Chinese Authorities Threaten Founder of Human Rights Website

Chinese security forces took activist Huang Qi into custody on Aug. 4, three months after he was released from prison for his humanitarian activities; he was interrogated and threatened, in an apparent attempt to intimidate him into not reporting further on human rights abuses.

Huang is the founder of a Chinese human rights website (64tianwang.com) and a champion for the parents of children killed in shoddily constructed school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

On the morning of Aug. 4, when he was meeting with a human rights advocate from Hunan in a teashop in Chengdu, an officer from a domestic security brigade burst in and took him to the Wenjiang District Public Security Bureau for interrogation.

After being released at 5 p.m. that day, Huang told Voice of America (VOA) that the authorities were unhappy about his reports on the rights-defending activities of the Sichuan earthquake victims and the peasants.

“My website encouraged the victims to stand up and protect their legal rights,” Huang said to VOA. “The authorities said that this proposal inflamed many civilians to fight against the government.”

According to Huang, the officer from the public security bureau said that peasants from Wenjiang were “insatiably greedy” and repeatedly asked the government for money. The officer accused the peasants of having a “secret agenda” that would be achieved through the help of Huang’s website. Huang told the police that the peasants were simply protecting their legal rights.

He told VOA: “The peasants did a comparison between the compensation they received for land seizures and the real value of the land. They found that they had been hugely under-compensated. They are now defending their rights based on legal regulations. It is not the 64tianwang website that mobilized them to protest.”

Last month Huang published a number of complaints from the quake victims that he compiled after his visit to the quake-stricken areas, irritating Party officials. Huang indicated to the VOA interviewer that the police asked him to focus his attention on the wonderful job the government had done in rebuilding the quake-stricken areas.

One of Huang’s reports told the story of the parents of Juyuan High School students in Dujiangyan who had lost children during the quake. A group of parents demanded an investigation into the unsound construction of the school.

Mr. Xu, one of the parents, said that officials from the Dujiangyan Appeal Office responded to the group on July 8, essentially saying that they would not class the buildings as sub-standard. He also warned the parents to not appeal again.

Mr. Xu said that hired thugs had gone to the homes or stores of several persistent appellants to smash their belongings. He believes that the crimes were likely instigated by local authorities to threaten the parents.

The parents indicated that they would continue to appeal, regardless of what might happen to them.

Huang was sentenced to three years in prison in November 2009 for “illegally holding documents containing state secrets.” He was released two months ago but faces further reprisals.

Public security forces told him explicitly during the interrogation that there would be consequences if he reports more human rights events, he said.

“The website has been supporting civil rights for the past 13 years,” Huang said, undeterred. “I am determined to continue to side with the civilians to defend their rights, even if that means possible incarceration a second time.”

Read the original Chinese article.