Beijing-based artist Hua Yong (華湧) has been detained by police after documenting the mass eviction of migrant workers, his friends said yesterday.
“His current situation is unknown. We have contacted his family and lawyer and legal formalities are being processed,” a handwritten statement posted on Hua’s Twitter and signed by artists Ji Feng (季風) and Guo Zhenming (郭珍明) said.
In the weeks before he disappeared, Hua uploaded dozens of videos on YouTube and Chinese social media platform WeChat documenting the destruction of migrant neighborhoods on the outskirts of Beijing.
Since setting up a YouTube account only two weeks ago, his videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times and some have been translated by others into English.
Hua was taken from a friend’s home in Tianjin early on Saturday after fleeing Beijing to evade police, other friends said.
“Police grabbed him. Didn’t you know? Nobody is able to contact him,” one of them said on condition of anonymity.
The Tianjin Public Security Bureau could not be reached for comment.
Hua’s videos, usually shot with a selfie stick, brought viewers into demolished migrant neighborhoods and recorded his conversations with displaced low-income workers.
In one he walks between heaps of rubble, gesturing around him and saying: “The sky is very blue today, but look at what’s behind me, all ruined in an instant.”
Hua on Friday night posted several videos on Twitter entitled “They’re Here.” In the videos he said police were at the door and he would soon have to leave with them.
“Daddy is using these last minutes to sing you a song: ‘Happy birthday to you’ ... Daddy wants our country to be better; it should be just, fair, free and democratic with free speech,” Hua said, addressing his three-year-old daughter.
Hundreds of millions of migrants who moved from China’s countryside to its cities has fueled the nation’s dramatic economic boom, but some are no longer welcome in overcrowded Beijing, which seeks to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 and demolish 40 million square meters of illegal structures — mostly shops and homes for migrants — by the end of the year.
Authorities say that they need to clear dangerous buildings after a fire killed 19 people last month. A blaze in another migrant area killed five people last week.
Fire safety is a major problem in the city’s cheap migrant housing, which often has jerry-rigged electrical wiring and an absence of emergency exits, but the brutal efficiency of the demolitions and mass evictions has provoked an unusual public outcry that has put officials on edge.
Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon said authorities are “very concerned” that discussions about the topic would harm China’s image.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has since taking power in 2012 led a sweeping crackdown on civil society, targeting everyone from human rights lawyers to celebrity gossip bloggers.
Activists have been jailed on charges such as “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” “subversion of state power” and defamation for spreading “false rumors” online.
“Ironically, by targeting Hua Yong, it further hurts China’s image when even documenting what happened could be justified as a crime,” Poon said.
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
CRACKDOWN: The Indonesian president vowed to clamp down on ‘treason and terrorism,’ while acceding to some protest demands to revoke lawmaker benefits Protests in Indonesia over rising living costs and inequality intensified overnight, prompting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a planned trip to China, while demonstrators reportedly targeted the homes of the finance minister and several lawmakers. Rioters entered Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence near Jakarta early yesterday, but were repelled by armed forces personnel, Kompas reported. Items were taken from the homes of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni and two others, according to Detik.com. The reports of looting could not be independently verified, and the finance ministry has not responded to requests for comment. The protests were sparked by outrage over
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
RSS