2014-07-16
Demonstrators sit in a street of the Central business district after a pro-democracy rally seeking greater democracy in Hong Kong, July 1, 2014.
AFP
A rights activist from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong who attended a mass pro-democracy rally in neighboring Hong Kong on July 1 has been out of contact with family and friends since returning to mainland China.
Jia Pin, who was a vocal campaigner for human rights and for an inquiry into the death of Shandong dissident Xue Mingkai’s father, crossed the internal immigration border to Hong Kong on June 30 ahead of the rally, in which an estimated half a million people took to the streets to demand public nomination of election candidates in 2017.
Jia, who at the time reported being threatened with criminal detention by China’s state security police if he continued to Hong Kong, has been incommunicado since returning to Guangdong on foot via the border crossing at Shenzhen on Tuesday, his friends said.
Repeated calls to Jia’s cell phone went unconnected on Wednesday.
“I have been trying to get in touch with him this whole time,” Jia’s friend and fellow activist Luo Xiangyang told RFA. “I haven’t heard anything. A lot of people are looking for him.”
Luo said Jia had received a phone call from state security police shortly before leaving for Hong Kong, in which they tried to put pressure on him not to take part in the demonstration.
“But he still went anyway, which was brave of him. Since he got back, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him,” Luo said. “I don’t know why.”
‘Off for a while’
Guangdong capital Guangzhou-based rights activist Xiao Yuhui said another friend, Xie Wenfei, had received a brief call from Jia on the day he returned to Guangdong.
“He told Xie Yunfei [yesterday] to tell everyone his phone was going to be off for a while, and to tell them not to worry about him,” Xiao said.
“At the time, he said his phone would be off for a few hours… so if they still haven’t managed to get in touch with him until now, then it’s not looking good.”
