Thursday morning key members of China’s Pan-Blue Alliance from different provinces arrived in Changsha City, Hunan Province of southern China for an internal meeting.
Less than 10 minutes after their arrival, they were arrested by more than 10 agents from the National Security Bureau and taken to Liuzheng Police Station where they were interrogated for close to 12 hours.
National Security agents in Changsha arrested them under the pretense of so-called “being involved in illegal activity.” Huang Xiaomin, Zhang Qi and Wan Li believe their phones were tapped because only minutes after they checked in a hotel Thursday early morning, more than ten plainclothes National Security agents showed up flashing badges and took them away for interrogation.
Huang Xiaomin was not released until 2:00 a.m. on Friday. While being interviewed by the Epoch Times, he said the interrogation lasted for a couple of hours. The agents mainly asked them about their motives, goals and main contacts, and how much they knew about the Zhang Zilin Case.
According to Changsha Pan-Blue Alliance member Xie Fulin, all of their members who were in town from other regions were deported via train or airplanes. The authorities did all they could to stop them from meeting, said Xie.
Xie Fulin told the reporter, “The planned China Democratic Party Hunan Division’s gathering today has been cancelled along with the Pan-Blue Alliance’s gathering. The authorities do not like it when these democratic people and dissidents get together, because this is what they fear the most.”
According to Huang Xiaomin, Pan-Blue Alliance had three goals for this trip to Changsha. First, to support its recently arrested member Zhang Zilin whose trial had been delayed. Second, to discuss what Pan-Blue can and will do in the future. And third, to visit some local activists like Yu Zhijian and Yu Dongyue during the Chinese New Year.
Regarding the dramatic arrest, Huang Xiaomin said emotionally, “I feel our opponent, the communist regime, is very weak; it has little control over itself. The agents were very hypocritical. They first claimed they were following the law, but when we demanded them to show us the articles that could justify our arrest, they said they were following orders.”
In September 2006, the Chinese Communist Party declared the China Pan-Blue Alliance an “illegal organization” and started persecuting and arresting its members across the nation. The whereabouts of Sun Buer, the leader of the Pan-Blue Alliance, is still unknown to this day.
