Four days after the release on bail of a young Chinese activist after more than a year in detention, she still has not been seen publicly, her lawyer has been arrested and her husband doubts that she is the one behind recent posts on her social media blog.
Zhao Wei (趙威), a legal assistant for the detained prominent lawyer Li Heping (李和平), was detained in July last year on subversion charges, but released on bail on Thursday last week, given what authorities described as her good behavior and confessing to the charges against her.
Since her release, the only person who is believed to have seen Zhao is her mother, because Zhao posted a message about celebrating her mother’s birthday with her. Neither Zhao or her mother are reachable and no one else has reported seeing her.
Instead, she has been active on social media, posting a series of messages that her supporters say have raised more questions than answers.
In one Weibo post, she thanked the police for treating her well, and in another she accused Li Heping of having “concealed information from her” and that she was “so naive” to trust and work for him.
Those who knew Zhao have expressed surprise at her attacks given her strong advocacy of rights causes.
She also accused her lawyer, Ren Quanniu (任全牛), of spreading rumors of purported sexual abuse she suffered while in detention.
“I don’t think it’s her who posted on Weibo,” Zhao’s husband, You Minglei (游明磊), said by telephone. “The posts are very suspicious.”
Ren on Friday was arrested by police in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
A group of more than 100 human rights lawyers in China have since launched an online petition condemning the arrest and calling for Ren’s immediate release.
“Ren was doing his job to find out the truth of Zhao’s arrest, but was rejected many times when requesting to see Zhao in person,” You said.
There has been a crackdown on activists since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power, including detaining or imprisoning dozens of rights lawyers in what the government says is the targeting of criminal acts.
Many bloggers have expressed concern or skepticism towards Zhao’s plight, though some of these posts have since been deleted by authorities.
One who goes by the name of “Monk Amitabha” said he believed Zhao, who has the nickname “koala,” was “in great danger.”
“We don’t know if she [Zhao] is completely brainwashed, or her name is simply being used. We haven’t seen her and we can’t check,” said another source who was once in close touch with Zhao. “It’s spooky.”
The Tianjin police gave no immediate response when asked to clarify Zhao’s situation. Zhengzhou authorities could not be reached for comment about Ren.
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