BEIJING - Supporters of a Chinese civil rights campaigner, angry at what they say was an attack on him by government-hired thugs, are taking turns fasting in protest, one hunger striker and a rights watchdog said on Monday.
Yang Maodong, better known by his pen name Guo Feixiong, was held for more than three months late last year for trying to help residents of a village in southern China to vote out their elected chief over allegations of corruption in a land dispute.
Yang recently evaded police surveillance and slipped back into Taishi, in Guangdong province, despite tight security at every entrance to the village, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement.
A group of unidentified men assaulted him soon after he left a police station in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, in the early hours of Sunday, the rights watchdog said. He had been taken to the police station when he tried to film people tailing him and his family.
AIDS activist Hu Jia and Qi Zhiyong, whose left leg was amputated after he was hit by a soldier's bullet during the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, joined the "relay" hunger strike on Monday in a show of support for Yang.
The pair took over from lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who had fasted for two days, Hu said, adding that two other supporters were lined up to stage a hunger strike on Tuesday.
Attorney Tang Jingling was also attacked by thugs in Guangzhou last Wednesday after meeting Yang, the watchdog said.
The group said the assaults on Yang and Tang appeared to be "a new pattern of using hired men or plainclothes police to silence and intimidate human rights defenders".
China has been grappling with an acknowledged increase in social unrest, sparked by public anger over issues ranging from land grabs without proper compensation to official corruption and a yawning wealth gap.
"Very Professional" Beating
Ai Xiaoming, an expert on women's rights at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou who has been following the standoff between Taishi residents and officials, said police officers on duty did nothing when they heard Yang scream for help.
Yang described the beating as "very professional".
They twisted his arms behind him, pushed him to the ground and repeatedly kicked his lower back, the rights watchdog said, adding that the assailants took his film, put his camera back around his neck, helped him to his feet and walked away.
An officer at the police station and a provincial government official reached by telephone declined to comment.
Taishi erupted in a confrontation between villagers and police last September. Residents accused local officials of selling off 2,000 mu (133 hectares) of valuable land while paying them little compensation.
Elsewhere, a village in the eastern coastal province of Shandong that had erupted in violent protest on Sunday over the detention of residents, returned to an uneasy calm on Monday, but the activist at the centre of events said conflict could resume.
Blind "barefoot lawyer" Chen Guangcheng was put under unofficial house arrest in September and beaten by thugs when he tried to venture out, as officials sought to silence his campaign against forced abortions and sterilisations in the area.
On Sunday, farmers in the village protested over the beating and detention of a cousin and neighbour of Chen, attacking police vehicles and pushing two into a ditch, according to villagers.
"If they continue like this, there'll be bigger protests sooner or later," Chen told Reuters, speaking of local police. "Ordinary people won't put up with being treated like animals any more," he added.
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