Chinese authorities have detained a blind activist and two of his relatives in an escalating standoff over coercive population policies, his wife said yesterday.
Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), a 34-year-old opponent of forced abortions and sterilizations, was taken from his home in Dongshigu Village in Shandong Province late on Saturday, Yuan Weijing (袁偉靜) said.
"The last I saw was several people pushing my husband into a car," Yuan said by telephone from the village.
Chen was driven away along with a brother and a cousin just as they left their homes to complain to county officials over a severe beating suffered by the cousin earlier in the day, she said.
"He was beaten with sticks and had blood streaming down his face," Yuan said. "My husband got angry and wanted to complain."
The attack seemed to fit into a pattern of intimidation reportedly adopted by village officials hoping to silence Chen and others campaigning against the coercive policies.
Prior to being taken away on Saturday, Chen had been under house arrest and repeatedly beaten since September after he brought charges against local officials for the coercive measures.
Early last month, harassment of Chen and his family prompted 400 villagers to protest, causing a clash with police that left several people slightly injured.
Provincial or central government leaders have refused to intervene in the dispute, even though the coercive practices are illegal.
Police officials in the Dongshigu area contacted by reporters yesterday said they did not know about the case.
When China's one-child policy was introduced a quarter century ago, local cadres throughout the country devoted themselves to implementation with much vigor and little regard for the rights of expecting mothers.
The forced sterilizations and abortions and even infanticide that were reported to take place in the early years of the policy are now believed to have become much less common.
However, pockets of oppression remain. US-based Time magazine reported last fall that at least 7,000 people in the part of Shandong where Chen lives underwent forced abortions and sterilizations earlier last year.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
RSS