Nearly 500 petitioners gathered at the Beijing South Railway Station on July 7 to protest the authorities’ persistent crackdown on petitioners.
The protest started at around 11 a.m. and lasted nearly one hour before the police forcibly dispersed the crowd. Three protesters were arrested.
A protester surnamed Liu said that the petitioners protested out of despair for China’s petition system.
The protesters chanted slogans, distributed flyers and unfurled banners to condemn corrupt officials, appeal for human rights and democracy, and demand the release of arrested petitioners. They also walked onto the main streets, blocking traffic for more than 30 minutes.
According to witnesses, about 30 police officers arrived 15 minutes after the protest started. The police violently pushed some petitioners into police vehicles and beat up a few others, according to a witness.
Ma Bo, a protester from Heilongjiang Province said the police roughed him up. “The police were very brutal,” Ma said. “They ripped my clothes off and almost took me away.”
Read the original Chinese article .
