http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/chin-n28.shtml
Chinese journalist arrested for reporting homeless children's deaths
By Oliver Campbell
28 November 2012
Li Yuanlong, the journalist who broke the story of five homeless
children being found dead in an industrial rubbish bin in Bijie, in
China's south-western province of Guizhou, has reportedly been sent
on a forced "vacation."
The children apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning after
lighting a coal fire to stay warm in the bin in which they were
sleeping. Their deaths quickly became the focal point of popular
hostility to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. Bijie is a
centre of coal mining, known for its high levels of poverty. The
incident, along with criticism of the authorities, featured
prominently on social media sites and blogs. (See: "China: Homeless
children found dead in rubbish bin"
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/chin-n24.shtml>).
Li Yuanlong's reports, which were then followed up in the mainstream
media, have thus become something of a political problem for the CCP
regime.
Li's son, Li Muzi told the South China Morning Post his father had
been taken by authorities at 1 p.m. on November 21 to Guiyang
airport. Li Muzi said his father was put on a plane, and sent on a
"holiday" to a tourist destination that he did not want to reveal.
State Security Bureau agents routinely use this kind of forced
"holiday" against dissidents. The victims are locked up in secret
detention locations, in order to intimidate and even physically abuse
them.
Li Muzi, who is a student in the US, and regularly communicates with
his father by email and phone, explained: "My father told me he
received several phone calls before he was taken from home
Apparently they [the Chinese authorities] are trying to prevent him
from helping other reporters follow up on the incident."
Li Fangping, a lawyer and friend of Li Yuanlong, indicated that he
spoke to the journalist by phone, while Li was being driven along a
highway to a resort somewhere in Guizhou. Reports indicate that Li's
wife was also sent away. In the South China Morning Post article,
Li's son said his father had asked him to remove a blog posting about
the deaths of the homeless children, in the hope that it may shorten
the forced "vacation."
This is not the first time that Li Yuanlong has faced punishment as a
result of his investigative journalism. He had worked as a reporter
for the Bijie Daily, the main newspaper in the city. In 2005, he was
sacked by the paper, and imprisoned for two years, for writing too
many "negative" stories, especially on rural poverty.
Li told his lawyer at the time: "I write lies and clichés all day and
I feel repressed. I want to be able to say what I think... The
reality inside China is about inequality of wealth, corruption of
officials, unjust administration of law, restriction of speech,
etc... As an intellectual, I have the obligation to criticise and
expose these phenomena." He was charged with "inciting subversion of
state power." Since being released from the jail, he has been
unemployed, but has posted investigative stories on an online Chinese
language news site.
Li's arrest is a sharp warning that the new CCP leadership under Xi
Jinping, installed at its recent 18th congress, will be just as
ruthless in suppressing political opposition as its predecessors. The
congress laid down an agenda of launching a social onslaught against
the conditions of working people by further opening up the Chinese
economy to international capital, inevitably widening the gulf
between rich and poor.
The tragic plight of the children, whose parents were migrant
workers, has resonated with broad layers of the Chinese population,
increasingly concerned by growing social inequality and the CCP
regime's failure to address the social problems confronting ordinary
people. Official figures from 2008 estimated that there were between
1 and 1.5 million children living without parental supervision in
China. According to Caixing, the country's leading business
newspaper, however, there could be as many as 58 million "left
behind" children.
The attempt to censor Li appears to be part of a broader crackdown on
dissent. Zhai Xiaobing, a worker in the financial sector, was
arrested on November 7 by Beijing police, apparently for a cryptic
"tweet" he posted about the CCP congress. Twitter is blocked by
China's Internet police, but it is estimated that around 35 million
people in China access the site, using proxy servers and virtual
private networks.
Zhai's tweet about the CCP congress read in part: "The Great Hall of
the People suddenly collapses, only seven of more than 2,000 people
inside survive. Later, one-by-one the survivors die in strange ways."
It seems that the tweet was referring to the horror film "Final
Destination," using it as an analogy for the destabilising factional
warfare that developed within the CCP after the arrest of former
Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai in March.
The tweet reflects widespread hostility to the political machinations
that occur behind the backs of the people. The public knew little
about what was going on at the very top, except that the factional
struggle resulted in the exposure of massive levels of corruption in
the highest echelons of the party.
A report in the Wall Street Journal stated that the Miyun detention
centre in Beijing confirmed that Zhai was being detained there, and
indicated that he had been arrested for writing "a micro-blog post
containing false information on the Internet." Friends of Zhai have
said they have since been unable to contact his wife, and have raised
concerns that she may have disappeared. An online petition calling
for Zhai to be released has circulated widely, and has received
hundreds of signatures.
The Chinese regime's nervous reaction in arresting dissidents like Li
Yuanlong and Zhai Xiaobing indicates it is acutely aware of growing
hostility to social inequality, endemic corruption, and poverty, and
is immediately responding to any oppositional voices with
police-state repression.
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