A political candidate who is independent from the ruling Chinese Communist Party was seized by police in Guizhou Province on Oct. 19.
Chen Xi, a writer known for having participated in 1989’s Tiananmen Square student movement, was attempting to run as an independent candidate in the upcoming National People’s Congress election and it was because of this, says his wife, that he has been detained and their home raided.
Chen went to his local board of elections in the early afternoon of Oct. 19 to view the list of eligible candidates. There, he transferred the election information to his flash drive and returned home.
But two staff members from the Board and a police officer came to his home a few hours later and claimed that Chen had copied “protected” information. He was told to leave with them.
Ms. Zhang, his wife, describes what happened: “They deleted what he had copied and confiscated his flash drive. Then they took him away to the neighborhood watch center and sealed the computer so no one else could use it.”
That same night at 11 pm, police raided the house. “Over 10 officers stormed in, confiscated both of our computers and peripherals as well as campaign material for the election. They also took photos and videos. A few hours later, they also searched our former house,” Ms. Zhang recalled.
“Chen Xi called me about 6 am the next day to tell me to pack some clothes for him. He said that they want to sentence him to prison.”
But Chen had still not returned home for his clothes by 4 pm, nor has his family heard from him.
On Oct. 5, some democracy activists in Guizhou, calling themselves a Human Rights Committee, held a caucus in which 4 candidates were selected democratically. Chen Xi was one of them.
He previously told the Epoch Times that he wants to use the democratic process to peacefully change China’s single party rule.
Another proponent of democracy in Guizhou, Mi Chongbiao, says that it is legal to participate in elections under Chinese law, but when citizens actually do so, the communist regime feels threatened. Mi characterizes the regime as saying one thing but doing another. Such deception and duplicity proves, he feels, that human and civil rights are a fiction in today’s China.
Read the original Chinese article.
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