China legal activist who called on Xi to 'give way' arrested - activists

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China legal activist who called on Xi to 'give way' arrested - activists

By Huizhong Wu

 

FILE PHOTO: Chinese rights advocate Xu Zhiyong speaks during a meeting in Beijing, China in this handout photo dated March 30, 2013. Xiao Guozhen/Handout via REUTERS

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have arrested a prominent rights activist and legal scholar who had called on President Xi Jinping to step down over his handling of crises including the coronavirus outbreak, two fellow activists said on Monday.

 

Xu Zhiyong had been on the run since December after attending a gathering in the southern city of Xiamen which focused on discussion of human rights in China, according to Hua Ze, an activist and friend of Xu's. Four others who had attended the gathering in December were arrested previously, Hua told Reuters.

 

Xu was arrested on Saturday night by the Beijing police with assistance by police in Guangzhou, Hua said.

 

The Beijing and Guangzhou city police did not respond immediately to faxed requests for comment.

 

Xu's girlfriend, who was in Beijing, has not been reachable since Saturday, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch China researcher Yaqiu Wang.

 

Xu, a long-time activist for judicial and legal reform, in 2012 founded the New Citizens Movement, which called on government officials to disclose their wealth. He was sentenced in 2014 to four years in prison for his work with the group.

 

In recent weeks, Xu had written many articles criticising Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 70,000 people in China and killed 1,770.

 

In a Feb 4 article published on a website that is blocked in China and belongs to the New Citizens Movement, Xu called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to resign, citing his handling of crises, from Hong Kong's anti-government protests to the epidemic that originated in the central city of Wuhan.

 

"Medical supplies are tight, and the hospitals are overcrowded with people, and a large number of those infected are unable to have their cases verified," Xu wrote. "You say you personally directed the deployment, it is a mess."

 

"Mr. Xi Jinping, please give way," he wrote.

 

Xu also criticized restrictions on Chinese media reporting of the epidemic centred in Wuhan and the strict lockdown measures implemented to contain it.

 

(Reporting by Huizhong Wu; Editing by Tony Munroe and Angus MacSwan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-18

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[zydeco]

This fellow and the others have lost their freedom and perhaps their lives. American corporations should feel wonderful about themselves for help propping up the dictator these man fought against. 

[Redline]

6 hours ago, zydeco said:

This fellow and the others have lost their freedom and perhaps their lives. American corporations should feel wonderful about themselves for help propping up the dictator these man fought against. 

And Europe as well

[car720]

Since when did corporations ever give diddle about people?

[Dap]

1 hour ago, car720 said:

Since when did corporations ever give diddle about people?

 

1 hour ago, car720 said:

Since when did corporations ever give diddle about people?

Or governments, for that matter?

[RubbaJohnny]

You know who are the ruthless enemies , those who you may not criticize.

 

Whatever we think of Merkel Macron Trump and Arden,Scomo and Boris both private individuals, satirists,cartoonists and political oragnisations can pillory hypocrisy and expose misdeeds.

In democracy people can express non violent espousal of anarchism, communism, capitalism, socialism,libertarianism etc in free societies that have nothing to fear except fascist regimes and their mealy mouthed apologists.

 

A nation that cannot even allow Poo Bear ridicule has little to teach other than viruses are not subject to the whims of even the bloodiest dictator and Xi will be recorded like Mao Stalin and Hitler as an evil oppressor.They always hate critics it's teh emperor's new clothes syndrome, once people laugh their power is gone like a mickey mouse watch time is not on their side.

 

It is easy for me on a keyboard or residents of democracies to moan, to be an opponent of terror takes guts.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-40627855

Edited February 19, 2020 by RubbaJohnny
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