CHINA—Human rights defenders and appellants have been refused entry into Beijing’s “Exhibition of Human Rights in China” and one appellant was arrested after he displayed a sign which said “We are bitterly and painstakingly waiting for China to have human rights.”
A local Beijing appellant, Wang Jianping, said that the arrested man, Zhang Lianxi, had been refused entry into the exhibition, held at the Cultural Palace of the Nationalities in Beijing, for the last two days. He protested on the morning of November 19 and was immediately dragged into a police car by several policemen. His current situation is unknown.
Wang said, “This morning the police started to arrest people outside the exhibition. They did not dare to arrest anybody yesterday, but just took videos. Today they have started being mean.”
She said that she has been to the exhibition for the last two days and will continue to go there until the end of the exhibition. Wang’s husband committed suicide by drinking pesticide because their house was forcibly demolished by the government.
Wang said that she took out her video camera when she entered the exhibition hall on November 18 but was stopped immediately by an official who ordered her to leave.
Many appellants from Beijing are now being monitored by the local police because they went to the exhibition, and Gao Yuqing is one of them. Gao summed up the sad irony of the situation, “The Government is exhibiting China’s human rights. We are demonstrating the human rights condition in China. Do ordinary people in China have human rights?”
Gao told the reporter that she went to the exhibition on November 18. She just walked around and did not do anything, but the police office in Xuanwu district warned her that night and started to monitor her 24 hours a day. They monitored in three shifts.
Gao told the reporter about an incident at the exhibition. A well-dressed old man in his eighties, spoke in front of the reporters’ cameras. He said, “China’s human rights are better than all the countries in the world. No country can compare to China….” Before he finished his talk people surrounded him and asked, “Where are you from? Do you know China? What evidence do you have to say China’s human rights are the best? How can you tell a bare-faced lie?” As a result, the reporters could not finish shooting. The old man was later driven away in a luxury car.
The exhibition ends on November 26.
