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Activist held in run-up to Tiananmen anniversary

Beijing police yesterday detained leading Chinese activist Hu Jia (胡佳) in what could signal the start of an annual campaign to pressure dissidents ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

"Hu Jia was taken away by the Tongzhou public security bureau this morning," said Qi Zhiyong (齊志勇), a pro-democracy advocate whose legs were amputated after being run over by a military vehicle during the June 4, 1989 crackdown on democracy demonstrations.

"Eight police came to his apartment and took him away without giving any reason. His wife is very worried," Qi said.

UNEXPECTED

Hu's pregnant wife Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕) said the two were planning to leave Beijing yesterday for Hong Kong as part of their annual departure from the capital during the anniversary.

"There must be some reason for the police action, the situation is complicated, it is hard to know the reasons, but his situation is abnormal," Zeng said.

"This is not right because if we are not in Beijing [during June 4] the authorities should feel at ease," she said.

Hu has been involved in a series of rights issues in China including AIDS awareness, environmental activism and democracy campaigning, and has been detained or put under house arrest on numerous occasions.

Police in the capital's Tongzhou District refused to comment.

YEARLY `CLEAN-UP'

Authorities, fearing instability in the capital, pressure dissidents and leaders of rights groups like the Tiananmen Mothers, an activist group of families of those killed during the massacre, to leave Beijing every year ahead of the anniversary.

Others have been repeatedly detained.

In the 1989 crackdown between hundreds and thousands of unarmed protesters and citizens were gunned down on the streets of Beijing as the military ended six weeks of unprecedented peaceful democracy protests.

The massacre remains a forbidden subject in China.

The government has said it needed to quell the protests in order to guarantee the success of its economic reform program.
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