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Chinese authorities stop activist's wife from visiting capital

The wife of an imprisoned Chinese activist said yesterday she was dragged off a bus to stop her from traveling to Beijing to speak out on his behalf.

Yuan Weijing (袁偉靜) said that she was on a bus traveling from Shandong Province on Friday when it stopped and she was pulled off by a group of government workers.

Last week, Yuan was blocked by Chinese authorities from leaving for the Philippines, where she was to accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, on behalf of her husband, Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠).

Chen, 36, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison last year after he documented cases of forced abortions and other abuses by family planning officials in his native Shandong.

"I think the purpose of this was to prohibit me from speaking out," Yuan said by phone from her village of Dongshigu.

"Three men and one woman got on the bus and they dragged me to get me off the bus," Yuan said.

She said she was going to Beijing to highlight her husband's case and to seek legal help after her passport was taken away when she was trying to go to the Philippines.

She did not give details.

Yuan, 31, was taken back to her home early yesterday and said about six people were standing in front of her house and another four were blocking the entrance to the village.

She said she recognized the people who dragged her off the bus as being from her local government office.

A duty officer at the provincial police office, who refused to give his name, said he had not heard of the case.

The action against Yuan came the same day that a speech by her was read out at the Magsaysay awards ceremony in the Philippines accusing Beijing of violating human rights.

"In China, our government is often the biggest violator of people's rights," Yuan said in the speech.

"Because Guangcheng engaged in helping peasants safeguard their rights, he became the target of a retaliatory strike by some corrupt government officials," she said.

Yuan said her husband was convicted "based on trumped-up charges and a flawed trial process," in which villagers allegedly were kidnapped and tortured to testify against him.

Chen and a fellow Chinese, Chung To (杜聰), jointly won the Magsaysay emergent leadership award. Chen, blinded by a fever as a child, became a "barefoot lawyer," helping farmers file court cases, leading protests against a river-polluting paper factory and documenting abuses.

Chung was recognized for his AIDS Orphans Project, which provides children who have an AIDS-infected parent with school fees.

Each Magsaysay winner receives a gold medallion with an image of the former Philippine president for which the award is named plus US$50,000.
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